Preparedness: 1. Situation Planning

From Fusselman.org

Overview

Before you can start preparing, you have to define what it is you're preparing for.

The kit that I’m focusing on for this series resides in the trunk of my car. Most of my driving is done to and from work, or other in-town destinations both day and night. I also travel relatively often (a few times a month) about 50 miles via a well-traveled Interstate highway, mostly during daylight hours. I live in the Midwest, so it does get both hot (100+ [F]) and cold (well below 0 F, colder with windchills), based on the time of year, and it does snow (sometimes a foot or more at a time) in the winter. I generally expect to have cell phone service at all times; Exceptions to this would be in a very localized area after a big storm or a major people-gathering event where a single cell may be overloaded. I might not always have someone particularly "useful" to call, though that's all situational. I generally drive alone, though sometimes transport other people. Below, I've prepared some [very incomplete] lists of situations I'm attempting to prepare for, and situations that I'm expressly not intentionally preparing for.

Situations I’m attempting to prepare for:

• Basic mechanical failures of my car or other equipment including minor electrical problems and flat tires.
• Vehicles stuck in the snow.
• Irreparable mechanical failure in a variety of weather conditions where I may need to wait with a nonfunctional vehicle for several hours for assistance.
• Minor fires both inside and outside of my vehicle
• Rapidly changing, severe weather including rain, snow, windstorms, etc.
• Various first-aid situations, from stomach aches and sprains to relatively severe cuts and CPR.

Situations I do NOT expect to encounter:

• Actively defending myself from much of anyone/anything, including the living dead, looters or large wild animals
• Existing unaided in the wilderness for extended periods
• Needing to drink more water than I can reasonably carry (water purification)
• Acquiring more food than I can reasonably carry. (hunting / fishing)

It's not that I am going out of my way to be unprepared for these situations, I'm just not actively preparing for them as a primary function. If I end up with some solutions to these situations via versatility (or ingenuity at crunch time), that's great. Point is, they're not primary goals.