How prepared are you for an upcoming disaster?

When it flooded here in 2015 I had slices of cheese left in the fridge and not a whole lot to drink as I planned to just to go grocery shopping 2 days later so if it were to be an extended period of time it would not have been pleasant.


Car park at my workplace during said time.

Conversely my dad has been working towards becoming self sustainable and is pretty well prepped for any disasters to come their way. He lives in a town of 210 people so that has its pros and cons in an emergency situation.

I have been thinking about this, we lost power for almost three days after the last storm and I'm looking to purchase a generator with an automatic fail over switch.

Apart from that we already have a freezer and enough that we wouldn't starve for a couple of weeks.
Australian homes are disadvantaged by not having basements for excess storage.

Everything else we are pretty lucky, I think having done a trade makes me relatively self sufficient, I can build, fix or bodge most things.
I also have an enormous range of tools and have set my business up with a shower, kitchen etc. So if we were truly stuck, we could move in there.

We are not prepared.

All talk, no walk.

Been thinking about, wanting to get a generator forever. We haven't yet. Why? No good reason.

Beyond the power problem, I haven't done any of the training I'd like or need to have done. No idea how to start a fire without matches or a lighter. First aid skills are woefully rusty.

Speaking of first aid, our medicine and medical supplies are probably shit compared to what they should be.

I'll likely have to rely on a gun and forcing weaker sheep to forfeit their resources and "volunter" their skills.

Don't even have bandaids...

And honestly there's no point in me prepping for when it hits the fan. Why gather supplies so the city warlord can take it?

Aug 20, 2021 11:19:39 GMT Ness said:

Don't even have bandaids...

And honestly there's no point in me prepping for when it hits the fan. Why gather supplies so the city warlord can take it?

No aspiration of being the city warlord?

Funny that power/a generator was one of the last things on my mind in this situation though batteries do come to mind.

Shelter/water/food and are the main 4, with first aid supplies and hygiene also considered.

IIRC I was reading that most people only have enough supplies to last 72 hours or so with the recommend time to prepare being 2 weeks minimum.

72 I believe. I only buy what I'll need this week. By day 5 it's slim pickings.

Aug 20, 2021 12:58:35 GMT System said:

Funny that power/a generator was one of the last things on my mind in this situation though batteries do come to mind.

Shelter/water/food and are the main 4, with first aid supplies and hygiene also considered.

IIRC I was reading that most people only have enough supplies to last 72 hours or so with the recommend time to prepare being 2 weeks minimum.

Perhaps a disconnect is based on how fat Americans are and how much food we waste on average? I have a feeling the average American home is packed with enough calories that they could stretch out much further if a harsh reality mandated it. But because we're fat fast food nation driven by instant gratification urges and processed food taste preferences, we pitch so much without thinking twice.

I'm thinking for instance of the big box of rice and canned beans and veggies in the back of our pantry. Worst comes to worst, time to make and eat that in rationed fashion. Sure, we'd PREFER deli meats and cheeses and milk and bread and steak and Big Macs... But long-lasting emergency situations don't really seem to gel with the American lifestyle. So adjust and adapt or die.

Although the average American could probably benefit from starving for a work week.

If I have to hunker down in my house, I'm not prepared at all. My disaster plan is to book it for my in-laws in remote northern Alberta where they have a ton of land, guns, and a cold cellar full of food.

I remember this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003

The town I lived in was one of the last to restore power. We went almost 72 hours without power after most other areas were restored. For my 19 year old ass it was awesome. I got 3 days off work, my friends and I had blackout parties and got drunk, we did a lot of barbecuing to eat. It was great.

Had it gone on much longer than that though we would have been fucked. Or if it were caused by a natural disaster like widespread fires or a massive flood, and yeah, much less fun.

We keep a full pantry and whenever I finally save up a bit of cash I'm buying a gun. Other than that I don't know what we would do.

The bigger concern out where I am is earthquakes, not flooding. (And wildfires, though that's more of a wooded rural issue than a major city.) This changes preps, since there's basically no notice when a quake is coming unlike, say, a hurricane that forms over the ocean and migrates towards the shores so one has to be mildly prepared at any moment.

