Be Prepared

[Gypsy]

Thanks TR! Roger on the candles. I do have a couple of good strong flashlights, (2 is one and 1 is none ) batteries and a micro on the key chain which I love. Good idea for the lantern though, much safer.

I think adding a shovel is top of the list tomorrow. Had one and I think it got lost in my move. Too much "black ice" on the roads yet tonight so I came home straight away instead of stopping for one.

Gypsy

Don't forget to carry a bag of salt or sand in the trunk.

A

[Gypsy]

Oh yes, good point A. I do have a bag of salt in the trunk.

[JPH]

Down in SW Missouri we made out ok, or at lest my loved ones and myself. We had the ice then snow mix which is making it hard for the state and city to clear but we are fine.

When the info hit me that this was going to be for real I felt the need to “run around” and get ready but I guess a mix of this thread and my own preparations and lifestyle made this “running around” pointless. I was thinking of tons of things “I should get read”, but every time I when to check the stock of this or the placement of that… it was already there, so I went to get just a few basics, gas and bread… ended up only needing 4.5 gallons or so, and that was filling up to the top of the fill tube.

Like I said we didn’t fine our selves snowed in completely or anything, but I think we would have been fine.

We did loss power for a few hours at the girlfriends apartment, but I hung some LED micro lights that have click on buttons, not the ones you have to hold in your teeth, from the ceiling in the living room and we were GTG.

Thanks everyone for the info in this thread, lets keep it alive so we can all learn from each other before one of us or all of us really need it.

JPH

[The Reaper]

We have touched on this before, but it bears repeating.

You have to do a good analysis of what your threats are with respect to likelihood and severity and make plans accordingly.

Location is one major factor. If you are living in So Cal, a wind driven event is unlikely. In South Florida, an earthquake is pretty low on the list to be concerned about.

Seasonal events are another. This time of year, a winter weather disaster is much more likely than a hurricane or tornado.

If I lived in the UP of Michigan, I would be a lot more concerned right now about shelter and warmth than if I lived in Arizona, where potable water might be a higher priority.

Never forget that among the most likely and catastrophic disasters are manmade, like house fires, car accidents, crime, and health events like heart attacks. They are much more likely than the TEOTWAWKI scenarios. There is little better use of your time in preparing for disasters than a good assessment (followed by miitigation or appropriate training) of your fire risk, driving skills, vehicles, and their maintenance, crime prevention posture (the cops will normally do an assessment of your home for free), and taking care of your health and meds, to include taking CPR, PHTLS, or TCCC training.

You should not acquire firearms for defense unless you can honestly state that you are willing to take another human's life to save your own or another's. If you are, don't just collect them, learn to use them effectively. You would be much better off with one firearm that you use well than a closet full but are a threat to yourself and others with them. I would much rather have a neighbor hitting what he was aiming at than dumping a mag out the window at noises in the night. If you are not willing to use them, better not to have them around to be used on you.

Those who have experienced a disaster, lost power, or been stranded (even in an airport) should feel free to chime in with what was good and bad about their plans, preparations, and gear. It could be very beneficial to someone else.

TR

[jasonglh]

CPR, PHTLS, or TCCC training.

I knew what CPR and PHTLS stood for (Prehospital Trauma Life Support)

I believe PHTLS is for advanced practice EMTs and EMT-Ps and that BTLS (Basic Trauma Life Support) is the entry level class for regular EMT's and First Responders.

I will admit I had to google what the last class was:

Tactical Combat Casualty Care

Anybody have anymore advice, information, experiences, etc., etc? This thread should not die.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by MAB32

Anybody have anymore advice, information, experiences, etc., etc? This thread should not die.

Got a ton of it, but I am tired of being the only one contributing.

Others need to step up and offer their opinions.

If Mr. Kim had been a reader of this thread, I doubt he would have gotten lost, or died.

TR

[Monsoon65]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

If Mr. Kim had been a reader of this thread, I doubt he would have gotten lost, or died.

