Any Preppers on the board?

[Kong Soo Do]

Do we have any preppers here? I'm not talking about prepping for a zombie or martial invasion, rather for natural disasters, economic hard times/collapse, terrorist attacks etc.

Who has a B.O.B. (bug-out-bag)?

Who has a G.H.B. (get-home-bag)?

Who has an E.D.C. (every-day-carry)?

Last year my wife watched an interview with the author of 'When All Plans Fail' (don't remember the author). He's a medical Dr. who travels with emergency reaction teams to different countries when a hurricane, tsunami, earthquake etc happens. He wrote the book with advice and check lists that made good common sense.

I've also read Cody Lundin's (Dual Survival) two books, 98.6 Degrees The Art of Keeping Your **** Alive and When Disaster Strikes Things You Need to Know to Stay Alive. Great resources for everyday survival needs such as different ways to make fire, how to disinfect drinking water, emergency survival kits etc.

I've got a GHB in each vehicle, a BOB at the house and carry and EDC most of the time along with my off-duty firearm. Simple things such as a lighter (I don't smoke but it's the easiest way to make fire), firesteel, a magnesium bar w/striker, cotton balls w/vasaline and hand sanitizer (I think it is important to be as redundant as possible in some critical areas). Also carry a small LED flashlight. I have several CREE LED flashlights where the LED is suppose to have a 100,000 hour life. Three of them use AA's, some AAA's and I have one that has a special 18650 battery that throws about 1300 lumens about the length of a football field or more. It also has medium and low settings, strobe effect and flashes SOS if necessary. All this stuff is really light and fits in a small fanny pack that also fits my off-duty .40 S&W.

Anyone else?

 

[zDom]

My girlfriend and I are balancing "readiness" with "enjoying life in the U.S.A."

We do have bug out bags, but they aren't as well-equipped as they should be

I do have and carry an EDC (S&W 442 w/ Crimson Trace).

We are armed, semi-stocked on ammunition. (Funny: mainstream media would call 500 rounds an "alarming ammunition stockpile" when really that is just enough ammo for 5-10 practice sessions for a single person).

We have discussed and are starting to get ahead on our bottled water rather than just buying what we use in a shopping period.

I'd like to have some more food tucked away, but we could probably make it a week or two without going without if we ate conservatively.

I like the idea of a GHB, and might suggest we put a couple of those together.. but then, we haven't completed our BOBs yet.

Flashlights? Check.

Lighters? Check.

Off-duty .40 cal? Check (Of course my duties don't require me to be armed )

Survival books? Check.

I'd like to get one of those water purifiers. I'd like to get a generator. I'd like to build a secure tower (something like Orthanc would do, but with solar panels ... I really, REALLY like electricity ...). Have a location picked out but that much cut stone and labor aren't going to be cheap.

I'd like to have one of those boxcar bunkers ... but not as much as I'd like to have a 2012 Dodge Challenger

 

[elder999]

We not only have bug-out bags, we have a bug-out truck-in addition to a sea vessel capable of going anywhere in the world. And a share in a plane.

I think home preparation is more important than being prepared to run. I think having somewhere to run to is also more important.

I think most of what you've listed is good. I think most of what we have in addition to that isn't really worth sharing, or is none of anyone's business.

Though I might make mention of passports, and gold coins for barter......maybe an extra watch or two.

 

[smithr]

I just ordered a few books from Amazon:
[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica][SIZE=-1]- Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag: Your 72-Hour Disaster Survival Kit
[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica][SIZE=-1]- 98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your *** Alive[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica][SIZE=-1]
- Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills and Wilderness Survival[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica][SIZE=-1]
[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica][SIZE=-1]- Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica][SIZE=-1]

I am also going to buy emergency sleeping bags, maybe a small portable water filter, and other items after reading more on this subject.

My wife and I did get stranded in our car once. A freak snow/ice storm came thru Alabama-Georgia-TN. We were stranded on the highway, along with a lot of other people, north of Atlanta. We had food, water, blankets, and we were able to live in the car for a few days. You never know when or where you will need a survival kit.
[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

[Blindside]

Yes.

And thats all you get.

 

[zDom]

Yeah, the Ice Storm of January 2009 is what got me thinking.

My apartment was out of power for nine days.

 

[Tez3]

Wow, I've been reading this and thinking we really are completely different cultures or at the least very different countries. No one thinks like this here.
I know peoiple will think that's probably short sighted of us but we manage.

 

[elder999]

Wow, I've been reading this and thinking we really are completely different cultures or at the least very different countries. No one thinks like this here.
I know peoiple will think that's probably short sighted of us but we manage.

