Your survival depends on your ability to create a fire easily and repeatedly. Those words are important. If it takes you a half hour to find kindling and combustibles, you don’t want to spend another cold and hungry half hour trying to bang rocks together to get a spark. That’s far too much time and energy wasted. However, matches or lighters will not be the solution either. During the apocalypse, you’ll need to create a fire nearly everyday to cook your food, sanitize drinking water and to warm your bones. Your matches and lighter fluid will run out well before  end of your first winter. Let’s look at some other options.

Friction Methods

I’ve discussed using a bow drill. It’s not terribly easy to do, and can be a bit much to lug around. The good part is that after learning this skill, it will last you a lifetime. The materials for this tool is everywhere.

Magnifying Glass

Yup, you know the problem here. “What if there is no sun?” The probability of a sunless apocalypse is high. Ants on the pavement rejoice!

Battery Steel Wool

This works great, but burns the steel wool. So unless you want to haul around a bag of steel wool, I wouldn’t recommend this.

Chocolate Bar and Coke Can

This is bull shit. I wrote about this about a year ago and have since tried it to no success. A reader informed me that the YouTube video demonstrating this was faked. Thanks!

Swedish Firesteel

This firesteel is going to be your best bet. It’s relatively easy, and is fairly durable (The Army model allows for 12,000 strikes – 2,400 fires) It is super small, and produces a spark of 5,500°F spark. The only problem with this option is that though it creates sparks when wet, if you don’t have any dry kindling, it’s worthless. To satisfy this, you would need to keep some charcloth with you in a tin. This charcloth is what will catch your spark and create the fire.

- Charcloth is easy enough to make. Cut up some old jeans in little squares and put in a lidded tin. Puncture a hole in the tin and set in a fire. Take out after ten minutes and you got some really flammable Wranglers.

Magnesium Firestarter

The Magnesium firestarter is the same as the firesteel, except that it has a bar of magnesium attached. Magnesium burns fiercely when ignited and will be your waterproof tinder for your fire. (No charcloth needed) Take a knife and shave off some of the magnesium (dime size) and then use the fire steel to create the spark. The only problem is that the magnesium will eventually run out, so only use it when things are dire.

Surviving post-nuclear radiation poisoning will be a real challenge. Understanding alpha, gamma and beta particles will be key to your survival. This film clears some of those questions up, and thankfully, also dispels some rumors about the post-apocalyptic world.  My favorite is when the narrator explains that radiation won’t create an “overabundance of freaks.” – which brings up the question –  how abundant are freaks now?

The film also seems to suggest that one of the worst parts about radiation is that you will lose your hair and the other guys at the office will call you “ol skinhead” or “chrome-dome.” But the narrator tells us to never fear, your hair will grow back. Whew!

Now ladies and gents, please turn off your cell phones, and enjoy the film! (Continued…)

I live in Melbourne, Florida, a smallish community which has become more of a small town for Orlando. We are located right on the shores of the Indian River, which is actually the worlds largest lagoon.

Catfish, shrimp, shark, turtles, crabs, the river is abound with edible life! So I figure, better to take my chances ON the water then with the rest of the desperate, hungry, and ignorant masses on the shore. So, lets say I get a some pallets together, collect a whole bunch of milk jugs, and net the milk jugs under the wood to keep me afloat.

I want to know what your ideas on how I might not only survive, but flourish, on the water.

Rion

So you want to be the Apocalyptic Huck Finn of the Indian River? You’ll have your fishin’ pole with a radioactive carp on the line while chewin’ on a ol’ straw shoot. Sounds great, but just like Huck, you’ll have southerners on the shores trying to get at you. Only in the apocalypse, they won’t be after your slave friend Jim, they’ll be after your gear and will be wanting to eat your ass. (continued…)

Floating by on your raft sounds like you’ll be safe, but you’ll be a sitting duck. They’ll take aim at you trapped on your raft and once your dead they’ll take your fishing pole and the carp with it.

Now, this lagoon does appear to be very large so if you think you can stay away from crazies you can try it out. It sounds like that lagoon can support you for a while. Shrimp, fish, turtles and crab sounds pretty good to the rest of us who will be licking soup can labels.

