Survival Thread

[W3H5]

@a6m5 I miscalculated from litres to gallons. My tank is 5000ltrs which is approximately 1300 gallons. It came with our house as standard since I guess drought is a bit of an issue here.

 

[Daz555]

I don't really think about this stuff to be honest - perhaps it's just not something many UK people really bother with as I don't know anyone who has even given this a thought.

 

[Michael88]

I don't really think about this stuff to be honest - perhaps it's just not something many UK people really bother with as I don't know anyone who has even given this a thought.

I lot of people I know do since our government said citizens should have rations to last for a week because of Europe's especially weakened/vulnerable power grid right now. Experts say a wide power grid failure crippling several countries at once is very likely to happen inside the next 10 years.

7 days with no power would result in utter chaos so....

 

[a6m5]

It has lot to do with geography, but in the U.S., (they at least used to)tell civilians to have 3 days worth of food, water & basic supplies. In Oregon where I live, that’s been upped to two weeks due to mega earthquake expected to hit us in the near-future.

As you guys would be able to tell from my recent posts in this thread, my concern’s been water. You can stretch food, but water you need not just for drinking, but also for cooking & sanitation.

 

[Michael88]

It has lot to do with geography, but in the U.S., (they at least used to)tell civilians to have 3 days worth of food, water & basic supplies. In Oregon where I live, that’s been upped to two weeks due to mega earthquake expected to hit us in the near-future.

As you guys would be able to tell from my recent posts in this thread, my concern’s been water. You can stretch food, but water you need not just for drinking, but also for cooking & sanitation.

Water might not be that much of a problem, realistically, unless you live in the desert, you can get away very easily with drinking one bottle of water per day (1.5 liters or about half a gallon). So if you plan on having to survive for 7 days that's 7 bottles of water. Make that 10 and you are good to go. I'd use sparkling water since it will be good for much longer, especially after having been opened.

Just buy one extra bottle each time you run for groceries and inside a couple of weeks you'll have an ample water storage you then can start to rotate.

Of course if you speak about extended survival scenarios things gonna get tough.

 

[Rallywagon]

Water might not be that much of a problem, realistically, unless you live in the desert, you can get away very easily with drinking one bottle of water per day (1.5 liters or about half a gallon). So if you plan on having to survive for 7 days that's 7 bottles of water. Make that 10 and you are good to go. I'd use sparkling water since it will be good for much longer, especially after having been opened.

Just buy one extra bottle each time you run for groceries and inside a couple of weeks you'll have an ample water storage you then can start to rotate.

Of course if you speak about extended survival scenarios things gonna get tough.

I didn't know that about sparkling water, but makes sense, being pumped full of co2. I'll definitely store that in the info bin.

 

[a6m5]

I didn't know about the sparkling water either. This actually made me think about the distilled water. I usually don't buy those, but you would think they'd store better than regular drinking water, too.

Way I store my water now, I have 8, 9 gallons at all times. And @Michael88 in "survival" mode, 1.5 liter a day might be more than enough for couple of weeks, but when you consider hygiene/sanitation, FEMA(agency in charge of disaster management) here recommends one gallon a day/per person. With the help from hand sanitizers & deodorant, you'd think I can make 8 gallons stretch for couple of weeks.

Anybody here use bleach, or anything similar for water storage? I have couple of 3.5Gal water storage bottles you fill yourself & was wondering if I should be adding something to improve shelf life? I saw some additive on Amazon, but people were commenting they are just overpriced bleach.

 

[Danoff]

I didn't know about the sparkling water either. This actually made me think about the distilled water. I usually don't buy those, but you would think they'd store better than regular drinking water, too.

Way I store my water now, I have 8, 9 gallons at all times. And @Michael88 in "survival" mode, 1.5 liter a day might be more than enough for couple of weeks, but when you consider hygiene/sanitation, FEMA(agency in charge of disaster management) here recommends one gallon a day/per person. With the help from hand sanitizers & deodorant, you'd think I can make 8 gallons stretch for couple of weeks.

Anybody here use bleach, or anything similar for water storage? I have couple of 3.5Gal water storage bottles you fill yourself & was wondering if I should be adding something to improve shelf life? I saw some additive on Amazon, but people were commenting they are just overpriced bleach.

