Survival Kits

A survival kit is the front line defense against any type of survival situation. If the time comes to protect yourself and your family having a survival kit is a must.Also externally the case can be a signaling mirror with a sight hole in the middle.  For a listing of recommended supplies and survival equipment visit.  A survival knife is a good addition, especially as it usually comes using a compass, water-proof matches, fishing equipment, as well as a wire saw.  This ensures that someone will eventually come trying to find you in the event you become lost or injured.  There aren't any undesired effects using these acne scar treatments, whatsoever.

Get in touch having a company who specializes in family survival kits and master emergency preparedness today.  The objective behind assembling disaster survival kits is to have all of the supplies in one position.  Having some knowledge of an surrounding area can help in finding adequate shelter, water, and safety.  Each brand will incorporate various styling options providing included items within the kit.  You must discuss that with family, & understand it involved.

When an emergency takes place volunteers initially come toward help.  Right listed here are three locations exactly in which you may well wish to take under consideration storing survival unexpected emergency foods:#1 Survival Kits - If you're developing a 72 hour survival kit or possibly a hurricane survival kit on your vehicle, one particular with the most crucial things you need is food.  When preparing for virtually any type of an all-natural catastrophe or survival condition, it's not a unhealthy approach to go.  There are threats of war everywhere accross the planet with tensions constructing in all of the corners it seems.  Further, it is really a large boost to morale to be able to stay out of the rain or snow.


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Even greater, you will make confident that every last probable contingency you can consider from the organic catastrophe is covered with the supplies you understand will be within your kit.  Child Care Safety Kit: This is an accessory kit with supplementary emergency supplies.  You are putting things together hoping stuffing everything you requirement for a few days into your bug out bag.  It's uses are endless and without them, the rest of your survival kit becomes far less effective.  It should contain medications and supplies to take care of, disinfect and protect wounds, abrasions, cuts and insect bites.

Be sure to get one for every person given that they generally usually are not big enough to share.  Brainstorm with other people in your family or circle of friends, plus more importantly, ask those who may have been to college.  When disaster strikes, sometimes everything is shut down. Amazon's Survival Kits could be the must-visit store for the web for handy wilderness survival kits and crucial survival tools.  While a crisis blanket alone isn't enough to make sure safety inside the worst of conditions, a great blanket is undoubtedly a quality hedge against hypothermia and frost bite.

Survival Kit

Your survival kits' main purpose is to keep you alive. These are the tools that you will be using to keep and maintain your health. When you are sick or injured you should have standard first aid medical supplies available.

Here is a list of items a person experienced in trauma injuries recommends:
1. The Ambu Ventilation Bag for breathing and resuscitation
2. QuickClot for severe bleeding
3. Large 2-4 inch stretch wrap for legs, arms, and body
4. Albuterol MDI for asthma and COPD related breathing problems (if needed) - requires doctor’s prescription
5. Normal saline to make 1-2 liters for dehydration and washing out wounds
6. Benadryl for itching
7. Burn sprays and creams
8. Nonstick pads for wounds and burns
9. I.V. tubing and an oral airway device
10. Israeli Battle Dressing
11. 1” gauze tape (50 to 100 ft.)
12. Triple antibiotic ointment (spray and salve)
13. Lots of 2x2 and 4x4 gauze pads
14. Assorted Band-Aids of all sizes
15. Tourniquet
16. Heat retention foil blankets
17. A cell phone and emergency numbers (if emergency help is available)
18. Saline eye wash
19. Antihistamine for allergy and rashes
20. Knit caps to reduce body heat loss through head
21. A box of properly sized examination gloves (not latex)
22. EpiPen (epinephrine for shock or hypersensitivity to bites) - requires doctor’s prescription The medications can be had with a doctor’s prescription. Remember that all medications have expiration dates. You need to rotate your supplies to keep them up to date.

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In addition to the hardware for patching up cuts, broken bones, and other assorted injuries, you should have a source of medical information. A standard medical reference and first aid book and or natural remedies book. There are a lot of reference materials available. The closest to being a one-source reference book with practical knowledge that I have found is: “Where There Is No Doctor” by David Werner and also “Where There is No Dentist” by Murray Dickson.

