Even if you live in the city you still need to learn urban survival skills. Some people think survival skills can only be applied if you go out in the wilderness.
Learning Urban Survival Skills Can Be A Life-changer
You will have to learn survival skills in order to get through different situations. If ever your area will be under a terrorist attack, civil unrest, total blackout, a tornado, an earthquake, or a flood just to name a few, what will you do? What if the government is unable to assist you and your family for days or even months?
Self-preservation is not just at the spur of the moment scenario. You could also die by not being prepared for a long term solution. It is with the sincerest hope you will apply these things other than just reading and knowing about them.
You will also need to be prepared so when the time comes, you’ll know what to do. I’d like to remind you these skills are not laid out in any particular order. Eventually, you will have to learn most, if not, all of them. So let’s start off with the first one.
1. Build a Stockpile
Learning how to store your food is definitely a skill you need to learn. Checking, replenishing and replacing your stocks at a timely manner are vital. This is to make sure they are suitable for consumption for the next few months after a disaster.
You’ll never know just how long the stores can keep food on the shelves. Learning FIFO (first in first out), can or bottle your own food, and water supply are just a few of the skills you need to learn for stockpiling your food.
2. Acquiring and Purifying Water
In the event where water doesn’t come out of your pipes anymore, you know you have to find or buy some. If you do find water, chances are it may be polluted. There are more than a few ways to purify it.
Another easier way is to learn how to collect rainwater around your home. You can dig your own well or build simple rainwater collecting system that can flow directly into your pipes.
3. Prepare an Emergency Survival Kit
Learning how to prepare and where to store your emergency survival kit is a must. It must contain various essential items that will aid and last you for 72 hours. It may be a small thing but it will matter big time when the need for bugging out or sheltering in place arises.
4. First Aid and Medical Skills
Having a first aid kit at home or with you is totally different from knowing how and what to do for a first aid scenario. By being able to perform these skills you or your family might come out of a survival condition despite being incapacitated, injured or near death.
Some common injuries and circumstances are sprained ankles, broken bones, heart attack, etc. Without the proper knowledge and skill application, you might as well just put up your first aid supplies for decoration.
5. Security and Awareness
Other than an emergency or major disaster where crime may rise is your everyday life. It requires you to be security conscious from your home to being aware of what is happening around you when you walk or drive into a neighborhood. Keep your home secure by installing the necessary security equipment like CCTV’s and alarms.
When out on the streets take note of the people that may be following you, any suspicious vehicles parked near you home, anything out of the ordinary. Paranoia is different from being prepared for the worst.
6. Weapons Training Skills
Keeping a firearm with you for self and home defense may become more of a need than a necessity should there be an emergency or disaster.
You must have the discipline and proper training on how to handle and shoot a weapon for different scenarios. You must always be ready to defend yourself from intruders and bad elements on the street.
7. Combat and Self-Defense Skills
When worse comes to worst and you can’t reach for your gun or lose it in the process of defending yourself, these skills will surely come in handy. You can either be caught by surprise at home or mugged on the street.
When disaster or emergency strikes everyone who is unprepared, they will want what you have. In whichever scenario you know you have the ability to defend yourself from life-threatening situations.
8. Be a Handyman
This is a skill you can use to create alliances or trade for things. Learn a wide array of handyman skills like repairing things around the house, survival equipment, radios, generators, stoves, filtration systems, heaters and a lot more. Maintenance work to keep things in tip-top shape is something you can learn.
We’re so used to calling in a professional. Should they not be available anymore, the skills you have can determine whether you need to stay or leave. Even repairing your vehicle or wiring an abandoned car for travel will become a must-learn skill.
9. Learn to Negotiate and Barter
This is a skill you can apply almost in everyday circumstances from buying food to closing a real estate deal. The economy is sure to collapse after a disaster or state of emergency. Prices are sure to blow off the roof. You should learn how to get what you need at a fair price by knowing what to say, how to say it and when to say it. This requires practice too.
10. Urban Gardening of Farming Skills
Learning how to grow and manage a small garden or farm that can supply you with fresh fruits, vegetables and meat can bring you a long way. You will eventually run out if SHTF for months or years. There are different methods of raising a vertical garden using everyday materials we just throw away. Learn this to sustain you by cooking quick and easy homemade recipes. It will help you save instead of buying them out in the store if all is still well.
11. Waste Management
This is something you cannot rule out in a survival scenario. If you’re unable to dispose of your waste properly, considering there wouldn’t be anyone to collect them anymore, then you might contract diseases or illnesses. Digging up a garbage pit or using a bin for biodegradable and non-biodegradable will help for a time being. There are other practical ways of disposing of your waste like recycling and reusing other materials.
12. Learn to Save
Setting aside extra cash for survival situations can help you get through by paying people to do things for you or getting through a checkpoint, hiring a car, or buying emergency supplies or guns and ammo. You’ll never know when it comes in handy especially for the first few months of a disaster.
13. Learn to Blend In
When SHTF, for whatever reasons standing out in a crowd can get you killed. Learning how to blend in by not triggering anything in the thought process of others can get you places without getting hurt or killed in the process. The choice of clothes, the way you walk, the way you smell or should even have a smell, and all that can be learned to survive.
14. Practice Drills
Even survival experts continuously practice survival drills. As the saying goes “practice makes perfect” the more you practice drills of a certain survival scenario the easier it will be for you and your loved ones. It will become second nature. With constant practice, the panic or adrenaline is a bit lower compared to not having practiced a scenario at all.
When you start to panic you usually blank out or make irrational decisions no matter how much you know about survival skills. Keep in mind that in a survival situation time is of the essence. The next second could be a life-or-death decision.
15. Mental Preparedness
By doing regular drills or practice scenarios you are also preparing yourself mentally. When the need for being calm and rational in a survival situation arises you’ll be more efficient and precise. Every second counts and we’ll never know when you find yourself in survival mode. Skills are but 10% but 90% is mental preparedness. Being mentally prepared is everything.
Watch this video by Absolute Rights on Urban Survival skills: When Civil Order is Lost:
There are more survival skills you can learn even when living in the city. You can choose to learn more if you would want to be fully equipped and ready for whatever emergency or disaster will come your way. Do you have anything in mind you would want to add? Don't hesitate to add them in the comments below!
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If you want to learn more survival skills, you can read about street survival skills!
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The contents of this article are for informational purposes only. Please read our full disclaimer.
Editor’s Note – This post was originally published on February 20, 2017, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
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15 Urban Survival Skills That Could Save Your Life