As preppers, there are many situations for which we prepare. Many of us prepare for smaller, short-term events that might send out lives into a temporary tail-spin. Some of us go beyond that and prepare for larger events that will have a long-term effect on our lives. I will tell you that this is the best course of action and here’s why. If you have covered your bases for the big events, the small ones will automatically be taken care of.
When it comes to covering your bases, you most likely have food, water, and numerous supplies tucked away. You have your totes and bins packed and labelled. You have your pantry stocked to the rafters. Or at least, that’s what you’re aiming for. You may have developed skills and learned a lot of useful information. Perhaps you have a bugout plan on paper. However, when it comes to an actual event, an actual SHTF fan event, that affects the larger region in which you live, are you truly prepared to take action?
Honestly, every prepper could and should take lessons from the military. Those preppers who are former military know what I mean. The military has a plan, then they go through drills to test the plan, make adjustments where needed, and then go through the plan again. If and when the situation comes up for real, they are more prepared than if they just had a plan on paper.
WHAT YOU SHOULDN’T DO
Before we get into what you should do when disaster strikes, let’s take a look at what you shouldn’t do. You shouldn’t be acting like most other people are acting. Chances are, as a prepper you are aware something bad is coming down the pipe before the majority of people, but when they start to get wind of what’s happening, what do they do? They check outside. They look up and down their street and maybe chat with neighbors. They check the radio and television for new of what happened, if there is the electricity to do so. They wonder what they should do next. They run to the nearest grocery store to stock up on water, food, batteries, and anything else they can get their hands on. Then they sit and wait for the cavalry to come and rescue them.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO
In any SHTF situation, there are a number of goals you should have at the forefront of your mind. These goals include:
- Assess the situation
- Gather the facts
- Analyzing all potential threats
- Engaging with the situation with full awareness
- Reacting based on what you know
Now let’s take a look at the first 5 things you should do when disaster strikes because it is these five steps that will ensure you have reached the above goals and will ensure you and your family are as safe as possible.
1. THOROUGHLY ASSESS THE SITUATION
Admittedly, part of assessing the situation will include listening to the news or for any emergency broadcasts, but unlike most other people, you won’t be listening for what the authorities are telling you to do and you won’t be fretting over what is happening. Instead you will be collecting intel so that you can plan your own movements accordingly. What you learn by listening to the news, listening to emergency broadcasts, and even talking to other people can be extremely helpful.
Remember, you’ll start putting your plan into action while most people barely know something is going on. How do you know something of significance is happening? Because you have planned ahead to know the signs of a disaster even before it directly affects you. Some things will be more obvious than others, but ultimately, you will know when to be concerned about a pandemic or when an EMP has taken out the power grid. While everyone else is waiting for the lights to come back on, you’re on the move.
When assessing your situation, consider the following:
- Determine what has happened
- Determine the extent of the disaster
- Are all members of your family/team accounted for?
- Is anyone hurt?
- Are you home or do you need to get home?
2. PREPARE SUPPLIES AND PEOPLE
If you are bugging in, then immediately start getting prepared at home. Fill your bathtub, sinks, and containers with water. Make sure you have secured your perimeter. preparedGet your bugout bags (BOBs) ready to go in case you need to leave in a hurry. This step requires you to have bugout bags ready to go at a moment’s notice before the SHTF. If you have a pre-determined bugout location and you have to bug out, then load up whatever you need and gather your people and move on out.
If you have planned for your team to bug in together at someone’s home and it’s not your home, then make sure your family is all accounted for and head for the rally point. If anyone from your family is not present and has not shown up within a pre-determined amount of time, then leave them a message and head out. Hopefully, you have already worked out with your team under what circumstances you would bug out of the city. If these circumstances have taken hold quickly, then you will need to head out and hope the others are following suit. Of course, ideally you and your team have established a communications system.
3. COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR TEAM
Whether you are using ham radios to talk to each other or an intricate system of symbols painted on permanent fixtures in key areas, you should have it all worked out before the SHTF. In fact, you should have more than one method of communication and some of them should NOT be reliant on electricity. Once the actual emergency event happens, you will have to make contact with all team members, something that could be easier said than done.
