lets discuss preps for disasters

[Soundguy]

Doesn't have to be EOTWAWKI events, or nuke war or global pandemic preps.. could be as simple as your yearly storm supplies in case a hurricane or tornado hits and leaves you without power for 3 weeks, or living out of a tent, / no food / fuel infrstructure for a few weeks. For instance, florida saw this in 2004/2005 hurricane season. in some areas 3 weeks say no utility repair.. lucky places got utilities back first week, etc. In either cases, with no power, no fuel was able to be pumped.. so people had to plan trips. after 3 days most places had no regular non perishables like canned food and water, and after day 1.5 fresh stff was gone ( using my local for an example ).

here are my views.

I've looked at the mountain house and wise type foods as well as MRE's, plus the 'camp food' bags you see in some stores.

IMHO.. the camp/wise/mountain house stuff is way overpriced looking at dollars per calorie, and the taste is marginal at best. A group of friends and myself actually bought some of each as tests. even brand new.. flavor is sub-par what you find for regular generic foods on the shelf ( mac n cheese and a soup was tested .. both were way lower on taste than the most generic cheap brand we could find at a discount food seller ). As a side note.. i can only imagine what that tastes like in 25 years.
On another note.. most of those long term storage foods are not ready to eat.. they require water and cooking or at least heating.

For short term problems, those may not , to me anyway, be the most ergonomic choices.

Here's some of the things mme and my group does. we don't consider ourselves prepers.. but rather.. just 'well prepaired, or even more prepaired than not'

canned milk. cheap and shelf stable for years. if you look around you can find cans that are marked for 2-3 years,a nd even then, it is a best by, not an expire on date.. meaning that 2-3 years could in a pinch stretch to 5. I prefer the evap, vs condensed, which i use less. I know there are some ultra pasturized whole milks.. but hose usually have shorter lives,a dn are cardboard packed. i much prefer metal canned for durability.

Again, we have tested this.. cooking is fine, eating cerial, fine, though different flavor than initially expected. I rarely keep any whole milk in the huyse, usually just some skim.. but i keep the condensed or evap for cooping.. way easier when you only need a cup or 2 a week.

Powdered milk does have it's uses, I guess if prepairing for more of long term, though again.. for the occasional need of milk in cooking, powdered milk is an option, as well as powdered eggs. You have to get used to powdered eggs.. if eting them straight. if cooking, no problem. For straight, it's a toss up of pickled over powdered, if your storage plans are less than 2 years.

If you have to have it, there is even shelf stable butter in a jar, ( clarified ). not my bag.. but I think my wife would require butter during the apocalypse, so ..

Easy to find vac packed crackers.. but for a while, I didn't find a bread .. but eventurally did. over in many supermarkets near the baked beans you can find canned bread. it is a wheat bread with raisins and molassis usually, though I have found a more 'yellow' bread. The test can we picked up was dated for 3 years, best by.. t hat was promising. Taste? about what you would expect from a heavy breakfast type bread. dark, slightly moist, tight grain, lightly sweetened, and raisins. It will deffinately be the bread choice in my short to long term survival food plan.

Tinned meats are a no brainer, and you have your choice from spams to hams to chicken..

even that shelf stable foil wrapped cheese stuff. and heck.. you can get canned pourable cheese-stuff if you needed it. might not sound super yummy, but after setting in a tent in your backyard for the 2nd week, some pasta softened and warmed over a camp stove with a can of liquicheese poured in, will be a bettter hot meal than some might get.

Ov course one could rattle off 100 pages of preps.. but I'll end with one more.

My emergency clothes i always have in my truck, they are packed in heavy freezer ziplock bags, compressed and vacumed flat before sealing to take up less space. After all, it may be a hurricane that your disaster is ( instead of a zombie apocalypse ), and your room full of clothes might be soaked due to having no roof.

You'd be surprised how a pair of dry socks feel after walking around working all day. Dry clothes are good for moral too.

Lets hear your ideas. remember.. this doesn't have to be your bomb shelter 10 year survival after ISIS invades stuff. This can be as simple as your 'storm' plan for a few days.

thanks for sharing.

 

[paulharvey]

I know I'm unprepared and/or under prepared. It's something everyone should have, at a bare minimum, a week to 28 days worth of food/water/life or death meds/beer/ect and Cash. It'd just not something I really can justify in the budget.