We have way more extreme weather than you do, just for starters, Irene.

For starters, look at Hurricane Katrina, and what a disaster that was for so many people who couldn't get out of New Orleans, and how much better it would have been if they were better prepared.

 

[Makalakumu]

I don't have anything prepared. Nothing at all...

 

[Tez3]

We have way more extreme weather than you do, just for starters, Irene.

For starters, look at Hurricane Katrina, and what a disaster that was for so many people who couldn't get out of New Orleans, and how much better it would have been if they were better prepared.

I think though we have also worked out over the centuries where to live and where not to as well!. Your weather may be more extreme but a lot of places aren't really suitable for living in. Forest fires have been common for millennia but only become dangerous to man when man decides to build his houses in or near the forests. Tornadoes have raged across the same country for millennia also but again are only dangerous to man because man built homes in their path. Nature is nature, you can't change it, being prepared would be not living in dangerous places to start with!

The Japanese thought they had taken proper precautions against tsunamis but the last proved you can't really ever been prepared.

 

[James Kovacich]

Do we have any preppers here? I'm not talking about prepping for a zombie or martial invasion, rather for natural disasters, economic hard times/collapse, terrorist attacks etc.

Who has a B.O.B. (bug-out-bag)?

Who has a G.H.B. (get-home-bag)?

Who has an E.D.C. (every-day-carry)?

Last year my wife watched an interview with the author of 'When All Plans Fail' (don't remember the author). He's a medical Dr. who travels with emergency reaction teams to different countries when a hurricane, tsunami, earthquake etc happens. He wrote the book with advice and check lists that made good common sense.

I've also read Cody Lundin's (Dual Survival) two books, 98.6 Degrees The Art of Keeping Your **** Alive and When Disaster Strikes Things You Need to Know to Stay Alive. Great resources for everyday survival needs such as different ways to make fire, how to disinfect drinking water, emergency survival kits etc.

I've got a GHB in each vehicle, a BOB at the house and carry and EDC most of the time along with my off-duty firearm. Simple things such as a lighter (I don't smoke but it's the easiest way to make fire), firesteel, a magnesium bar w/striker, cotton balls w/vasaline and hand sanitizer (I think it is important to be as redundant as possible in some critical areas). Also carry a small LED flashlight. I have several CREE LED flashlights where the LED is suppose to have a 100,000 hour life. Three of them use AA's, some AAA's and I have one that has a special 18650 battery that throws about 1300 lumens about the length of a football field or more. It also has medium and low settings, strobe effect and flashes SOS if necessary. All this stuff is really light and fits in a small fanny pack that also fits my off-duty .40 S&W.

Anyone else?

Hell yea! Besides our earthquake emergency bags I have for each vehicle hiking survival bags. The survival shows opened up my eyes to expand my emergency bags to survival bags. That along with the fact I went off the trail and got lost in a Central CA state park. I have an Magellan handheld gps and numerous compasses, none of which I took! Walked in circkes for 2 hrs. Really thought I was staying overnight but somehow found my way back.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

 

[elder999]

I think though we have also worked out over the centuries where to live and where not to as well!. Your weather may be more extreme but a lot of places aren't really suitable for living in.

They're all suitable for living in, with the proper preparation. New Orleans is no more dangerous than Amsterdam.

Forest fires have been common for millennia but only become dangerous to man when man decides to build his houses in or near the forests.

Once upon a time, we all lived in the forest-and you're kind of misstating the problem: forest fires became dangerous to man when we started putting them out all the time/

Tornadoes have raged across the same country for millennia also but again are only dangerous to man because man built homes in their path.

Once upon a time, men lived in homes made of cloth in their path.

Nature is nature, you can't change it, being prepared would be not living in dangerous places to start with!

I've been all over the world. Never found a place that wasn't a "dangerous place".....:lol:

We're part of "nature," though, and realizing that is the first step towards preparation.....

The Japanese thought they had taken proper precautions against tsunamis but the last proved you can't really ever been prepared.

Well, that's an engineering thing-they engineered for the "hundred year tsunami," and they got the "millenial tsunami," which is what I've said nukes should be designed to for close to 30 years now, "millenial events."

And what would you have us do? Relocate the entire west coast due to earthquake danger, and Alaska, too? Alaska especially, what with the added danger of freezing to death? The Dakotas, Montana, Wisconsin and Minnesota due to ice and flooding? The entire length of the Mississippi due to flooding? Florida due to flooding, hurricanes and sinkholes? Heck, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming are all part of the Yellowstone supervolcano complex.

