What are the 5 most important survival skills?
When caught up by a disaster or natural calamities such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes, survival skills help sustain your well-being before help arrives. Often associated with the need to sustain life in a disaster situation, here are the 5 most important survival techniques that will bring you home safely.
5 Most Important Survival Skills
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Fire
The king of survival techniques is fire. You will hardly survive in a disaster situation without fire. Fire is extremely useful in all survival situations and a life-saver in almost all of them. Fire purifies drinking water, cooks food, provides warmth and lighting, scares away predators and fire can also be used to ask for help. Starting a fire can either be simple or difficult depending on how prepared you are. It only takes a few minutes if you have the necessary fire-starting tools.
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Shelter
After firelighters, shelter is the other important survival technique that protects your body from excessive exposure to weather elements. Make sure that you have the right clothes depending on the weather conditions. Warm clothing is a must item in shelter protection as anything that takes away heat from your body is dangerous. You can build a temporary shelter using logs, leaves, and grass, or you can set up a tent to protect you from falling snow or rain. You can also use a space blanket to insulate your shelter and prevent dampness.
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Signaling
You must know how to send signals and ask for help. The two basic principles for effective signaling are contrast and intelligence. The most common but not limited methods used to signal for help are by using a whistle or setting up a fire. You can also use a flashlight, bright color makers, flags, and mirrors to signal out distress. All these methods are used during different times of the day. For instance, you should use the flashing light at night, smoky fire during the day, regular signal mirror, and flag when you see a plane or people in a distance. When using a fire signal, make sure that you carefully monitor it to prevent igniting the surroundings.
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Food and water
Food and water are so important in any survival situation. While human beings can go for days without food, one can’t go for more than three days without water. Do not eat food with high sodium levels as it will make your body dehydrated. Ration your sweat but not your water intake. Ensure that you have water within reach all the time. Collect water from the water sources and treat or boil prior to drinking it. Have some poly zip bags to collect and store water. When it comes to food, do not eat plants you don’t know or wild berries that you can’t identify. The last thing that should happen is to get food poisoning in a survival situation.
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First Aid
It gets even worse when there is an injured person in a survival situation. In such a situation, first aid knowledge is very important and it helps save lives before you can assistance from the medics. Do not panic when you have an injured body part, burn, or cuts. Most of these situations only require simple dressing and you should be able to do that using the items inside the first aid kit.
See Also
- 7 Best Survival Kits for Kids
- 7 Best 2 Person Survival Kits
- Best 3 Day Survival Kits
- 8 Best Survival Kits for Cars
- Best 4 Person Survival Kits
- 10 Best Outdoor Survival Kits
- 10 Best Emergency Survival Kits for Family