Last year I started a local Preparedness through meetup.com that meets once each month. As a result I've made some great new friends and become much more prepared. The whole process has really changed my life and our family for the better. Here are some things I've learned:
- The most important aspect to preparedness is physical fitness. (I alternate my days between swimming, weight training and sit-ups).
- Capture water in a rain barrel, filter it like so (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPENqD-V-TQ) and then boil it and you'll have all the drinking water you need (but use polyester 'batting material' rather than cotton for the filter material.)
- Before thinking about freeze-dried foods and MREs, start by packing 'beans and rice' in vacuum-sealed mylar bags and storing them in food-grade, sealed plastic buckets. A good first goal would be to have 3 months of food put back. (YouTube has some good videos on this.)
- A penny saved is another penny that can be spent on emergency food stores.
- Fully stock your pantry with canned good and be sure to occasionally eat from it (first in/first out).
- Propane is the ideal disaster fuel. Even your generator should run off propane.
- Only plan on "bugging out" if you have a location in mind to bug out to. The best destinations are small communities at least 150-200 miles from a major city.
- Identify central rendezvous locations and contact phone numbers for all family members. If traveling for multiple days pre-identify stopover locations.
- Be sure to store plenty of antibiotic ointment - preferably in cool/dry place. These ointments keep their potency well beyond their expiration date, and in a disaster situation can literally be more valuable than their weight in gold.
- Have a plan for defending and concealing emergency food stores. If you don't have a good guard dog, then install an alarm system.
The perfect preparedness group is the good ol' Boy Scounts (motto "be prepared"). So, if you want to be prepared, develop the "Boy Scout" mindset.
At our preparedness group meeting next week we have a professional self-defense consultant coming in to present on "self-defense with blunt and edged weapons", which I think will be tremendously interesting. Next month we're having a group picnic and having a local expert walk us through the local woods pointing out all the edibles growing in nature.
I believe the TV-program "After Armageddon" is (by far) the most realistic representation of what to expect from a major nation-wide disaster (forget "The Colony", that's kid stuff). This show is available as a series of 9 videos on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r97xoSOEjM).