I have enough water for a few days, some food, and an old mini charcoal grill for heat/cooking the frozen stuff in my freezer. Probably not much more than that, though.

And it's probably worth having extra supplies on hand. Like, extra extra supplies. It's one thing to say in the here and now that welp, if you didn't prepare it's your own fault but when the time comes, can you *really* look your neighbor in the eye and say no, I will not give you any of my water or something to eat?

This whole time I thought michi was from calif, an American. His last point demolished that theory.

Currently my province is in a rather bad summer for wildfires which is mostly what I'm concerned about. Right now with highway closures due to wildfires I can't get to certain parts of the province if I need to evacuate.

Most people I know have their go box ready in the summer. Will, insurance papers, mortgage papers, clothes, and any keepsakes

We’re not. We have about 4 -4L bottles of distilled water at any one time, which is not enough. It’s said you need about 5 gallons of water per person per day. Sure there’s moms’ rain barrels but that water is only good for some things. We’d have to boil it for sure. We could probably get by for about 2 weeks (maybe a month) with the food we have, digging in to what we kept of our camping stuff, our BBQ, fire pit, Coleman stove. We have a few 1L tetras UHT milk, candles, and mom has a hand cranked radio and flashlights from when she lived in Africa.

Course if it was winter we’d be fucked.

Stay safe Nazzer.

Aug 20, 2021 18:41:51 GMT iron maiden said:

We’re not. We have about 4 -4L bottles of distilled water at any one time, which is not enough. It’s said you need about 5 gallons of water per person per day. Sure there’s moms’ rain barrels but that water is only good for some things. We’d have to boil it for sure. We could probably get by for about 2 weeks (maybe a month) with the food we have, digging in to what we kept of our camping stuff, our BBQ, fire pit, Coleman stove. We have a few 1L tetras UHT milk, candles, and mom has a hand cranked radio and flashlights from when she lived in Africa.

Course if it was winter we’d be fucked.

Stay safe Nazzer.

Aren't you not supposed to drink distilled water? Something about the osmosis of ions or whatever? Like it's almost just as bad for your biochemistry as drinking salt water, maybe worse?

Aug 20, 2021 18:41:51 GMT iron maiden said:

We’re not. We have about 4 -4L bottles of distilled water at any one time, which is not enough. It’s said you need about 5 gallons of water per person per day. Sure there’s moms’ rain barrels but that water is only good for some things. We’d have to boil it for sure. We could probably get by for about 2 weeks (maybe a month) with the food we have, digging in to what we kept of our camping stuff, our BBQ, fire pit, Coleman stove. We have a few 1L tetras UHT milk, candles, and mom has a hand cranked radio and flashlights from when she lived in Africa.

Course if it was winter we’d be fucked.

Stay safe Nazzer.

This summer so far a couple towns and villages that I regularly go to have been completely burned down. Lytton set heatwave records and then two weeks later every building was burnt to the ground. Monte Lake; burned gone. 

Climate change has never felt so tangible. And the best part about fires, is they cause side effects that make spring time flooding likely. Yay!

Aug 20, 2021 19:11:20 GMT 🤯 said:

Aug 20, 2021 18:41:51 GMT iron maiden said:

We’re not. We have about 4 -4L bottles of distilled water at any one time, which is not enough. It’s said you need about 5 gallons of water per person per day. Sure there’s moms’ rain barrels but that water is only good for some things. We’d have to boil it for sure. We could probably get by for about 2 weeks (maybe a month) with the food we have, digging in to what we kept of our camping stuff, our BBQ, fire pit, Coleman stove. We have a few 1L tetras UHT milk, candles, and mom has a hand cranked radio and flashlights from when she lived in Africa.

Course if it was winter we’d be fucked.

Stay safe Nazzer.

Aren't you not supposed to drink distilled water? Something about the osmosis of ions or whatever? Like it's almost just as bad for your biochemistry as drinking salt water, maybe worse?

Ours is for the cats cause you aren’t supposed to use tap water in their water fountain.

