Today’s topic is urban survival supplies. We have seen many survival shows portray wilderness survival, plane crashes, mountain climbing gone wrong, etc. But, for most of us, we need to prepare to survive at home, school or the office in the event of some emergency or natural disaster.

Emergency preparedness urban survival supplies should include some main areas: shelter, food, water, first aid, light and communication, sanitation and hygiene, security and self-defense, reference guide, survival kits and a survival garden.

Shelter

If you are able to stay in your house, school or office, then your shelter is already provided. However, if you are forced to move, you may have to improvise on your shelter. It would be wise to have a tarp and space blanket or sleeping bag as part of your urban survival supplies, just in case your next shelter isn’t as nice. The goal is to keep warm, dry and protected from the elements. Also, have a way to start a fire, which may be necessary for heat, cooking and light. Keep matches and lighters as part of your urban survival supplies.

Food

An emergency or natural disaster could last 3 days, weeks or months depending on the situation. Most organizations, such as the Red Cross or FEMA recommend at least 72 hours of food and water to be stored in your home, office, school or in a grab and go bag.

After watching the aftermath of all the recent earthquakes and the not so recent Katrina hurricane, it would be a good idea to keep at least one month and up to 12 months of storage food as part of your urban survival supplies.

Store food that requires no refrigeration, with a combination of dehydrated/freeze dried food and canned goods. Choose foods that you and your family will eat, such as: canned meats, fruits, vegetables, protein bars, dry cereal, peanut butter, dried fruit, nuts, crackers, powdered milk, beans and any special needs.

Water

Each person will need one gallon of water per day (drinking and sanitation). It is hard to store enough water beyond two weeks per person, so investing in a good water filter is helpful. Also keep plain bleach on hand or chemical treatment pills for additional methods of purifying the water. Store your water in clean food grade plastic containers, and rotate every 6 months or so.

First Aid

It is best to have some basic first aid knowledge/training, in order to assist others and to keep yourself safe. There are many different types of first aid kits that are available for portable use and for keeping in your home, school or place of business. You will need to decide what first aid kits are necessary for your urban survival supplies. You will want to have adhesive bandages, alcohol/cleanser pads, sterile dressings and other supplies.

Light and Communication

Your urban survival supplies should include some forms of light and communication. Keep a combination of different types such as, candles, oil lamps, 4-in-1 emergency wind-up flashlight radio alarm cell phone charger combo, matches, lighters, extra batteries and a survival whistle. Another great tool would be two-way radios, if you have more than one person.

Sanitation and Hygiene

Keep a good supply of your personal hygiene products on hand and also your household cleaning and kitchen supplies. Extra paper towels, toilet paper, garbage bags and other products will come in handy too. You may not be able to use your toilet if the water supply is shut off. If this happens, it would be good to have a portable toilet with sawdust or chemical treatments. Also, use garbage bags to line the toilet for easier cleanup.

Security and Self-Defense

Prevention is the best way to secure your home, by trimming shrubs, installing good dead bolt locks with solid doors. Have good window locks and a ladder/rope for the upper level in case escape is needed.

Self-defense is up to the individual, and may include some sort of fighting/martial arts training and weapons. Guns are useful for hunting and self-defense, and it is recommended to have a handgun, a pump shotgun, a small rifle, ammunition and cleaning tools for each one. There are many varieties available, so ask your friends and a gun shop dealer what would work best for you.

Reference Guides and Skills

Now is a good time to gather some good reference guides on emergency preparedness as part of your urban survival supplies. There are some great online sources as well, but in the middle of an emergency, it is better to have a physical book on hand.

Check out these two great books, “It’s a Disaster!… and what are you gonna do about it?” by Bill & Janet Liebsch and “Making the Best of Basics Family Preparedness Handbook” by James Talmage Stevens. Both are wonderful books. I had the pleasure of listening to James at a Preparedness Expo years ago, and he signed my book. Now, he has an updated edition with much more material. I’ve had some nice conversations with Janet Liebsch as well, and am impressed with the quality and layout of the book.

Some online resources are:

National Weather Service (NOAA) Safety Information

30 Tips for Emergency Preparedness from Homeland Security (DHS)

Red Cross – Preparing and Getting Trained

Survival Kits

There are many different survival kits out there, designed for a variety of needs. These include personal/family, evacuation, hunting, office, car, pet, children and classroom lockdown school kits. Many churches, schools and businesses are also implementing emergency plans. Make sure you know how these plans involve or affect you and your loved ones and add the appropriate survival kits to you urban survival supplies.

Survival Seeds for a Survival Garden

I just love to plant some vegetables every year and taste those fresh veggies right from the back yard! Some folks take it a whole notch higher than me, and plant a huge plot. Whatever your property will allow, just do what you can do.