Of course, there's no preparing for the eruption of an enormous, long dormant volcano (in fact, we're due, geologically speaking) but there are things to prepare for, and ways to prepare.

I'll bet the various Europeans who emigrated to these shores understood that-though your attitude does explain the blatant ineptitude of the English Puritans we came to call the Pilgrims....:lfao:

 

[Blindside]

I think though we have also worked out over the centuries where to live and where not to as well!. Your weather may be more extreme but a lot of places aren't really suitable for living in. Forest fires have been common for millennia but only become dangerous to man when man decides to build his houses in or near the forests. Tornadoes have raged across the same country for millennia also but again are only dangerous to man because man built homes in their path. Nature is nature, you can't change it, being prepared would be not living in dangerous places to start with!

The Japanese thought they had taken proper precautions against tsunamis but the last proved you can't really ever been prepared.

Uh, the only thing man figured out how to do over the centuries was to live in damn near every environment. It is a poor survival strategy to compete for only tectonically and meterologically stable arable lands. The problem is that people are so used to living with modern conveniences (like heat, running water, and electricity) that they aren't prepared for when those aren't available.

 

[Tez3]

I don't think my attitude exactly explains the English Puritans lol seeing as I'm a half Dutch half Scottish Jew! The Puritans would have had me put to death most likely, we certainly wouldn't have been welcome that's for sure. My people manage to survive all over the world in conditions that most people would have died in so not such a good comparison really.
I expect that living in the more primitive conditions of the UK means we are less likely to be concerned with losing the 'home comforts' as we have less of them besides in any emergency we always and we always have the WRVS through thick and thin, they are there.

I expect too after invasions by Angles, Saxons, Romans, Vikings and Normans as well as threats of invasions,a few civil wars, the Blitz, the IRA etc the British have got used to making do without a fuss and without actually coining a new noun. I can say that as I'm not actually British, I spend a lot of time looking at the British and observing their behaviour which in an emergency is superb I must say.

 

[Kong Soo Do]

I'd like to get one of those water purifiers.

We use Sawyer filters http://sawyer.com/

Specifically Sawyer Personal Water Bottle with Filter [SP140] and Sawyer Point ZeroTWO™ Bucket Purifier Assembly Kit [SP190]

They're rated for one million gallons and can be back-flushed in the field. Filters out giardia and cryptosporidiosis and other little nastys.

There is also simple tincure idodine drops from the local drug store or even common bleach. There is also the SODIS method http://www.sodis.ch/methode/anwendung/index_EN

Of course boiling is a great option if you have the time and a fuel source. There are also several methods for making a solar still. They don't produce a tremdous amount of water, but something is better than nothing of course.

 

[Kong Soo Do]

I just ordered a few books from Amazon:
[SIZE=-1]- Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag: Your 72-Hour Disaster Survival Kit
[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]- 98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your *** Alive[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]
- Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills and Wilderness Survival[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]
[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]- Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]
[/SIZE]

98.6 Degrees is a fantastic book! So is Cody's other book I mentioned above. I've got them in paper back, but I'm thinking about getting them in e-book format for my NOOK.

Emergency sleeping bags and blankets are a great idea also. Two biggest killers are hypothermia and hyperthermia. The bags/blankets can help you out in both departments as well as a signalling device.

I always recommend several ways to start a fire beyond just a lighter. Fire can be used for so many purposes, particularly in a survival situation. Lighters, matches (preferably wind/water proof), firesteel, magnesium bars, cotton balls with vasaline or chapstick (both are petroleum products and will cause the cotton ball to burn for up to 10 minutes to get a fire going), dryer lint (towel lint works best as many clothes are fire-retardent), hand sanitizer etc.

http://firesteel.com/

Signal mirror. I have the kind that has the small meshed focus hole in the center. Got in off Amazon for about $5.

CREE LED flashights!!!! 100,000 hours of run time on the LED. I've gotten several off Ebay for around $5-$7 with free shipping. The Sipik and Sipik clones run 300 lumens on a single AA. Some models are 3-mode with high/low/strobe. And they will throw the light a looong way. You can also get 400 lumens and up that run on 3 AAA's or a single 14500 battery. I have one that throws 1400 lumen on a single 18650 battery that has high/medium/low/strobe/SOS functions. Came with 2x18650 batteries and a charger for $17 off Ebay.

I've also got several 'higher end' flashlights like the Maglite XL50, again off ebay for less than $20 (I like bargains!!!) and an LED Streamlight Stinger. I've also got a bunch of Mini-Maglites for the cars and around the house. And hey...hard to beat the free 9 LED flashlights at Harbor Freight

 

[ballen0351]

I need to get cracking on this. I keep saying I want to and other then gins and ammo I'm pretty far behind.