Do you have a tank water heater? That's probably 40 gallons right there.

 

[a6m5]

Do you have a tank water heater? That's probably 40 gallons right there.

Good call. 👍

 

[Michael88]

Just wanted to drop by, because of recent events - if you want to avoid infection by a virus a protective mask that covers your mouth and nose does not cut it. You need to protect your eyes as well, the eye has open blood vessels, meaning if someone sneezes and that stuff gets into your eyes you'll get it anyway.

There is a reason why dentists use the mask PLUS a face shield, the reason is hepatitis. A lot of dentists caught it via the blood mist created by the drill, the microscopic hardly noticeable blood droplets carried the virus and they got it into their eyes.

Wear at least glasses, and for the total emergency get a military grade mask that covers your entire face, and shave your beard for a proper seal. Also don't cheap out on filters, get NEW Level P3 filters for the mask. Don't use the surplus filters, they can hardly be trusted after decades of storage.
Those filters use active charcoal, problem is that stuff is brittle and breaks down in itself over time turning into very fine dust, resulting in poor filtration and very high breathing resistance.
Breathing through NEW filters is hard enough already.

 

[Danoff]

Just wanted to drop by, because of recent events - if you want to avoid infection by a virus a protective mask that covers your mouth and nose does not cut it. You need to protect your eyes as well, the eye has open blood vessels, meaning if someone sneezes and that stuff gets into your eyes you'll get it anyway.

There is a reason why dentists use the mask PLUS a face shield, the reason is hepatitis. A lot of dentists caught it via the blood mist created by the drill, the microscopic hardly noticeable blood droplets carried the virus and they got it into their eyes.

Wear at least glasses, and for the total emergency get a military grade mask that covers your entire face, and shave your beard for a proper seal. Also don't cheap out on filters, get NEW Level P3 filters for the mask. Don't use the surplus filters, they can hardly be trusted after decades of storage.
Those filters use active charcoal, problem is that stuff is brittle and breaks down in itself over time turning into very fine dust, resulting in poor filtration and very high breathing resistance.
Breathing through NEW filters is hard enough already.

 

[Michael88]

 

[Rallywagon]

 

[Dotini]

Looking into the possibilities that could be ordered by authorities implementing the new US national public health emergency declaration, there is one that should be prepared for. That is "Shelter-in-Place". If this happens, hopefully you will be doing this in your home. But if you are far from home, you may have to deal with this anyway.

 

[W3H5]

Too many leagues...

I currently wear a carbon filter mask to work, and I’ve advised my students to do similar. In the classroom we have a an air purifier but I’m constantly shouting “shut the door!” to make sure they don’t suffer from the bad air.

My daughter’s first birthday present was an air purifier. I think that speaks volumes for the climate I’m living in.

 

[Rage Racer]

Well, there's a more simple alternative.

OZK - a Russian military chemical & bio protection kit. Very cheap (1600-2500 RUB = $ 25-40) and easy to get. I used to wear it once, on a military training in the high school.

You'll also need a gas mask and P3 class filter to be protected from viruses.

 

[Michael88]

Here is my private equipment. A couple of RD40 P3 filters that also have an extra protection for radioactive iodine, and a new M65 mask. M65 because I served in the NBC corps and this is what I was issued and worked with. I also have a Swiss surplus mask as backup, should my M65 get damaged, or should my (currently non-existent ) partner need one.

As for a hazmat suit, I have a plastic poncho that should do the trick.

 

[a6m5]

Clarification on the masks:

I don't know about these days, but when I was kid in Japan, you wore masks when you were sick. It wasn't intended to keep you from getting sick, but to prevent spreading your cold or flu to others.

I do see on TV/internet how people are using these simple masks to prevent catching airborne viruses, but even if you don't take these viruses in directly, they will still stick to your clothes, hands, hair, etc., right? I guess if it gets scary enough, I'll try the masks, eyeglasses & hand sanitizers, but maybe all I'm doing is making myself feel better?

 

[Michael88]

Clarification on the masks:
I don't know about these days, but when I was kid in Japan, you wore masks when you were sick. It wasn't intended to keep you from getting sick, but to prevent spreading your cold or flu to others.