Aug 20, 2021 16:01:56 GMT RT said:

If I have to hunker down in my house, I'm not prepared at all. My disaster plan is to book it for my in-laws in remote northern Alberta where they have a ton of land, guns, and a cold cellar full of food.

I remember this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003

The town I lived in was one of the last to restore power. We went almost 72 hours without power after most other areas were restored. For my 19 year old ass it was awesome. I got 3 days off work, my friends and I had blackout parties and got drunk, we did a lot of barbecuing to eat. It was great.

Had it gone on much longer than that though we would have been fucked. Or if it were caused by a natural disaster like widespread fires or a massive flood, and yeah, much less fun.

We keep a full pantry and whenever I finally save up a bit of cash I'm buying a gun. Other than that I don't know what we would do.

We went five days with this blackout.  

Likely to go without power most of next week as our power company does no line maintenance and we have a hurricane coming that will knock down the lines.

Aug 20, 2021 19:11:20 GMT 🤯 said:

Aug 20, 2021 18:41:51 GMT iron maiden said:

We’re not. We have about 4 -4L bottles of distilled water at any one time, which is not enough. It’s said you need about 5 gallons of water per person per day. Sure there’s moms’ rain barrels but that water is only good for some things. We’d have to boil it for sure. We could probably get by for about 2 weeks (maybe a month) with the food we have, digging in to what we kept of our camping stuff, our BBQ, fire pit, Coleman stove. We have a few 1L tetras UHT milk, candles, and mom has a hand cranked radio and flashlights from when she lived in Africa.

Course if it was winter we’d be fucked.

Stay safe Nazzer.

Aren't you not supposed to drink distilled water? Something about the osmosis of ions or whatever? Like it's almost just as bad for your biochemistry as drinking salt water, maybe worse?

Completely safe to drink.  When you use a CPAP you essentially breathe in distilled water all night long.

I use it in my water pik etc. It just doesn’t gunk up your contraptions like tap water.

If it meant me not dying from dehydration, I’d drink my own urine.

Truck driver strike at Toll Group set to cause road block, with Linfox also facing industrial action

Thousands of truck drivers will stop deliveries on Friday as part of a planned national strike at transport giant Toll Group, and transport workers at LinFox and Bevchain also look set to take industrial action.


Truck driver strike at Toll Group set to cause road block, with Linfox also facing industrial action
By business reporter Sue Lannin
Posted Yesterday at 4:30am, updated 11h ago11 hours ago
A truck belonging to Toll Group drives on a road on an overcast day
Toll Holdings says it is disappointed that unions are threatening industrial action in the middle of a global pandemic. (AAP: Julian Smith)
Thousands of truck drivers will stop deliveries on Friday as part of a planned national strike at transport giant Toll Group, and transport workers at LinFox and Bevchain also look set to take industrial action.

Key points:

Around 7,000 Toll truck drivers will go on strike for 24 hours on Friday
The Transport Workers Union is accusing Toll of seeking to hire lower-paid contractors
2000 workers at Linfox and Bevchain will also apply to the Fair Work Commission to take industrial action
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) said "crisis talks" over a new enterprise bargaining agreement with Toll collapsed yesterday.

As a result, it said, 7,000 truck drivers would strike for 24 hours on Friday.

The strike means there will be disruptions across a wide range of industries, including retail and beverage.

The TWU said more than 15,000 truck drivers in total could go on strike due to talks between the union and five major transport companies, including Toll, collapsing during negotiations over new enterprise bargaining agreements.

Tomorrow 2,000 workers in the food and alcohol supply chains serviced by Linfox and Bevchain will apply to the Fair Work Commission to hold votes on taking protected industrial action.

amp.abc.net.au/article/100401866
======

This is planned for tomorrow here and there is rumours of truck drivers causing a blockade on Tuesday night over lockdown measures but there isn’t much legitimacy to that one and people keep trying to tie it the above case when it has nothing to do with the lockdowns.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9917753/Australian-truck-drivers-prepare-stage-Covid-protest-blocking-highway.html

Either way my point being that it would be a huge disruption to the supply chain if true especially when people will panic buy especially if lockdown extension for regional NSW is announced at the same time so I am glad I am somewhat prepared.

