Posted on 11/02/2012 9:10:40 AM PDT by Kartographer
Weekly Preppers'Thread to post progress, good buys, DIY projects, advice and ideas ...
thanx
I had read that it should be 1gal/day/person. Is that considered a lot? I imagine it’s for more than just drinking.
No, it isn't. One WaterBob (food grade bag with siphon pump to get out the water - $19.95), stores in a smallish box, designed to put in tub and connect to tub faucet, is 100 gallons of good water.
Canned heat and Sterno stoves is perfectly safe to use to heat and cook inside. They are the canned heat under food on buffets in restaurants.
I read of a 75 yr. old woman having to go down 14 flights of stairs because she had no water. One WaterBob would have given her 100 gallons. I so wish everyone in apartments (and houses) in that area had WaterBobs.
How could information get to people to know about these life saving items if they are not internet people? So many elderly have no idea what is available to keep them alive. Yes, I'm 80, but I'm not old yet. I know all this stuff, but they don't. It is so sad.
A little old lady in New York that lives on sardines, cheez whiz, and fruit cocktail, can easily prepare for a month by simply realizing that almost everything that she buys in cans, or in packages, like minute rice, and instant oatmeal, or raisins, or whatever the stuff that 80 year old New York widows eat in their 500 sq foot apartments, can be bought 6 months or a year in advance, and then rotated.
She can put 4 cases of bottled water away in the closet.
She can buy some LED lights, a sleeping bag, some winter clothes from the thrift shop, a single burner stove, and a few 1 pound bottles of propane, a jar of instant tea, a couple of bic lighters and a transistor radio, and some clean wipes and toilet paper, and she is prepared to sit out a month long emergency.
Maybe some of Marcella’s (#43) friends will read this.
Someone in these circumstaces isn't going yo be in a position to survive on their own for a year, granted...but how hard is it to fill part of a closet with enough supplies to last for a couple of weeks?
One or two people in a small apartment can easily store emergency supplies - just takes some creativity and a hard look at your lifetime accumulation of crap to date.
And that's the first step...simplify. Empty out the entire bedroom closet. Refill with ONLY what you wear and love. Get rid of everything else - no exceptions. I bet half the closet space is now available for emergency supplies. Repeat for coat closet and linen closet.
Repeat for every cupboard in the house. Is the food in the kitchen cupboard something you will actually eat? If not, donate it. How many dishes, mugs and plastic containers do you really need? If you're not sure, empty the whole cupboard, put back ONLY what you use and love and get rid of the rest. How many towels do you need? How many sets of sheets? Scale down and find room for extra medical supplies. Ladies, how many unloved beauty products are cluttering up the cabinet? How many hair toys to you actually use?
Think about your furniture. Do you have a dresser? Pull out the bottom drawer. I bet there's enough room under there for several rows of cans. We are always looking for furniture that is multi-purpose...foot-stools that also can be used as end tables (the top flips) and have storage inside. A sofa-bed with storage underneath for extra blankets. Even our luggage is used as storage when not being used as luggage.
Google "Waterbrick" and "Waterbob" and find solutions for emergency water supplies that take up very little room. Stock up on small serving freeze-dried foods from your local camping supply store (practice heating and eating some to find out if you could stand it in an emergency). Buy a few at a time - you don't have to buy everything at once.
I guarantee that if you (you being anyone out there reading who has no idea where to start) faithfully start prepping a step at a time and make an effort to continually increase your knowledge on prepping, you will start getting more and more creative ideas for your own living space.
“Seems like it would be really hard to be a prepper if you lived in a 10th floor flat in the city. Those are the kind of people that probably need info and help a lot.”
You’d have to adapt to the circustances, but I think it’s doable. Instead of a generator, you do batteries.
I was doing pretty good with the old lady theme until I got to the one burner stove and propane, most old ladies eyes would glaze over when hearing those words.
I own about 15 various backpacking stoves, but this one is my emergency backup for house cooking, it is easy and clean, and just like a regular stove, the little, one pound bottles of propane can be stored forever, without fuss or muss, suitable for grandma.
And if there’s no room in the closet, try under the couch, bed, or coffee table.
Something I haven’t seen discussed much and is very viable for water... a rain barrel or cistern. During a hurricane it’s get filled up toot-sweet. A strainer plus coffee filter plus iodine or bleach and you have potable water. Or use clear plastic water bottles on the roof.
Mormons do it as a way of life, next time you are in a young Mormon couples, tiny apartment, ask them where they keep their one year supply of food.
They store their wheat and other goods by incorporating it into the furniture sometimes, like end tables, they figure out ways.
I don’t know any Mormons, but if I ever meet any, I will ask.
I would never be interested in that, it is the kind of item that will show up in the garage sales for 50cents in a few years.
Here is a light that everyone should have on their key chain (especially New Yorkers, I sent my son one), and it is great for using as a lantern in a blackout, and it uses a single AAA and the output is regulated to maintain a consistent brightness. This light will burn for hours from what you thought were dead batteries from other devices.
http://www.fenix-store.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_420&products_id=2868
Here is a killer light that is also regulated to give the same brightness for 31 hours from 4 AA batteries, it is also versatile enough to give other brightness options for searching, signaling, etc.
http://www.fenix-store.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_420&products_id=2933
I have heard you can make your own sterno with cheap vodka and wax or something...
Also, if there is spousal disagreement on the relative priority of preparedness, the mess in parts of NY and NJ is a good, real-world justification for extra supplies and equipment. There is no reason to refer to particular forms of social collapse, TEOTWAWKI, or the like. Preparations for one emergency are preparations for all.
I'm fortunate that I can make quantities of potable water and have lots of non-potable water from several sources around.
/johnny
Already have a few, but a few more wouldn't hurt .. tho NOT at $4.79, thanks
I have heard you can drink the cheap vodka if you squeeze the sterno through a dirty sock...just saying.
When the grid goes out, how do you recharge the batteries? Solar? Hand crank? Shake?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.