Urban Survival Skills That Could Save Your Life

Disaster can strike at any moment. We never really know when we might end up in a dangerous situation. When you watch survival shows and read about survival experiences, they’re always about people being stranded with very low supplies in rural areas. But this does not mean that urban areas are safe from disaster. In fact, things might be even worse for surviving if any sort of crisis ever hits your city. That is why it is always good to be prepared. Here are the survival tips that could save your life in any situation. And if you’re still not convinced, just click through to read one woman’s story of how urban survival skills helped her through a crisis.

Always Have a Plan

You can have all the skills you need and all the tools that might come in handy should disaster strike, but that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have a plan. Always know where you’re going to go and what you’re going to do in any situation. It’s a good idea to imagine different scenarios and solutions so you always know what to do next.

Know Where To Get Water

When you live in the city, it probably seems like water is plentiful. You may live in a building with 100 different apartments, but if the water is shut off, or worse, contaminated, it’s good to know where to get clean water from. Check out local streams, rivers, and fresh bodies of water around you and write these locations in your disaster plan, should you need them.

Know How To Treat Water

But what if the water you come across is contaminated? Maybe there is a disease spreading that could possibly be in the water, or harmful bacteria that lives in the water. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with how to treat water, just in case there is the small chance that it could be contaminated. The next slide is one of the easiest skills you’ll probably learn on this list…

Practice Being Alert

Even when you’re just walking home from work, or riding the bus to the store, it’s always a good idea to practice being alert. Know where everyone is at all times and who exits and enters the area. Know where the exits are and any items you might need to use as a weapon. Don’t be paranoid about it, though. Chances of you having to use these skills are low, but it still never hurts to be prepared.

Have Protection in Your Home

If you’re living in the city, it’s a good idea to make sure your home is always protected. Even having renter’s insurance is a small and cheap thing that makes all the difference in the world if you ever actually need it. And even though you have a deadbolt lock, it never hurts to have a security system and an exit plan, should your home be invaded.

Learn Self Defense

Disaster doesn’t need to hit an entire city for it to be important that you have basic self-defense skills. You really never know when you might be attacked, especially living in a big city. It’s always good to know the best skills, especially specific to your body type. Just because you’re tiny doesn’t mean someone who’s big can harm you, and just because you’re big doesn’t mean someone tiny can’t harm you!

Keep in Shape

Not everyone has the time to go to the gym every day of their lives, but if you only eat junk food and haven’t exercised in the past year, things might not look good should disaster hit your area. If you care about your survival during a crisis, you should dedicate a little time to keeping in shape so you’ll be able to fight someone off or run for long periods of time if you need to.

Know How To Use Weapons…

Guns can be dangerous, and not everyone even has access to getting one. But no matter where you are, chances are that you can at least visit a firing range nearby so that you can at the minimum learn how guns work in case you ever need to use one. Make sure you dedicate time to learning how to properly clean, assemble, and shoot a gun!

…All Weapons

You might be the best shot in the world, but that means nothing if you don’t have a gun on you! You might not always have a gun if you need it, so it’s good to learn how to use other weapons as well. This could even mean a broken bottle. It’s good to learn how to fight in scenarios with different weapons so you can defend yourself using whatever you have around you. You might be thinking that you’ll never need these skills. But just click ahead to read one woman’s story of urban survival.

Learn from Sandra Lewis

Sandra Lewis is a woman from Pennsylvania. She recently posted her story on a discussion board for urban survivalists. Sandra has been in many situations all over the country, as she is part of a military family. This has given her many chances to learn important skills for the survival of her and her family. But her urban survival skills may be the most important.

Sandra Found Challenge in the Snow

In one particular case, Sandra found herself in the middle of a snowstorm. The power went out, so the heat was soon to be gone. She was also stranded, unable to travel in the massive amounts of snow. The pipes would soon freeze as well, causing a whole new headache. But Sandra is always prepared and did everything she had to do to keep her family, home, and herself safe during the snowstorm. Luckily, the power came back on before the pipes froze, but without electricity, she found herself a new struggle. Continue reading for more survival tips, some of which Sandra used!

Have a First Aid Kit

Everyone should have a first aid kit in their homes at all times. Even if disaster didn’t hit an entire city, who knows how long it will take to get an ambulance to your home, especially in a busy city. Once you have a good first aid kit, make sure you know how to use everything in it, and that you rotate your medicine out when it expires.

Know Basic Medical Stuff

Aside from having a first aid kit, it’s a good idea to know how to follow through with some basic medical procedures as well. This includes basic CPR and treating an open wound. It doesn’t hurt to know basic medical terms or signs of different illnesses either. The more you know about medicine and medical practice, the better off you’ll be.

Know How To Be a Handyman

You may not be an electrician, plumber, or carpenter, but it doesn’t hurt to know the basics to these trades. If you’re in a house with running power but something goes wrong with the wiring, it’s good to at least know how you might go about fixing it. This is true even in situations that aren’t disastrous.

Have Basic Tools

Everyone should have a basic tool box in their home as well. This means hammers, screwdrivers, nails, and various other tools. And more than one is a good idea as well so you can share if someone around you needs one. Who knows how quickly you might have to board up the windows?

If Something’s Broke, Fix It

We live in a time where it’s easy to just replace something if it becomes broken. We have to get over that mentality quick and learn how to make the most of what we have. This is an important tool that will come in handy if we ever find ourselves in a dire situation. Don’t know how to fix something? Click ahead to figure out how.

At Least Have the Tools To Know How

You know all those manuals that come with the electronics and cars we get? If you care about surviving the disaster, it’s probably a good idea to keep those around. You might need to fix a generator or other piece of electrical equipment. Knowing how to repair it is more useful than just going out to buy a new one, because who knows if that’ll even be possible in a disaster situation.

Learn Basic Car Repair

Mechanics know a lot about cars, so if you’re not a mechanic, you might not have the time to get to know how to fix cars. But learning basic car repair is crucial in dire situations. At least familiarize yourself as to how to change a tire, jumpstart a car and even hot wire one to start it. You never know when you might need this information.

Learn How To Haggle

Brushing up on your people skills isn’t something that you probably thought would be on the list, but it’s definitely an important one. You might find yourself in a situation in which you have to barter and haggle for goods and services. And who knows, you may even have to beg for your life at some point in a really disastrous situation.

Know You’re Never Fully Prepared

One important thing to remember is that no matter how many tools you have, skills you learned, or knowledge you have, you will never truly be fully prepared. Disasters are disasters for a reason. There are unexpected circumstances that pop up that you may have never imagined. Don’t get paranoid about this, but always be working to come up with new solutions to random situations that may pop up in your head.