An emergency can occur at any time. They aren’t always considered when we make plans for things. And they can happen in good times and in bad. Survival gear packed in advance can safe our lives in the most desperate situations.
By definition an emergency is ‘a sudden, urgent, usually unexpected occurrence or occasion requiring immediate action’. Emergencies come in different sizes, different styles, and last for different durations. Bad weather can turn worse and become hurricanes, tornadoes or flash floods. Good days can become bad ones by sudden fires, car accidents or simply with a person getting lost.
You never planned to get lost, the first time it happened. But that should have taught you to always have a map on hand of where you’re going, and make sure people know where you intend to be, at what time. If you don’t check in, they’ll know when to start to worry and where to look. A GPS receiver would help to have on hand, but you should also have a compass in your survival gear with your map. Keep a flashlight on hand. If you end up staying out after the sun sets, you’ll need light to keep from falling and hurting yourself. Emergency food rations will become important too, as time passes between your emergency and the last time you had a full meal.
Extra clothing should be among the things we put in our survival gear or emergency kit. Wearing layers is helpful in cold situations and clothing can be used for other things as necessary. Rain gear can help us build a shelter if we don’t need it to break the wind or keep us dry. Sunglasses, a sixth item for our pack, can protect our eyes from the reflecting sun and help us to keep going. Any item in a survival pack can be used to do something other than it was intended. Always keep that in mind when packing.
You might hurt yourself more than you realize when you start to get desperate. Fear sets in and people start making mistakes. Thorns on shrubs we pass could scrape or prick the skin. Be sure you pack a first aid kit in your survival gear, complete with bandages, antiseptic creams and ways of helping cover burns and cuts. What about your multi-purpose tool? It might be a little knife with a corkscrew and a pair of pliers on it but it’s a tool, and you might find yourself in desperate need of one later. You’ll also need the tools to make a fire. Pack a lighter, water proof matches or a ferrous rod that will spark easily onto some sort of fuel like tinder or grass.
Normally people aren’t planning on staying lost forever. It’s better to be safe than sorry when packing an emergency kit of survival gear. Be sure to add some way to make water safe to drink. There are disinfection kits available but there are other methods to use too, like solar methods that turn water into condensation that can be collected safely for drinking and cooking. A whistle is another important piece of the kit. Being able to make noise without much effort, and a noise that will be heard for a long distance, could be critical to being rescued.
Night time is coming and you’re still lost or suffering the effects of an emergency situation. In your survival gear you packed a tarp or space blanket that you can now use to build a survival shelter or to insulate you while you curl up against a log or a pile of rocks. You also brought cording, perhaps in the form of twenty five feet of parachute cord. You’ll need this in your survival gear, either tonight to help you create a shelter that is off the ground and keeping rain off your head, or if you have to scale a hillside that’s too steep to walk down. Another thing you might, even more so at night time, is bug repellant. Insects can carry diseases and parasites. You’re going to be rescued. Include this in your survival gear so that your rescue isn’t marred by sickness.
The fifteenth and most important thing to pack into a kit full of survival gear is something a person can’t pack at all. That’s their will to survive. All of the above fourteen items are worthless if a person doesn’t have that will to live. Sometimes emergencies happen out of the blue. Having survival gear packed and ready for any situation that might arise will save a person’s life. But having the will to think smart, think ahead and be prepared is the most important survival tool of all.
Tags: essential survival gear, survival foods, survival gear, survival gear catalog, survival. wilderness survival
