National Preparedness Month

September is National Preparedness Month.  Many of the local Emergency Management Agencies are planning some sort of shindigs to get the word out to "Be Prepared."

Also, many of the local/county EMAs have free classes to certify you as a type of first responder to help in emergencies.

Just a reminder to make sure your pantry is stocked, you have at least 3 days of water, you have non-electric heat sources, & other items to keep you safe in a power outage or natural disaster.

Thanks for the reminder, Marie, need to do better on the water....

I was talking yesterday to our county EMA guy and FEMA put out a report recently that 90% of folks are not prepared at all!  And I would guess that water is the worst.  We just take it for granted that water will come out when we turn the knob...

We've got 2 330-gallon tanks I use for the garden.  That's our emergency backup.  We have one student who has a 17k gallon pool that they treat some way without bleach products that will be their backup if it becomes necessary.

Ya know, I thought about the pool, 10000 gallons, but I use chlorine. It dissipates quickly however.

you might consider a Berkey water Purifier for your pool water.

We've got one of the big Berkey's.  I would recommend it as well!

I've spent the last 2 smokey days cleaning my computer/junk/storage room and finally found these emergency homemade "Sterno" cans I made a couple years ago.  Tuna or cat food can, strips of corrugated cardboard and one "slab" of melted paraffin per can.  I tried out one of the cans and it took a few seconds for it to catch fire, but when it did, it was hot!!

I found the box of emergency stuff, which is fine to store, but also the My Patriot Supply seed cans of veggie, herbs and medicinal herb seeds.? When I bought them, it was just to have survival seeds. I had no idea I would run across this Forum and actually garden!! I now have a real, live seed supply that is good for this area. As far as veggies, I now know what I want to eat and what grows in this environment. Maybe I will play with some of the unusual herbs next summer.

Sanderson, those are great!

CC & I (CC - that was you, wasn't it?) were talking last winter about heating if her electricity went out.  She found some good ideas on Youtube.

sanderson wrote:I've spent the last 2 smokey days cleaning my computer/junk/storage room and finally found these emergency homemade "Sterno" cans I made a couple years ago.  Tuna or cat food can, strips of corrugated cardboard and one "slab" of melted paraffin per can.  I tried out one of the cans and it took a few seconds for it to catch fire, but when it did, it was hot!!

Good memory, Marie!

Sanderson, these are for cooking, right?  Do they smoke?  Seems like cardboard would smoke.
The ones I found on YouTube puts a roll of TP into a coffee (or such) can, then pour in some alcohol and light.  It's for heating.  If you want to try it, get the instructions first as one alcohol works best. (who knew there are 3 percentages - they all look alike to me)

I figure I can use what's left in our large water heater for back up if something happens to the city water lines.

CC

CC, I think they were designed for cooking. I was just tinkering around with prepping and buying interesting little things that don't require electricity. I made a 2"+ binder for "how tos" I printed out. Cardboard solar oven, solar dehydrator (now modified for summer use), gardening (ha ha), etc. I just wanted to know if I could prep. I had just received the inheritance and probably spent about $300 on My Patriot Supply thingies and eBay primitives.

Just a note. I had all these things and we were having dinner with another couple, discussing prepping. I mean, don't all diners discuss prepping? It was October and the question was: how long would it take from Day 1 in, say, October to have the first garden produce? That lead to how many months of stored food would be required to make it to the first fresh produce? 6 months, 10 months? I tripped over SFG online and here I am.

How fortunate for the rest of us here on sfg forum Sanderson.  Being prepared is always in our consciousness, with hurricanes threatening and all.  One of our aims is to nurture stuff that grows underground, like kalo (taro), cassava, root vegies, so whatever the big winds take we might have something to partake of.  

I have  a prepper site that emails me often and I pay attention to their ideas.    In the past, before Y2K, we stored buckets of grains and beans.  Eventually had to toss most of them but what is insurance for anyway?

I have a few things stuffed in a draw but I know I have many things missing.

In the draw is a collection of heirloom seeds, 20 different kinds, all sealed in foil etc.,
they are supposed to be good for twenty years.
A few candles.
A windup battery operated radio.
Some batteries that I do replace as I use them.
About twenty packets of Folgers coffee that someone gave me.
Some dehydrated food.

I have a long way to go.

Thank you, Rosina.

KJ, Add a flashlight, matches and a pot to boil water and you will have more than many people.

