This morning at 4:05, I woke up to the sound of an explosion. It sounded like it happened right outside our house, I thought a bomb had blown up. I made sure everyone was awake, I was running possibilities through my head when my dad said he could smell gas. While all this was happening I was (unfortunately more frantically than I would have hoped to) getting some warm clothes and my backpack on. In my hurry to get out of the house and to a safe location I forgot three vital survival tools, my watch, my survival tin, and my Ka-Bar. I had my back up knife in my pack along with all my supplies so I still had all my bases covered, just not as well as I wanted them to be. Long story short, I got my family to a safe location, the explosion was contained, and while the host's house was destroyed he managed to be rescued and sent to the hospital in one piece. What I'm trying to express from all of this is, I've got everything near by and I can find it in the dark, I definitely feel prepared, but it's different to react to a urban emergency like an explosion than it is too something 'natural'. This may sound like the obvious, but for people who have been in similar situations, I hope they agree: We don't always see it coming. As survivalists we feel, and indeed are, more prepared for disaster than most other people, however, when you get woken up in the middle of the night not knowing what's happening but knowing it's something bad, it's a totally different mental ball game. While transitioning from the dream land to disaster isn't easy, I hope that with experience maintaining an immediate clear mind will be easier.
