Survival Equipment

It can be easy to rush out and spend a small fortune on all kinds of survival equipment to protect you and your loved ones in the face of life-changing situations. However, while many of these items may look really good on the shelves of the store, they may actually have little or no practical value to you when the time comes.

Taking Stock of Your Current Situation

Photo courtesy by sharon_k

To compose your survival gear, you will first need to think about what protection and equipment your current location already offers you. For example, the equipment needed to "surf the apocalypse" in a big city will be completely different to that needed to ride it out in the woods. The key factors to consider when gathering your survival equipment are:

• Food - The maxim "you do not know what you have got till it has gone" applies to the way that most people view the current food supply. You need to think about how you'll feed yourselves if the stores aren't open. You could look into becoming more self-sufficient and growing your own food in your yard, or buying in a load of tinned and dehydrated or freeze-dried foods that will last for a long time. It's worth getting hold of items in bulk ahead of time, to avoid the panic buying that will accompany an apocalyptic event.

• Warmth -You who warm your homes through central heating in colder climates will need winter survival gear. You won't be able to rely on citywide gas or oil, so you may want to invest in a wood stove, as a survival stove will heat your home and cook your food as well as save you money in the short term. You should also stock up on cold weather survival equipment, such as a survival blanket/space blanket, thermal underclothes and foil covers as used by the emergency services.

• Water - Clean water may be hard to come by in any location unless you live near a river or freshwater lake. Your survival equipment should include filters that will purify water from unknown sources as well as a large supply of iodine tablets to add to water. The iodine kills off any bacteria and chemicals in water and is almost tasteless. In addition, you need to have some way of boiling the water as this is a sure-fire way of killing off any unwanted agents in the water. You also have to realize that you probably don't have room to store a lot of water, so building a rain harvesting system would be a long-term solution.


• Power - Having a self-sufficient power supply will mean that you can continue life close to normal. You can find self-powered generators that will give you a few days of electricity. However, for a longer term solution, you will need to harness the natural forces. This includes installing solar panels to heat your water and small wind turbines to generate electricity.

8km 7W 400-470MHz 16-Channel Two-way Radio Walkie Talkies B-1100

• Communications - Once you have sorted yourself out at home, you will start to think about helping your friends and family acclimatize. Phone lines may be out, so you should invest in sets of walkie-talkies that operate over long distances. The longest ones cover up to five kilometers, so for family who live farther away you could also set up meeting points at specific times in case of an emergency.

Once you have thought about these, you can put together a survival gear list to gather and store. You do not have to go to an army, outdoor specialist or survival store for your survival equipment, as you can get most of it in large cash-and-carry stores and your local supermarket.

You also don't have to be rich to prepare. Many people do a good deal of their prepping and building up their survival equipment by shopping thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales and even Freecycle.org. While you usually won't find food in those places, using coupons and shopping the grocery sales is another way some people build up their food stores.

The main thing to keep in mind is that you will need to have somewhere to store all of your equipment in preparation, so you'll need to either clear out your attic or basement or buy smaller versions of your essential equipment. You may also decide that you need a place away from the city, a type of survival retreat, where you will not only have room for storage, but room for gardens and livestock.

Handy Survival Equipment

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