I've been looking at John McCann's web site and thinking about building a kit which would fit my needs for my environment, the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and skill level. One item I would need to include is the AQUA-POUCH™ PLUS. Of course not everything in a typical wilderness kit would fit my needs or skill level.

Jeanette Isabelle

Or there is the Grand Daddy of them all Urban Survival Kits from Nutnfancy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVkntkChnnM

Awesomely awesome awesomeness but nut was missing the Scuba Pony Bottle for a potential Poseidon adventure emergency.

I have latex-free gloves in my first aid kit.


I plan to include a poncho in the survival kit I want to build.


After I first joined this forum, I bought a Swiss Army Knife and tried it out. It was not useful for my needs. A pair of EMT sheers is able to perform almost every tool-related task. I have a multi tool as part of my car kit. In the nearly three years I've had it, I used it once.

Jeanette Isabelle

Work is close and that is not a problem. Often I have to go to different parts of the county for different reasons and I use public transportation for that. It's when I'm in other parts of the county, using public transportation, that I run into the possibility of having a problem.

Jeanette Isabelle

Teacher, what battery do you have that can charge an iPhone twice? I've been searching but haven't found anything.


My laptop is one of the first things I would ditch if I had to travel any distance. In an emergency, a laptop is 6 to 8 pounds of relatively useless plastic and silicon. Time permitting, I would pull the hard drive and take it with me, but no loss if I have to leave it behind. The disk is fully encrypted (McAfee Safeboot) and automatically backed-up each time I connect to a network (Carbonite). The ability to use it to charge my phone doesn't justify the weight and bulk IMHO.

This is very helpful. Thank-you. This video gives me the tools to answer some of my own questions.

Jeanette Isabelle

I've been hemming and hawing on this one. I think part of it is because to me an urban PSK is just part of a well rounded EDC. It isn't "survival" to me due to the size and weight requirements, but rather "emergency" in the sense of "huh, I didn't plan on this happening today- this sucks". An urban survival kit to me is a get home bag for when the roads aren't going to work, so it has food and water and real shoes in it, along with a good FAK and tools.

A light, knife/SAK/MT (and while I agree with you Jaenette that 95% of the time trauma shears do what is needed, it is that pesky 5% that is why you carry an emergency kit), FAK and whistle cover most of it.

The most important emergency item I can think of is cash- say 50$ in small bills and a few bucks in quarters. I would also consider a water bottle, note pad, pencil, sharpie (even a mini), and if you wear contacts, real glasses to be important additions to your EDC. A poncho or contractor bag never is out of place IMO. Defensive items are always big debate, which I'm not going to get into.

So how much extra space do you have? I would consider basic screw drivers (a straight and a #2 phillips) and a pair of pliers with wire cutters to be core emergency tools, along with stout leather gloves, a bandana/light scarf/hand towel, 2-3' of wire, duct tape and maybe some zip ties. I would also add a spool of dental floss, 20'+ of p-cord (or anything better than mason cord and dental floss- a good 250#, 3mm line isn't super expensive, and you can pack a lot of it into a small space, but you lose the corelines and versatility) and a packet (altoids tin is fine and has space for the wire) with a a couple sewing needles, some good medium-large safety pins, a small binder clip or two, a couple of paper clips, a few hair ties, a thumbtack or two and a couple of small fish hooks and a crimp on weight or two. Maybe a tube of superglue and a bit of electricians tape. A quart freezer bag or two is also very useful.

Remember, this is a set of items that you can use to improvise- a wooden stick when added to a thumb tack and a fish hook, or the dental floss with the hook and weight, becomes a way to retrieve keys that have been dropped. Duct tape can cover a light switch that leads to a light that must NOT be turned on (structural damage leading to dangly wires, a gas leak that could go boom, et al), while bright duct tape and the sharpie leaves a critical note almost anywhere at eyelevel ("gas leak! do not turn on lights! get out!!!"). Dental floss and a needle fixes a loose button. Hair ties can serve for rubber bands, or for holding back long hair. Wire replaces the lost screw for a pair of glasses, or electricians tape for a lost nose piece pad. Pliers grab something hot/sticky/bloody/sharp/et al. Water into a ziplock, adding a pin, gives you the ability to flush dust from eyes. Paracord (if you have enough) can turn into a "follow me" line if you are the only one with a light. Poncho and improvised grommits made with duct tape and safety pins turns into a tarp fast. The bandana or towel is limited to your imagination.

Also nice is a road map of the area and a compass (just has to be good enough to find north), mass transit maps (the car dieing is a "strand you there" emergency as much as EMP), and if you are like me, a small card with a few knots on it.

Fire starting items are a big maybe to me for a UPSK. A small Bic doesn't really add much, so I might toss one in, but for an EDC supliment rather than a get home bag I wouldn't do much more than that or a small ferro rod, simply because what are you going to burn?

Oh, and as someone who has a copy of McCann's book- eh. Read the main part of the ETS web page and you'll get the same kind of data. Ask us, and we'll fill it out.

