Interesting take on survival

I was reading this magazine that my husband subscribes too (I can't remember the name) and it had this article in it about "Being prepared in the Face of Disaster" and what the human nature is capable of when you're IN a scary situation. I was hoping for some examples on HOW to be prepared, but it had stories of real-life situations and heroic actions that those people took. I did take some interesting things from it though, the author was citing doctors opinions on the brain snd the human bodies reaction to 'fear'. It was saying if you can mentally prepare yourself it braces the brain for the impact of dealing with the situation. For example a man caught in a snow storm managed to survive for 14 days with a gallon of water (he eventually was forced to find a water source, which he did on day 5) He was stuck in his car, which was practically buried, and BECAUSE he was "mentally" prepared and didn't let the fear engulf him, his body was able to sustain him to survive the position he was in, until the rescuers found him. Another man got caught in a tornado WITH boy scouts (children! can you imagine?) and after the winds died down, he got the boys motivated  to help the injured (4 boys sustained massive injuries, which killed them), he kept the boys calm, focused and their mind off the horrific situation they were dealing with.
So it goes to show, if you can prepare yourself mentally, you can survive anything. Cutting this short, but I had to stop in to leave this tidbit. :)