System, I've seen those attempts at tying these strikes to covid. There was a few videos circulating yesterday of truck drivers ranting about having enough of 'getting tested' and so forth.

Let's be honest, neither person in the videos I saw looked or sounded like the most intelligent person. And when they played one on television, one of the commentators watching in studio, basically assumed the driver was drunk. Pauline Hanson was the other one in studio and basically lost her mind at that statement, because drunk bogans are her core audience.

Had a blackout last night, so I’ll just pretend for all scenarios and give myself a 5/10.

Had a subpar amount of water and other drinks. Probably could have lasted 4 days rationing it.
Decent amount of food though I have an electric oven so minus points for that.
Just by luck I had 2 portable chargers full. No other communication if I had no service.

Toiletries stocked up & able to wash clothes if needed.
Discman for entertainment though wish I still had a portable DVD player.

So I think I’d be ok for 4 days before I really started struggling, definitely room to improve.

Funnily enough I went through this 18 months ago. We probably had enough water to last a week and maybe enough tin food to last a few days once we had eaten the perishable items. The tin stuff lacks substance.

The key to winning at these scenarios would be having a camper or caravan and pretending you're on holidays.

My biggest issue is making sure I'm prepared for the heat/power going out during a bitterly cold spell and the pipes freezing.

If the heat goes out you can use space heaters to keep things warm BUT if the power is out then that's a new ball game.  We had a really cold spell for about a week in January and many people found out how unprepared they were.

My favorite PW moment is when these threads get bumped and I start reading them from OP as if it's new.

One of the overlooked parts to this is a good toolbox (not a penis reference... (This time))

You need to have tools if you want to fix things and keep them running.
Also a box or tub of bits, screws, pipe offcuts timber etc. always handy.

My skill back in my sparky days was being a machinery MacGuyver, I could go into the store room and pull out a whole lot of parts and make something to get the machine going while we waited for parts that were for a good fix.

My mom is pretty handy for an old bird. I've watched her jury rig some stuff over the years to keep us from paying bills to handymen/tradespeople unless we had to. It's something that did not rub off on me. We have a a garage full of bits and bolts and a decent toolbox we are always adding to. I'm trying to talk her into a reciprocating saw right now, but she says we don't need it. I'm good at demolition and sometimes the building of things (I put together all out kitchen cabinets), but fixing stuff...my brain cannot compute past 'call somebody for help'.

If the apocalypse happens while my mom is still alive, we've got a good chance to make it a year or more. If not, might as well just put me out of my misery right off the bat. 

Aug 20, 2021 11:42:29 GMT 🤯 said:

Aug 20, 2021 11:19:39 GMT Ness said:

Don't even have bandaids...

And honestly there's no point in me prepping for when it hits the fan. Why gather supplies so the city warlord can take it?

No aspiration of being the city warlord?

The likes on this are the most on brand likes I’ve ever seen. Lol

Mar 1, 2024 21:46:07 GMT iNCY said:

One of the overlooked parts to this is a good toolbox (not a penis reference... (This time))

You need to have tools if you want to fix things and keep them running.
Also a box or tub of bits, screws, pipe offcuts timber etc. always handy.

My skill back in my sparky days was being a machinery MacGuyver, I could go into the store room and pull out a whole lot of parts and make something to get the machine going while we waited for parts that were for a good fix.

I keep everything. I have tubs of screws, cut off pieces of board and piping, etc. All that stuff comes in handy anyway, but can be a genuine lifesaver.

Solid battery back up is another thing forgotten. I don't expect people to have a diesel generator lying around, but you can get something like this from Bunnings



Ozito make powertools obviously, but they also make lighting, fans, speakers, radios that these batteries fit into.

Plus they make weapons. I have a brush cutter that could take a limb off if a degenerative wanted to fuck around and find out.

You can also get solar panel USB chargers - larger fold out varieties from Bunnings also. And of course, there's solar power banks you can buy from places like Officeworks.

Basically ask a tradie what they take to a building site when they need to be there for days or weeks on end without power.