Yes! But for some reason most people believe that the mask will protect the WEARER. There are even articles about how it will save you in a pandemic which is ridiculous and potentially dangerous misinformation.

I do see on TV/internet how people are using these simple masks to prevent catching airborne viruses, but even if you don't take these viruses in directly, they will still stick to your clothes, hands, hair, etc., right? I guess if it gets scary enough, I'll try the masks, eyeglasses & hand sanitizers, but maybe all I'm doing is making myself feel better?

Absolutely true . Problems don't magically stop when you wear a protection mask.
I served in the NBC corps and when we simulated operating in contaminated areas, be that nuclear fallout, biological or chemical agents, after the mission we had to do a full decontamination of our gear and bodies. That is NOT something the average citizen can do. It takes a series if showers and a series of procedures to make sure nothing of the gear or your body is still contaminated. This sounds relatively straight forward, but I tell you, try it out.-

When the Coronavirus becomes pandemic, and it probably will, you best consider catching it at one point and you best have supplies that help you survive it in case the hospitals are bogged down with patients. So instead of masks you are better off getting meds to keep fever from climbing too high, food and water.

 

[a6m5]

Yes! But for some reason most people believe that the mask will protect the WEARER. There are even articles about how it will save you in a pandemic which is ridiculous and potentially dangerous misinformation.

Yeah, I can see it maybe lessening your chance of contraction, but by very little.

Absolutely true . Problems don't magically stop when you wear a protection mask.
I served in the NBC corps and when we simulated operating in contaminated areas, be that nuclear fallout, biological or chemical agents, after the mission we had to do a full decontamination of our gear and bodies. That is NOT something the average citizen can do. It takes a series if showers and a series of procedures to make sure nothing of the gear or your body is still contaminated. This sounds relatively straight forward, but I tell you, try it out.-

When the Coronavirus becomes pandemic, and it probably will, you best consider catching it at one point and you best have supplies that help you survive it in case the hospitals are bogged down with patients. So instead of masks you are better off getting meds to keep fever from climbing too high, food and water.

I'll be honest, the spread of Coronavirus has surprised me little bit. I think it's because the disease control agencies around the world, maybe especially in China, seems to do such a good job of containing these things. I remember SARS, bird flu, and how we saw no effect from it where we were despite the big media attention they had received.

Coronavirus seems to spread much more easily for reason I don't know(haven't really followed it much), but one thing I did google right away was its fatality rate. At the time, it was around 2%. So, yes, I totally agree with you. At the civilian level, I think you'll likely benefit more from how you fight the illness than preventing it. Of course, again, that's at the personal level(not government, authorities, etc.) & if you are elderly or something like that, then obviously, you should invest heavily into not catching the virus in the first place.

 

[Michael88]

Coronavirus seems to spread much more easily for reason I don't know(haven't really followed it much), but one thing I did google right away was its fatality rate. At the time, it was around 2%. So, yes, I totally agree with you. At the civilian level, I think you'll likely benefit more from how you fight the illness than preventing it. Of course, again, that's at the personal level(not government, authorities, etc.) & if you are elderly or something like that, then obviously, you should invest heavily into not catching the virus in the first place.

Fatality rate has been bumped up to 6.5% as far as I know, which is not insignificant. Problem is its, as you already mentioned, very infectious, more so than the common flu, and according to unofficial data magnitudes more. I do not think that even the best measures can prevent such a virulent ....virus to spread eventually.

That being said, I did buy an RD-40 A2B2E2K1P3 filter today, I may have enough already but there is always room for one extra plus a disposable full body suit like those used to when painting cars. Funnily, the filters are all totally gone from the stores now, all sold out in locals stores as well as on Amazon. People bought them like crazy it seems, availability of those filters has always been great until now.

I also bought food and meds (Novalgina, an anti-inflammatory and painkiller) that have helped me numerous times when I was sick and the fever got too high. Should I get sick I can stay at home and sit it out myself (Don't think hospital is a viable option in a total outbreak scenario, and they cannot help anyway), and if I don't get sick I stay at home for 10-14 days to let the worst blow over. Cant hurt to have that option.