If your entire team lives in the same house you live in, then your communications will be much simpler, but even then some of those people may not be at home when the event happens. You will need to get in touch with them, as well as any other team members who live elsewhere. Depending on the situation, you might not be able to touch base with all of your team members before you have to bug out.
Essentially, electronic means of communications are best, if you can use them, particularly a cell phone (if they are still operational) or a ham radio. However, if you don’t have any electricity and you can’t all meet up at a rally point within the city because you have to bug out, then you have to leave a message for the rest of the team. The best thing is a pre-determined location that the entire team knows to check where you can indicate that you have left and in which direction you have gone. Have your symbols worked out ahead of time, and when you use them, make sure they are not completely obvious to passersby, but that they are visible enough your team members will recognize them from a distance.
4. SECURE YOUR LOCATION
Once you are at your rally point, whether it is your home or someone else’s, or at your bugout location and everyone or at least most people are there, you should secure your location. Depending on the event that has happened, people might get desperate sooner than later, and you have to protect your property, your preps, and your people. You want to be prepared to defend your location and this means securing the perimeter.
Ideally, you have a security plan ready to go and can implement it immediately. At the very least, have a few people guard the perimeter. If there is a greater neighborhood and you can band together with any of the neighbors who are staying put, then perhaps you can enlarge your secure area. Of course, that means bringing more people into your group, but that’s not a bad thing provided they have useful skills and are willing to pull their weight.
Aside from placing guards around the perimeter, you will need to secure windows, doors, and air vents (if there is a pandemic). If you are unable to stay in the city and you are in your bugout location, the same applies, although you might be dealing with a much larger perimeter that will require more people on guard duty. For this you should have planned accordingly and hopefully the majority of your group is accounted for, if not all.
5. DETERMINE WHAT TO DO NEXT
Once you have secured yourself in your bug in or bug out location, you need to take a breath, continue to assess your immediate situation, and determine what to do next. This is particularly important if you have bugged in and are still in the city, where it is likely to be more dangerous in the short-term. Hopefully your whole team has gathered together at this point and you are likely in a position where you can comfortably stay put with enough food, water, and supplies to get your through several days or weeks, but the nature of the event might have other plans for you. Here are a few scenarios to consider:
- Not all of your team members have arrived – you may have to send out a search party to locate them and bring them in
- Other people have asked to join your group and you need to decide if you are taking new group members and whether or not this new person is an asset or a threat
- You might still have to move out to a safer, unaffected area and must consider whether to prepare to move out and when
- An imminent threat has popped up, perhaps one you weren’t expecting, and you must deal with it or leave
- Someone in your group is injured and you have to care for them
There are many more scenarios that can pop up and that will require you to reassess the situation on a constant basis. You must also always be asking yourself how long you can safely stay where you are and whether you have enough food and water to last.
PRIMARY GOAL – STAY ALIVE
Please remember that these steps assume you have a decent level of preparedness ahead of time. If you haven’t stocked up on enough food and water, then you will have to somehow get those things. If you haven’t kept your vehicle gassed up, then you’ll have to line up at the gas station with all the other unprepared people and hope you are one of the lucky ones that gets gas and gets moving.
Also, remember that these steps will overlap somewhat. You will very likely be trying to communicate with your team while you are preparing your home or preparing to get to your rally point. You will always be assessing your situation and gathering intel at every step of the way, at least you should be. These steps never really end.
Finally, make sure of these two things. The first is that you have drilled your plan, made changes where necessary, and drilled it again, just like the military does. You want to know your plan inside out and upside down so that you can run it smoothly.
The second thing is to remember that your plan has to be flexible enough to adapt to unanticipated situations that can come up during any disaster event. Your main and secondary exit routes out of the city might be blocked. Half your team might not show up. Your neighborhood is getting looted within the first 24 hours of the event. Whatever the scenario, you should be able to adjust your plan to compensate and so you remain safe.
Remember, if you and your team are alive and relatively safe, then you have done a good job carrying out your SHTF plan. Just never let your guard down because no emergency situation is static and you never know what will happen next!