Not so Urban Survival Bag

I understand what you mean. There's not much you can do if a Cat 5 hits you directly and your apartment building can't handle the stress. You either go to a shelter or you leave.

Assuming your building is still standing and wasn't leveled, your stockpile should still be where you left it when you get back and will be very nice to have in the aftermath. Finding emergency supplies at the last minute when you are competing with every other guy who waited until the last minute really sucks. Anything you do before the need strikes is in your favor.

The bag you have should make life more comfortable if you're forced to go traveling. Look at emergency kits as multi-layered. Some big stuff isn't designed to go with you and should be securely stored. Other stuff is in your mobile kit, the bag you're putting together. Still other stuff is always on your person or in the backpack you carry with you all the time.
 
Yea, we have a semi large stockpile of food and water here in the apartment.

For the surivial type, a membership to Sams Club can be a godsend.

But, the odds of my building surviving are way to low. Hell, given a direct hit, I doubt the shelters would last around here. Word is, when frances came past last year, as a tropical storm in my area, the main shelter here nearly had it's roof collapse. I guess it was spewing water all over the people hiding in there.


Sometimes I think I'd be better laying in a ditch with a really long snorkle to breathe through.
 
I broke down and added:

Becker BK7, as I've heard nothing but good things about this blade.

And an Inova X1 for carry use.

Can anyone link a decent solar battery charger? My primary concern is AA and D cells. Best one i can find will do 2 batteries in 10 hours... :eek:

Perhalps i could figure out a way to use the hand crank and capacitors from my crank radio to do it.. But I think that'd be way to low output.
 
HK --

You said Inova X-1? That is a single AA light with a real tight spot beam?

I have an X-1 in my brief case, an X-5T in my vest with a TID on it, another X-5 in my Fatboy, and an X-0 in my fatboy. Obviously, I like Inovas.
 
the inova xo is one hell of a bright light for an led flashlight. it is the flashlight I like the best of all.

Alan
 
Anyone have any pro/con info against dumping a 1lb water filter in favor of a few bandanas? I'll keep the filter in my "home kit" if i take it out of my BOB
 
Longbow...

Having not done much camping (boy scouts... long time back...) are we thinking something that will boil a cup of water or something that will boil near a gallon?

Small = less time to boil, but more effort... big requires another storage container to save water... and letting the water cool down before the transfer!

Trying to work out how to go about doing that. A balance between 1 person and 4 (Family) depending apon the kit...
 
When you compare boiling to toting a filter, I'd much rather tote a filter (PUR Hiker) and do on most of my extended visits to the bush. It's quick, easy and frees up the precious fuel that boiling would normally use. If you're in an area where fires are OK and there's plenty of fuel around, then that isn't really a problem.

Since you plan on boiling or using chemical treatment or both for really suspect water, I can only share what I carry that will do the job.

There are a variety of liter sized kettles on the market, but I use a GI canteen cup, which holds a pint and does a decent job for boiling water. It nestles into the canteen cover along with the canteen, so it stays out of my small rucksack. I also carry two 1 gallon freezer grade ziploc bags and a burlap bag with handles that is just the right size to carry the ziploc with about 3 qt. of water. The other is for collecting the water. For me to get 4 quarts of water to a boil and let it cool, takes awhile. That is enough water to last me a couple of days if I'm frugal. I always carry 3 ways to make water drinkable, just in case.

For my family kit, we have a 5 qt. pot w/lid. But we also carry about 30 gallons of water in our vehicle kit and more than that in our home. It gets rotated from the vehicle to the house once a week, as we use out of the home supply and replentish with new for the pickup.
 
Longbow, what I was refering to was carrying both a method of filtering and a method of purifying water.

For the filtering, I'm asking if there's any ungodly advantage to carrying a 1lb water filter over carrying a 1oz bandana.

for purification, I'll stick to bleach, although I have bought tablets for my carry kit
 
bleach is fine if you know the right "formula." ie how much bleach per how much water (which i assume you know). but if others are with you (fam?) who don't know right mix...there could be trouble. may want to consider these for ease of use, 1 tablet for 1 liter/quart..YMMV

http://www.rei.com/online/store/Pro...60&parent_category_rn=4500460&vcat=REI_SEARCH


or if you got money to burn get one of these...the "solution" can be used as a disinfectant also (runs off of salt and 123 lithiums—like your surefire, if you have one that is--- and is amazingly light weight...it is a purifier, not just a filter).

http://www.rei.com/online/store/Pro...59&parent_category_rn=4500462&vcat=REI_SEARCH


oopps, just went back and saw PReacher Man covered the tabs...sorry 'bout that.
 
very sweet water filter. Athough I've left the surefire out of the kit in favor of a AA cell LED light for the moment.