When hurricane Francis (or was it Frances?) hit, I had literally zero paper money, card readers where down, and I had maybe half a roll of nickels. They didn't force me to leave the place I was staying (mobile home in Bunnell at the time) but they did say once you leave, they wouldn't let you back in. It was eventful; boss called me and said he and his family evacuated but I needed to stay incase FedEx brought the pay checks....

What us your water plan with out power. Do you plan on generator powered well, or store water by the jug/tank, or have a good source and plan to purrify?

Edit: when I was a kid, we lived off the grid, in the mountains of West Virginia, we had no refrigerator, wood stove, ect. We had an old well with both a bucket and pitcher pump, drank dehydrated milk (eww), ate a lot of oatmeal (ewww), and peanut butter, and I remember the steel can of crackers (like 20 lbs of plain cracks). Things like spaghetti are good to keep in stock in general, and just rotate as you use.

 

[Soundguy]

During the hurricanes and non stop rain, when the power went down the first day, I set 5g plastic buckets out and with minutes had about 50g water.

I do have a well and pro Gen, but only used the Gen an hour a day to keep freezer com till perishables ran out, then we stopped wasting fuel.

Most days it rained so much, we just soaped up and walked out and washed, clothes too. Drying time was limited, so had to use the sunshine wisely.

We used pour type filter pitchers to filter the drinking water.

A long term plan would have to be different. I currently don't have in place a working long term water plan, but could implent my plan in a couple days while my emergency supplies hold.

 

[RDrancher]

Good subject, and one I'll be keeping tabs on. I'm actually in the process of purchasing a home and larger piece of land further out in the country, and preparedness is one of the reasons. I'm sitting here in my truck, waiting for loads and you got me thinking how unprepared I am right here. Five gallons of water, a sandwich, a roll of TP and a 30-30 in the back seat is not exactly prepared. But the TP does give me a little more self confidence.

 

[paulharvey]

Good subject, and one I'll be keeping tabs on. I'm actually in the process of purchasing a home and larger piece of land further out in the country, and preparedness is one of the reasons. I'm sitting here in my truck, waiting for loads and you got me thinking how unprepared I am right here. Five gallons of water, a sandwich, a roll of TP and a 30-30 in the back seat is not exactly prepared. But the TP does give me a little more self confidence.

When you work around paving crews, you learn to bring more than one sandwich, you might be at work 36 hours straight.


Which reminds me, instant coffee; it's nasty, but better than no coffee.

 

[riptides]

Interesting topic.

I have (and the family) survived two weeks without public utilities and transportation. Luck would have it we have two generators, that were used sparingly only to keep the fridge working and a few night lights.
So I have on stock:
3 5 gallon gas containers
2 5 gallon diesel containers
2 boxes of saltines
2 jars of peanut butter
10 cans of canned fish
3 jugs of water
toilet paper for a month
a 30k pool
1000 rounds of 30 cal
1000 rounds of 17HMR
1 chain saw with 3 spare chains
2 mean dogs
1 mean wife
2 cases of beer
a lot of batteries
an emergency radio of some odd make and fashion
basic food stock for two weeks, after that it is open season on wild game

On a serious side, I don't prep beyond two weeks as I would hope to be in touch with the media to figure out what is really coming at us, and hit the stores accordingly.

 

[paulharvey]

For a starter list, assuming your sheltering in place:

Water or a means to get and purify it (at least 2 gallons/person/day)

Cash

Non perishable or long life every day foods: pasta, canned foods, flour, sugar,

Life saving medication: COFFEE, and daily meds you need

First aid kit and if possible some vet antibiotics

Fuel to cook: propane, charcoal, wood,

Fuel for vehicle

"Prepper" food; MRE's, 1 gallon cans of spam, ect

Fuel for generator, if you have one

Toiletries

Kerosene lamp and/or heater and of coarse some Kerosene

Flash light, radio, batteries,

Self defense of your choice; I put it last because I could see a lot of people dying of thirst, sitting on their pallet of .22LR.

