Family Preparation & Survival Guide

No natural disaster is ever easy, or relaxing. But if you’re prepared in advance, the chaos and crisis atmosphere can be avoided. Here are some tips for disaster preparation, according to the Home Safety Council:

• Put together a read-to-stay kit. Include things you will need if you have to stay in your home for several days.
• Keep extra water on hand.
• Plan to be without power; have flashlights and candles and blankets readily available.
• Make a ready-to-go kit. Include things you will need if you need to leave your house quickly.
• Make sure to have flashlights and extra batteries in both kits.
• Use strong bags to pack the kits. Mark the date they were packed, and check them often to make sure nothing has expired.
• Listen to the radio or television to determine if you should leave or stay in your home.

     Food preparation methods can be from very simple to somewhat complex.  It just depends on what kind of food you are preparing and how extravegant of a meal you are trying to prepare.  In survival type situations, you need to be trying to eat the foods with the most protein, carbohydrates, & fats (Good Fats not trans fats).  The easier to prepare, the better.  Most of the foods that get put up for long time storage don’t require much preparation to be able to eat.  There are many ways to cook food without a kitchen.

    The main factor in cooking food is a source of heat for cooking.  An open fire is usually the most readily available heat source.  A camp stove that is run off of propane gas is a pretty good backup cooking method.  A fireplace can be a real good place to cook food.  Our forefathers & mothers used this heat source quite effectively.   A charcoal grill, camp grill, propane grill, & other types of grills can be another excellent way to cook food.

     Different types of fires can be constructed for different types of cooking needs.  Different types of stoves can be constructed to fulfill different types of cooking needs.  TheSouthernFamilySurvivalGuide’s emergency preparation guides illustrate different types of fires and different types stoves for cooking and food preparation methods.

     Survival essentials have different meanings for different people.  Every person has a different idea of what they need to survive with.  Of course, everyone needs food and water just to stay alive.  People also need some sort of shelter from the elements.  At certain times of the year, a person can just sleep out in the wide open.  In today’s world, if you did sleep in the wide open, you probably wouldn’t wake up the next morning.  Someone would knock you in the head and make your survival essentials their survival essentials. 

     Different people feel that there are certain material things that they can’t do without.  Truth is, they can do without them.  They may not want to but they can.  In order to get your list of survival essentials, think of only things that you need to keep you alive and well.  Everyone’s list of survival essentials will be different but the same.  Everyone’s food supply will keep them alive but everyone has different tastes.  As long as your survival food can be kept for long periods of time without the need of electricity, that will keep you alive.  You can even pressure can meat of all types so it will be edible for at least a year later.  TheSouthernFamilySurvivalGuide’s 2 Disaster Preparation Ebooks have different methods of cooking food without the need of electricity.

     You need to have water stored up or at least a good method purifying water to drink.  Food is one thing that you need but you can do without for quite a while if you have plenty of water to drink.  A good supply of food either freeze dried, dehydrated, canned, or fresh caught from fishing & hunting, is a must to keep your family alive.  You must have a backup food and water supply lined up.

     Shelter needs to be on your list of survival essentials.  A backup shelter needs to be in place in case your home or apartment is unable to be lived in.  The seasons of the year determine what kind of shelter you need.  Any kind of structure that keeps the rain off of your head and the wind off of your back will help.  Shelters can be made out of just about any kind of materials available.  The only restriction is your imagination and your imagination is also your best asset.  For other survival essentials read our disaster preparation guides at TheSouthernFamilySurvivalGuide.com.

     Survival foods are plain and simple foods that are easy to prepare and high in nutrients, proteins, & carbohydrates and sometimes fats.  Survival foods are also foods that are able to be stored without freezing or keeping cool in a refrigerator.  Most survival foods do not have to be cooked.  If they have to be cooked, you can usually cook them a variety of ways.  They usually just need water added.  Survival foods, for the most part, are usually freeze dried.  Survival foods are not always the MREs (Meals Ready to Eat).  If you think about it, any food that you eat is survival food. 

    It takes a lot of space to store survival foods if you are storing up for a family.  You need to store up survival food to last at least 2 months.  Two months sounds like a long time but it could take that long after a major disaster to get to you to help you.  The free information on the internet wants you to believe that 3 days is suffecient.  How long did the Hurricane Katrina “SURVIVORS” have until their HELP arrived?  It was a heck of a lot longer than 3 days.  Lets all learn from that event to stock up on Survival Foods & Water.

     When someone says survival food, most people start thinking of foods like: military meals ready to eat, stored canned goods, & any other food that can be stored for long periods of time.  Not so.  You can ask most people how they would prepare their survival food and your most popular answer will be “Cook it on an open fire.”.    The possibilities are endless.  How to prepare survival food is one of the easy parts.

    When a person is trying to stay alive after a disaster, any meal or food they prepare has become survival food.  If you think about it, any food that you eat at any time, is survival food.  Food of all types can be cooked in many various ways.  You don’t have to have a stove to cook.  If a person knows several different ways to cook without a stove being one of them, your chances of survival after a disaster just went up.  The more things you know how to do in another way without the use of utilities, your chances of survival will keep going up.  The more things you know how to make without buying from stores, your chances of survival keep going up.  It is never too late to learn and prepare.  It is too late when you need to use what you would’ve learned.

Responsible emergency preparation is getting a survival guide that the family can agree on and putting it into action.  For far too long, people are often unprepared, but the reality is that we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.  We hope that we can live out our lives without facing atrocities and danger, but you can never be too careful.

By getting a survival guide, you can ensure the safety of you and your family by following some fool-proof, time-tested steps towards disaster preparation!