The weather will be habitable too, though a damp, hot environment will invite disease, so stay clean and tend to wounds quickly.

You have one big problem though. You have nothing to drink. No matter how much food you have, your body needs freshwater to digest food properly. If you’re dehydrated don’t eat. Furthermore, do not drink seawater. Do not drink urine. Do not drink alcohol. Do not smoke. DO, however, learn how to desalinate your drinking water.

Water purification pumps  will not work with saline water, so you’ll need to remove the salt from the water through distillation. I talked about this in a previous article but here is a new way.

• First, your raft will need to have a hearth of some kind to light a fire.
• Once you have a small fire going, get a metal pot and put a glass cup inside it in the center.
• Slowly pour some salt water into the pot until the water reaches halfway up the outside of the cup.
• Place the cover to the pot upside down over the pot so the highest point is pointing down over your glass.
• Once the water reaches a slow boil. The water vapor will rise up to the cover and collect as water droplets.
• Because of the cone shape of the pot cover, the water will travel down into your cup. If the cover is cool, the condensation will be more effective.

It’s a pain in the ass, but you’re the one who wanted to live in a lagoon.

Follow me on Twitter for more insight into the apocalypse!

http://twitter.com/ApocalypseGuide

Though these costumes are terribly impractical, I thought I would mention this site. Apocalypse Live Action Roll Play!

Thanks to PineTree for asking about the Lifesaver 4000. Though I haven’t used it, it does appear to be a more efficient water purifier. Keep in mind that it only has a shelf life of 3 years. Check out the promo video for it. HERE (Skip the self important intro by the CEO)

Our bodies run on water. Like an auto low on oil, our bodies are greatly affected when we become dehydrated. If you notice you’re acting like a little bitch, you probably just need a glass a water – or an ass kicking. Signs of more severe dehydration are headaches, weakness, fatigue, dry mouth, and tingling of limbs. Also, if you notice your piss is dark yellow, you are also dehydrated.

During the apocalypse, getting a glass of water won’t be so easy. Furthermore, our lakes and streams will be twice as polluted as they are now because of the millions of people who are now shitting and dieing in them. You’ll literally be dieing for some clean water. (Continued…)

Before purifying any water, clean the container you’re going to put the water in. Next pour the water through some fabric to take some of the apocalyptic gunk out. Then you should be able to use the following for killing off bacteria in the water source

Boiling

Boil polluted water for four minutes. (Make sure it’s a rolling boil) It’s slow, but it works, and can be done anywhere there is fuel for a fire.

Iodine

Add nine drops of iodine per quart of disinfected water. This is not as good of disinfectant as chlorine but better than nothing.

Chlorine Tablets

Will purify your water, but how many chlorine tablets are you going to pack for the apocalypse?

Water Purification Pump

Very portable, kills most bacteria and can be used for years if cleaned regularly. Just insert in polluted water and pump. By far my favorite survival tool

UV

There are ultraviolet water purifiers that work well and are quite small. However, they are battery operated so you can’t depend on these for the long haul

Artificial Distillation

After the apocalypse, pools of water may have more than just bacteria swimming in them. Artificial distillation will purify water that is heavily polluted. In fact you can even clean sea water and your own urine.

The idea is to boil the polluted water until it becomes steam. This steam will rise out of the container and into your container, leaving the contaminants behind. This may be harder to create for the apocalyptic wanderer, but if your sedentary, I would recommend developing this system.

Even if you don’t have a fireplace, your home may still have a chimney from an old fireplace. Tear out the sheet rock around where you think the old fireplace was. You’ll probably find it bricked up or an iron plate over the old opening. Remove the brick or plate and build a fire in the old fireplace opening.

(Up next in part II…stay warm with out an extra coat.)

Dear Apocalyptic Grand Master Savior to the stars,

I live in shithole Las Vegas. Sure there are bigger, more “targetable” cities in the US, but let’s be honest. If you were a terrorist who hates everything that America stands for, why wouldn’t you first look at bombing the “Sin city” where fat, happy tourists abandon their children and blow their life savings on video poker, bad buffets and Celine Dion tickets?

