When an Emergency Strikes, Disaster Survival Gear Saves Lives!

When it comes to emergency preparedness, it's easy to get lulled into a sense of complacency. It's difficult to face the reality that disaster could strike close to home, even though we've witnessed the devastation that comes from disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the Asian tsunami, the tornado that flattened a Kansas town, and terrorist attacks like those on 9/11. The unfortunate truth is that earthquake, fire, flood, and storms can cause injuries, death, and destruction. More importantly - and more hopefully - much of the unbearable heartache and loss associated with disasters can be avoided with the proper disaster survival gear.

Emergency preparedness doesn't mean seeing the world through the eyes of doom and gloom. It doesn't mean that there is a disaster looming around every corner. Having the proper disaster survival gear simply means acknowledging that the world is an unpredictable place, and that it's best to be prepared. After all, when you buy a box of Band-Aids and tuck it away in a cupboard, you don't wake up each morning certain that a loved one will suffer a cut or scrape; it just means that you have Band-Aids on hand if a minor injury occurs. The same holds true for disaster survival gear. Once you have it, you don't have to worry about it. Hopefully, you'll never need to use it, but if the need arises, you'll be prepared.

Survival Kits for Every Location

When you consider purchasing disaster survival gear, it's important to remember that you don't know where you and your loved ones will be when an emergency strikes. Perhaps you'll be at home, but maybe you'll be at work or in the car, and your children may be at school. It's important to make sure that each location has the necessary disaster survival gear to improve the odds of making it through whatever natural or manmade emergency occurs.

Home Disaster Survival Gear

Your home emergency preparedness kit should contain enough food, water, shelter, sanitation, first aid, lighting and communication supplies necessary for the number of people in your family. Because a catastrophic event often means no running water or electricity, and because it can impact the livability of your home, it's important to have the supplies necessary to be self-sufficient. Critical supplies to include are food bars and water boxes for three days, thermal blankets designed to retain body heat, ponchos with hoods, tissue packs, work gloves, a tube tent, water purification tablets, dust masks, vinyl gloves, a solar radio and flashlight with generator, first aid kit, light sticks, can opener, nylon cord, contact cards, gas shut-off wrench, Swiss Army knife, waterproof matches, emergency candles, toilet bags and chemicals, duct tape, and whistle.

When preparing your disaster survival gear, it's important not to forget your pets. Include a collar and leash, toys, food and water bowls, food and water, a thermal blanket, a pet first aid kit, and a decal that can alert rescue workers to the presence of a pet.

DIY or Ready-Made?

The reason many people hesitate to prepare for emergencies is that it's a hassle to put together your own disaster survival gear. The idea of having to go to different stores and pick up supplies makes it easy to procrastinate. Plus, there's the question of the shelf life of different items, particularly food and water.

Many people opt to buy ready-made emergency preparedness kits. Not only is it less hassle, but the best ready-made kits have a five-year shelf life and come in a sealed bucket. Just like buying that box of Band-Aids, a ready-made kit of disaster survival gear is easy to buy and tuck away. Hopefully, you'll never have to use it, but you'll rest easier knowing that, if emergency does strike, it could save your life and the lives of those you love.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about Disaster Survival Gear Saves Lives or Majon's Family and Children directory.

Article Source: Chris Robertson

Survival Skills May Make The Difference Between Life And Death!

Before venturing into the wilderness get prepared for the unexpected.

* Get avalanche certified and carry an avalanche shovel, beacon and probe if you are a winter backcountry enthusiast!

* Take a first aid course since accidents do occur.

* Always carry a survival kit.

For the general nature enthusiast, basic survival skills are included here to initiate an understanding of what needs to occur in a wilderness emergency. Keep in mind that YOU MUST REMAIN CALM when implementing these survival skills. A clear head will allow you to implement and plan for survival and rescue.

1. FIRE. It can provide warmth, keep predators away, purify water, cook food and signal rescuers. The best source for a fire is: a flint metal match with a wooden handle and a scraper; for tinder use cotton balls soaked in petroleum and stored in waterproof containers. Sort your firewood in a tepee form and place your emergency blanket behind you to reflect the heat.

