Let me add a helpful comment here.

In the old days I used to do the same thing as a lot of people ... compile a list of items that I thought would be helpful - or cool - to have in a survival kit. This approach could be termed the "itemized list" way of doing things. There is some value to this. Specifically, the itemized list method will help you to identify some critical items for your survival kit that you might otherwise have forgotten. For this reason alone, it's a valuable step to take.

Nowadays, however, I do not use the itemized list approach as my primary way of designing a survival kit. Instead I use a method that could be termed the "functional survival approach". It works along the following lines:

I identify the essential activities that will be needed to survive over the period of time that is required - for the environment where I will be located. These are simple things: travel (e.g. walking), food, water, shelter, medicine & first-aid, sleeping, clothing & staying warm/cool. Then I work through the steps that are required to effectively do each activity - and make sure I have sufficient essential equipment to accomplish the tasks. The functional approach takes more time - but is guaranteed to be more reliable because you are forced to ask yourself exactly HOW you are going to do things.

Let me pick one example: shelter in the urban environment

Shelter is not a trivial thing. It could be quite easy, but also could be quite difficult. If, for example, the emergency happens in the morning then you will have all day to walk home. Chances are that you can make it, and if you have comfortable footwear and a warm jacket (plus some water) then you may need no permanent shelter. But imagine instead that the emergency happens in the late evening, and you are faced with walking home at night through your city. In an urban environment this could still be fine - or it could be quite dangerous. So it is important to think through options on exactly how you would do this. Perhaps you realize that you actually need a place to sleep at work - your choice is not to travel at night. Or perhaps you realize that there is a friend who lives near work, and you need to use their apartment. In that case it would be helpful to make arrangements with your friend to be able to stay if needed. So in this case your need for "shelter" is satisfied by some smart advance planning. For women this is particularly important because you want to be able to guard your safety at night.

Other options are also available. You could simply decide to sleep in your car. You could lock the vehicle, so that provides some safety (better if you know the parking spot or the garage is safe from strangers). It would still be nice to have something warm to throw on when you doze inside your vehicle - so a spare blanket packed in your car could be very nice. Otherwise, you're left with a more challenging final option - you are going to find shelter somewhere out in the city in an impromptu location. It might be possible to hike to a local police station - they are likely to be coping with a lot of people who have the same problem. There might even be a place in the city assigned as temporary quarters for "lost people". Failing these options, you will need to establish a safe, warm place in the city to hole up out of the weather - and away from human predators. That is a much more challenging option - quite possibly one where you might wish to have a weapon for protection, or a location where you're guaranteed not to be disturbed. Again, it would be helpful to have something warm (warm clothes, or a blanket, or sleeping bag) for the night. A fire is also possible for warmth, but will be likely to reveal your location. So the challenge becomes to solve this problem NOW - while you've got time to do it. It is much harder to make good decisions when you are under the pressure of a real emergency.

So ... you can see the steps involved in the process. This is more time consuming - but allows you to realistically tackle the real problems you will face. The chance of a positive outcome is very much improved. Practically, what tends to happen is that you realize there is some way to set up things in advance to remove most of the serious difficulties.

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TO SUMMARIZE:

If you want to really survive you need three things:

1. Survival equipment (or a kit)
2. A survival plan or strategy
3. Real survival skills

All three things are essential. Many people make the mistake of thinking that if they only have the first item (equipment) then they are done. But unless you are lucky and you only get into limited difficulties, this is not true. In addition, peope often make the mistake of thinking that if they read about a survival technique in a book (or see them on TV) - then they have a skill. This is not so. Real skills must be practiced. You are really only as good as the actual skills you can demonstrate in a practical situation.

The advantage of using the "functional survival" approach I mentioned above it that it will automatically lead you devise a plan or strategy - which will be suited to your own needs. After that, you can begin practicing the skills you really need.

Pete