On my bookshelf, side-by-side, are two books called Staying Alive. Both are, in fact, extremely useful guides to staying alive (in one sense or another), and so they both have their uses in emergencies, but that’s where the resemblance ends.
One is about how to stay safe as a humanitarian worker in a conflict zone. Written by a former British Army colonel who joined the ICRC after leaving the Parachute Regiment, it provides just enough technical background - accompanied by the inevitable silly cartoons - to demystify the dangers and thus render them manageable. There is information on different kinds of landmines and how to avoid them, what to do when the shooting starts, how to deal with roadblocks, how to make a basic shelter, and, for example, how to deal with looters.
A lot of...