I greatly prefer the longer runtimes, and i can't see an advantage to buying a pure LED Surefire. The Aviator, uses both LED and an incan. bulb, but I won't be jumping on it any time soon. I can see the appeal to them, and other lithium products, but with a solar charger and a few rechargable AA cells, I can have light in the bush forever.. or until the sun burns out. :lol:

I still carry my surefire E2-0 to college, but it's only there to get me home should the need arise.


I'll be posting my complete kit, in all three stages as soon as I have a chance to sit down a write an inventory of everything. The inventory will also include instructions on what everything is for should something happen to me.
 
HK2001 said:
I'm not trying to sound like an ungrateful PIA here, so please don't take this wrong.

1 gallon bleach: approx $2 and treats 2880 gallons of water (60 drops per teaspoon, 768 teaspoons per gallon, using 16 drops of bleach per gallon of water needing purification) = $0.0695 per gallon

Katadyn MP1 : $14 treats 7.5 gallons. = $1.87 per gallon

Not to mention the fact you'd need 384 bottles of tablets (and $5376) to treat the same amount as bleach.

The weight comes out about the same.. 10lbs for the 384 bottles of tablets, Verses approx 8.5lbs for the bleach.

That's why i use bleach. $2 gives me nearly 3000 gallons of treated water.

I believe people have the right to use whatever they please.. It's your choice, it's your money, it's your life. I just wanted to explain why i'm deadset on bleach.
Click to expand...

Next time I'm purifying 3,000 gallons of water, I'll consider it. :p

But seriously, for long term, large quantity water storage, I agree. But for the liter at a time stuff for short term survival out in the wild? I don't mind spending the money for the high quality purification tablets.
 
Halcon said:
the inova xo is one hell of a bright light for an led flashlight. it is the flashlight I like the best of all.

Alan
Click to expand...

If the XO seems like "one hell of a bright light for an led," try the XO3. It's like having a light cannon in your hand. :)

Looks like my XO3 may not fit into the pockets of my summer jacket, though. I may have to get an XO after all.
 
This is a fairly old thread that I enjoyed looking through.
While reading it I noticed that along with your TP you forgot to include feminine products for the girlfriend you mention several times. I have found that several will fit inside the role of TP that I carry in a zip lock bag. Makes you look like a hero to have thought of her and many work as a first aid dressing in an emergency.

If you carry the same Katadyn filter that I do they will have included a maintenance kit with it. I found that adding a toothbrush with a cut off handle made cleaning it easier and gave less wear and tear to the filter element. I always filtered the cleanest water I could find and cleaned it after each trip so I never had any issues with it not working.

As far as flashlights go you could spend a fortune on lights to keep up on all the latest and greatest stuff. The light I carry every day is not cutting edge just a good solid light that I clip to my pocket on my weak hand side to balance out the knife clipped to my strong hand side pocket. The Princeton Tec Impact II is a dive rated light that has an extended burn time. They claim about 75 hours. I change my batteries at about half-life so I can always have more than 24 hours of light with out having to carry batteries in my everyday carry pocket stuff.

In fact if you have not already spent some time looking through the website Equipped To Survive I would highly recommend it for a resource as you continue to evolve your kit. I might have missed it but I did not notice any signaling devices that were not battery dependent. A good whistle like the Fox40 that’s been modified to fit in your pocket better and a mirror broaden your capabilities.

Equipped to Survive has some really good articles about EDC (everyday pocket carry stuff) as well as PSK (personal survival kits) and will give you some ideas of what others are doing.

I grew up in hurricane country and remember getting ready every year. My folks did not do near as much as I do now but we always had food, water, light and warmth.
 
SheepDog said:
This is a fairly old thread that I enjoyed looking through.
While reading it I noticed that along with your TP you forgot to include feminine products for the girlfriend you mention several times. I have found that several will fit inside the role of TP that I carry in a zip lock bag. Makes you look like a hero to have thought of her and many work as a first aid dressing in an emergency.
Click to expand...


actually, I do carry them. As you said, they make killer trauma dressing. :D
 
Since Katrina has come, gone and we're left with what remains of New Orleans and Mississippi, has anyone reconsidered what is going in their BOB/Urban Kits?
 
ras said:
Since Katrina has come, gone and we're left with what remains of New Orleans and Mississippi, has anyone reconsidered what is going in their BOB/Urban Kits?
Click to expand...

More cash, a little bit at a time. Seems that's what folks are running out of (besides water, food, medicine, etc...).
 
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