Edit: a "life straw" seems like a very good option, used in generally clean water, will purify enough for one person, for a year, for like $20-30

Re-edit: food for pets for 2 weeks, after that, sorry dog lovers, but... General Tso's anyone

 

[riptides]

.....
Re-edit: food for pets for 2 weeks, after that, sorry dog lovers, but... General Tso's anyone

Dang. Your tough.

My dogs can pull their weight, cats... well they do bring stuff up to the house. LOL

 

[s219]

For a food item, I'd recommend the dried noodles in a pouch -- there are several brands and many flavors. We used to get Lipton noodles for hiking, and it was a pretty darn good hot meal for the end of the day. Just add a little boiling water and follow the directions. Very simple and easy to pack with a long shelf life, but good. Also very lightweight, which make them a good camping option.

 

[Junkyard Jim]

A couple of people have mentioned it and I would just like to expand on keeping cash around. We have our "escape fund" or disaster fund in the gun safe. The wife asked one day if I wanted her to exchange some of it for bigger bills. I told her no, because if all we have is hundreds and twenties, then everything we buy will cost twenty or a hundred. I keep a lot of ones, fives and tens because a lot of people will not be able to make change when you need it. I have twenties and hundreds too, but I do not want to be pulling out a hundred dollar bill to pay for something that would normally be five bucks, but because it is scarce, it's going for five times that. If I pull a wad of ones and fives out and say it's all I got, then I may get what I need and still have some money.

I'm more worried about something happening locally and not being able to get out of the area due to bridges being out and having to hole up than anything else. Even with 4 wheel drive, it would be hard to evacuate some places if a couple of bridges go down. I just hope the neighbors are sort of prepared too, because I am one of those that will want to help others, but if push comes to shove, I'll take care of my own.

It's devastating to see what the fires have done to communities and I feel for those that have had to leave home in a hurry or weren't able to get home to get anything. When I watch the news footage, I am always looking to see if I can see a gun safe standing or fallen over and I haven't seen one yet. I hope it's that the owners didn't have one, but I would sure like to see how some of the models held up. I see washer and dryer shells, but I'd just once like to see a story of a home owner that went back and found his gun safe, opened it and all his guns and important papers and cash were intact. I paid extra for more fire protection on my safe, but right now, that protection is just a sticker that says it's protected.

 

[Soundguy]

coffee is a good one.

I forgot to mention in my post about the survival foods we tested, I bought a can of walmart coffee.. quart can like the old blue folgers.

metal can, metal top, plus a plastic top you put on after opening the metal one.

that can is dated as best by 2010.. meaning I likely got it in 08/09.

It is currently half full and setting by my coffee pot.

I found it pushed to the back of the cabinet a month ago, and decided to taste test that accidentally over-stored coffee. I'm happy to report that the now? 7y old coffee tastes just fine, and when i opened the sealed container it had the same robust smell as 'new' coffee. I half expected that though.

My FIL passed christmas of 2000 and when i was cleaning out his house, I found boxes of tins of coffee that were branded for airline use.. from an airline that had been out of business a couple decades. for the heck of it, I popped a few tins and the coffee was.... you guessed it.. smelling robust and fine at 20-30 ys old...

I have no idea how the man got the airline coffee.. couldn't ask at that point either....

 

[farmer2009]

Interesting and makes one think. As others it's not that I couldn't survive but I'd fall in the under prepared category. I don't store large amounts of canned foods or the likes but do keep enough on hand to make it a week or so. Winter is my big worry. I won't freeze to death in the summer.

In winter especially I keep at least a weeks supply of fuel for the generator. As all my heat requires electricity. Heat is my big concern during cold weather. I can live 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water, but will freeze to death in hours without heat. With heat I can purify water or melt snow.

I'm in the tornado zone. So summer time prepping is hard. As anything above ground can be blown away. Plans are for a root cellar or basement but it's not built. For this reason I had rather put my efforts into things that are portable. Knowledge mainly. Know how to read wildlife signs and set primitive traps. Snares, and dead falls. Even after a tornado one could still find cordage, rope or wire cable. And that 10,000 rounds of 22lr you had stashed may be in the next county or state.

This is something that each has to tailor to themselves and their families. Really there is no right or wrong way of disaster planning. Unless, your plan is to sit back and wait for big brother.