It is recommended to have non-hybrid, heirloom, non-gmo preparedness seeds (survival seeds), which can be harvested at the end of the season and used for planting for years to come. These seeds break the cycle of constantly buying from the seed company year after year. These are suitable for your everyday vegetable garden or a survival garden (emergency garden).

About the Author: Susan Hovis has many interests which include economics, history, music, golf, the outdoors, gardening and emergency preparedness. She also enjoys studying the monetary system and spends time at the family cabin in Northern Minnesota.

http://www.survivalkitfood.com/

This list of apocalyptic events that may occur in our lifetime are a popular topic throughout the survivalist community. Each apocalypse scenario that is included has a high probability of occurring in the near future. Let us dig into the list.

1. Global War

We are living in a period of history where war is prevalent in many parts of the world. These wars are costing thousands of lives. The Iraq war as of March of 2012 has taken the confirmed lives of over 115,000 civilians alone. That is the amount of people that live in Lansing Michigan, imagine the whole population of Lansing being wiped out by war, every single person that lives there gone. Now with the threats of war between the USA, Korea and Iran the concern for apocalypse survival is even higher. It is widely believed there are an estimated 20,000 active nuclear weapons in the world. It would only take a fraction of those nuclear weapons to destroy most life on earth.

2. Ecosystem

You cannot argue facts even if you are not a tree hugging environmentalist you should have concern for what is happening to our ecosystem. At least 30,000 species become extinct each year. This is the highest number in recorded history of complete species dying off. The reason for this destruction of living things is simply humans. Humans are clear cutting forests, creating and discarding harmful synthetics and slaughtering wildlife at an alarming rate. Each and every living thing on this planet plays an intricate role in each other’s survival. A simple example would be the bees in the insect world, think about the ramifications if they became extinct? The bees’ role in the ecosystem is to pollinate the plant life, which many other species rely on for survival. If the bees and other pollinating insects were to become suddenly extinct the world would suffer worldwide crop failure, resulting in famine. So yes it may be time to prepare for apocalypse survival because we do not see much chance for change in human behavior.

3. Solar Flares

If you have been watching the news this year, you probably heard about the high level of solar flare eruptions occurring from the sun. It is true that the sun has heightened periods of solar flare activity and these current flares were to be expected by scientist. What else scientist have discovered is that stars far from our solar system have been seen to increase twenty times in brightness. It is believed that these increases in brightness are actually due to giant solar flares, which are millions times more intense than what we have witnessed on earth. If our sun was to send out a solar flare of that intensity to earth we would all be vaporized in a matter of seconds. Scientist also believe that if the sun’s activity were to increase by only 1 percent would cause another ice age. Apocalypse survival may not even be a choice in the event of a giant solar flare.

4. Man Made Particle Accelerators

Imagine a small black hole, perhaps the size of a car. This black hole slowly expands overtime and as it expands it devours anything that contains matter that is in its way, this includes any living thing. Many physicists have theorized that particle accelerators such as the giant Hadron Collider that is located in Geneva, Switzerland is currently capable of creating such a black hole. Talk about manmade destruction. These black holes are made up of altered matter called strangeletes, these strangeletes have to potential to engulf our whole planet. Currently there are over two thousand physicists from over thirty countries working on the Hadron Collider. The first major particle collision test is scheduled for 2012.

5. Alien Invasion

Sounds like a science fiction film doesn’t it? The reality is that we are discovering new planets at an alarming rate due to programs such as the Kepler mission. The Kepler mission is a great example about why it may be time to prepare for apocalypse survival. The Kepler mission is specifically designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way to discover dozens of Earth like planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets. As of December 2011, there have been 2,326 planets found that are candidates to support life. The world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawkins believes that alien life most certainly exists, and that humans should be extremely hesitant about making any contact. Hawkins fears are that Aliens may simply raid earth for its resources leaving the planet in ruin. Stephen Hawkins also stated that “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.”

In conclusion, the reasons listed above should at the very least cause some concern about the continuation of humanity and a reason to be ready for apocalypse survival.

About this Author: The author is a professional writer and a personal trainer. You can visit his website about sinkholes at apocalypsesurvivalschool.com, you will find information and advice about natural disasters and survival at his website.

A survival knife is an essential to wilderness life, whether it’s camping or hunting, it’s important to keep it maintained because the best survival knife is one that’s most reliable.

About the Author: Robert is the owner of http://www.bestsurvivalproducts.com and committed to helping as many people as he can learn the importance of being prepared.

About the Author: Steve H. is an outdoorsman. He maintains the blog Crude Analysiz, chronicling his hikes & outdoor adventures, as well as providing both gear & book reviews. The popular Chokeez™ Survival Necklaces can also be found on his site.