A lot of medical books for the general public only cover immediate care first aid and then follow up by telling you to take the victim to a medical facility. You need information that will help you when there is no medical professional or facility available. Should you bring this information by using an ebook reader? Yes, if you also have the hard copy. ebook readers take up little space and can carry huge numbers readers take up little space and can carry huge numbers of books. You should have one, but don’t rely on it. It’ll break or you won’t be able to charge it and there you are, shit-out-of-luck. Don’t be lazy. Build your own medical kits. Buy supplies in quantity. Start with the above list. Take what supplies in quantity. Start with the above list. Take what you need for each kit and put each type of medical supply in a zip-lock bag. Label the bag with a permanent marker or tape. Put all those bags in a stuff sack or other container that will fit in your go-bag. Make a list of every item and the quantity of each inside the bag. Whenever you use something, mark it off and revise the quantity remaining.

This is very simple and you get exactly what you want. No wasted space. There is a tremendous value to having taken a class in first aid or having trained as an emergency medical technician. Another way for ensuring your survival. Not only do you get valuable experience, but also you will get a good foundation of what types of medical equipment may be required for your situation.

Survival Equipment

Now you have a place to start in building your ultimate go-bag. Let’s look at getting the right survival equipment items together as the seed for all your go-bags that you are going to build. Here’s the products I trust and recommend.

Weapons
Food and Water
Medical Supplies
Communications

Weapons
My favorite topic. All the survival preparations in the world count for nothing if you are unable to protect yourself. You must be able to stop bad people from harming you. Nothing works better than pure, raw, naked, deadly force judiciously applied. The most popular, effective and deadly of hand weapons are guns and knives. The choices for these weapons are guns and knives. The choices for these items are almost overwhelming. Having choices is a good thing, unless your are paralyzed be them. Here is what I recommend to get you started. My opinion. Yours may and probably will differ. Handguns. The short course: Get a Glock. Are there other guns as good? Probably. Why? They work. They are reliable. They’ve been stress tested under horrific conditions. They’re stupid simple to operate. Point and click. They digest most any ammo manufactured. Available in a wide range of calibers and sizes to fit most any mission. Lots of used Glocks out there. Of just about any semi-automatic handgun, Glocks are most likely NOT to let you down when you need it the most. If your going to get a gun, make at least one of them a Glock. Are they my favorite gun to shoot? No. But they are my favorite go-to gun.

What about revolvers, you say? Nothing wrong with revolvers. Get a Smith & Wesson or Ruger. They are well made. They are readily available on the used market. These are quality guns. Shotguns. Get a pump action shotgun. Remington 870 or Winchester 1300 Defender (if you can find one - not currently being manufactured). Inexpensive and effective. Pump actions are less prone to jam and can be more easily cleared if they do, compared to a semi-auto shotgun. Rifles. A semi-auto battle rifle in .308 winchester. Some suggestions (Any of these will cost you. What’s your life worth?): Springfield Armory M1A FAL (the most expensive one you can afford = reliability) Heckler & Koch HK91 Now, beware. Be knowledgeable about the gun laws in your state. How and where you store and carry your weapons varies greatly in each state. It is up to you to ensure you do not violate any gun law, no matter how stupid and ill-conceived they are. Something that is okay in one state becomes a felony in another. I would never encourage anyone to break the law. Do your due diligence on what you can and can’t legally do.

Knives
You WILL have a knife. No excuses on this one. Make that plural - knives. Have more than one. My suggestions: Swiss Army knife. Victorinox or Wegner. NO knock offs. Buy quality. Gerber “Bear Grylls” survival knife. Comes with fire starter, sharpening stone, and whistle. 4 3/4” fixed blade. "Gerber folding knife. Won’t break the bank, large selection. Kershaw folding knife. Same deal as Gerber. I have all the above. They all work for different purposes. A knife is probably the most important tool and weapon to have. The knife to bet your life on (and expensive too), get a Mad Dog SEAL ATAK if you can find one. Extremely low production and rare. Other style Mad Dog knives may be easier to find. OC spray. That is, oleoresin capsicum or commonly called pepper spray. A non-lethal solution to many sticky situations. While having deadly force available, it is not always the best solution. It rarely is the best solution. OC spray makes a dandy alternative. If you can’t run, and deadly force will cause more problems than it will solve, the OC spray may be the best answer to your situation. Works great against big angry dogs. Ask me how I know. Doesn’t work so great against hyped-up meth addicts. Get some and rotate your stock. The pressure in the can may bleed out over time. Can be found at bike shops as dog repellent. Kimber Can be found at bike shops as dog repellent. Kimber America makes a device called the “pepperblaster” which is a bit more powerful than the bike shop spray cans. The Kimber device is designed to stop the 2-legged animals.

