I agree. Some would call my family preppers, but we live in an area likely to be devastated by a major earthquake. We wanted at least 2 weeks of supplies, water, etc in case of it. We actually were closer to a month. People thought we were strange, until toilet paper and meat shortages at our local stores this year. I have had a few friends ask me for advice on stocking up now.
We started back when we lived in the Midwest. We had a basic "tornado kit" in the basement (our first year, there were a bunch of tornadoes within 5 miles of our home) and then later, a blizzard knocked out power. Of course, the power company does the big city first, then works their way out to the country. Took us 3 days to get power back. We had propane, but the furnace needs electricity to start up the fan. The Well needs power to run the pump, etc. I was very eye opening to us.
I do a minimal amount of prepping. I always have 1 weeks worth of bottled drinking water. I try to always have one weeks worth of tinned food. I'm thinking of buying MRE style long lasting self heating packs.
I have a couple of boxes of candles, and a couple of boxes of matches.
I have a very basic fist aid kit.
My county flooded a few years ago and it caused a bit of havoc, even for houses that were untouched by floods.
yeah that's fine. i have food and water to last me 3 months. it's not the type of stuff I want to eat (classic emergency food that lasts for 30 years) but it's there. i also stock up on food regularly and i have a buffer where i could cook 2-3-4 weeks out of food that has a reasonable shelf life (think flour).
but this is just to absorb small bump. and i think it technically is called an emergency plan, not prepping.
I’d be more concerned about water TBH. Most of us carry a fair amount of fat, enough to survive several weeks without eating. Having rations available extends that timeline a lot. But without drinking water, that’s all moot, since you can’t survive long without that.
Really depends on your timelines. Prep for short-term disaster scenarios on a 1-2 week timelines should be manageable for most, and really we should all be doing it. Prep for longer timelines is much harder.
Everybody, anywhere in the world, should have at least 3 days supply of food and water stored at home for in case of emergency. Ideally, you should have it in a container, along with other emergency supplies such as a first aid kit, a radio, and a flashlight.
It is normal for emergency services or the military to take up to 3 days to get the essentials running again in the case of a natural disaster such as an earthquake.
When I used to live in an earthquake prone city, I always had a bag with a hard hat, gloves, a flashlight, and some other emergency essentials ready to go.
> Plenty of food and water to last at least seven days
I'm always a little bemused to see food and water given equal weight in preparedness recommendations like this. If you have no food at all for seven days, that won't really cause problems. If you're only planning for a seven-day emergency, there's no reason to store any amount of food.
If you have water for 7 days and food for 3 months, the lack of water will cause a lot of problems.
Not a prepper either, but recently our water turned brown and I realized how water-dependent we are.
Went out and bought two “life straws.” We have enough food to last a month without infrastructure just by virtue of large pantries, but when the water goes out, it’s gone.
My wife laughed at me, but from my perspective, if infrastructure is down for more than a month, I’m probably toast anyway. ;)
One key point that a lot of long term preppers make is that prepping with a LITTLE extra canned food is never a bad idea. Having the pantry stocked for a month, not a week.
It isn't about the survivalist fantasy of society crumbling into pieces over night, it is the idea of being prepared for those outlier systemic failures. A power failure for a few days, a flood, short term shipping delays etc.
As an aside, one thing they like to stress the most is, the single best thing you can do to be prepped is to be in as good of health as you can manage. If something goes down and you drop dead from a stress induced heart attack, all the other stuff is pointless.
I haven't done too much, but that's because I'm generally prepared with 2 months food/water supply for general purpose emergencies. Living in the Pacific Northwest, we're expecting a pretty large earthquake as we're statistically overdue. Once panic has set in, it's too late to prepare for much of anything. Preparing is taking action beforehand, not after. I mean, if we even get news of 100 degree weather in this part of the country, the air conditioners fly off the shelves. When there's a possibility of a snow storm, everybody panics at once and empties the grocery shelves.
> most amateur prepping is probably more on the scale of 72 hours-1 week
Three days is the minimum for any part of the country that gets blizzards. At this point, I've gone to a week since last winter I was stuck at home for 3 days.
> there probably isn't anyone alive today in the US who is ready to be entirely self-sustaining for six months.
No, there are folks who would be fine for six months. Heck, there are still folks in rural areas that you don't see coming back to town to buy supplies in six months. The country is pretty vast and still has a lot of rough edges.
There's a lot of ifs to all that. I think if I were going to do something to prepare for disaster, I'd have a big store of water and shelf-stable foods on hand first.
Basically every household should already have, regardless of the origin of the disaster: 1 month of clean drinking water or reliable (tested) filtration devices and a impure water source (local streams likely to have various bacteria that will make you sick). 1 month of food that requires minimum water and fuel to cook (quick oats > slow cook oats). Enough fuel to cook that food (most of your food should not require cooking). A reliable camping stove that you have already tested. Plenty of ways to start a fire/stove. Warm clothes, blankets, med kit, sleeping bags. Soap.
I've lived for 30 days in alaska on a glacier with only what I could carry in a large pack; water and fuel were the largest by weight, sleeping bag/tent/clothes were the largest by volume. By the end, campers had devolved into small groups of people who didn't share food.
Though "prepping" has gotten a bad reputation because of the folks going to extremes building underground bunkers, some level of preparedness is prudent.
Many government recommend at least three days' worth of supplies for self-sufficiency:
I tend to have a pretty good supply of things like TP, cleaning supplies, and standard dry staples like rice, in the house. I have the space and it's cheaper/easier to buy relatively large sizes. When things started to get a bit crazy, I stocked more in than usual (including some meats etc. for the freezer). And filled up a big water container.
But, really, my "prepping" was mostly around avoiding stores as much as possible and being able to handle broken supply chains and potential short-term disruption to utilities. I was actually without power for a couple days in June but that was because of a wind storm.
New England area of United States. Planning on minimal stocking basic items such as bottled water and foodstuffs. Maybe 1 weeks worth. No panic but my gut tells me to be prepared for something. It just makes me feel better
There are a number of reasonable scenarios where the worst is over after a few weeks. Earth quakes, solar storms, normal storms... Having a stash of food and water is not completely nuts.
My preparation so far is the same as earthquake preparation - to be sure that I have a supply of food and water for a few days. It seems like a pretty reasonable generic preparation for disaster. I am interested in doing more, but it isn't really clear to me what else would be useful.
Interesting. Here in Norway the recommendation has been to keep supplies for 3 days, including water, power supplies (battery banks), a radio with full batteries, heating and cooking possibilities and so on.
So I finally started and got some water storage etc.
I’m not prepping to live months in a shelter. I’m prepping so I wouldn’t be a burden on society at least for a week or two after a disaster.
reply