Just like everything in life, even when it comes to survival and disaster prepping, there are many options to consider. For some preppers who believe doomsday is near, staying prepared becomes an obsession. For most people, however, they just want to survive during threats like thunderstorms, earthquakes and other natural disasters.
How you choose to prepare will depend on your mindset. If you believe in taking action well before crisis is close, you’ll probably evacuate while everyone else is still hemming and hawing wondering what they should do while they wait for the authorities to issue warnings and advice.
If you’re the type of prepper who believes that your house is your fortress, you’ll fortify it and have enough stores and food supplies to last you a long while. You’ll also have a bug out bag with essential items that will last you about 72 hours. Your goal will probably be to escape to another safe urban zone.
Preppers in this category usually do not have wilderness survival skills. They’ll not know where to set up shelter outdoors or how to live off the land. This lack of experience and knowledge can be very crippling in the event where it’s safer to live off the grid in the wild.
As a serious prepper, you must have the skills to survive in the wilderness too. Knowing the basics like starting a fire, setting up camp, digging a latrine, sourcing for water, etc. are very important skills to have. You should also know how to fish and hunt.
While you may have food supplies to last you for a while, sooner or later they’ll run out. Depending on your situation, you might have to survive a few more days or even a week outdoors. What will you do if you have no wilderness skills?
It’s best to start learning and practicing well beforehand. You can learn to fish in a few days. Being able to hunt will take longer. You’ll need to know how to handle a firearm and you must have the accuracy to take down the animal too… and that’s the easy job.
Once you kill a deer, do you know how to gut it, clean it and cook the meat? You’ll only be able to do it in a crisis if you’ve done it during peace time. You need the experience. Hunting an animal doesn’t come easy to most people who don’t like taking a life or inflicting harm on animals.
You’ll need to get used to it. Someone will need to teach you how to gut, skin and clean your kill. This too will not be a pleasant experience with all the blood and smell to deal with… but it’s necessary that you learn how to do it. You never know if you’ll need this skill in future.
The ability to survive in the wild is what determines how serious a prepper you are. If the situation is really bad and it’s unsafe to live among other people due to crime or disease, going into the wild will be your best option till you figure out when it’s safe to go back or where to go from there.
Pick up the skills you need so that you can survive in both urban areas and outdoors too. This will prevent you from being powerless and desperately dependent as you wait for help to arrive… which might take ages to come. As a prepper, you must always know that survival starts with you.
