3 Drills Guaranteed To Increase Your Preparedness

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A good preparedness plan can become a great one when it is practiced. The are many ways to practice using your gear, but I thought I would come up with a few fun drills that will definitely help you become more prepared!

15 Minute Bug Out

Even though many preppers have bug out bags, they really aren’t as “bug out ready” as they might think. This drill will allow you to practice for an emergency that requires you to bug out immediately after hearing about a disaster that affects your area.

Real life examples could be anything from a natural disaster to a chemical or nuclear attack. You must grab everything you can in 15 minutes as if you were never coming back to your home again.

Running the drill

• When all family members are home, initiate the drill without advanced warning.
• Start timing the drill. It helps to use a timer and set it to 15 minutes.
• Designate a room in the house to bring all of the gear to. Packing gear in a vehicle could raise eyebrows from neighbors.
• Act as quickly as possible while remaining calm.
• Immediately stop and end the drill as soon as the timer goes off.

Analyzing Results

Did you manage as well as you thought you would? What critical items were forgotten? How was communication between family members? These are the questions you should be asking. Remember, at the end of the day you are doing this thing because you care about your family and want to make sure they are safe if an emergency happens. Don’t get angry at those who fell short or were not prepared. Use it as an example and a way to make positive changes to your preparedness.

Grid Down Simulation

This drill is a bit more involved than the bug-out drill. It might be harder to get the family members on board with this one. But here’s a tip; there’s nothing to stop you making it fun! Effectively, you are simulating a total collapse of the electrical grid. The goal is to see how well prepared you are to survive short term without electricity.

This type of event could be caused by severe weather, an attack on the grid, an EMP strike, etc. For the drill, it is best to assume an EMP strike occurred and that nothing works, including cars and generators.

Running the Drill

• Upon waking up on the weekend or a day that you and your family will all be home, turn off everything that uses electricity (lights, appliances, AC units, etc.) You can still leave your refrigerator on to keep food from spoiling.
• Go about your daily life without electricity.
• Feel free to use the toilet. Otherwise, do not use water from the tap. That means washing your hands, brushing your teeth, cooking, and everything else with stored water. After only a short period of time, the electric pumps that power water towers would stop working and the taps would run dry in a real grid down scenario.

Analyzing Results

How did you do? Did you use as much water as you thought you would, or more? Keep in mind that bathing would also require a significant amount of water. Were you prepared to cook without electricity? Did anyone cheat?

Living without an electrical grid would be incredibly difficult. Hopefully running this drill will give you an idea of would it would take to survive such an event.

The Speed Shelter

This drill is an easier one to complete and is a little bit more fun as well. Take your family on a hiking/camping trip and bring along some paracord and a tarp. The simple object here is to quickly create a simple shelter to protect you from the elements.

Getting lost while hiking or having to bug out on foot during an SHTF event could be situations where this knowledge would come into play.

Running the Drill

• Find a good spot to set up a shelter. Make sure you are actually allowed to put up a shelter in the area.
• Build an effective shelter as fast as you can using only paracord and a tarp.
• Time yourself.
• Repeat the process regularly to improve your time.
• Be sure to let each family member try.

Analyzing Results

How fast could you get a shelter built? Was it secure? Does everyone in the family know how to tie the correct knots?

In a survival situation, staying out of the elements can make all the difference in the world. It also is a huge morale booster. Hopefully, you never need the knowledge gained from this drill but at least you’ll be prepared if you do!

This article was contributed by Survival Pulse, where the latest preparedness articles and resources are delivered to you daily.

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First seen on My Family Survival Plan