So, how in the hell do I survive? Lake Mead? Head west to the sad mountains we have known as “Mount Charleston”? I’ll be traveling with 3 small children, and a horrible, nagging, god awful wife, who will certainly be the first to die.

You’re right Brad, Vegas sucks. Most population centers are created around a natural resource that supports an economy. Las Vegas was built around gambling, (and the Hoover Dam) so if the gambling stops, so does Vegas. Without power and plumbing, there is nothing to support life there, and this makes a very dangerous post-apocalyptic city. (Continued..)

In most cities, when the calamity hits, many will be heading out of town, but more will hunker down in their homes. Las Vegas will be different because most people’s homes are thousands of miles away and they will do anything to get back to their family and property. The highways will be clogged with cars, busses, mopeds and golf carts. This will be the traffic jam from hell, and what makes it worse, it’s in a damn desert and sadly few will think to bring enough water. You’ll have cars full of spring breakers trying to stay hydrated on Watermelon Wop. Last time I drove through there it was 117 degrees with a breeze.

The situation on the desert highways will become so desperate that many will start trudging back into Vegas to see if the buffet is still all you can eat. The looting and rioting will be incredible. Gangs will form for the last resources and as the electricity and plumbing stops, heat stroke will set in, and the fountains will be raided for the last available water. When the water runs out, the whole damn city will swarm to Lake Mead and set up camps along the shores.

So you can’t stay, and you probably can’t get out through the highways. You could escape through the desert, but after looking at a map, I realize there isn’t anyplace to escape to. For hundreds of miles it’s a massive arid mountain range with nothing to eat but rattle snakes and cactus. You sure picked a shitty place to live.

My number one rule of surviving the apocalypse is to stay away from people during the first postapocalyptic years. People will become desperate, murderous and cannibalistic. However, It seems like you have no choice and you’ll have to head to Lake Mead.

Lake Mead will be the only source of water for miles and will keep you and your family alive. The problem will be that it soon will be swarming with crazies. Fortunately, the Colorado River can take you from Lake Mead south through the mountains.

Take whatever type of boat suits your family, but as you know, the river can get dodgy in areas, and you may have to pick up your boat to go around rapids and dams. You have a ways ahead of you, so I’d grab a small fishing boat with a small motor. The noise from the motor can drown out your wife’s bitching.

Once on the river you’re going to be looking for any area that can support your family. You’re on a river so you have water taken care of, but look for arable soil and a spot to set up a shelter. Unfortunately, there is no place like that for 60 miles. Bullhead City could be an option, or a bit further south is the Mohave Valley and Needles. Those towns could be safe, but pretty soon you’ll start to see some folks from Vegas coming down the river as you did. When you see a water parade of whores, drunks, showgirls and tigers, it’s time to keep heading down river.

Anything that takes power to run is not a necessity. People have survived without power for 4000 years, so going without electricity after the apocalypse should not be a death-blow to your survival. However, even I’ll admit, it would be nice. (Continued..)

Until recently, I hadn’t really thought of electronic survival tools, but the emergence of solar power is changing the game. Portable solar panels are available that can run most any tool or appliance. Now most are flimsy and don’t pack much of a punch, but this portable solar charger from Solar Eclipse is pretty rugged.

Even with this new technology, I still wouldn’t rely on electronic tools. They are bulky, susceptible to moisture damage, and hard to repair. Furthermore, I would never want to rely on something like the sun for survival.

A lot of folks will spring for this gear, and the apocalypse may be a lot different than we imagine it. We may be walking through the woods and find a guy taking a shower from his solar panel gravity shower, and then climbing inside his solar powered heated tent to listen to the Black Eyed Peas on his solar-powered Ipod, while tweeting all about it.

Don’t worry buddy, your equipment and experience will take you further than a solar panel. Just wait for a cloudy day, he’ll be asking to sit by your fire and will ask if you can play ‘My Hump’ on your harmonica.