 

[Kong Soo Do]

I need to get cracking on this. I keep saying I want to and other then gins and ammo I'm pretty far behind.

It's like anything really, a little here and a little there and before you know it you're ahead of the curve.

I think the motivational thing is that the infrastructure and power grid of any modern country really isn't very hard to disrupt from either a natural disaster or man-made event. Too many people are dependent on the infrastructure and grid and really wouldn't know what to do if/when they fail.

On top of that is being stranded in your vehicle as has been mentioned already in the thread. These types of things just aren't how we expect the day to unfold, but yet it does happen from time to time.

 

[Carol]

The neat thing about preparing for an emergency is that you are better prepared for inconveniences and troublesome situations that occur more often than emergencies. When a LEO here on MT heard I liked to hike and spend time in the back country, he recommended I purchase one of those Duracell power packs for the car that can jump start the engine, inflate the tires, provide emergency lighting, and a voltage inverter/power outlet. The whole rig runs on a rechargeable lead-acid battery (the kind used to power wheelchairs) so it is also a portable source of power. I think I've only used the jumper cables once, but I've used that darn inverter more times than I can count. The technical (microfiber) clothing that I keep in my car for emergencies or trips away once came to my aid when a colleague accidentally dowsed me with coffee -- on a day the big execs were coming to the office with customers (priceless!). Having non-perishable, high-protein food in the car as well as water has been helpful on one occasion. I don't think I have ever regretted NOT carrying the things I have with me.

My "bug out bags" aren't exactly planning for the end of the world, but they are pre-packed bags so I can quickly pack the car (and the cat) to get out of dodge. That might be because there is an incoming ice storm and I want to drive to my beloved mountains to escape the storm and have a good day in the wilderness while I'm at it...or it may just be so I can escape town for a short holiday before I get another phone call from my boss asking me if I could do something else before I leave. :lol:

I refined the practice because I go up north hiking so often, its easier to have a certain number of things pre-packed, instead of constantly running around the night before to pack and repack the same things. For example, I keep cat litter in the car at all times. It might help get my AWD Honda unstuck someday, it will definitely help the next time I travel with the cat. I don't usually wear my technical clothing when I am not hiking, rather than keeping it in a drawer, I keep it in a duffel bag along with bottles of my usual toiletries. I keep a bag of plastic kitchen stuff in the car, along with smaller packages of common spices. I also learned over time that full-size tools and utensils are often more handy, or at least less cumbersome than something such as a multitool. I keep a few tools with me including kitchen essentials such as a can opener and a corkscrew. (Who said preparing had to be boring? )

Having lived for most of my life in New England, I'll say this about winter. I'm not as worried cold snaps, overall. Heck, I've been snowshoeing on the AT in subzero temps and had a great time...although it helped that the winds were calm. I'm most worried when the weather is around the freezing point. That's when icing happens. Even if icing does not occur, and you are on the "rain" side of the freezing point, its easy to get wet and cold, which could put the body at greater risk for hypothermia (or other exposure problems) than colder temperatures. As zDom notes, you don't have to live in a northern state to have winter really make things difficult.

Last deadly storm that hit my area was the infamous Halloween Storm of 2011. After watching the storm move towards New England, I could not envision how the snow was going to turn to rain as the forecasters were saying. I ultimately decided that sticking around wasn't worth the risk, so I packed up to head north, which was predicted to be 50 miles above the storm. As I was heading up, the forecast changed to snow -- and a lot of it. I had made my reservation before the power companies started filling up nearby rooms up north with tree techs and electricians from other states. There were a few flakes falling but nothing that made travel difficult. I spent the weekend at a modest hotel in a mountain town. I watched 3-6 inches of light snow fall while my city got clobbered with at least two feet of the wet heavy stuff. While my colleagues and neighbours were dealing with no power and no heat, I had a pile of photos to process and admire, a piece of fresh game from a local coop on the grill, a glass of wine in my hand, and the tabby cat contentedly purring on a blanket.

Preparing = a great weekend in the woods when nearly everyone I know was miserable. I'll take that trade-off any day! :asian:

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I would say that I am well prepared to take care of my family in an emergency. I have and continue to make regular contributions to our emergency preparedness. In the event of an natural emergency (ie. earthquake, flood, etc.) or a man made one I think we will have an advantage and also be able to help others along the way. I think if you are serious about your Martial Science and your ability to protect your family that it is natural to have plans in place for all sorts of emergencies!