The top foods you should keep in case of an emergency

Real Simple Magazine via Yahoo ^ | 7/16/10 | Vanessa DiMaggio

[Kartographer]

Natural disasters--such as a flood, hurricane, or blizzard--often come without warning. Stocking non-perishable food items ahead of time (and choosing wisely what you include) will help you weather the storm with less stress.

By: Vanessa DiMaggio

Fueling your body during an emergency is very different from your everyday diet. Because you’ll probably expend more energy than you normally would, you should eat high-energy, high-protein foods. And because you have a limited supply, the higher-quality foods you eat--and the less of them--the better. “In a disaster or an emergency you want those calories,” says Barry Swanson, a food scientist at Washington State University . “You want some nutrients and some fiber—something to keep your diet normal.”

[huldah1776]

Chocolate has enough fat to balance it out with all the peanuts and other nuts in the trail mix. High fructose does me in many times more than white sugar. Sometimes I become a pure spiteful itch. So I am careful about when and what I eat. the fake pancake syrup on an empty morning stomach is a total disaster.

[appalachian_dweller]

Supplies alone will not save you. You MUST be psychically and mentally prepared to do whatever you must to keep you and your loved ones safe.

[mylife]

I agree.
Protein is a much needed component to the pantry

[Diggity]

There were my only vice in life(g).

[Cyber Liberty]

:^)

The hazards of being an unserious poster, like me...

[trisham]

That’s a great idea. Thanks!

[trisham]

Thanks. I don’t know what any of that means, but I will try to find that out.

[trisham]

I have to check out the night lights that stay on. We do have a crank radio, but the crank flashlights are a good idea too. Thanks!

[FourPeas]

Thanks for the link. For protein I store nut butters, canned meat, powdered eggs & milk, and of course the dreaded beans, as well as generous quantities of olive oil. Cheeses and butter are next on my list — my better half is lactose intolerant so they've not been high on the list. Thankfully, we live in an area where hunting and fishing could provide us with a good supply of protein and the associated fats.

[trisham]

Thank you! I’ve copied your suggestions and those of the other posters who responded to me. I’m very grateful to you all.

[little jeremiah]

I’ve seen hand pumps albeit expensive some places on the internet. Our well is 120 ft, too deep for regular hand pumps.

What we do, since we lived here without electric for a few years, is have storage tanks (about 3500 gallons altogehter, maybe up to 4500 if we fill everything) and a generator to run the well pump. Even with intermittent electricity, if people have storage tanks, they can have water when power is out. If we are very careful, we can last a few weeks with our tanks (little to no laundry or watering).

Catchment from rain is very useful, need tanks or cisterns for that. Good for watering.

I highly recommend Berkefeld water filters, no high tech, works for most things that can get in water.

I remember something about solar powered well pumps and I would like to find one.

[trisham]

Ping to post #150. I neglected to include you.

[libertarian27]

I just saw your locale - try the “Ocean State Job Lots” stores for the ‘crank’ lights/nightlights, etc. I’ve been very lucky in getting heavily marked down lights at these stores.

That’s also where I got a bunch of emergency/nightlight setups.

[kanawa]

Attention all shoppers
It’s Cancellation Day
Yes the Big Adios
Is just a few hours away

It’s last call
To do your shopping
At the last mall

You’ll need the tools for survival
And the medicine for the blues
The sweet treats and surprises
For the little buckaroos

It’s last call
To do your shopping
At the last mall

We’ve got a sweetheart Sunset Special
And all of the standard stuff
‘Cause in the morning-that gospel morning
You’ll have to do for yourself when the going gets tough

Roll your cart back up the aisle
Kiss the checkout girls goodbye
Ride the ramp to the freeway
Beneath the blood orange sky

It’s last call
To do your shopping
At the last mall

[trisham]

I’ve been to Ocean State Job Lots many times. Thanks!

[Kartographer]

No No No, don’t warn everyone! Someone has to stand on the bridge and wait for FEMA to come and save them!

[ReignOfError]

Rule #1: Store what you eat, and eat what you store.

Amazing how easily that gets lost in the flurry of people selling freeze-dried emergency rations. I think that was the point of the article -- basic emergency preparedness is something completely separate from stocking the doomsday bunker.

It's really simple: Just keep several days' supply of a few staples, and use the oldest (but not expired) ones first. My emergency diet would be a bit thin on meat (just tuna), but I have a pretty varied diet as long as I can find a means of boiling water. If the crisis lasts more than a couple of weeks, well, this area has a burgeoning squirrel and rabbit population.

I don't consider flour or corn meal emergency supplies, because I assume that in an emergency I'd only be able to boil water, if that. I'd add to your list:
- Ramen noodles, or cup-a-soup, or something of that sort;
- Ensure or Slim-fast or something of that sort, which is a meal replacement in a can, easy to chug down if you're ill, injured or just too busy to prepare a meal;
- Most importantly, potable water. One gallon per person per day.

One other tip: Ice. If you have an ice maker or ice trays, just get in the habit of filling any available space in the freezer with ice. It will keep your freezer cold longer in a power outage, you can use it in a good cooler for a couple of days, and the cost is infinitessimal. It's a luxury unless you have insulin or other meds that have to be refrigerated, in which case it's absolutely essential.

[Hugin]

One very important item I left off my list is some kind of vegetable oil or shortening. As long as I have a fire I can cook corn meal and flour. In the civil war, the Rebs lived mostly on corn meal. They made it into “smush”. They cooked some bacon or salt pork in a pan, then stirred the corn meal into the grease and cooked it. They either ate it that way, or molded it onto their ramrods and baked it over the fire.

Flour can be made into flat bread by mixing it with water and heating it on a frying pan or flat stone that’s been in a fire for a while.

[PA Engineer]

You can look at your circuit breakers and see if there is one or two for your well. This will tell you quickly if it is 120V or 240V. 120Volt is fairly easy to put together a backup system. 240V is more expensive (twice the cost) because instead of one "invertor" (this changes battery DC to AC) you may need to buy two units that are "stackable" (One controls the other to put out a total of 240V).

In 1998 I installed our system. Ours was a two invertor 240V system. The batteries are very large Troajan L16 heavy duty deep cycle lead acid batteries (8). There is also a 10 circuit transfer switch. When the power goes out you just go down and flip your switches over to the batteries. We determined which circuit are critical. For instance our refrigerator, deep freeze, well, garage doors, laundry and kitchen are tied into this breaker box.

We have a generator that runs to this switch and we run it about two hours a day to charge the batteries. When we are done charging we put the generator (on wheels) back in the garage.

The most difficult part of the system (maintenance) are the batteries. These need TLC. Ours are over 12 years old now and I have been careful to keep them "desulfated". There are actually units that will keep your batteries charged and desulfated for you now. I can explain desulfation in more detail later. This is the process that will kill even good batteries.

I have read many prepping threads and think it may be time to share these systems. They are not cheap, however they will also not necessarily break the bank. I have some time now to post the links it give some estimates for individual design.

This gives us peace of mind now. If the power goes out we don't immediately get that sick feeling in our stomachs and scream don't flush the toilets. That was a terrible feeling of helplessness. Now I just grumble about going to the basement to throw the switches. Our lives do not come to a halt.

[PA Engineer]

Cheeses and butter are next on my list

For your reference I will add that the butter is great. We gave up on store bought and find the red feather butter to be creamier. We also bought their canned Ghi (Ghee) clarified butter for popcorn (what they use to use in move theaters) and cooking. Clarified butter can be used for high temperature cooking.