What Could Happen
7 Dangers during Emergency Situations
1. Social Unrest
- in any serious emergency situation, other people are going to be freaking out
- they most likely didn’t have a plan for such a scenario
- so there will be rioting and looting along with muggings and even murder
- you will want to develop a plan to avoid the masses
- develop a route that strays from high population/high crime areas
- you will also want to identify traffic choke points now
- if people are evacuating what are the common routes that these people would take?
- you can typically identify this by examining rush hour traffic on a daily basis
- those common routes are going to be what the majority are used to and familiar with
- most people haven’t developed an alternate travel plan
- if you have to go through the masses then you will want to be sure to be the gray man (How to Be a Gray Man)
- you don’t want to stand out and become a target for looters and those that are desperate
- in this case, you will want to go WITH the flow of traffic and not against it
- if you do otherwise then you are going to stand out and bring attention to yourself
- you also don’t want to be rememberable
- don’t wear clothing or bags that are going to draw attention
- don’t wear anything expensive
- try to become the most average person that you can think of
2. Low amount of resources
- store shelves will be wiped clean
- it may already be too late to run to the store to buy the necessities
- even if the shelves are not wiped clean you will be fighting others for what is left
- on top of that, stores will most likely increase the prices for those resources and give it to the highest bidder
- there is even the possibility that stores will not accept credit/debit card transactions if the grid is down
- paper money could even be rejected if there is an economic crash
- this is why it is helpful to have junk coins stored
- junk coins have 90% silver so contain real value as compared to a paper dollar
- you should already have them stored up
3. Health/Physical issues
- in the book One Second After it tells of how people died of heart attacks after emergency situations because of the poor health
- in any scenario, you will be doing a lot of walking, running and physical activity
- if your body is not in shape then you will experience some major issues
- this is why it is important to get into shape and eat healthy
- now, this is one of the biggest challenges for me
- for my day job I work in an office setting
- so there isn’t any physical activity involved
- on top of that I lack motivation to stay consistent in the gym or just physically active
- one thing that I am looking into is getting a personal trainer along with some friends who stay active
- it is also important to watch your diet
- if you are on medication you will want to have a surplus stocked up for such an event
- there are also a lot of natural remedies that you can look into that may be helpful
- another danger related to physical issues are injuries
- as mentioned earlier, there might be a threat of violence where you may need to defend yourself
- on top of that, there are going to obstacles along your bug out that may cause injuries
- you will want to have first aid kits for any situation
- you don’t want open wounds to become infected to where you end up losing a body part
4. Dehydration
- In any emergency situation the most important thing is water. You can survive days without food but not lone without water. So stockpile and stay hydrated
- Consider your location. Warmer climates will require more hydration than moderate ones.
- you can die of dehydration and even of a heat stroke
- Hydration packs, a canteen for drinking and another for collection, and handheld water filtration devices will serve anyone well.
- You should also identify sources of water along any trip where you can collect water along the way.
5. Impassable Roadways
- Other dangers could be that the roadways will become clogged or impassable.
- most likely you are not the only one that is trying to escape
- ideally you should plan to travel on backroads, dirt roads, trails or even forest logging trails
- on top of that you should have multiple bug out routes and locations
- ideally you should have more than one location to seek refuge.
- Threats can come from any direction, so plan your routes for all directions possible
- also having the ability to travel offroad can increase your survivability
- I would recommend having a 4 wheel drive vehicle with all terrain tires
- ultimately, you should be prepared to travel on foot if you have too
- that way if all possible roadways are impassable you can still make it to your location by foot
6. Weather
- many of us live comfortably inside of our homes spoiled by air conditioning units and central heating
- when the weather is unbearable we elect to spend our time inside
- however, if something can go wrong it typically does and at the worst possible time
- being forced to leave is going to be challening even in perfect weather
- however, aclimate weather can make escaping 10 times more challenging
- this is especially true if you live in the south or the north
- if you live in the south you have to be prepared for scorching heat
- as I mentioned earlier, heat can cause you to dehydrate and even cause heat strokes
- for those that live in the north the blistering cold can make your life a living hell when bugging out
- you will become vulnerable to hypothermia and frost bite
- this is why it is important to be prepared for the worst weather possible
- your main line of defense is going to be what you have on
- for winters I wrote a blog post about the 3 winter survival clothing layers you should have
- these layers include the base which wicks away moisture, the middle layer provides insulation and the outer layer provides you with a shell from the cold
- for those that live in the south it is going to be the opposite
- southerners will want to have moisture wicking clothing along with clothes that are light and breathable
- you should also elect for lighter color clothing as it will help to repel the sun beams
7. Communication Issues
- during a bug out scenario it is going to be important to communicate with your family and even a designated group
- without communication there is no sense of direction
- this is especially harmful if you are trying to gather family members
- you will want to have a plan pre-developed that includes meet up spots that you can gather family members even without communication
- it may be that the grid goes down
- along with that are going to be cellphone towers
- even getting news from locals can be hard to trust
- once a message is passed around a certain amount of times the message becomes distorted
- so it is going to be important to get information from as close to the source as much as possible
- one tool that I would recommend having is a portable HAM radio
- it has low frequency with about 10 miles without a repeater