2. SHELTER - a commercial trash bag with a hole cut out for your head is useful in protecting you from the elements. Always keep the closest layer to your body dry to insulate you from the elements. If you are stranded, find a quick natural shelter and wrap yourself in an emergency blanket.

3. SIGNALING with a whistle and a mirror. A whistle can carry further than a yell and a mirror can reflect up to 20 miles. A triangle of fires is a distress signal. Create smoke during the day to show distress. Spell out S.O.S. with organic materials.

4. FOOD/WATER. A person can survive up to three days without water and without food up to three weeks, although don't plan for this. Always pack extra food bars high in carbs. Drink water in the cool of the evening. Collect water from rain in your emergency blanket. Never drink your urine. Boil water minimally for 10 minutes, if you can. Seek water out at all times.

5. FIRST AID KIT. Always carry a basic one.

NOTE: as an essential survival skill, see understanding a topographical map

Survival Skills Hot Tips

Survival Skill #1: Backcountry thunderstorm

Get out of your tent. It is safer to be crouched down on your sleeping pad then in your tent which can expose you to electrical ground currents. Also keep yourself distanced from other members in the group.

Survival Skill #2: Grizzly Bear Attack

No pepper spray? If a grizzly bear is attacking do not RUN. Immediately lay down on the ground face down, spread eagle and protect your neck and heart.

Survival Skill #3 Mountain Lion Attack

If the mountain lion has not attacked look tall and yell. DO NOT RUN. If it attacks, fight for your life using pepper spray, knife or anything you can find to gouge its eyes. Never hike alone.

Survival Skill #4 Caught in an avalanche?

Try to keep an arm above the snow level to show visibility. If not possible, keep your hands near your mouth to create an air pocket. Spit outside of your mouth to tell which direction you are facing.

Survival Skill #5 Lost

Stay put. Despite popular beliefs do not follow streams. They usually lead to waterfalls, not civilization.

Survival skills combined with survival gear can ensure a safe enjoyable wilderness experience.

http://www.gearup4nature.com

http://www.gearup4nature.com/survivalskills.php

Article Source: Lynn Altierineed

Lessons In Survival - A Critical Leadership Skill!

To survive - to hang in there - to keep your head while all around you others are losing theirs - to stay in play - is a critical skill of leaders. Let's face it - even the most astute, successful person will suffer setbacks, and surviving and overcoming those setbacks is the true measure of a leader.

To some, survival sounds like a skill for a loser. And, frankly, there are many who try to survive by holding back, by not taking risk, by getting as invisible as possible. Those are not the behaviors of leaders - they are not what survival means in this article - and they lead to failure.

An example of survival and leadership:

A client had a business unit that was doing badly. Unprofitable, losing customers, over budget. The business unit leader had been in the job for six months - not long enough to have created the mess, but long enough to be held accountable for it. Her predecessor had held the job for ten years - and then retired with honors. There were many days when she felt like giving up. She felt that she was more a victim than anything else. She had been a top performer in every other assignment given her. She felt she had gone from the top 5 percent in her company to being perceived as a loser by former colleagues. Everyone likes a winner - no one wants to be associated with what looks like a loser. No one was going to rescue her from this situation - she was either going to sink or swim.

She felt she had four choices:

1 - She could quit and find another employer - she was highly regarded in the market.

2 - She could stay and look at who to blame. She could try to cash in on her former accomplishments and get a transfer - or not be held accountable - or be given lots of slack.

3- She could let the situation tear her down, wallow in self pity and blame fate, and turn into a part of the problem - rather than be part of the solution.

4 - She could do what she had to do to survive the situation - stay afloat, give herself a timetable, work to improve performance, and then decide where her future lay.

She chose the last alternative. She reviewed it with her boss - he agreed with her. For the first time in her career she was faced with stabilizing a losing business, rather than growing a winning one. What a difference! Going from winning as a strategy to surviving - as a strategy - at least as a first step strategy.

She shared her survival strategy with her staff - and watched their reactions. They ranged from acceptance to indifference. This unit was part of a much larger company, and some of her staff had friends in other parts of the organization that could "take care of them." She let some people transfer to other parts of the business - got rid of some others - and brought in key people who saw their new positions as a chance to prove themselves.

