A real life emergency doesn’t happen every day, but it’s still good to be prepared. You never know when you may end up in a life-threatening situation, and if that time comes, you’ll want to know how to get out of it as safely as possible.
TikTok user @knowledgesaurus posted a lot of really useful facts that could really get you out of a jam.
Hiking backpacks have hidden whistles.
This may not be the case for a regular schoolbag, but backpacks specifically built for hiking tend to have special whistles built into them.
This is great for emergencies, for example if you get lost or you’re stuck somewhere due to an injury. The rest of your hiking group (or a search party) can locate you easily if you blow on the whistle.
Fill you bathtub with water before a storm.
You never know what could happen during or after, say, a hurricane. You could be left without water (or worse, left with dangerous, dirty water) for days.
That’s why it’s best to fill a tub with water before an emergency. That can act as drinking and cooking water until your regular hydro service is back up.
Airtight containers are even better.
For a short power outage, tub water isn’t a problem, but if there’s a chance of a longer wait, be sure to store some of that water in bottles or other airtight containers too.
This is because the water in the tub can start to get gross, or even grow algae, once it has sat for a while. You don’t want that to happen to your drinking water.
You can dial 911 even without cell coverage.
You may have noticed a bar of text on your phone that says “emergency calls only” or something to that effect when you have no service. Like the phrase would imply, this means you can still call 911, even if you have no service.
Emergency services will use any signal available.
Emergencies can’t usually wait until you’re close to a cell tower, so phones have been set up to be available for 911 calls at any time, using whatever wireless connection it can find.
Even pay phones (should you ever find yourself near one) can let you dial 911 for free.
If you see square waves while swimming, get out of the water!
These square waves, also called cross seas are the result of two currents meeting each other, likely due to different storm systems. They’re generally pretty strong and can pull you in all sorts of different directions, so you should under no circumstances swim in them.
If you see square waves, get out of the water. Better yet, don’t enter it in the first place. You could avoid a potentially disastrous event.
Swim sideways in a rip current.
Rip currents can be very powerful and move from the shore out to the sea. If you find yourself in one, swimming toward the shore will cause you to tire out and get pulled away more easily.
Instead, swim sideways, or parallel to the shore. Keep going until you’re out of the current, then swim back to safety. You won’t tire out as easily and should have enough energy to get back to land.
If you’re buried in rubble, don’t yell.
If you’re stuck underneath rubble, chances are you don’t have a lot of oxygen to spare. Conserve your oxygen by keeping your mouth shut. Instead, use a metal object if you can, and hit it against another metal object. Do so rhythmically, like in intervals of three.
The pattern will help rescuers find you since it’ll be something irregular that they can pick up on.
You can save yourself if you’re choking alone.
If you’re eating alone and end up choking, try not to panic. You can give yourself the Heimlich maneuver by thrusting your fists into the underside of your ribcage. You’ll want to move inward and upward to try and dislodge the food.
If you have something to steady yourself against, like a chair, you should use that as well.
Don’t remove an object if you’ve been impaled.
Getting stabbed or impaled by an object (accidentally or otherwise) is incredibly painful. Your first instinct may be to remove the object from your body, but you actually shouldn’t do that.
That object could actually be keeping you alive, since it blocks your blood flow. Taking it out would cause you to lose a lot of blood. It’s best to leave the object in and get yourself to a hospital as soon as possible so they can remove it.
If your car begins to sink, open a window or door.
You will want to do this as soon as possible. If your car is headed for water and you can’t stop it, crank that window open. If your car is sinking, get a window open before it gets too deep.
Once your car is deep enough, the pressure will keep you from opening windows or doors until pressure has equalized again.
If you can’t get the window or door open in time, don’t panic.
Stay calm to preserve as much oxygen in the confined space as possible, and wait for the pressure to equalize. Then open the cab and swim up.
Don’t try to remove things left on your windshield.
This is a pretty common kidnapping technique. Kidnappers will leave things like money or t-shirts on your windshield to distract you. While you take the object off your car, they’ll come behind you and take you.
It’s better to get out of there as soon as possible, either by getting into your car and driving away, or going back into the building you came out of (if it’s a store, for example).
Don’t warm someone up too quickly if they’re experiencing hypothermia.
Hypothermia is not a fun experience. The best thing you can do for someone battling extreme cold is to get them out of their cold clothes (especially if they’re also wet), and into a blanket.
Introducing too much heat too quickly could cause a shock to the heart , so it’s best to introduce heat slowly.
Take note of the star on an elevator.
The elevator button with the star next to it is usually the ground floor (sometimes labeled G, but could be 1 or anything else). It also happens to be the floor with the most emergency exits.
If you’re on an elevator during an emergency and it’s still functional, get it to take you to the star floor. You’ll have the best chance of getting out of the building that way.
