Natural Disaster Self Defense

[Bill Mattocks]

Watching the horrific tragedy unfold in Puerto Rico made me think of a couple things.

1) clean water and the ability to purify bad water.
2) food stocks.
3) cash money.
4) firearms.

#3 I hadn't given a lot of thought to until I saw what's going on. Assuming civilization hasn't gone completely walkabout, when the infrastructure is down, cash is king. If civilization is gone or lawlessness runs rampant, then #4.

There's more of course but these are top of mind.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Oh, and a stockpile of medicine if you need it. If you need powered medical devices or refrigerated medicine, then we're talking generators and fuel as well.

 

[ballen0351]

Ive been thinking about this same topic for a few weeks now. I def. need to get more prepared.

 

[ballen0351]

Wasnt there a poster here that started his own Prepper forum?

 

[drop bear]

For no 4 I am more about being able to lock my stuff up rather than shoot people. But horses for courses.

I think a lot of crime is theft of opportunity. If I left my generator out it would probably go. But it is unlikely someone is going to kick my door down and beat me up for it.

And so it is locking up kind of stupid things I would not normally bother with.

Otherwise. Fuel is really usefull. Cars generators chainsaws.

Phone battery is important. Think about just these normal things like being on the line to the insurance company. With no battery. I have a spare cheap phone for cyclones. And the less a phone does the longer the battery. Also the obligitory calls to family to tell them you are not dead.

I did all my cooking on one of these little stoves. They are really good. Have a barbecue lighter stored with it.

A decent cooler is pretty usefull. (I still have to get one so it locks to the back of my car.

A big bottle of hand sanitizer is good. especially if you want to save drinking water.

A camp shower would have been good. (I picked one up after the cyclone because I was getting all sorts of seedy)

Good gloves, shoes, clothing that sort of thing. (I had a hard hat but didn't really need it)

I did wind up not really needing but using a decent bottle of rum to score a parking space for my brother. (He was going to do it anyway but I just did not want to be a dick)

Hand powered cleaning stuff. like a vacume cleaner.

And yes as much water as you can stock.

 

[drop bear]

One of the things you want to be able to do is still go to work. Otherwise it is just another hassle down the line when you have this big bill from not working and buying a bunch of crap.

And that means showers and washing and transportation and food.

 

[jobo]

it really depends how bad you thing things will be and how long you think it will take the powers that be to get their act together, here in the UK, we don't have much in the way of natural disasters, we had an earth quake once and it caused 300 quid's worth of damage in a whole city, i slept through it, but people reported things like books falling of shelves and cups falling of the table. And apart from the occasional storm that blows,a few trees over that as bad as it gets unless the,zombie apocalypse happens

that said, I've decided that having the kit required to keep my self alive for a week or two is a good idea,

unlike the US prepers who build bunkers and stock pile,arms,
mine consists of having a,supply of tined food, mostly soup as that cuts down on the need for storing water and a portable gas,stove, and a lamp
, then if its unsafe to stay in the,city, i have my light weight camping kit, i went on a course run by the local council on foraging, it seems if you desperate you can get by eating nettles for a fair while, and one thing we have a lot of is nettles, make sure i have a water purifier a good axe, a mass of string, a,first aid kit a,load of lighters , some anti biotic and i can probably last a few months, the problem is the dog, he won't eat nettles, so i have some snares and an air gun for catching rabbits and a fold up rod for fish,,

so come the,zombie hordes I'm good to go