URBAN WINTER SURVIVAL

“honey, did it snow last night?”

This is the first of several feature articles on winter urban survival, starting with Urban Winter Survival – The Home

Note: This advice is for people who live in small towns to large cities – not so much for people who live in extremely remote areas [like places where your nearest neighbors are more than 10 miles away and the Sherriff is your cousin twice-removed].

Urban Winter Survival situation = Snow, Ice, Extreme Cold Weather in a light to densely populated area that creates a situation where your movements are restricted or completely blocked, utilities are shut down and public services are limited or unavailable for a temporary amount of time.

Having spent most of my 20’s living in the great Commonwealth of Virginia I have had to learn how to prepare for some pretty nasty winters. Now Virginia is hardly like living in the arctic – but unlike people who live in places where 10 foot of snow is a regular occurrence every year most of us city or town dwellers live in places where winter weather can range from a few days off of work one winter to no water or electricity for a week the following winter.

Because of the varying degrees of severity each year Urban Survivalists tend to underestimate their Winter Urban Survival needs for their homes or [in most cases] they way over-prepare [yes, you can be over-prepared]. Now just like any Survival advice you will have to tailor it to your specific situation – If you live deep in the woods in Montana you will probably want to “kick it up another 20 notches,” and if you live in New York City you will probably want to take it down a few notches.

First off – let’s be realistic here

Even after a nasty ice storm in a small hick town [like where I grew up] that would knock-out the power and all but make the roads un-drivable – if you really had to you could just walk to the main road and wait for some fool in a 4WD that is out doing donuts in the ice and snow to take you to the Sherriff’s Office, or you could just ask a neighbor for help [the smaller the town, the more likely a neighbor you don’t know will help you].

You will not see any advice to buy shit that is only good in an emergency [with one exception], actually most homes already have everything a family needs for bugging-in during an Urban Winter Survival Situation so you probably won’t have to buy anything.  I do suggest a few things that you may now already own, but they are useful for non-emergency uses also [with the exception of a few things that are optional].

Also these preps are base on having to survive no more than 15 days without having to ask for outside assistance. Generally speaking if you live in a town or city that will be the max amount of time you will be snowed in before outside help becomes available or the event subsides. For people like us who live in populated areas you will more or less have some sort of way to seek outside assistance [within a few days after the storm] even during the worst winter weather if you really need it.

The advice here is more geared more towards self-sufficiency and comfort during an Urban Winter Survival situation – not holding out for months during “the big one”.

In this first part I will cover FOOD, WATER and HYGIENE preps for an Urban Winter Survival Situation:

Click Here to Keep Reading – URBAN WINTER SURVIVAL: The Home – Part 1 >>>

{ 17 comments }