TR:

I was talking to my girlfriend about Mr Kim this afternoon and mentioned this very thread to her with the same comment. He'd have had a fighting chance if he read a tenth of the information posted here.

I'm going to see if I can come up with some info on how to keep anything fresh long term; that's what's got me stumped at this time.

[PSM]

I’ll step up and contribute to the emergency/survival ration question, but it took time to build my bunker. Fruitcake. (It is that time of year.)

I’m serious, but I hear the distant thump of incoming indirect so I’m defilade.

Pat, out!

Originally Posted by The Reaper

It occurs to me that in a disaster, there are going to be a lot of hungry people from here after the brevity of the food discussion, but if you guys are ready to move on, so be it. The next topic listed was sanitation. That is not just washing clothes, but includes waste disposal (both garbage and bodily waste), body sanitation, personal hygiene, household cleaning (of potentially contaminated materials or patients) with a limited supply of materials, is going to be a real challenge.

Frankly, I wish there was a way to get the 5 gallon buckets or Superpails of hard white wheat, beans, powdered milk, sugar, etc. delivered to the East Coast for less than the cost of the product, but that appears to be a briddge too far. I got a great deal on a hand/electric mill, but seem to be unable to get a good price on delivered things to grind in it. Working on it, but not much success thus far. Has anyone in the mid-Atlantic had success with this problem?

I also have been toying with a vacuum sealer and will soon be using it to can quart jars of dry foods for extended storage. The wife likes the way it vacuum seals bottles of white wine so that they do not go bad in a few days.

I have a few freeze-dried meals and some MREs, but that is only adequate for a few weeks unless you are rich or deployed with a never ending supply of them. It would be acceptable if you knew that you were only going to have to be ready for two to three two-week cycles of limited to no supply before things returned to normal. The problem is that once the crisis is over (assuming that the knuckleheads do not burn, destroy, or loot the fixtures from every store in the area) almost everyone will start to buy excessive amounts of supplies and hoard the food that the stores do manage to get in, further exacerbating the shortages. I have seen this overseas, during disasters in CONUS, and anyone south of the Mason-Dixon line has seen it anytime the weatherman predicts any amount of snow, however slight. I also lack the storage space for a years worth of MREs for a family of four.

A multi-layered system of preparedness is the solution, with stockpiles of regular food, freeze-dried, prepackaged or shelf stable (like MREs), bulk commodities (like the Superpails or dry goods), and as a final resort seeds, traps and snares, a good .22LR, etc. forming a tiered solution-set for dealing with long-term food requirements. You will need the appropriate cooking containers properly suited to you=our Add to it as your budget allows. Don't wait too long to get started.

Like many, I can afford to lose 25 pounds over a month or two. How many want to see their kids losing that kind of weight, or crying themselves to sleep at night as they are hungry and starving? We are only a few days from that possibility at any given time. Look at your preparations, then at your cupboard, and think about it. If every town in the US was like New Orleans after Katrina (minus the flooding), where do you think the help will come from? Sad fact: It probably isn't coming. You need to be prepared to live for as long as you can with what you have, for several months or more.

Be prepared or be sorry when it is too late.

TR

I'm going to address this question from my personal situation. Obviously, that won't work for all, but it may give some ideas of alternatives that are appropriate for others.

In High School and College, I worked summers for a local farmer who raised corn, soybeans, had some chickens and some pigs (the latter for his family's consumption, not for sale) and some milk cows. For all intensive purposes, the farm had the capability to be self-sufficient if necessary (or at least far more so than most), and I had developed skills that would hopefully make me an asset to the owner of that farm.

Since that time, each time I have lived somewhere (except for my time in the service), I have looked for a similar situation within possible travel distance, somewhere that sustenance farming is possible and where I could be an asset to the people who hold the land (possibly helping them to hold the land).