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Food and Water
You should have a minimum of 3 days food and water available where ever you are. Why 3 days? That’s what FEMA and Red Cross say. They’re a little conservative. Have both a water filter and purification tablets or solution along with water bottles or collapsible bags.

What I like:
First Need water purification system. Never gotten sick using this in South America. Can pump a large amount fairly quickly. Filters out cysts and chemicals. Iodine. 2% five drops per quart. Easy to use. Good for some radiation protection (potassium iodide). Tastes funky. Household bleach. 2 drops @ 5-6% hypochlorite per quart of water. Cheap! Micropur MP-1 tablets. Chlorine Dioxide. Kind of expensive compared to above. Least offensive taste of the chemical treatments. Get MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and dehydrated packaged food. Check the shelf life. MREs seem to be typically 1-5 years. Other packaged food can have shelf lives up to 25 years. How much do you need to store? How much to put in your go-bag? A lot more than the 3 days recommended by our government. A year’s worth at home and a week’s worth in your go-bag if you can fit it. Depends on what you’ve decided is important to you. Start figuring it out.

Medical Supplies
Trauma, broken bones, infection... Survival equipment is not complete without medical supplies. The condensed version here is to have material to treat blood loss, splint broken bones, and take care of infections, both viral and bacterial. Have emergency blankets to keep warm. Have reference material for specific ailments and trauma. Have training to use all these things. Check out First Aid and First Responder training in your area. If none are available, plan now to take some time off and attend a class somewhere! Do it!

Communications
Cell phone. Get a pre-paid cell phone. This is in addition to your regular contract phone if you have one. Why a pre-paid phone? Traceability. Why make it easy to find you if you are on the run. Today’s smartphones are easily tracked. If you don’t want to be found, turn off your contract phone and pull the battery. Pull the battery! Buy your pre-paid phone with cash. Doesn’t matter if it is on as it is not traceable to you. This all pre-supposes that the cell phone infrastructure is working. If not, then... Ham radio. Get a ham radio license, or not. But get the radio. Know how to use it. A handheld transceiver like a Kenwood TH-22AT (now discontinued) that I have, is highly portable and can be modified to extend its frequency range to extend into the commercial bands. Well known brands include Alinco, Yaesu, Kenwood, and Icom. Get involved with the ham radio community. They are dedicated to helping people in emergency situations. Could be very useful. This then, is the core of any of your go-bags. How much of any of these items will be determined by the job you have assigned to your go-bag. It is up to you to make sure your bag meets the job description you’ve given it.

Disaster Preparedness Kit

As with most situations in life, the ability to effectively prepare a disaster preparedness kit for an emergency situation requires that the prepper first gains a working knowledge of the obstacles presented by a specific scenario. While some generic preparations are recommended and appropriate for almost every situation, more specific planning is needed to survive other Doomsday events. For example, your basic prep kit might include items such as food, bottled water, matches and a first aid kit. A small kit such as this can be easily packed into the trunk of your vehicle for emergencies on the road and, despite its small size and limited abilities; it could still prove to be a life saver in an emergency. That being the case, this basic kit would do little to help if you were case, this basic kit would do little to help if you were confronted with a more complex scenario such as freezing weather.

Watch this video on assembling a disaster preparedness kit:

It simply would not have the proper supplies to meet the needs of these situations because the preparer did not anticipate the need for additional gear. To be truly prepared, even in the most basic sense, a prepper must logically look at the scenarios they expect to encounter and, then, look at the other scenarios that could logically branch off from the original threat. For example, if the individual who packed the kit used in the previous example had anticipated that they would be driving in the middle of winter on back roads, they might have added a blanket, extra clothing and a hand shovel to their kit. With these extra items and a bit of self reliance, a prepared individual would be able to survive an unexpected stay for a few nights in the inclement conditions. In essence, the prepper anticipates the situations they might encounter and, thus, they are never caught in a truly unexpected situation. This type of individual is prepared for any emergency or contingency because they have already decided how they will survive the situation before they encounter it.