 

[Garandman]

At home in Boston we took heed from Hurricane Sandy, since we live right near the harbor and have an 11 foot tide normally. So the nightmare scenario is like the Blizzard of '78, very high winds, full moon high tides, and a lot of snow.

• Bought a family medical book because losing internet access is likely. And beefed up our medical supplies, especially things like splints and butterfly bandages. Took a three day "Wilderness Medicine" course because they assume you do not have access to medical facilities within 8-24 hours.
• For a week I paid for everything I bought with $20 bills, kept the change and put it in the safe. If power is down, so are registers and it would suck to pay $20 for a six pack....
• Had the house wired to run off the grid. We have two Honda EU2000i generators that can be daisy chained together or we can run one alone at night to keep the heat and fridge going (we have NG heat). They are very fuel efficient but we always keep enough fuel for 5-8 days of running.
• I buy staples that we use a lot of like pasta, canned meat, nuts etc and put them in the emergency pantry. We rotate them out every Fall and rotate the stock.
• We keep at least six quarts of motor oil on the shelf, as well as lube for the chain saw.
• The odds we could "bug out" from Boston are very low, except for some extreme weather event so we do keep lists of what we'd need so we could pack quickly.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Don't forget, the water in your water heaters is available. You likely have 40 - 80 gallons of emergency water on hand.

 

[paulharvey]

Don't forget, the water in your water heaters is available. You likely have 40 - 80 gallons of emergency water on hand.

If you see it coming, you can fill all the bath tubs, for emergency water, that should last at least a week. Doesn't help much with tornados, terrorism, and only if your not caught by the First wave of zombies.

 

[Soundguy]

Great posts, lotsa good points, lets keep this rolling. I found a gem in every post I read!

 

[Jstpssng]

I keep about 6 weeks worth of canned goods and pasta on hand at all times, rotating them out once a year. I started doing it after working a winter for a client who seemed to have problems paying their bills: I don't ever want to be that hungry again. (I later found that it wasn't the company, it was the person who was supposed to sign them... he didn't feel that it was important.)
Propane for cooking for a week or so, when that runs out I'll be cooking with wood. Probably sooner, because if it looks like the power will be out for a while I would dig out the pressure cooker and start canning the frozen meat. Water shouldn't be a problem, I keep several gallons on hand and just go up to the dug well and fill a bucket for cleaning and washing.
(Although I should have a backpack style filter, for long term outages.)

Coffee is something I've overlooked, but it can be kept in the freezer if you worry about it spoiling. I don't.

I would also need more reading material, preferably something which is good enough to be read twice. Also a deck of cards, and maybe a book of crossword puzzles.

 

[Garandman]

We keep three seven gallon Reliance water jugs at each house. Handy for camping or just to always have a supply.

 

[MossRoad]

Lots of folks worry about the power going out and no well water. A pill bottle on a string can bring up enough water to survive. Just takes a lot of trips up and down the pipe.

Someone mentioned tornadoes and it is kind of hard to run from them. Always store some basic hand tools in the basement and another set in the garage. If you don't have a basement, you should have a tornado shelter. Anyhow. Bottled water, some bleach, some hand tools, some dried foods, a first aid kit!, an ax!, waterproof matches, some cotton balls soaked in vaseline, and it can't hurt to have a bottle of multi-vitamins. You never know what your diet might have to consist of, and there might be a chance you won't be getting enough vitamins from eating the weeds in your neighbor's yard, so it can't hurt.

 

[CalG]

Lots of folks worry about the power going out and no well water. A pill bottle on a string can bring up enough water to survive. Just takes a lot of trips up and down the pipe.

Someone mentioned tornadoes and it is kind of hard to run from them. Always store some basic hand tools in the basement and another set in the garage. If you don't have a basement, you should have a tornado shelter. Anyhow. Bottled water, some bleach, some hand tools, some dried foods, a first aid kit!, an ax!, waterproof matches, some cotton balls soaked in vaseline, and it can't hurt to have a bottle of multi-vitamins. You never know what your diet might have to consist of, and there might be a chance you won't be getting enough vitamins from eating the weeds in your neighbor's yard, so it can't hurt.

Don't be worried about vitamins. It's CALORIES that are needed. If you are getting those, the body can do amazing things.

Not many calories in weeds. But I bet there are lots and lots of vitamins, and minerals too!