My current situation makes that easier. Most of Thailand is still rural and most farms are still arranged as sustenance plus (meaning they provide the needs for sustenance of their owners, and sell the surplus in one crop, usually rice). My in-laws own a very large farm that operates in this manner. They grow rice and corn for sale, but also have various fruit trees, cows, water buffalo, dogs, pigs, chickens and even raise shrimp and fish for their own use. I can and have been useful to them in dealing with the corn, cows and dogs... and should the worst sort of collapse occur, hopefully could be of help in defending the farm and its products.

Preparation can be more than physical preparation, it can also be cultivating relationships and allies that could make a difference in hard times.

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by MAB32

Anybody have anymore advice, information, experiences, etc., etc? This thread should not die.

Then let's break it up by theme. Such as Be Prepared for:

Be Prepared for lost alone while hunting.
Be Prepared: Lost in auto with family. Lost in cold, wet temperate forest, lost in hot dry desert, lost in snow, etc etc.

I'm sure everyone can think of a situation they'd like to know about. Ask and we'll chat about each and every one.

We can also start a forum such as "Be Prepared" with sub topics.

Thoughts?

TS

[Pete]

I see the two issues as going hand in hand.

Prepared is looking ahead and planning for potential problems while fieldcraft is the ability to put the preparations into action.

As with Mr Kim, a small get-away bag in the trunk of the car that contained a small tarp/plastic sheet, some foil emergency blankets, one surplus wool blend blanket, candles, matches, soup mixes, small pot, signal mirror, road flares and a few odds and ends to fill up a gym size bag would have helped their situation.

They would have been able to move out of the car and set up a make-do shelter under the small trees. This would have saved the gas and tires allowing them to drive out when the snow had melted. If you notice from the pictures, the roads were almost clear and melting fast when the car was found.

Pete

[Monsoon65]

"Frankly, I wish there was a way to get the 5 gallon buckets or Superpails of hard white wheat, beans, powdered milk, sugar, etc"

Would it be too expensive to make something like that yourself?

I was thinking about this over the weekend. How about vacuum bagging rice (for example). Several bags of a certain amount that you think you'll need. Place that all in a five gallon bucket and seal that.

When you have to open the bucket, it's all pre-packaged and ready to go. Maybe if you can't reseal the bags, you can have a small container to put the loose food into for use.

I've been looking into vacuum sealers for a while now. I think they'd be a nice addition for storing food.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Monsoon65

"Frankly, I wish there was a way to get the 5 gallon buckets or Superpails of hard white wheat, beans, powdered milk, sugar, etc"

Would it be too expensive to make something like that yourself?

I was thinking about this over the weekend. How about vacuum bagging rice (for example). Several bags of a certain amount that you think you'll need. Place that all in a five gallon bucket and seal that.

When you have to open the bucket, it's all pre-packaged and ready to go. Maybe if you can't reseal the bags, you can have a small container to put the loose food into for use.

I've been looking into vacuum sealers for a while now. I think they'd be a nice addition for storing food.

I have a vacuum sealer and some five gallon buckets, and know where to get oxygen absorbers. I also understand that local LDS churches have canneries and let outsiders use them when they do not need them.

The problem is that you have to have the stuff that you are going to seal on hand.

Since I am not making powdered milk, or granulated sugar, or processed hard white wheat, or dried pintos, you still have to get them shipped to you, which might as well be in the final packed configuration. Shipping charges are horrendous. The alternative is that I understand if you buty a minimum amount, they periodically send trucks out on the circuit route for semi-local deliveries, but the chearges are only reduced somewhat, and am not able to fill half of my garage with bulk food.

Anything that you can get in bulk locally could be packed as you suggest fairly easily, packing materials (buckets, bags, absorbers, etc.) and instructions are available online.

I suppose that you could configure buckets with a variety of staples configured as you desire (making acquisition easier as well), but I have not seen that done before. For maximum shelf life, the products still need to be kept in a cool, climate controlled environment, like a basement.

Good thinking though.

TR