She put together a "stop the bleeding" short term plan with goals and measures that could be quantified and tracked and reported on regularly. No "BHAGS" here ( Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals). Her boss gave his support -while keeping the situation at arm's length. The plan was shared with the people in the business unit, and every person was expected to establish goals that contributed to the plan. Some did - some didn't. The plan worked - at least to the extent that the bleeding stopped and the business returned to marginal profitability in six months. No celebrations were held - but the leader and her staff were pleased with their progress -they knew just how much had been accomplished - although no one else seemed to share their emotions.

As the six month plan unfolded, it became clear to her that some significant investments in capital and systems were going to be necessary if the business was to prosper - and there was some risk that, even with those investments, prosperity might not happen. The fight for capital was intense, and other, more successful business units got their share - and hers as well.

She gave it six more months. In that time, steady progress was made, customers were won back, and profitability continued to improve. At the same time, she sensed a growing impatience from her boss with the rate of progress - but no real help in the form of additional resources. At this point she was 18 months into her job, and while she had seen major progress, very little recognition of her accomplishments came her way. She gave it six more months.

At the end of two years in the assignment, when continued improvement went unrewarded, she resigned.

When asked about that experience five years later, she said it was by far the most valuable of her career. When pressed to identify what particularly valuable lessons she had taken from the experience that helped her be successful - and she had become very successful - she listed the following:

You gotta pick your spots carefully. Every organization has top units and bad units. To decide to survive in a marginal unit with little upside is not very bright. Be sure the survival situation has an upside.

The decision to fight through a tough situation, and take the risk of surviving, must be a conscious one. And once it's made, all effort must be directed forward. It's easy in these situations to adopt a "why me" or victim attitude - and that is fatal.

Managing, defining and communicating expectations in a survival situation are absolutely critical skills - more than in a highly successful business. Pressure from above to see progress can lead to commitments being made that simply cannot be kept. And intentions sound good at the beginning of a reporting period - but only results matter. "Hockey stick" forecasts and plans - where all the good news is forecast to occur near the end of the measurement period - are always greeted with suspicion.

Tolerance for mistakes is much lower in survival situations. And negative outcomes that would be ignored in a successful business are magnified and used as examples of just how bad things are - while good news is received with skepticism. Protecting and insulating the people committed to making it work from harsh criticism and judgment is a major task for the survival leader.

A survival leader must have a core group of optimistic believers who are committed to making it work.

Stay in close contact with the Boss - absolutely no surprises are allowed.

Keep people focused on improvement through widely communicated goals they can share and buy into.

Don't let people see your discouragement at bad news - and there is always bad news in survival situations. Your negative emotions will be multiplied 100 times by those that observe them.

Survival mode must be a temporary situation - it's easy to slip into a survival mind set and make it a long term behavior.

Survival - both personal and organizational - is often thankless. While in survival mode leaders have to see the value of their contribution themselves. Often, there is very little positive recognition given to survival.

The worst thing a survival leader can do is to stay in place and let the situation grind them down. When the best shot has been given, and it remains apparent that that isn't enough, move on - that's always a choice - always. Know when to hold, and know when to fold.

In the stress of survival situations, it's easy to personalize all kinds of things. Don't. The ability to see things for what they are - no more or no less - is a necessary ability. Trying to ascribe motive, or waste time on hidden meanings are great ways to lose control and perspective.

These Lessons In Survival were learned the hard way. That's the only way to learn. If you see yourself or your organization in survival mode - use these Lessons to inventory what and how you can apply them to get through it better, quicker and more successfully.

Andy Cox is President of Cox Consulting Group LLC. The focus of his work is on helping organizations and their people increase their success in the hiring, developing and enhancing the performance of leaders and emerging leaders. Cox Consulting Group LLC was started in 1995, and has worked with a wide range of organizations, managers and leaders - helping them define success, achieve success and make the ability to change a competitive advantage. He can be reached at http://coxconsultgroup.com.

Article Source: Andrew Cox

Survival Preparedness - Survival Skills and Emergency Kits!

