For much of history, human survival was dependent upon the ability to make fire. Most modern humans will never find themselves in a situation where their survival depends upon their ability to make a fire, but creating fire without matches is still a pretty neat trick to know. There are emergency fire-making kits available commercially, but they tend to be costly. Besides, if you can manage to carry an emergency fire-making kit everywhere you go, you can manage to carry a lighter. In a real emergency, you will likely have to make do with common materials you can forage from around you. Here is a method for starting a fire using your cell phone. You may even want to grab a free cell phone to practice on. (Read more....)

When you think of items to pack in a survival kit, what comes to mind? You probably think of things like water, energy bars, batteries, a first aid kit and blankets. When most people think of packing a survival kit, they think of basics that are necessary to keep their families alive. Things like spare clothes and shoes seem like dead weight when you are thinking in terms of a life and death scenario.  Spare clothing is not a luxury in an emergency, however. Clothing and shoes are necessary to keep your family warm, dry and protected from things like debris and hazardous waste that can be spilled during emergency situations. Dry, clean clothing and shoes that fit can also make the difference between a comfortable stay in a temporary shelter and a week spent wearing someone's old golf clothes. (Read more....)

Those who live in northern climate zones understand the challenges of a power outage when freezing temperatures threaten to turn us into human Popsicles.  The most prudent of us have prepared for the howling winds and winter storms that can take down power lines for days at a time. But what about newbies who’ve never experienced single-digit temperatures, or those who know better, but their “back-up” plan consists of fleeing to a Motel 6 in hopes they planned ahead for an emergency?  It wasn’t until friends recently pulled the plug on city life to relocate north that the subject of winter survival came full circle. It started with a simple question.  "What’s your advice on preparing for winter?" In no time, I’d replied with several pages of advice. Not fair, really. Not when they were knee deep in unpacked boxes with weeks of decisions facing them like where to put Aunt Martha’s painting, and asking, “WHY did we bring that stupid couch…it doesn’t fit in the living room!”  But they had asked for advice on surviving the coming winter and preparedness in an unforgiving climate deserves special attention. (Read more....)

The following is a guest post by Dennis Evers, the author of an upcoming book entitled "How to Handle a Crisis". In this article, Evers gives us some basic disaster and emergency survival tips that all Americans should be putting into practice but are not. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans always leave things until the last minute. But unfortunately, in the economic hard times that are coming "preparing at the last minute" is just not going to cut it. Right now Americans need to be storing up food, medical supplies and emergency equipment.  There are millions of Americans that have become "preppers" and more are joining the movement every day.  Hopefully what Evers has to say will inspire all of us to ramp up our preparations for the hard times that are coming.... (Read more....)

Most Americans honestly do not know how to survive if they suddenly couldn't run down to Wal-Mart and fill up their shopping carts. The truth is that we live during times when a disaster or an emergency could strike at any time.  It is important to be prepared, and nobody is going to prepare for you. (Read more....)

In parts one and two of this series we talked about food and water, but in part three we will discuss how you can prepare your home for emergency or disaster.

Below we have compiled a list of items that you will want to have in your home in case disaster or emergency strikes.  It is not a comprehensive list, but if you will follow this checklist, it will give you a huge head start in getting prepared for an emergency. (Read more....)

One of the keys to surviving any disaster or emergency situation is to ensure that you and your loved ones have an adequate supply of clean drinking water.  It is said that the average person needs at least a gallon of clean water per day.  The truth is that we all need water not only for drinking but also for food preparation and sanitation.

Here are some ideas..... (Read more....)

Many of us have the tendency to think that we will never face a really serious disaster or emergency.  But those who have been through a difficult ordeal know that it is those who are prepared that have the best chance to survive a crisis. (Read more....)

We are very excited to welcome you to the Disaster and Emergency Survival website.  We live in unusual times when it pays to expect the unexpected.  The dangers that we all potentially face today are numerous - hurricanes (we all remember Hurricane Katrina, right?), wildfires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, blizzards, pandemics and even the possibility of terrorist attacks. (Read more....)