A survival plan is not a one size fits all proposition. Each plan must be tailored to the specific risk you’re trying to abate. You don’t prepare for flood the same way you prepare for fire, and you don’t stock up on cold-weather gear to trek through Death Valley in July.
Preparation, by definition, is done before disaster strikes. The skills you’ll need in an emergency must be developed now. If your ship sinks, it’s too late to learn to swim, so it’s important to develop survival skills before they are needed.
Survival planning requires the following steps:
- Identifying the risk you wish to abate (e.g., loss of public water supply)
- Preparing a plan to abate the risk (e.g., storing up emergency water)
- Preparing a contingency plan to abate the same risk by alternate means (e.g., developing a spring-fed water supply)
- Testing the plan by drills and practice (e.g., cutting off the public water supply and using the stored water, or switching to the spring-fed supply)
Statists and the leftwing media have done a superb job of making survivalists sound like wackos, yet they’re simply people who study and practice survival skills with varying degrees of dedication. I’ll bet the typical household with a survival plan is less of a nut than your typical college football fan. Nonetheless, if “survivalism” sounds too extreme for you, just think of it as emergency preparedness or outdoor adventure. 
In the Survival Plans category (see sidebar) we’ll consider survival plans for various scenarios. This is only our advice. Use your own judgment in preparing for your security and that of your family.
Survival Plans Now Online:
- Flat Tire
- Bug out bag
- Every day carry
- Short term power outage
- Livestock for emergencies
- Emergency water supply
- Long term power and communication outage
- Road trip
- Living off the grid
Survival Plans coming soon:
- Complete self-sufficiency
- Vanish
Can’t wait for the "Vanish" article! Should be interesting!