When it comes to which disasters to prep for, most people got it wrong. The chances of an asteroid hitting us or a possible global Armageddon are pretty slim. It’s all about prepping for small scale emergencies and critical events and, once I let you in on what those are, you’re gonna want to prep too.

A lot of the tragedies you see every day on the news kill hundreds of thousands of people each and every year. For example:

• 37,000 die in car crashes every year in the U.S. alone

• 300,000 Americans are raped every year

• then you’ve got rabid dog attacks – 40,000

• deaths related to weather: 2,000 each year

…and on and on. You can find all of them statistics online. The question is: why don’t people prepare for them?

Sure, we all pay car and house insurance but this does little to prevent a car crash or a house fire. If your car falls off a bridge and it’s quickly submerging into water, if you don’t have a seatbelt cutter and don’t know what to do, no insurance or amount of money can help you.

In what follows I want to tackle some of the most important disasters we should all prepare for. If everyone did what I teach in this article, world would truly be a safer place for all of us.

#1. Prep your car for any emergency

I already talked about the possibility of you landing in a body of water with your car. Maybe the bridge you’re on collapses, maybe your vehicle is swept away by a flash flood or it can be something as simple as getting a flat tire.

Here’s a few quick but effective tips to be prepared while on the road:

Make sure you have a solid first aid kit. The one that comes with your car is a good start but you may want to add further medication to your trunk, such as Ibuprofen, aspirin, alcohol wipes, cotton balls and antibiotic ointment.

Get a few seatbelt cutters / window breakers.

Have a couple of wool blankets. If you get stuck in snow, you don’t want to use up all your fuel to stay warm.

Add a few snacks (energy bars, hard candy, peanut butter) and a bottle of water. If you get stuck somewhere, you’ll need energy. If you get sick, some water will help.

The more things you add, the better prepared you’ll be and this small list is just the beginning. I’ve written a comprehensive article on the topic with even more suggestions.

#2. Prepare for attackers of all shapes and sizes

There was a weird case of this 17 year old girl in Denmark who escaped rape using pepper spray and was facing a fine. Since pepper spray is illegal, the victim is the one facing charges. What a world we live in…

Now, I don’t know if you live in Europe where the laws are tougher or in the U.S. where the 2nd Amendment allows you to defend yourself, but personal security should be a top priority for yourself and your family.

Rape, assaults, firearms assaults – millions of people fall victim each year in the U.S. alone and I’m sure that, if we took the entire planet, we’d add another zero to that estimate.

The first thing you need to do is research out the laws in your country regarding self-defense weapons. Firearms, airsoft guns, knives, pepper spray, tactical pens – these can all increase your chances of survival but can also land you in jail. Now, I don’t want to be the one who decides whether getting a criminal record is better or worse than ending up in the ER, but what I can do is advise you to know the federal and state laws very well before you choose your weapon(s).

Does this mean you have to arm yourself to the teeth? Of course not. You just need to make sure you always have something on you that can help in case someone wants your wallet… or more. If you’re a lady, you can carry something inside your purse where no one will look. If you’re a guy, you can keep a small weapon inside your laptop bag.

In addition, you may want to have a folding knife in your front pocket, because it’s possible that you won’t be able to reach your primary weapon.

#3. Safety at home

Now that we’ve taken care of personal and road security, what about your home? I read somewhere thatevery 10 seconds, a burglary happens somewhere in the U.S. The steps to making your home more secure are not that hard and, frankly, they’re all over the Internet. Here’s a few suggestions:

Never leave the doors and windows open at ground level. They’re very appealing to burglars.

Replace regular glass windows with Plexiglass.

Install iron bars over basement windows.

Replace exterior doors with others that are more solid.

Install double-cylinder deadbolts on all exterior doors.

Install a security system or, at the very least, put up a sign that tricks potential intruders into thinking you have one installed.

Hide your valuables in places where a burglar may never look that are not easily accessible. Thieves spend an average of 10 minutes inside a home.

#4.Weather related disasters

Each natural disaster has a weird consequence you don’t hear much about in the media: people that are affected turn into preppers. My question is: why so late?

You don’t have to wait for a disaster to wake you up to the reality that you need to prepare. You just have to look at what’s happening around you, at the types of disasters that are more likely to hit your town or city and take it from there. Earthquakes, hurricanes, heavy snow, social unrest, volcanic eruptions, extreme temperatures… the Red Cross has an extensive list that you can use as a starting point.

In most cases, you don’t have to leave your home, or “bug out”. You just have to hunker down and wait for the whole thing to be over. Truth be told, most preppers are getting ready to bug in, bugging out being plan B. You don’t need a one year stockpile, you don’t need to bury things in your back yard. Instead, do some the following:

Have a 1 or 2 week stockpile of food, water and medicine inside your pantry or, even better, your basement. FEMA suggest 3 days but that’s not enough in my opinion.

Have a solar or hand crank charger to charge your phones, tablet, Kindle and emergency radio in case of power outages. When you get a new phone, keep the old one (maybe in your safe room) so you can use it in case the main one doesn’t work. Keep a spare battery handy, too.

Have a safe room you can hide as a last resort. Preferably, a room as close to the center of the house where you can barricade yourself into.

The Big Takeaway

If there’s one thing you should remember for this article is that the little things you do to prep can go a long way. You just cannot wait for the next disaster to be upon you to prepare. That’s what most people do and I’m sure you’ve seen videos of them stepping on each-other to get the last food supplies from the supermarkets whenever a hurricane or a prolonged snow storm is announced.

If you don’t want to make a survival plan, at least start a wish list of things to buy. Just make sure that you don’t forget about the survival skills that will also make a difference. Self-defense, awareness, first aid and being in shape are a few of the most important ones.

Good luck and stay safe,

Dan F. Sullivan

For more information or to read more from Dan ‘Survival’ Sullivan, visit SurvivalSullivan.com or visit the Survival Sullivan Facebook Page.

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