Are You Personally Prepared For a Natural Disaster?

Leaving out asteroids and the odd Lightning strike, I am fully prepared for any natural disaster coming to my way.

It took years to develop but my bug out kit is now complete- my cup of coffee, clean undies and a pocket knife.

I also try to leave the house with my pants on and both shoes tied but can make due regardless.













"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uprjmoSMJ-o

 

Don't be such a kill joy Whitey

I'm pretty well prepared, depends on the disaster. I've got about 200 gallons of fuel on hand, armed to the teath, after thats its food water and shelter. Shelter isn't to hard, camping gear if I had to but I've got friends in the country who I could always go stay with. That and they know I can fix just about anything. Food is whatever I can get my hands on, fresh water is about the only question, I've got several bottles of iodine pills around here somewhere. That and a ceramic water filter, just not sure where though. Haven't used them since two or three years ago.

I'm thinking you need a lot less than your thinking you do. Clothing might become an issue, depends on how much of it you can carry. Eventually, depending on how long the issue lasts, your going to need to be able to clean, repair and replace key clothing, like shoes and cold weather gear.

 

Our dog is so big

We can't eat her alone we must make a "banquet" and invite ,at less Asterix and Obelix !
But we never kill our dog even in very bad situation , I remember a story concerning Artics explorers , after lost all boat equipment etc, they walks to Siberia finally one day they push the captain to kill his dog and they eat this poor dog and they continue walking...
Few months later someone found their frozen bodies and when they read the log bock they saw : one or two days after kill the dog they pass very near a small village , but the walkers heard nothing, smell nothing ....and the dog was not here for smell the village ...

 

A boat gives you a chance to take more items of need with you. And if you cant take, or hide it you will have to destory it to help your chances. People who think they will take a load of guns to the woods and prosper will not last long. If you shot game others will hear and others will come. If they smell smoke they will come, if they hear you or see you they will come. If things get that bad then a boat will be a good place to be . If you cant be on a boat then think rat traps and piano wire and not lots of fire power on stored goods. Rick

 

Being prepared isn't so much about what you have on hand, so much as what your head is all about.

We see this here constantly, questions about simple problem solving issues, that with some real thought, they could have worked out, had they the mind set to do so. This is the real key. I'm also in a rural area, but all the equipment and supplies may become irrelevant under certain situations. The folks that can remain calm and solve problems and issues as they arise, typically with inventive or clever methods (duct tape), are the ones that will survive, not the folks that have generators and jugs of fuel.

I've noticed repeatedly, that there are those that are just destined to struggle and those that seem to rise up, when a struggle brews. The percentage of the two types isn't promising for the masses frankly, but our gene pool has been watered down sufficiently enough in the last 150 years, that this was bound to happen if mother nature elects to weed out the less hearty among the species. My other half is much like me in this regard, tackling the problem at hand and moving on, so we'll do okay, but out of 100 selected at random, it will be a surprisingly small percentage that actually can survive.

 

agreed, it boils down to the basics, food, shelter, water. After that I can deal with the more domestic stuff, better clothes more beer and comfort. The truck might become a liability, kinda like a boat. But it runs on home brewed fuels and it could be an electrical source once batteries are generally gone.

All I know is that mind set part is right on the money. You gotta want to survive, Most people will just sit and wait for relief to arrive. Prepared to me means an early start and having my own basics handy.

 

Some people like the "nenets" or "nenetses" are the few one can survive because they are self sufficients and already leaving in very hards conditions .
But until your are not injury or seek you can adapt to the news conditions.
For example this winter we do not heat our cabin and we sleeping weeks at 0°, living in deck salon at 12° and finaly it is not a problem at all (except for the ice on hatch, portholes ! ) and I must sleeping with wool on my (nice !) old skin head ....
And at this temperature our dog is very happy .

http://long-cours.62.over-blog.com/photo-1917001-100_0041_JPG.html

 

Par is right on , and longcours62 seems to be ahead of the game. But it is better to have some things on hand and not learning by mistakes which could be costly. Pre planning is a lot nicer than winging it. When the plan wont work then if you cant problem solve you are in trouble. Rick

 

If the crap really hits the fan, what you have on hand will likely not be especially helpful. At the very least you'll run out of whatever pretty quickly. No mater which situation you envision, you'll have difficulty carrying fuel, can goods, etc. so reliance on this type of preparation isn't nearly as helpful as you might think.

If you're away from your "stores" when the crap hits the fan, it's all meaningless. If these supplies get flooded, washed away, covered in a few yards of ash, etc. it's meaningless. The only thing we truly have is our wits and problem solving abilities. Intelligence in regard to survival with nothing or next to nothing, is your only real long term hope.

The best "preparation" is education and maybe some practice. Drive your car to the woods, get out and walk several miles into it, with nothing but a pocket knife and see how well you do, because this is about all you can expect, unless the crap hitting the fan, offers substantial warning prior to it's arrival on the blades, in which case you can prep up a rucksack.

 

PAR gets it.

 

I don't agree. It depends very much where you live and what the catastrophe is. What you propose is a very USA-centric point of view.

Where, for example, is the woods to wander into if you're Indian, Chinsese or Japanese WRT the population densities? Even European outside maybe Russia.

Unless it was a tsunami or massive sea level rise, I can see absolutely nothing that I'd gain in taking to the woods some 10 km or less from where I live over what I'd have simply by staying at home. Here I have shelter, food, water, limited power (generator), kerosene pressure lights etc (grid power sometimes goes off after all). I also have an excellent reference library and a lot of tools. Mentally, I'm prepared to walk away from the lot if I have to; there was a bushfire here a couple years ago that came to within 2 km of my place so I'd thought it through in advance. If I couldn't get out by road, I was heading for my sailing dinghy on the beach out the front. All I really need in that situation (bushfire) is my passport, wallet and a small backpack. Everything else can be replaced.

Note that in a bushfire, taking to the woods is about the worst and most stupid thing that you could do.

I've done the woods thing except I had a chainsaw and other basic hand tools. It's bloody hard work and I didn't have to hunt for my food supplies. No way would I do it if I had any choice.

PDW

 

Walk several miles through the east side of Washington D.C. after sundown, with nothing but money and see how well you do

Urban survival skills are critical, and will translate well in other situations when order is lost.

 

The one scenario that seems to have been assiduously avoided... When the world realises that 700trillion in CDO's, debts, fraud, monetary-manipulation and so on - - comes home to roost and the banks collapse, and all cash transactions cease as lack of confidence forces hyperinflation of all fiat moneys because too much as been (printed) circulated globally...

Some form of anarchy will prevail, stores will be empty, roads blocked, as everyone tries to "get away" or to find their family to get away together . . . . What a flaming mess...

Then what?

 

Best to do everything you can to keep things from collapsing. If things do, you're out of luck with everyone else. Collapse would be a much harder life than we live today.

Community will be key to survival.

 

I sit here at home and get on with life until things get sorted out. Not that big a deal.

It's only a software problem after all.

PDW