To go along with this point, a prepared person must understand the proper usage and limits of the gear in their disaster preparedness kit. When used incorrectly, life-saving equipment can be ineffective and, in some cases, misuse can prove lethal. This was evidenced during the Persian Gulf War when Israeli citizens were provided with gas masks but were not properly instructed in their use. Several people died as a result of suffocation because they did not wear these gas masks correctly. There are many tools offered to individuals who wish to prepare for possible disasters that can create their own inherent dangers. The responsibility for understanding the equipment in your kit is yours. If you don't know how something works, find out before you are in an emergency situation where your life or that of someone else depends on that knowledge. Most of the items in your disaster preparedness kit will also have inherent limitations. You cannot open a can of beans without a can opener. A gas mask that is designed to filter one type of threat may be ineffective against another chemical agent. The coil of rope that you included to help you secure sticks into a shelter may not be strong enough for rappelling down a cliff face. Dying be strong enough for rappelling down a cliff face. Dying or getting injured because you did not recognize and anticipate these limits of the supplies you packed into your own prepper's kit is not going to earn you any credit with your fellow Doomsday event survivors.

Family Survival Course

The first question I am always asked about prepping is "Where do I begin?". A great place to start is Jason Richard's Family Survival Course. I have a link down below where you can get this at a reduced price. The course is loaded with great information about different scenarios and done professionally with an ex military special forces man to walk you through some very basic survival skills to turn your home into a "dug out" and prepping with some real basic household items. I have also included some of my helpful information below for free to help you get started and ready for all kinds of survival techniques.

When it comes to Doomsday scenarios, one of the first thoughts that come into people's minds is the need for protection. Whether the threat is from other humans, predatory animals or, even, zombies, people come up with all sorts of ideas about the protection capabilities they need in the event of emergencies. If you want to be truly prepared for Doomsday events, you should be considering how you intend to provide protection for yourself and your family as well. There are several options and special considerations when planning your family’s protective measures in a post-apocalyptic world. What kind of threats do you anticipate? Are you comfortable with lethal force or is a non-lethal protection something you would be more comfortable with? What are your physical abilities and training? By answering these three questions, you can determine a lot about your mindset and how you need to prepare your Doomsday protection planning and strategy.

Watch this free Family Survial Course video:

Threat Types
In preparing for Doomsday, the possibilities for threat scenarios are almost limitless. The physical well-being of you or your family members could be threatened by wild animals, looters, rogue military groups, invading governments or any other conceivable enemy. You may even face threats from other survivors who simply didn't have the foresight to prepare for disaster to come. Determining what threats you may face and how far you are willing to go to protect yourself and your loved ones in response to each threat type is crucial in preparing for Doomsday scenarios.

Lethal vs. Non-Lethal Protection
When it comes time to defend yourself or your family against the various threats you may encounter, it is too late to answer the questions of whether lethal versus nonlethal force is preferred and at which level the various forms of protection are appropriate. To be prepared to deal with any threat on any level, you must make those crucial decisions before the need arises.

Weapons, Physical Abilities and Training
Depending on how you choose to defend yourself and your loved ones from attack in a Doomsday scenario, certain equipment and training is required before the event gets here. Fortunately, for many preppers, the same weapons used for their defense strategy are also part of their strategy for providing food through hunting. In many cases, these individuals have put aside a small stockpile of ammunition and firearms to meet both their hunting and defense needs in the event of a large-scale emergency, so they will already have these items on hand when the need arises. Whether you choose an armed defense strategy or not, knowing at least the basics of self-defense will be imperative in a Doomsday situation. Understanding the escalation of force as related to your attacker and being able to diffuse a situation without the expenditure of valuable ammunition or the loss of other resources may prove to be very useful in the turmoil that follows a global Doomsday event. When it comes to protecting the life of Doomsday event. When it comes to protecting the life of yourself or someone you love, there are no limits. In a survival situation, protecting your life-saving supplies may carry equal importance because, once those supplies are surrendered, you have limited the amount of time that stands between you and death because your stockpile was holding off starvation or dehydration. All preppers should consider some form of physical training and self-defense education to improve their odds of survival in a Doomsday situation. This kind of training serves a two fold purpose. First, at some point, you are either going to be caught without a weapon or ammunition will run out and this training gives you an additional layer of defense. Secondly, by adding self defense training, you add a few more steps in the escalation of force ladder, making it less likely that you would have to immediately resort to lethal force tactics for defense.

