By learning some basic and needful skills, you can become your own best resource in an emergency situation. Keep in mind that not all emergencies are major natural disasters. Smaller but significant personal difficulties such as job loss, greatly reduced income, loss of transportation, being snowed in, having a broken-down washing machine, loss of electrical power, or having a health need when far from medical care are just a few examples of emergencies that many of us face at one time or another. Having emergency supplies is great; we also need to know how to use them. It’s important that all members of the family (as appropriate for age) acquire skills. Here’s a list of emergency skills that could help you better deal with an emergency situation:
- Filter and treat water to make it drinkable
- Meet your daily drinking, cooking, and sanitation needs with one gallon of water per day
- Perform basic first aid or CPR
- Make a fire without matches
- Cook outdoors without electricity
- Set up a tent or tarp shelter
- Evacuate home on foot
- Change a flat tire
- Make bread from scratch
- Make “wheat meat”
- Heat an MRE
- Have your child open a Calorie Food Bar or water pouch without help from an adult
- Entertain your children without modern technology
- Plant a garden
- Can fruits and Vegetables at home
- Wash clothes by hand.
- Repair or make clothing for your family
- Light and/or heat your home
- Use a bucket toilet
- Use cloth diapers
How do your skills measure up when you look at the above list? If you feel helpless and horrified at the idea of needing to use these skills, how can you develop such skills? What resources are available? Fortunately there are several cookbooks and preparedness manuals available. It would be a wise choice to collect a small library of these helpful books.
It’s best to learn skills hands-on from a knowledgeable teacher (especial those related to first aid), but you can learn a lot on your own. Excellent free articles are available at BePrepared.com and BePrepared.com/blog. Watching online tutorial videos is another way to educate yourself. Emergency Essentials has its own YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/EmergencyEssentials.
