Disaster Scenarios
You usually hear about plane crashes or search and rescue missions on the news. We'll explore how to survive disasters like this and more.
- Taken by the Sea: 11 Real-life Shipwrecks
- How Deep-sea Rescue Works
- How long can you survive adrift in the ocean?
- How Search and Rescue Works
- How to Survive a Plane Crash
- How to Survive a Shipwreck
- How to Survive a Sinking Ship
- How can I survive a night in the Alaskan wilderness?
- What do I do if I fall overboard?
- What if I were ice fishing and fell through the ice?
- What if my scuba diving equipment failed?
- What if you fell out of an airplane without a parachute?
- What if you were stranded several miles offshore in cold weather?
- How Did This Airplane Avoid Crashing? (Video)
- Survival Zone: Sinking Ship (Video)
- Survival Zone: Food and Water in the Savanna (Video)
- Snow Survival Zone: Mountain Predators (Video)
Wilderness Survival
The first thing that comes to mind for wilderness survival is shelter, water and food. Learn how to avoid hypothermia, find water, and build a shelter.
- Are humans wired to survive? A Japanese hiker slipped, was knocked unconscious and then survived 24 days without food or water. That's not supposed to be possible. What survival instincts fuel us through dire straits?
- Harrowing Survival Stories Most of us have heard some amazing survival stories in our lives -- people living after hours trapped under an avalanche, or amputating their own limb to get free of a trap. Check out some true survival stories.
- How Desert Survival Works The sun beats down and your skin burns. Your parched mouth begs for water, and you fear a sandstorm is on its way. You're stranded in the desert. How will you survive?
- How Going Over Niagara Works A 63-year-old retired schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor took the challenge in 1901. How hard can it be? Well Ms. Taylor may have gotten lucky because these falls have claimed the lives of many. Find out what it takes...
- How to Avoid Hypothermia When wind and water steal heat from your body, your internal temperature plummets. Find out why you'll need more than just some mittens and a stocking cap to prevent hypothermia.
- How to Build a Shelter You may not be John Rambo but that doesn't mean you don't need to know basic survival techniques. If you were stranded in the wilderness would you know how to build a basic shelter to shield you from the elements?
- How to Find True North There's north and then there's true north. Find out how stabbing a stick in the dirt to make a shadow can help you find the true north.
- How to Find Water in the Wild Let's say you get lost in the woods. You're by yourself and don't really have any supplies. You know you need to find water -- but how?
- How to Start a Fire Without a Match The chance that you'll be shipwrecked on a deserted island and have to start a fire is slim. But let's imagine that you're lost somewhere and it's getting dark and you don't have any matches. What do you do now?
- How to Survive in the Jungle Toxic tree frogs, poisonous plants, malaria-carrying mosquitoes. You get the picture: The jungle is no place to get lost. How will you make it out of this lushness alive?
- How can I tell if a bug is edible? You might not look at a tarantula and think, "Mmm." But if you were in a survival situation with only bugs for nourishment, how would you know which ones are OK to eat?
- How do you send a smoke signal? You may associate smoke signals with Native Americans in old westerns, but they aren't totally a thing of the past. Find out why the Boy Scouts still teach kids how to make them -- and how you can send some yourself.
- How does your brain impact your survival chances in the wilderness? In the wild, are brains better than brawn? Find out when your fight-or-flight response is your friend and when it's your enemy.
- If I kill an animal, can I eat it raw? Let's say you're lost in the wilderness. Rather than guess which berries aren't poisonous, you down a rabbit for consumption. You're too famished for cooking. Should you eat it raw?
- Is knife hunting the fairest way to hunt? Not all of us were cut out to be hunters. The hours of waiting for prey to emerge from the woods coupled with the bloody business of slicing up a carcass is a lot to take. But have you considered whether hunting just isn't fair to animals?
- What Alaskan plants and animals are the best food sources? Does the thought of sucking down larvae trigger your gag reflex? Then you may not hack it in the wild. Insects are an excellent source of protein. Pry up a rock and you've got dinner.
- What is the most important survival tool in the jungle? Machete, knife, gun, mosquito net. They would all be plenty useful in the jungle. But there's one survival tool that beats out all the rest. What is it?
- What natural weapons could I find in the wilderness? Skin a dead animal. Smash its leg bone into a blade. And use its tendons to tie that blade to a handle. Sound gruesome? That's how you'd make a knife in the wild.
- Would a knife or a gun serve me better in the Alaskan wilderness? In the wilderness, one of these weapons will help you send out a distress signal, keep warm, build a shelter and not drown. The other is relatively worthless.
- Man vs. Wild: Fire Starter (Video) discovery/14143-man-vs-wild-fire-starter-video.htm
- Man vs. Wild: Grubs for Dinner (Video) Host of Man vs. Wild, Bear Grylls teaches how to forage for food in a survival situation.
- Survival Zone: Machetes in the Jungle (Video) Survival expert Myke Hawke shows us why a machete is one of the most important tools to have in the jungle.
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Kristiana BurkContact Info:
Atlanta, GA
Channel Director, HowStuffWorks
I am a former librarian and teacher.
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Atlanta, GA
Channel Director, HowStuffWorks
I am a former librarian and teacher.
Send Email
Natural Threats
Natural threats usually arrive without much warning. Find out how to survive a snowstorm, shark attack and avalanche.
- 10 Ways to Survive a Snowstorm
- How Avalanches Work
- How Bear Spray Works
- How Quicksand Works
- How Shark Attacks Work
- How to Survive a Grizzly Bear Attack
- How to Survive the Freezing Cold
- Top 5 Most Poisonous Plants
- What is the universal edibility test?
- Why has part of the Alaskan wilderness been called the Bermuda Triangle?
- If I suck the venom out of a snakebite, will I live?
- Survival Zone: Mosquitoes in the Savanna (Video)
- How to Survive a Vertical Shark Attack (Video)
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