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Survival Gear

SURVIVAL GEAR YOU MIGHT NEED

If you're going to be out in the wilderness, building shelters and hunting wild game, you'll need some tools in your gear kit. Don't be stupid. During all but the most drastic of emergencies, police are still on the job. Whatever you do for the tools and weapons area of your bug out bag, make sure you follow the laws of your region. Don't carry anything that you are not legally authorized to carry. Plan for the worst, but don't use that plan to its full extent if it's not necessary. Otherwise, you're just asking for trouble.

That being said… having a plan for defending yourself, and keeping all the necessary tools you might need for bugging out, is important. Some items you may consider for your bug out bag are:
Knife
Pistol
Rifle
Multi-tool
Axe, Hatchet, or Machete
Screwdriver – may be on multi-tool

Each one of those listed is a tool that can be used to make your bug out experience more comfortable, and they can also save your life if faced with danger. In a survival situation, you will probably have to do things you don't normally do in your day to day life. That's when these tools will come in handy. Tasks you might find yourself having to do include: Digging, chopping, hunting, building shelter, and fighting. That's not an all inclusive list by any means, but it's there to show you that you should be prepared to do some things you don't normally do. Having tools and weapons ready to go can save your life. Keep that in mind.

The Knife
In my opinion, there has been no invention more significant to the development of man than the knife. A knife can do many things for you. It can help you hunt, make shelter, create splints and bandages, make tools, and even save your life. A good knife should be a staple in any bug out bag. An example emergency situation where a pocket knife would be useful is a car accident. If a seat belt gets stuck, you're stuck. What if you're not the one who's stuck, but your spouse or child? What if the car is on fire? You have got to get out fast, so the ability to cut through a stuck seat belt would be handy. For your bug out bag, you might want to consider also packing some type of fixed blade field knife. Again, nothing fancy, but it should be sharp and very sturdy. Make sure this knife has a full tang blade construction (the blade goes all the way through the handle) and its steel is at least 440 stainless. That particular metal is relatively soft, but it's the minimum necessary to be a serious knife. A fixed blade knife will be used more as a tool in a survival situation. A folding knife is handy, but sometimes you need something more substantial. When making tools, a sturdy, heavy knife will make the job easier. For example, you can use a knife as a spear point for hunting or defense. Tightly strap your fixed blade knife to a staff, and you've got a usable spear.

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Guns
Firearms are a tricky subject. Not everyone has a firearm, and in some countries civilian ownership is not allowed. If you can't have guns in your area, then this section won't apply to you directly. However, you should still read it and think about it because there are some valid survival issues I'm going to bring up. There are two reasons why guns are an important survival tool: Defense and food. Emergencies make people crazy, so you might find yourself being attacked by someone else with a firearm, machete, or baseball bat. Being able to sufficiently defend yourself is the first step when faced with such a confrontation. During an extended bug out scenario, you may run out of supplies. If you live in a region with sufficient wildlife, you have a readily available source of food and a way to harvest the food. Whatever you may think about hunting in general, if you run out of food, you may need to kill and eat animals to survive. If you eat a hamburger, you should have no problem killing and eating a deer, wild pig, rabbits, squirrels, and so on. If you find yourself in a situation where society has crumbled (unlikely, but possible), at least in your region, you'll still need to eat. When there's nothing else, hunting becomes a viable, life sustaining option. Some people choose to keep tactical style weapons with their bug out gear, to be taken if the need arises. Others prefer hunting weapons. What you pack, if anything, is up to you and your assessment of your particular situation. Sometimes, packing a gun in your bug out kit is not only stupid, but illegal. Make sure you follow local, state, and federal laws (or your legal system's equivalent setup). If you decide that putting firearms in or with your bug out kit is something you want to do, talk to your local gun dealer about it. Assess your particular needs and get advice on the subject. If you want something for defense and something with which you can hunt deer, you might get a 9mm pistol and a 7mm bolt action rifle. Don't break the bank, and don't break any laws. If you decide to get something, make sure it meets your particular needs. Guns are tools, and like any tool, you only use them when you need them.

