Be Prepared! Time-tested advice on emergency preparedness. An official publication of the Boy Scouts of America! Each year hundreds of outdoor enthusiasts find themselves in an unexpected outdoor emergency. They get lost, injured, or stranded. Cut off from the rest of the world, they have to depend upon their survival skills to survive. For most people, thanks to modern communications such as cell phones, satellite messengers, and personal locator beacons (PLB), it is merely a sobering two- or three-hour adventure. However, for some who did not take the proper precautions before they left home or do not have survival skills, it can end in tragedy.