If you believe, nothing can happen read the articles about the meteor weighing 10-ton and measuring 49 feet across that struck the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia. The force released according to some experts was several kilotons of energy. One kiloton is equal to 1,000 tons of TNT. The concussion alone blew out over one million square feet of glass.
Just sixty miles from the point of impact sits a nuclear waste and disposal plant containing several tons of weapons-grade plutonium. Also nearby is a chemical weapons disposal facility that contained close to 6,000 tons of nerve agents including deadly Sarin gas. Further proof anything can happen to anyone at anytime. What would the world be like today if the meteor had stuck the plants containing plutonium or 6,000 pounds of nerve agent?
Once something like this happens people learn they made a mistake. Their only defense is they never imagined it could happen. The realization strikes like a blow, you only thought you were ready and you realize you were only dabbling and not serious about your preparations. Sure, you had a few gallons of water on the shelf, some canned goods and you had been studying literature on the Internet. You may have prepared enough to survive two days.
Survival preparedness is not just about gathering supplies and sticking them on a shelf. It is about having a plan, knowing what the threats are, and knowing what to do first when disaster does strike. Space rocks killed the dinosaurs according to most experts and other smaller ones may have triggered drastic climate changes throughout the millions of years before humans roamed the plant. The most recent ice age was not that far in the past relative to other events millions of years ago. Now everyone knows it can happen again.
Once a cataclysmic event happens, your world is changed in a matter of seconds. There is no going back for a do over. You are either ready or you are not, either you have trained and prepared or you will fail in the initial days. Many will not survive long enough to begin rebuilding. The survivors however, will have the skills and knowledge needed to begin again because they had foresight, they did not have their heads buried in the sand for years.
The survivors may not have seen it coming but they knew it was coming. Many preppers have the mechanics down to a science. They know how much food they need, how much water and so forth. The mechanics, like pulling a trigger on a firearm any one can do it but do they have the mentality, can they pull the trigger mentality.
Many claim they have a strong will to survive and this is enough to see them through any disaster. Every living thing has the will to survive that is why weeds will push through concrete to find the sun. Instinct is another matter all together and people confuse the will to survive with the instinct for survival. Some believe instinct is coded in human DNA and yet others believe it is a learned reaction. You have to be trained on how to react to most situations and the only way to be trained is to be exposed to various situations and to learn how to do better next time. There will come a time when it is not a training drill.
You do not have the instinct it takes to walk into a room full of enemy combatants and clear the room, you have to be taught how. To survive a major disaster you must train, and gather knowledge that can be applied to any situation. You must have the training to survive. Knowledge and skill will not come to you when it is needed unless you have trained. You can only rise to the level of your training. If you do not train and practice, you will fail at the most crucial of moments, and you will have time, to reflect on all that you should have done, but like many before you, all you can do is wish.