First things first – just by the fact that you are reading this article you should be congratulated. Because believe it or not, just by being on this site, you are probably more prepared for an emergency than most of the people in your life.
While we’ve seen an increase in the number of people interested in survivalism and what to do if SHTF (shit hits the fan), the sad fact is that most people are not only not prepared, they seem to think that survivalism is an abstract idea that will never be practical.
Thankfully, you’re not one of those people. Because the more people that are prepared for and know what they are doing in an emergency situation, the better it is for everyone.
While it’s vital to have the right gear and items prepped and ready for use, you also must know how to use them and what to do when a disaster strikes.
It’s not the nicest topic to cover but it is extremely important. So, what would you do when SHTF?
In this article, we are going to cover the first things you should do after you discover an emergency event has occurred and is likely to impact you. Unfortunately, if you are already at ground 0 of the disaster, this article isn’t going to be much help to you. If you find yourself at the heart of an emergency situation your priorities should be getting you and your family safe, treating any wounds, assessing the environment and finding a way out of the danger zone.
The purpose of this article is to inform you what to do after a disaster or crisis has occurred in your region but it is still yet to affect you.
Imagine that a large scale crisis event has taken place close to where you live and you now have no option but to leave home and put your survival plan into action.
Think about the worst-case scenario and decide what steps you’ll need to take. By preparing for the worst, we, in turn, prepare ourselves for more minor events. But in saying that, don’t neglect thinking about all the small elements that make up the big disaster scenario.
So while the rest of the world is waiting to be told what to do by their local authority and then deciding on their course of action, you’ll already have a clear idea of the steps you’ll need to take to ensure you and your family’s survival.
Being prepared at all times could be the difference between life and death. So make sure you’ve gathered and maintained an adequate prep stock and you’ve covered all the ground that you need to, in advance of an emergency situation.
The key to surviving is being proactive. Sure, you’re going to need to be very reactive as the situation around you changes but proactive planning is what will keep you one step ahead in a crisis. I really can’t stress this enough.
That being said, this article isn’t going to cover any of the details surrounding a good prep. This article is about what to do once a catastrophic event has already occurred.
So, where to begin?
- Gather Intelligence On The Current Situation
If you’ve completed a thorough prep, you’ll have already planned ways to communicate with the outside world and to gather critical information such as emergency broadcasts.
A good first point of contact after learning of a nearby disastrous event is your neighbors. Reach out to them to see what they know and swap information that could benefit you and others.
Finding out what skills and prep levels your neighbors have is just as important as finding out about the current events as it’s important to know how you can help each other and work together to survive.
But how will you know that a catastrophic event has occurred? If you haven’t heard anything on the radio, internet or any other forms of communication, the first sign that something is wrong might be loss of power. This will be fairly obvious at night due to all the lights going out in your area.
The next thing you should try to determine is whether this is a regular loss of power supply or a possible EMP attack. If an electromagnetic pulse weapon has been used, there is a good chance that any of your electronic items that aren’t stored in a Faraday cage are now fried and will not work.
We don’t know exactly what might happen in a large-scale EMP attack but we’re fairly certain that electronic items located within the pulse zone will not continue to function afterward.
If your electronic items, such as phones or laptops won’t turn on, try turning on a simple flashlight that is made from a simple battery and bulb design with no electronic items. You should also, of course, try turning on any electronic items you had stored in a Faraday cage. If these work but other electronic items don’t, there’s a fair chance an EMP attack may have occurred.
The next thing you should do is to check your vehicle to see if it starts. Again, we aren’t really sure what would happen after an EMP attack but modern cars contain a lot of electronic systems which may fail and render your car useless. This isn’t just to try and determine whether or not an EMP attack has occurred, it’s vital that you know whether or not your vehicle is working so that you can plan your escape.
Once you’ve established what is working and what’s not, the next step is to try and determine how widespread the affected area is and which areas are the most affected.
How you do this depends on your personal prep and circumstances. For long distance communication, electronic items will be your go-to, so use these if they are working.
- Collect Gear And Personal Equipment That You Are Taking With You
If you are planning on staying in your current position and digging in, the first thing I recommend is to fill all the tubs, sinks, pots and pans you can gather with drinkable water. The pressure in the water lines might not last long so you want to gather as much of it as you can, while you can.
Next, gather all the things you’ll need if you must evacuate and place them in an easily accessible spot. If you’ve decided to bug-in at home, there’s a real chance you’ll eventually need to bug-out somewhere too.
If you’re planning on leaving your premises and heading to your bug out location, hopefully, you’ve got everything prepared and ready to go. The biggest mistakes people tend to make when preparing their bug out and survival bags are having way too much stuff to carry and not having it all located together in one place, ready for a quick evacuation.
- Establish Communication With Your Family And Survival Coalition.
