3 Things You Need To Survive Any Disaster

*Shared with permission from Emerson Knives

Here you will find 3 Things You Need To Survive Any Disaster. In order to prepare a plan to survive a real SHTF catastrophe, you need to become aware of just what is needed to survive. The easiest way is to break those needs into categories. I’ll do that for you. The categories of needs in order to survive are the following;

1. Sustenance – Your first need is water. Your second need is food. Your third need is a way to procure the food (hunt, fish, trap, etc.), and fourth a way to cook your food – fire.
2. Clothing – You need to cover your body to prevent heat loss and to protect your body, a simple scratch can easily become infected. If you can’t find clothes you’ll need to make some from animal skins or vegetation.
3. Shelter – You need to find something that acts as a barrier between you and the elements. You need to find a place to protect you from predators both animal and human.

In order to survive, you must have, at a minimum the necessary knowledge, resources, and tools to provide for each of those three categories. The key to setting up those resources and tools is that you must have the bare essentials that are necessary to provide the benefit of each of those categories.

When I use the words “bare essentials” I need you to take heed of the literal meaning of the word essentials. In this context, that word describes the bare minimum but necessary means to sustain life. These essentials, may change according to a specific type of disaster and also to a specific environment. For example, your essential, and specific needs, in the Arctic will be different from those needed in the Sahara.

And your needs in a flood will differ from your needs in an infectious epidemic. However, the ability to effectively address the three categories; Sustenance, Clothing, and Shelter are common to every disaster survival scenario. And there is a tool that is also common to all of those categories. It is one of the most essential tools, for it can be used to gather sustenance. It can help to provide clothing. With it, you can build a shelter, start a fire, and if necessary use it as a weapon to defend yourself. In fact, it is one of man-kinds oldest tools, right behind the sharp stick, I would venture. And that tool is the knife.

Just consider this. Survival was a daily chore for primitive man. If a caveman could not provide food, shelter, and clothing for himself and his family, they died. It was a harsh, cold world and neither mother-nature nor predatory beasts cared a whit whether mankind survived as a species or not.

So if a knife, a flinted obsidian knife, was the second invention man created and it enabled him to not only survive but master his environment and enabled him to provide food, shelter, and clothing for himself and others in his family, how important a tool to his survival was that primitive yet effective knife? Pretty damned important. Pretty damned – essential. And as a simple straight-up survival tool, it’s just as important today as it was 55,000 years ago when cavemen were painting their handprints on the walls of caves announcing to the universe, I’m here. I exist. I am man.

The Importance of a Knife in a Survival Situation

In terms of modern survival, no matter what the disaster, you must have a knife in your kit of absolute essential items. The knife you have must be ready to act in a number of capacities and fill a number of roles. The blade should be made of stainless steel and permanent handle materials that don’t degrade or breakdown. It must be sharp to stab or penetrate, strong enough not to break, yet thin enough to take a sharp edge and the blade should be easy to sharpen in the field, for example, on a rock.

The knife should be a dark subdued color, preferably black. Things that are bright, shiny and silver-colored are only good for catching fish and they have hooks attached to them. In terms of self-protection, a knife should be felt, not seen. It should have a serrated blade so that it can cut easily through rough material and act as an emergency saw if needed. It should be small enough to be carried in your pocket or in your gear.

Giant Bowie Knives are out. A folding knife is definitely in. It should be of a size that you will not have it with you – always in your pocket. Although a Swiss Army Knife seems like a survival tool, it’s not. It’s too small. That’s why no military issues them in their survival kits except maybe well, the Swiss. It has to be a “real knife,” not too big, not too small but as Goldilocks would say “just right.” The blade should be around 3 inches in length and about 8 inches overall.

Why The Emerson CQC-7 Folding Knife?

The Emerson CQC-7-BTS features a Tanto style blade that gives you three different cutting edges on one blade. The font upswept tip area is immensely strong and provides the first cutting edge. The long straight edge traveling along the blade provides the second yet separate edge, and the dragon teeth serrations near the pivot area provide the third edge, allowing you to choose which one to cut with for any heavy or light-duty chore. The unique chisel grind provides the ultimate in cross-sectional mass making it one of the strongest blade styles ever developed. And because it is ground on one side only, just like a chisel, with the backside being flat, it gives you only one side to sharpen making it the ultimate in ease of sharpening.

As a dependable hard use survival knife, the Emerson CQC-7-BTS model has few equals and it carries the Emerson name and reputation. After all, if it’s good enough for the U.S. Navy SEALs, it’s probably good enough for you.