I have to confess I never bothered much with food prepping, so I had to think hard what to get. I bought a lot of rice since its shelf life is very good and with it I got the carbohydrates covered. And as a bonus it is also easy to prepare.
Then I bought a lot of canned tuna. I love canned tuna, eat it a lot and this covers my protein intake and gives me a flavor bonus. Lastly, chocolate. Yeah, big fat bars of chocolate. That's just pure calories, lots of fat, sugar and taste. Lasts a long time too and does not have to be prepared at all. For fruits I got me a couple canned fruit mix. As for water, I got loads of sparkling water.

 

[Dotini]

Below is the updated US plan to contain coronavirus to China. If this plan doesn't work, my fallback is to shelter in place.


Beginning now, all passengers and all airplanes coming into the US will be subject to inflight rerouting to one of eight, soon to be 11, airports in the US. This will happen if it is discovered before or inflight that anyone on the plane has been in China in the last 14 days, or if inflight anyone is discovered to be sick on the airplane. Passengers will be subject to enhanced screening which will more than likely result in quarantine. US citizens having been in Hubei will be subject to 14 days automatic mandatory quarantine. US citizens having been in other provinces will ATM get to do this at home, albeit monitored. Foreign nationals having been in China in the past 14 days will likely be denied entry, except for US citizen family members, permanent residents and flight crew. Quarantine will likely be served in individual rooms on US military bases. Chinese stock markets open tonight, US markets tomorrow.

 

[a6m5]

@Michael88 You are the big winner. I was looking at surgical masks & stuff on Amazon & eBay this evening? Holy cow, it's like holidays scalpers special. All doubled up in prices or more, that's if it's not on backorder. Your masks probably doubled in value, too.

I'm also seeing articles like this making the rounds. Maybe too late to stock up on masks, but any grocery items I should be stocking up on? Any ideas?

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I feel like it's better safe than sorry at this point, just in case.

 

[W3H5]

@Michael88 You are the big winner. I was looking at surgical masks & stuff on Amazon & eBay this evening? Holy cow, it's like holidays scalpers special. All doubled up in prices or more, that's if it's not on backorder. Your masks probably doubled in value, too.

I'm also seeing articles like this making the rounds. Maybe too late to stock up on masks, but any grocery items I should be stocking up on? Any ideas?

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I feel like it's better safe than sorry at this point, just in case.

Try a 3M painter’s mask. They’re probably more protective than your average mask and they’re aren’t too expensive. I’ve been looking at some for around US$10-20 which come as a full set with spare filters and all that.

 

[TheCracker]

@Michael88 You are the big winner. I was looking at surgical masks & stuff on Amazon & eBay this evening? Holy cow, it's like holidays scalpers special. All doubled up in prices or more, that's if it's not on backorder. Your masks probably doubled in value, too.

I'm also seeing articles like this making the rounds. Maybe too late to stock up on masks, but any grocery items I should be stocking up on? Any ideas?

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I feel like it's better safe than sorry at this point, just in case.

MrsCracker (who has a weaker immune system due to her EDS) has been stock piling surgical masks of various types for several years now. When the corona virus started being in the news she looked to buy more and found most on Amazon(UK) were sold out or the prices inflated massively within a few days of the outbreak hitting the news.

I had a day off yesterday so decided to tidy out our utility/store room and ended up collating all her stored up 'apocalyptic' gear that i'd previously ribbed her for. Emergency Shelters, water purifiers, sanitary wipes and gels, latex gloves, dried foods, wind-up torches and radios, large bottles of water. Quite the collection she's amassed over the years. Well done wifey!

Think i'll have to up my game too now and get hold of a couple of army surplus back-packs and make some proper bug-out bags.

 

[Rallywagon]

MrsCracker (who has a weaker immune system due to her EDS) has been stock piling surgical masks of various types for several years now. When the corona virus started being in the news she looked to buy more and found most on Amazon(UK) were sold out or the prices inflated massively within a few days of the outbreak hitting the news.

I had a day off yesterday so decided to tidy out our utility/store room and ended up collating all her stored up 'apocalyptic' gear that i'd previously ribbed her for. Emergency Shelters, water purifiers, sanitary wipes and gels, latex gloves, dried foods, wind-up torches and radios, large bottles of water. Quite the collection she's amassed over the years. Well done wifey!

Think i'll have to up my game too now and get hold of a couple of army surplus back-packs and make some proper bug-out bags.