It’s highly likely that not everyone in your family will be home when an event occurs. Plus, it’s vital that you get in touch with members of your survival coalition.
Assuming you’ve prepared the equipment you’ll need for successful on and off-grid communication, it’s time to start putting those plans into action.
If you’ve planned and practiced this situation thoroughly, the other members of your family and coalition should be trying to contact you at the same time. So stay calm and clear-headed and do the things you’ve practiced. You have only enough time to establish communication as is safe to stay at home and do so, so use this time wisely.
Anyone that can’t be reached should be aware of your bug out and emergency gathering point, so if you run out of time before you can get in contact with them, assume that you will meet them there.
If possible, it’s a good idea to leave physical notes and messages for anyone you haven’t made contact with, explaining to them which stage of your emergency plan you are enacting.
- Move To Your Primary Meeting Point
Your primary meeting point might be at someone in your group’s house or a predetermined centralized gathering point located at the center of your homes. Or a vast number of other locations. The main point to keep in mind is that this primary meeting point needs to have been discussed and drilled into the minds of everyone in your group so that everyone knows exactly where to go if SHTF.
Your bug out routes should be pre-planned and practiced enough times that you know exactly what you are doing.
There is a good chance that not everyone in your group will make it to your meeting point or bug out location and in this case, you need to enact your plan for what to do in this scenario.
It’s also important to have a secondary or even third location agreed upon in case your primary location is unusable or inaccessible due to fires, riots or any other of the wealth of situations that may occur in an emergency.
You might even find that you need to relocate to a location that has not been discussed with the rest of your group. So, leave messages and clues telling them where you are. Try to use messages that they’ll understand but other, possibly hostile people may not.
- Establish Security
Speaking of hostile people, you’ll need to keep these type of people from finding you or accessing your camp. If you haven’t already done so, take stock of the perimeter of your bug out location and the surrounding area and decide on a tactical way to defend it.
Place coalition members along the perimeter to patrol and defend your location while others work to set up defense structures.
Having people in your coalition who have experience in the armed services or police force will be a major benefit to your group.
- Collect Further Intelligence About The Situation
Take stock of what emergency survival items your group has and create a system and plan for their use. You need to work out what tools, weapons, medical and food supplies your group has, as well as who is the most experienced and/or knowledgeable about their use.
It’s also time to establish your bug out location’s communication system, as well as utilize any smaller personalized communication devices you have.
Scan the frequencies for any further information regarding the initial crisis and any information about subsequent troublesome events such as riots or fires. Keep an ear out for traffic reports to help you establish further escape routes and also to get an idea of what other groups are doing.
- Try To Establish Communication With Missing Group Members
Once you’ve set up your bug out location, secured the perimeter and established a communication link, it’s time to find those missing group members.
If you have a good contingency plan in place and provided that everyone’s communication devices are working correctly, you should be able to reach your team members on the prearranged radio frequencies at the prearranged times.
Of course, communication might not always be possible, so it’s a good idea to have agreed upon some obvious pinpoint locations such as water towers or other identifiable buildings, where you can leave messages for any members of your coalition that may be looking for you. Remember that the more frequented the location is by people not in your group, the vaguer you’ll need to make your message. So, choose spots that are unique and will most likely only be used by you and your group.
- Meet Up With Missing Group Members
Now that you’ve established some communication with missing group members, they’re either going to have to come to you or you’ll have to go to them. Your main focus should be bringing your coalition together but, of course, you still need to divert some manpower to other tasks like collecting food and water.
Send as many people as you think reasonable in each unique situation. Weigh up each individual situation and decide who will go look for coalition members and who will stay at your base.
- Figure Out Your Next Course Of Action
Once everyone is together, it’s time to decide on your next step. If your current location seems safe, you might decide to stay put for the moment and await further developments. However, your current position may feel weak and you might decide you’ll be better off moving to a new and safer location.
What you decide will depend entirely on your current situation and the relative safety of the surrounding area. Whatever you decide to do, you’ll still need to think about the following:
- What will you do if approached by others?
- What are the best means of establishing whether others are a threat or if they could add some value to your coalition?
- Is there currently an imminent threat in your area that will force you to leave?
- What is the best way to continue to monitor the situation?
- Is it possible to relocate to a safe and unaffected are?
Keep collecting all the information and intelligence you can about your surrounding area and continue to take stock of your supplies as well as the health of your group to help you make the right decisions.
Final Thoughts On Reacting To A Disaster
While it’s important to continue to react to the current situation as it pans out and changes, the best course of action is to be proactive before any catastrophic event occurs.
As you can see, so many details involved in the nine steps of this article rely heavily on thorough planning and people being aware and informed about what they need to do.
So make sure that if SHTF, your group is ready, practiced and disciplined, so that you increase not only your chances but the chances of everyone else who is depending on you.