Emergency Survival Preparedness
- The Challenges of an Unexpected Catastrophy

This website will serve as a guide to surviving natural and man-made disasters, emergencies and other life threatening situations offering lists of "must have" survival gear and supplies for your bug out bag and home along with suggested courses of action.

Are you a Doomsday Prepper ? Common sense these days is making businessmen and soccer moms research emergency survival preparedness. You don't have to be a "doomsday prepper" to take reasonable precautions to protect yourself in these dangerous times. Some of the survival situations you need to prepare for are 1/ Natural Disasters such as mega earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, climate change, polar axis shift, hurricanes and tornados, meteor and comet impacts, solar flares and CMEs, and ARkStorms; 2/ War, Civil Unrest, and Terrorism; 3/ Economic / Financial Meltdown; and 4/ Pandemics eminating from viruses such as Ebola.  More hazards can be seen on the USGS website at http://www.usgs.gov/natural_hazards/ . While the probability of any individual event occuring and threatening your personal well-being is not great, the likelihood that at least one of these many threats to your life will occur during your lifetime is significant.

The preparation for all of these calamities depends upon where and how you are personally situated and your initial decision of whether to “Stay or Go”.  By "Go", I mean traveling either on foot or otherwise to get away from the dangerous situation in which you and your family find yourself at your present location. If you’re prepared for all the types of natural disasters that are possible, then the preparations for war, civil unrest, an economic meltdown, or a pandemic will be easier.

The Stay or Go decision -

Some of the issues you must confront in making the initial “Stay or Go” decision include a determination by you and your family of the continued availability at home of water, electricity, natural gas (or other heat producing energy sources), food, shelter (in the sence that your home is still structurally viable), medical supplies, and safety from civil unrest and bad people. Unless you are assured of adequate quantities of these items for the indefinate future, you may want to seriously consider making a "Go" decision. On the other hand, if you haven't made any preparations for going, you may be forced to stay whether you want to or not. The continued availability of electricity may well be a key determing factor in the Go / No Go decision. Electricity is frequently one of the first things to go in a disaster situation and as seen in the Hurricane Sandy aftermath, it may not be restored for weeks or even months. Many, if not most, homes in a metropolitan area will become uninhabitable without electricity in just a few days ... particulary in the winter.

Accordingly, we would highly recommend that you prepare a survival "Go" bag, or as frequently called a " Bug Out " bag, before events overtake you, with all the basic necessities to survive in an emergency. See our survival gear list for your must have items for your Bug Out bag which will cover most conceivable situations. Keep it either in your car or next to your car in the garage. With the basic Bug Out bag prepositioned, you've kept that option available. If you haven't prepared a Bug Out bag, you may be forced to stay at home and ride out whatever happens and hope that your home emergency preparations are adequate. Remember, even if you decide to stay at home, the supplies contained in your Bug Out bag may prove highly valuable in your new post disaster home environment.

What should your Bug Out bag look like you might ask. At a minimum it should be a large backpack and preferably include a pack frame. Remember, a cooler or action packer can hold the items on your survival list, but they work only if you're traveling by car and cars can run out of gas or have other problems. You should always be prepared to travel and survive on foot. Each family member should have their own backpack if they are of sufficient age to carry anything. If a 6 year old can carry a liter of water in her school backpack, that's a liter of water you don't have to tote. Many pack frames come with an integral backpack. See an outdoor equipment page after reviewing our list of "must have" survival gear and supplies.