Forgot one thing, becuase I'm pretty much a single language area- better than a phrase book, Kwikpoints! Probably the wallet sized traveller. If I'm someplace where working english isn't a safe assumption, I grab mine.

I'd like to chip in a bit.

Since you mention having to travel around the county, then I'd strongly suggest adding maps to your EDC. Maps can be in paper form, but also electronic.

If you are already carring a phone I'd suggest adding some maps, even if they are only a scanned PDF or JPGs; proper "GPS" style mapping running on your phone is even better if you have a suitable phone. Even using Google Maps (online) or similar is probably OK, but these will only work if you have mobile coverage.

As well as the maps, you should get "all" the public transport timetables, including adjoining counties. You should add in a list of contact numbers and addresses for the various transport operators, local emergency services (police, fire etc), hospitals/doctors, roads department, Weather service. If you're visting affiliated offices as you travel, get numbers for these too. Get WEB addresses for the above services and the local media too (even if your phone cannot access the WEB, at least you have the information to hand). Often if there is some kind of incident you will be able to find out more information either by calling the companies, or checking their web sites.

Having this information won't help if you have a flat phone, or if you cannot charge the phone, but most "emergencies" are likely to be inconveniences rather than full scale disasters, so having this information will help you plan a route "home" if the transport breaks down, roads are closed or severe storms hit.
By setting up all this information in advance, its ready to go when you need it

And there are lots of other things you can add to your phone too: first aid manual, flashlight app, books for entertainment (if you are stuck somewhere), family photos, survival literature .... etc

Because most of us carry a phone all the time, and because most emergencies will be short duration I think that it makes an excellent repository and very easy carry in addition to the other gear already mentioned.

My wallet EDC: fresenl lense, mirror, matches, large safety pin, small cable tie, needle with thread; I also have a few tooth picks - nothing more annoying than having stuff stuck between your teeth ! All this is security guard and workplace friendly too!

I watched most of the 3 segments of the Nutnfancy USK videos. As much as I like some of Nutnfancy's videos, these were too long and soon found myself skipping through his over detailed descriptions of each item. Still it was interesting to watch and I gleaned a few ideas of possible things to add while putting together a dedicated USK (Urban Survival Kit).

Here's my Urban Survival Kit:

I wanted to make a suitable kit for less than $300 that I could keep under a desk at work [or whatever] with some basic tools and supplies to supplement my EDC. The total weight is 13.2lbs, which I find to be perfectly reasonable to carry all day if need be.



Started with a simple Jansport backpack. Cost around $30.



Little compartment on top contains:
-AMK SOL kit. I took out the matches and added a Victorinox Farmer and Swedish Firesteel. I also added some sewing needles and thread to the fishing kit, as well as Micropur Tablets for water purification.
-AMK Emergency Bivvy
-Titanium Cup (went with titanium just because I had a spare)
Total cost of this compartment: $95



Little Bottom pouch contains:
-Work Gloves
-Orange safety vest
-2 Bandannas
-Bic Lighter
-2 Sharpie Markers
-2 Bic Pens
-2 Emergency Ponchos
-A leatherman Blast
-6" adjustable wrench
Total cost of this compartment: $70



Middle medium compartment contains:
-First Aid Kit (I also tossed in a set of foam earplugs)
-Combo LED Flashlight/Radio (dynamo)
-Roll toilet paper
-Deck cards
-2 N95 Dust Masks
-Roll Duct tape
-Plastic Drop cloth
-Stanley Wonderbar II Pry bar
-Stanley 8-Inch Groove Joint Pliers
-2 Unscented candles wrapped in tinfoil
-Garbage bags in a ziplock bag (two 55 gallon, three 30 gallon)
Total cost of this compartment: $90



Large Compartment contains:

-two 1 Liter bottles of water
-Box of snack bars
-Package of assorted bubblicious gum
Total cost of this compartment: $10

If you notice, I left the last (and largest compartment) mostly empty except for the food and water (the latter of which can go into the two outside mesh pockets if need be). This gives me an essentially empty pocket in case I have anything I might need or want to carry.


If I was making this kit for someone else, I would add:
-a pair of safety glasses (I already wear glasses with polycarbonate lenses)
-another flashlight (probably an LED headlamp with spare batteries)
-some 550 cord (which I'll probably add to mine, but I just haven't got around to it yet).
-cash (small bills) and change (roll of quarters would likely be most useful)

It might also be a good idea to include a hard hat (or maybe a bicycle helmet if that would work better for the user). They're somewhat bulky to carry and annoying to wear though, so I find that I carry/wear them probably less than I should.

It's worth noting that I don't keep any real weapons in the bag. Assuming they would be allowed in my area and workplace environment, I just wouldn't want to risk some type of issue arising when I might not be able to keep an eye on my bag constantly. Instead I would rather keep any weapons on my person.

All in all, I wouldn't consider it a long term survival kit, but it should allow me to fend for myself and maybe help some others for a day or two if need be. At least until (hopefully) emergency responders can get some semblance of order established.