Multi-Tool
A multi-tool is an item that contains many commonly used tools in one compact device. They come in a few different shapes and sizes, with an assortment of tools, and some even take attachments. In one little package, you can have several common tools strapped to your belt. Many knife companies have jumped into the multitool market. It exploded after Leatherman hit the scene. Even though the multitool has been around for a long time in the form of the Swiss Army Knife and variants, the Leatherman set multitools apart from the knife world. A typical multitool will have some of these items, and maybe some more: Pliers, wire cutters, knife blade, saw, file, Phillips and flathead screwdriver, and a case. My multitool has more – each brand and model is different. Why do you need to pack a multitool into your emergency pack? Because tools are handy things to have, and a multitool is a small, light tool package. Small and light means it's not going to take up much room in your bug out bag. When selecting a multitool, pay attention to quality. There are many multitools out there in the market, some priced quite cheaply. They are priced like this because they are cheaply made and, therefore, may break under normal conditions. If you are thinking of getting a multitool that costs $9.99 or $14.99, or something similar, stop. Most good multitools run at $50 or more. You can get a few basic models for less, buy they may not have all the features you're looking for. The number of tools you need is relative to what you're going to be doing in an emergency, and somewhat dependent on personal taste. Just keep all of that in mind when you are shopping around for a multitool. If it is cheap, it's probably cheaply made, and you don't want that kind of thing in your emergency survival kit.

Chopping with a Machete or Hatchet
Chopping is an important task in many survival situations, so a hatchet or machete may be something you need in your emergency kit. Cutting firewood, making shelter, and clearing paths for you are just a few of things you might find yourself doing when in some type of wilderness survival situation. A tool tailored to those activities will come in handy. A hatchet is a small, handheld axe that is commonly carried on camping trips. It's small enough to fit on your belt, but big enough to be useful when you need to cut something. It will take you longer to cut up a large log with a hatchet than it would with a full size axe, but you can still get the job done. Hatchets also go by different names, like camp axe or hand axe. Any sporting goods store should have a selection of handheld axes. They are priced relatively cheap because they are just a hunk of steel on top of a wood, plastic, or steel handle. You won't need anything really complex, so you won't have to spend a lot of money. That will leave you more money to spend on a quality multitool or field knife. Machetes are another option. A machete is simply a large knife (more of a small sword, actually) that was designed for managing brush and various vegetation. A machete is great for chopping. If you are going to be out in the wild for any length of time, having one of these can be handy. If you buy a machete that is sturdy enough, you can use it to cut down a tree. Sure, it will take longer than using an axe, but it can still be done. I've done it once myself. Machetes are useful tools, but they are not for every emergency situation. Take a look at your needs and pick one up if you think it might help.

Tools to Meet Your Needs
Whatever you decide to put in your emergency preparation kit, make sure that it meets your individual needs. First you need to assess your needs. Ask yourself questions like, "What's my local environment like?" and "Where am I going to go in an emergency?" Likely, an urban bug out scenario will mean a different tool setup than a rural plan. The main thing you want to be able to do is survive. Your goal here is not to pack as many tools as possible into your bug out bag. Everything in your kit should have a purpose. You have very limited space and weight for your gear, so be selective. Don't carry a machete and an axe unless there is a specific reason to do so. Likewise, if you pack three pistols, a scoped rifle, an M-4 variant, and 1000 rounds of ammunition, where are you going to put your food and water? Think about your plan and your likely environment, and then plan your gear accordingly. If you don't do this, one of two things may happen. You can pack a backpack too heavy and wear yourself out carrying all this gear you really don't need. Or you can pack a fast and light bag only to find out that it's missing several tools you could use out in the field. Asses your plan and likely situation, pack accordingly, and you'll be better off in an emergency.

