When All Hell Breaks Loose (99 page)

Wool or Synthetic Blankets or Sleeping Bag and Pad

Have the portable insulation required to sleep comfortably during outside temperature extremes. The ability to achieve adequate sleep is paramount to your attitude and overall survival for a number of reasons. Backpacking sleeping bags and foam sleeping pads are super-lightweight and portable and lash directly onto most conventional backpacks.

Space Blanket[s] [Large and Small Sizes]

Multiple-use space blankets come in handy in hot and cold weather and are explained in the shelter chapter.

Water Disinfection Method[s]

Water is your life's blood. The majority of found water sources will need to be disinfected after a disaster.

Water Bottles with Lanyard and Duct Tape

Durable storage containers will be needed to disinfect and transport potable water. Duct tape wrapped around the bottles can be peeled off and used for many tasks.

Sanitation and Hygiene Supplies

If you become sick during an emergency due to improper sanitation, your game might be over. Tampons or sanitary napkins can also be used on wounds or as fire tinder. Toothbrushes and dental floss take up very little space and make being on the road much more comfortable.

Garbage Bags/Barrel Liners

Lightweight, cheap, compact nonpermeable barriers can adapt to dozens of survival needs. A barrel liner can be put over yourself and your pack to keep both dry in the nastiest downpour.

Nonperishable, No-cook, High-energy Food

Lightweight, compact, long-lasting freeze-dried or dehydrated backpacking food fits the bill nicely. In a pinch, water can be added directly to the foil packets, heated or otherwise, and the contents consumed with a stick or by squeezing the foil pouch itself. Unless you have no other option, the weight and bulk of canned goods are oppressive and should be avoided when carrying your life on your back.

Heavy-Duty Zipper-lock Freezer Bags

These tough, collapsible, multiuse, food-grade plastic, waterproof containers are sent straight from heaven.

Methods to Light Fire

Along with the cutting edge, this item has helped build every civilization on the planet. Fire can be used to cook food, disinfect water, make tools, regulate core body temperature, signal for rescue, psychologically calm scared survivors, keep away bugs, consume trash, create light for the night, sterilize first-aid kit supplies, and more. Have three gross-motor methods to light fire in three different locations on and around your person.

Knife

Sharp metal knives have endless uses. As with fire, practice using them beforehand in order to be able to achieve the greatest number of uses with the safest results under stress.

Flashlight with Extra Batteries

A kid-safe light source makes life easier in hundreds of ways.

Rope or String

This is useful for countless tasks and to lash other gear or found items to your backpack without having to carry them in your hands. Dental floss is incredibly tough and compact.

First-aid Kit

A basic first-aid kit should be a part of everyone's pack. Don't pack medical gear that you don't know how to use.

Cook Pot with Lid

Use the pot for storing survival gear, cooking food, disinfecting water, digging a sanitation trench in soft earth, and much, much more.

Portable Radio

Super small radios are handy for keeping up with the disaster and the following emergency response.

Lightweight Leather Gloves

Survival tasks can be very rough on smooth city hands. Painfully blistered hands can seriously affect your ability to get even the most basic tasks accomplished. Open blisters are open invitations for infection due to decreased sanitary opportunities.

Game[s]

Boredom might be your biggest enemy. A simple deck of cards or some other small game to occupy the attention of survivors can be invaluable for morale.

Pet Supplies

Don't forget a leash, pet food, and whatever else is required if you plan on hitting the road with your pet.

Mirror

A small mirror comes in handy for removing foreign objects from the eye and checking on your sense of self. Although any mirror can be used to signal for rescue, the sightable military models excel at being able to hit the target under stress.

Whistle

The piercing blast from a brightly colored, "pea-less" whistle can be used to signal or warn the family or attract the attention of rescuers while saving vocal cords, water, and calories lost to shouting.

Bandana

Cotton or synthetic bandanas have hundreds of uses. It's a potholder, a headband, a scarf, a hat, a filter worn over the mouth for dusty or cold air, a wash cloth, a signal flag, a bandage, a sling, a container, cordage, pack-strap padding, a sediment filter for straining water, or anything else your imagination can come up with.

Sunscreen and Insect Repellent

Depending on the climate and season, these two items can make or break your experience. Remember that proper clothing should be able to deal with both.

Medications and/or Extra Glasses

Nothing else matters if you're dead before nightfall because you forgot your medications or couldn't see the approaching gang of thugs.

Money in Small Bills

Paper money talks as long as the system still supports its use. Throughout the centuries, people have bought off other people to save their own lives. Don't discount the unfortunate fact that greed will override altruism for many people when pushed to the wall by survival stress.

Identification and Pertinent Important Papers

You now require a passport to get back into the country when visiting other lands controlled by the United States. Don't give authorities the excuse to hold up your access to lifesaving transportation or supplies due to questions about your identity. Take the hint and carry the identification required to allow you to flow through roadblocks and other emergency response obstacles like greased lightning.

Cell Phone

Don't count on this working after a disaster but they are too compact, lightweight, and valuable to emergency communications to leave behind. Use sparingly to save the battery.

Watch or Clock

Knowing the time may be necessary to coordinate with other family members or to cooperate with emergency response personnel.

Car Kits

Whether you have a car kit or not and how comprehensive it is depends upon how important your vehicle is to your overall survival plan and how much space you have to store supplies. It's not uncommon in America to commute several miles to work. I know people who commute nearly a hundred miles per day, one way! If your vehicle serves you in this fashion, as a sort of home away from home, plan accordingly and make sure you pack the needed emergency gear whether you stay put at your current location or try to make it back to the house.

My vehicle is equipped with the bare necessities from the above bug-out kit list along with modifications. Many parts of the western United States are vastly different from the East in regard to distances between towns and cities. When I have hitchhiked back East, as soon as I was leaving one town I was entering another. In the West, there can be well over a hundred miles between the tiniest of trailer-park trash settlements, let alone a town of any size. Some of my vehicle survival kit components allow me to obtain supplies, if necessary, from the outdoors while making my way back to civilization. As I've said time and time again, there is no one-sizefits-all survival kit destined to meet every need, so modify your kit as you see fit.

Whether you pack the basics or the kitchen sink, make sure the components are in a portable container such as a spare daypack or duffle bag in case you need to hit the road while on the road.

Office Kits

If you feel you need basic emergency supplies at your place of work, by all means pack a daypack with gear and leave it stashed at the office. Although your car kit may be waiting for you in the parking lot, getting there during a power outage might be a challenge if you work in a huge multistory high-rise. Something as simple as a flashlight might save the day for you and the coworkers who gave you a hard time about your survival gear, allowing you to safely and quickly exit a pitchblack building. I remember when, three different times in two weeks, incompetent backhoe drivers unintentionally dug up the water main to the college campus I was working at. Since I had a water bottle with me and three gallons of water in my vehicle, each time I continued to get stuff done when others scurried off on search of something to drink throughout the day.