Most of us would agree that at any moment we could find ourselves in a disaster or other emergency situation. Even if this fact is only lurking in the back of the mind just below consciousness, the statement is no less true. Anyone can suddenly be thrust into an emergency situation or have a disaster land squarely upon them quite unexpectedly. How well one survives or IF one survives may be a matter of luck. Far better to invest some time and effort in survival preparedness.

Survival preparedness for the purpose of this article is not a call to be constantly fearful of impending doom and disaster skulking around every corner, or to hoard great caches of dried beans, MREs, bullets, and gold then hunker down with your stash in some remote area.

More realistically, survival preparedness is the act of obtaining knowledge of and practicing basic survival skills, gathering survival gear, food and water together into emergency survival kits. These kits can then be placed at easily accessible points in the home, car, office, etc., or on your person.

Think ahead to anticipate what sort of situation might arise and what survival skills, gear, and supplies would be useful to successfully see you through to the end of it. Some excellent items on the list of basic survival skills to learn (and practice!) would be:


how to build a fire with or without matches
how to build a simple emergency shelter
how to obtain food and water
how to use a map and compass
how to signal for help
how to use the survival gear you have chosen

The size of the emergency kits and the items they contain will be determined by the scenario for which they are intended to be used; lost in the wilderness, stranded in your vehicle on a lonely back road, recovering from the aftermath of a tornado or other disaster.

Always include fire starting items, items to build an emergency shelter, survival tools, a medical kit, signaling device, emergency lighting, containers of water, and rations. There are many helpful web sites that describe complete lists of items to include in emergency survival kits of all sizes.

In any emergency situation strive to remain calm. Use your mind. It's one of your best survival tools.

Initiative belongs to the individual. Make the time and effort for prudent preparations toward your own survival and that of others. Do not risk suffering the consequences of taking no action at all.

Survival after all is being alive at the end of an ordeal.

Chuck McIntyre is active in helping others learn basic survival skills. He offers reviews and recommendations of survival gear and emergency kits at MySurvivalPro.com

Article Source: Chuck McIntyre

A Mental Wilderness Survival Kit!

A survival kit should be carried by anyone who goes deep into the wilderness. What should be in it? Matches, a blade of some sort, and first aid supplies are among the usual recommendations. When you read the true stories of survival, though, you start to see that it is what's in a persons head that often determines if they survive or not. What, then, should be in this mental survival kit?

A Survival Kit In Your Mind

1. Willingness to learn. Even those who know nothing about survival until lost in the wilderness can still learn as they go - if they are willing to. If you're cold, watch that squirrel dive under a pile of leaves, and try that to stay warm (it works). Notice what's working and what isn't, and keep trying new things.

2. Willingness to do what's necessary. This is one of the most important items in your mental survival kit. Hey, they can eat hissing cockroaches just for the chance to win some money on "Fear Factor," so you can do it to save your life, right? Spoon with your buddy to stay warm, break open logs to find grubs to eat - do whatever it takes.

3. Positive attitude. This is an essential. In many stories of survival it is clear that those who expected to survive did. Even if you're not sure you can survive, encourage this attitude by acting as if you expect to.

4. Inspirational thoughts. This is how to have that positive attitude. An easy and enjoyable way to get this inspiration is to read true stories of wilderness survival. Some of the stories are about situations far worse than anything you are ever likely to encounter. Remembering them at the appropriate time is a sure way to see that you can survive. tell them to others too, if you are in a group.

5. Wilderness survival knowledge. You don't have to go to a survival training school to read and remember that you can safely eat all North American mammals, or that you can stuff your jacket with cattail fluff to create a winter coat. Any little bit helps, so learn a new trick or two each season, or take an edible plant guide on your next hike.

6. Reasons to survive. We all have reasons to want to live, but we need to remember to pull out those reasons when the time comes. Many people have attributed their survival to the constant thought of a loved one waiting for them, or something they want in the future.

Maybe you've already done this mental preparation, but it can't hurt to look over the list above again. Is there anything you need to work on in your mental survival kit?

Steve Gillman is a long-time advocate of lightweight backpacking. His tips, photos, gear recommendations and new Wilderness Survival Guide can be found at http://www.The-Ultralight-Site.com/wilderness-survival-guide.html

Article Source: Steven Gillman