Emergency Preparedness Kit

The first step in building an emergency preparedness kit is to select a good bag. When choosing a bag, look for these three traits: Durability, versatility, and size. There are many bags out there in the world, but when selecting a bug out bag, you need to make sure that it fits you in particular. I'm referring both to the size of the bag in relation to your physical frame, and also your particular needs. Your needs might differ from the person next to you, your neighbor, and the guy sitting in his recliner all the way across the country. What is the general climate like in your area from season to season? Does it ever snow? What about rain? Excessive heat or dangerous wildlife? No matter who you are or where you live, your needs may be different from those around you. Take your health, for example. Are you diabetic? Do you have a child who has special needs, or is still in diapers? Considerations such as these need to be taken into account when you sit down to design your gear kit. I'm not going to design your entire bug out bag for you, but I am going to give you some guidelines and a basic framework. The rest is up to you. You decide what you need, and stick it in your bag.

The Bag Itself

The bag you choose for your emergency gear kit should be a tough one. There's one simple reason for this: You don't want it to fail you at a critical moment. Your bag should be rugged, constructed of strong materials, and have the ability to take a beating and not fall apart. No $20 bag from some discount superstore is going to cut it. Price is relative, but if your bag costs less than $50, you might need to shop around. Better bags cost more money. That being said, used military gear is easy to come by, cheap, and tough. I'm not talking about aftermarket knockoffs that cost $15 new, but actual military issue (surplus, used, etc.) gear such as ALICE packs or a CFP- 90. Theses bags are tough, abundant, and affordable. You can also get great civilian versions of these bags, but then you get into the price to quality issue. This is not a liferule, but if something is cheap, it's probably cheap (as in poorly constructed and might fail you when you need it to help keep you alive). Whatever it is, the bag you select should have enough room to carry your gear. How much gear you need will be determined by your own individual needs, but there are some general guidelines you should follow. Typically, a bug out bag should hold enough gear to sustain you for three days. This is usually enough time to get out of a troublespot, even on foot, and find a safer place to wait out whatever disaster landed in your area.

Remember when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans? Did you watch the news when that was going on? I remember seeing an aerial shot of thousands (I didn't count, but it looked like thousands) of people were just milling about on a freeway overpass. These people were just sitting around, waiting for help. Don't be like that. Help yourself instead. Had I been in that situation, I would not have stuck around and waited for rescue. Situations like hurricane Katrina is when the bug out bag should come out and go on your back, be in your hand, etc. Do whatever you have to do to get out of there. People get angry and dangerous when there is a crisis going on and they have no food or water. If all of those people had a Emergency Preparedness Kit, then maybe there would have been fewer stories of violence during the refuge and rescue time frame. Don't be one of those people stuck in a bad place. Make sure you have enough gear to get out. The same advice applies whether you were in hurricanes Katrina or Irene, or fleeing the disaster after the Japan quake that killed thousands. When there's a disaster, you might need to leave in a hurry, so it's important to have the gear ready. How Big of a Bag Do I Need? The size is subjective to your needs, wants, and personal style. Generally speaking, you should pack for at least three days. Some people will need quite a large bag, while others can get by with something as small as an average school backpack. Your environment will also affect the size of our bag. For example, if you live in a very cold climate, you will need to pack some weather appropriate gear into your bag. If disaster happens during the winter, you don't want to freeze to death while bugging out. Make sure to account for such possibilities when deciding on the size of your bag. You might need room for a jacket, a wool sweater, and extra socks, while someone in a very warm climate might only need a light jacket.

Watch this helpful Emergency Preparedness Kit Video:

Clothes aren't the only things you're going to put into your emergency preparedness kit. I'll get into the specifics later, but you'll need such items as food, water, tools, shelter, first aid items, and more. Is your bag – or the one you plan to buy – big enough for all that? Another consideration, directly related to the size of the bag, is the comfort of the bag. Fortunately, most modern hiking and outdoor equipment is designed to be as ergonomic as possible while still doing its job. This goes for military gear, too. Backpacks with frames, padding, and modular attachments are the norm, so you shouldn't have much trouble finding one that can hold your gear and not strain your back too much. The bag you choose should be as large as necessary to carry the gear that you determine you'll need according to your particular situation. It should be comfortable and durable, and should withstand the elements as much as possible. The bag you choose can be of either civilian sporting origin or military applications. Just make sure it isn't some cheap knockoff. Do not spend your money on a bag that will fall apart when faced with the slightest stress.