Urban Prepping/Preface

This is not a survival fantasy or a call to armageddon. It is a methodical, risk-based playbook. Every chapter is organized around needs, water, food, shelter, medical care, power, communications, security, and each need is then scaled across four practical time horizons:

1. Immediate Response - 72 hours: life-saving actions and grab-bag checklists.
2. Short-Term Disruption - up to 2 weeks: stabilize systems and conserve.
3. Extended Crisis - months: preserve resources, minimize failure modes, coordinate at scale.
4. Self-Reliant Living - indefinite: production, renewables, long-term governance.

Read the Quick Reference Pack first. Those are the one-page, printable cards you can carry or stick on your fridge.

Use the Needs pages when you need an action plan. Each page follows a strict micro-structure: Purpose, Quick Checklist, Tiered Actions and Gear, Skills and Training, Diagrams, Failure Modes, and Citations.

Use the Scenario playbooks when a specific hazard hits. They are decision trees and checklists - not wishful thinking.

If you are building a community plan, copy the ICS-lite templates and the SITREP forms into local practice; test them with real drills.

Some items assume limited purchase power or access to tools; many others assume you can coordinate with neighbors or community groups. Wherever legal or technical issues matter, that page will say so and label the item [LOCALIZE]. Do not assume techniques transfer unchanged between countries or cities. Check local law, building codes, and public health guidance before you act on things that affect others.

This manual prefers proven sources: government guidance, recognized NGOs, peer-reviewed research, and technical standards. Where community wisdom, anecdote, or improvised techniques are included, they are labelled clearly as "Field-proven but non-standard" with known limitations. If I could not find an authoritative source for something, you will see the flag: [NO AUTHORITATIVE SOURCE FOUND], followed by a field-tested alternative and safety warnings.

Avoid strategies that escalate violence, endanger others, or break the law. The manual emphasizes avoidance, de-escalation, and non-lethal options. Resource allocation and tough moral trade-offs are real in crises; the book gives frameworks for ethical decisions, but not moral cover for hoarding or vigilantism.