Make sure to get proper military surplus and not Amazon knock offs. The cheap ones straps will not last more than a couple of miles.

 

[a6m5]

I did buy somewhat into the coronavirus pandemic paranoia. $100 worth of canned food, etc. + filled up the tank in my car on the way home today. lol

Try a 3M painter’s mask. They’re probably more protective than your average mask and they’re aren’t too expensive. I’ve been looking at some for around US$10-20 which come as a full set with spare filters and all that.

I have some of that stuff! Who knew they'd come in handy in case of a pandemic.

MrsCracker (who has a weaker immune system due to her EDS) has been stock piling surgical masks of various types for several years now. When the corona virus started being in the news she looked to buy more and found most on Amazon(UK) were sold out or the prices inflated massively within a few days of the outbreak hitting the news.

First of all, I'm sorry to hear about your wifey suffering from EDS. I wasn't familiar with the condition, I just googled it. And yes, mask prices are crazy right now, but sounds like you guys were already stocked up, so I'm glad to hear that. 👍

I had a day off yesterday so decided to tidy out our utility/store room and ended up collating all her stored up 'apocalyptic' gear that i'd previously ribbed her for. Emergency Shelters, water purifiers, sanitary wipes and gels, latex gloves, dried foods, wind-up torches and radios, large bottles of water. Quite the collection she's amassed over the years. Well done wifey!

Think i'll have to up my game too now and get hold of a couple of army surplus back-packs and make some proper bug-out bags.

While I don't consider myself a "prepper", I have a bug out bag! I even keep emergency supplies in my car which could be considered a "get home bag", so I think it's fair to say that I'm actually a prepper. Just very casual, lazy & not a good one. Having said that, around the time I got hooked on Doomsday Preppers TV show, one strong "survival" "prepper" move I made were keeping extra AA + AAA batteries on hand, also purchasing couple of old school portable radios(one's actually a shortwave + am/fm). I always kept water, non-perishable food, etc. around anyways, but I couldn't believe how I didn't own any am/fm radios to receive emergency broadcast.

My bug out bag's cool, but it's bit of a joke. I just see cool solar blankets, water filtration straws, etc. & throw them into this very cool military style backpack. It was more of entertainment for me than actual survival or "bug out". I have no game plan whatsoever, except like @Dotini 's plan of shelter-in-place.

 

[a6m5]

@Danoff I was looking to pick up another Sawyer mini filter yesterday, but due to Coronavirus outbreak, they were all on backorder. I started looking around on Amazon & found the gravity bag version of the Sawyer filtration? I wasn't familiar with this system, so I looked it up on youtube:



While Sawyer looked good, this Lifestraw version video featured also filtered chemicals & heavy metals, and not just bacteria & protozoa. From what I've read, Lifestraw seem to clog easier than Sawyer, but for disaster preparedness, chemical/heavy metal filtration's huge. I placed a backorder for one.

Bonus: I would imagine it's this bad everywhere by now. Today, I finally witnessed TP outage.

After NBA suspended the season indefinitely last night, it felt like Coronavirus panic took a turn & sure enough, work was absolutely DEAD today, and the stores were in Black Friday mode, parking lot was near anarchy.

 

[Brett]

Get a bidet. Your bum will thank you at how much better it is than just using TP.

 

[Michael88]

After NBA suspended the season indefinitely last night, it felt like Coronavirus panic took a turn & sure enough, work was absolutely DEAD today, and the stores were in Black Friday mode, parking lot was near anarchy.

Same here, I had barely anything to do at work because more than half of my customers were already hunkering down at home, and the rest was not interested in doing business because they were in panic mode.

When I was driving home I saw the parking lots of all the grocery stores full at 100% capacity, and people were hauling SEVERAL shopping carts / person full of groceries. I even saw one woman loading her supplies into the trunk of her station wagon and I sheet you not, it was filled to the freaking roof. That's like 700+ bucks worth of food.
I bought some more supplies too, but boy, most shelves were already empty. From this day on I will not go to any place with people for the next few weeks, I will go full hermit for sure.

Also, no joke - if I need to go anywhere where close proximity with people is unavoidable I'll make use of my P3 full protection mask. You can laugh at me, I don't care, the truth is, it does offer absolute protection from the virus.