Surviving in your Home After a Natural Disaster
It’s the year 2018, and If there’s a natural disaster or other emergency you will quickly need to determine a game plan to improve your chances of survival. The best course of action will greatly determine the nature of the emergency and what resources you have available to you to survive with. For example, a flood or fire may require you to evacuate your home immediately while another emergency situation may benefit you to stay at home. While you can play out the possibilities of each event, you won’t know for sure the best option until the emergency play out in real time. Being prepared for every possibility is the best way to improve your chances for survival. This article will serve as a survival guide when circumstances dictate that you should stay at home to survive.
When You Are Better Off Sticking in Your Home
There are many different factors which will dictate that your home is the safest place to stay. When you think of the three items that you need to survive such as water, food, and shelter, a home instantly provides the last factor for you and provides protection from the elements. In addition, you likely have items in your home that can help you to obtain water and food more easily than you can while in the elements. There is safety and security in your home and staying in your home can greatly improve your chances to survive in many cases.
Doesn’t Mean it Is Easy to Survive At Home
While staying in your home can potentially be easier to survive, it may pose its own challenges. In a home you are a stationary target for others who may see your safety and security and may disrupt it for their own benefit. In addition, your home appliances and public utilities may not be working and this will greatly reduce your ability to survive. Further, if you are in a city or in an area that doesn’t have a lot of resources then you may put stress on your reserves and limit your ability to survive by staying put.
Survival at Home in the Short and Long Term
When you first are placed in a survival situation you will have to immediately think short term. The first step to perform is to put yourself in a situation that protects yourself and your family and then to perform an inventory and assessment of the situation that you are in. Quickly analyze the risks and the resources that you have on hand. Look for weapons to protect yourself with and be creative if you need to.
Learn to fashion basic tools. A sharpened kitchen knife can be a survival tool that can be used as a weapon, as can a screwdriver. You can also fashion spears from these implements and some branches. Be creative in developing ways to protect yourself and try to create warning systems for you to protect yourself from harm in whatever sense possible. Don’t be afraid to team up with neighbors or others you feel as if you can rely on.
Safety is not the only factor. You will also need food and water. Any survival guide will tell you that water is more important as you will need it to survive sooner. You need water each and every day to live, while you can likely go at least a week without food. To obtain water find ways to catch it using rain catches which can be as simple as a bucket and more intricate and involved if need be. Capturing water is not enough as you will also need to keep it purified. Some coal and rocks lined up with the more granular rocks on the bottom can be a way of purifying water, as can boiling water if you have the resource available. There are many different places to store water in your home and you should keep a reserve a water if at all possible. If water is scarce then find ways to extract water from your environment. Options include digging for water or using a see through bag to wrap around foliage and leaving the bag in the sun to obtain water through the process of condensation.
Obtaining food is important as well. Perform an inventory of the food items that you have and be sure to reserve those that are non perishable to whatever extent possible. Eat those that are likely to go bad first and try to reserve food items that last longer. Try cooking perishable flour by turning it into food such as hardtack. Plant traps that can catch birds and small wildlife. Explore the surrounding area for edibles like dandelion leaves and pine leaves.
Staying at your home can greatly improve your chances of survival. Plan out your survival and secure the resources to keep yourself secure to whatever extent possible in the emergency situation.
