.....I bought this a month ago for backup heat, it works;Preppers’ PING!!
And better to have too much than too little. If in doubt, buy it if you can afford it. Today I bought 12 pairs of socks that I wont need until 2015 at the earliest.
I get a good laugh at these people. After the forest fires, floods and freezing here my last few years has been a disaster. I am prepared so it is at worse and inconvenience when the Post Office has been closed going on 6 months and the government is taking credit with fixing everything but I just set back and anticipate what will happen next.
“They had a well but no way to pump the water.”
One of the most common mistakes I see people make is failing to keep an adequate supply of potable water around. When you see panic buying at the grocery stores, people are scarfing up the bread, eggs, and milk (i.e. the “French Toast Strategy”), but you rarely see them investing in a carboy of water.
Of course, panic buyers aren’t really preppers, but I’d wager even people who think they are fully prepared (but aren’t) make that mistake. In the last five years, I’ve only lost power for an extended period once, but I lost water twice, including once last month (water main broke in my neighborhood). Life begins to suck very quickly when you don’t have water to brush your teeth, to cook some noodles, flush your toilet, or (most importantly) just to drink.
No way they are ready for zombies.
Ping
We just went through that. 4 days without electricity. Had everything I needed and didn’t suffer. We did have the belt break on the generator and didn’t have a replacement for that. Had all the food we needed. Fireplace to keep the house warm and plenty of firewood to cook with and also a gas grill. Have 1000 gallons of water with a solar charged 12 volt pump. All in all pretty happy with what we had but will have replacement belts added.
The best survival plan is to live it. For the most part, whatever you need or do should be continuable regardless of shot term resupply. Wood fires keep going when electric or gas shuts off. Solar-augmented electric keeps going so long as usage is tempered. Pantry & freezer shouldn’t empty for a month.
It’s the stuff you never use that won’t work or be edible when you need it.
Sure, if the people had something that is better than nothing but this man was putting forth they would be prepared if they followed his list of advice - he is fairly clueless giving others advice.
You said: “Practice...Practice...Practice”
I don't have to practice as I've been through enough hurricane powerless days to make those adjustments where I noticed small problems and fixed them.
It depends on what standard of living you want to preserve as to how much you have to prepare. I have duplicated everything except for cold air or heat coming out of the air conditioning and having a refrigerator run. I solved the refrigerator problem by having food that doesn't require adding anything to it that would be in a refrigerator and preparing it in qualities so it would be used that day thereby not needing to be refrigerated for the next day. To reproduce cold air, I have battery fans. To reproduce heat, I have an indoor approved propane heater with small canisters of propane and sleeping bags good down to 0. The propane can be used up but the sleeping bags will be here to wrap up in day or night. For other minor heating or light or warming food, I have enough jar candles that fit under Sterno stoves if needed, to last a year.
Let me also say men think they have to cook outside when power goes off, so they drag out the charcoal cooker and that is not what you need. I can cook inside my house for a year before I even have to think of outside. Prepare coffee and breakfast inside the house just like I do it now.
Here's a story of a person who can't be helped:
Hurricane comes through and I use canned heat and Sterno stoves to prepare coffee and breakfast. The lady across the street sees my husband drinking coffee and asks how he can have that. So, he comes in and pours a hot cup for her and takes her a can of canned heat and a Sterno stove. She was glad to have hot coffee but wouldn't take the canned heat and Sterno stove because she had never used one and was afraid of it and didn't want to listen to how to use it because it scared her so much.
It was just a freaking can of canned heat and little stove and the canned heat is used under chaffing dishes and in food buffets all the time. She ate cold sandwiches until power came back on and we gave her a cup of hot coffee every morning. She will not survive if there is an emergency that lasts for many days. She doesn't have common sense to evaluate what is scary and what can be helpful. If I had never seen a can of canned heat and a Sterno stove and was in the condition she was, I would have said, “Show me how to use this”, if I couldn't figure it out by myself. She is not old and feeble, she is in her late 40s or early 50s and is a banker who handles large sums of money every day. And, she is scared of a can of canned heat and a Sterno stove.
.....I bought this a month ago for backup heat, it works;We lose power several times a year on the average. Anywhere from a few hours to a day or two. After 15 years, we’ve had plenty of practice. It’s pretty much business as usual for us.
Life sure got a whole lot easier since the local water company finally put in a fuel tank for the big backup generator that runs the community well head pump.
Total crock of BS. Every crisis needs something different. Heat isn't needed unless it's cold outside. Water isn't needed if you can use a manual pump or run a cup down the well. A generator isn't needed if others can hear it and if you have enough canned goods to last through the outage and if you want to cook then put your kids to work on making a simple solar oven which will work even in cooler weather as long as it gets the sun's rays.
The author makes it sound as if you have to be 110% prepared with everything imaginable. Well, if that's the case then I might as well just throw up my hands and quit right now. Just point me in the direction of the nearest bridge so I can beg a luke warm bottled water from the msm stationed there.
I have a sailboat equipped with solar panels, a reverse osmosis desalinator (Water maker), loaded with a year’s supply of food, full fuel and water tanks and a few other essential items. I think I am pretty well prepared.
BUMP!
They are calling for tornadoes in the Ohio Valley this Thursday night. Our town gets hit by one about every two years, and it has been just over that since the last one struck.