Consider a rocket stove.  uses twigs for fire.

For some reason, I can't find all sorts of preparedness items in China. 

Oh wait, since it's National Preparedness Month and I'm in another country, I don't need to be prepared, right?

Guess I'll see what I can find while I'm on my trip.

LOL, EL!  Of COURSE you need to be prepared...  But you know that!  You might check out the SHTF prepping website.  They've got all sorts of cool, relatively inexpensive ideas for all sorts of things!

I know many of the respected women of the tribes peoples would have 1-2 years worth of food on hand.  The Mormons recommend 1-5 years.

We've probly got 6 months worth right now.  But we also have friends/family who say they're coming to our house if anything happens...  Even tho we've told them that we, the food & water, and guns & ammo probly won't be there, lol.

Since fall is coming on, we pulled out our go-bags the other day & made sure everything was up to date.  Whenever we go further than 5 miles or so from the house, we make sure to have them.  Especially in winter!  We've got 2-3 days worth of food, water, essential clothing, shelter, fire starters of various types, med kits, etc. in backpacks.  That should get even me home from downtown if I get stuck there.

sanderson wrote:

KJ, Add a flashlight, matches and a pot to boil water and you will have more than many people.

Oh yes, I do have flashlights as well.  Then also there is tinned food that I rotate and the stuff I have been canning these past five weeks, although I am sure I will soon get fed up with apple sauce.

All this is something I intend to work on during this fall and winter and start reading up a bit more about it.

It is when I start to read up about how many calories each person needs per day to keep reasonably well fed that I realise the enormity of the job required.  I guess if you have nothing, it is best to start with 72 hours supply then graduate to a week then a month etc.

You're exactly right, Kelejan!  Start small & work your way up.

For those who are having to really pinch pennies, start with a bag of beans or rice every time you go to the grocery.  If you have a Sam's membership, a 4 lb box of salt is CHEAP!  And it doesn't go bad...

We then split them into sizes good for us.  I seal-a-meal 1 cup of dried beans.  That will give us at least one feeding each.  We've got spices split into about 1/3 cup packages, sugar/salt/whatever split into packages that will fit the containers we have for them.

I bought a few things from: http://www.mypatriotsupply.com/
The photos give a good idea of what one may want, even if it's not from their company.

I am a survivor of a Earthquake .......1933 in Long Beach California     6.3 if I remember right.....it was a small town then and no building codes ...5 min to 6pm .....over a hundred people were killed,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,we lived on the curb of our street for 2 weeks.....all the after shocks and talk of a tidal wave......grr......my school was destroyed  bad memories........so I try to tell people to be prepared for the worst .....water and food......so hopefully they have done something......for almost every day there is little tremors......

For those who want to know more about the 1933 earth quake that Tabletopper referenced.   I'm sorry you had to go through it.  Water, food, flashlight, candles and blankets for 3 days.   http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=long+beach+earthquake+1933+pictures&qpvt=long+beach+earthquake+1933+pictures&qpvt=long+beach+earthquake+1933+pictures&FORM=IGRE

I had the good fortune to come through Hurricane Iniki  (September 11, 1992) with my friends.  We broke into a concrete block house that we were in the process of renting and I remember fondly our huddling around eating fudge (I had just terminated my fudge business) and drinking rum.   The creatures were in their carriers in the bathrooms.  We did not have plywood on the windows and it was a wonder to look out and see roof tops blowing away and horses with their rear ends toward the winds.  

The lanai roof on our house had blown over to the front but there was minimal damage.  Our power was restored sooner than some since our utilities were underground. One of the happy memories of that time was the absence of noise in the air -- until the darned generators went on a few days later. The military came soon and provided water and MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). We have gone through plans of what we will do when the next one comes, which is over due.  Carriers for cats and chickens, lots of water, plenty of food, propane stoves filled.  

We have been fortunate so far this season with the weather fronts going north and south of us and just providing wonderful rain.  But hurricane season is until November so we are not being complacent.

Friends, fudge and rum!

Wow, Tabletopper....  Thank you for sharing that with us.  Nothing like a bad experience to get you motivated!

We felt our first tremor about a year ago.  An earthquake hit SC & passed thru our home.  Very disconcerting...  I know we've had them before, but I had never felt one.

Table topper, you must have been about eight years old, plenty old enough to have lots of vivid memories of that event.  I was six years old when the bombing of London started so I have plenty of memories as well.