The Miller: Prep of the Week

I am going to start a new weekly feature called Prep of the Week. I hope it will be common sense things everyone can do to help their families and a bit more security. I'm not going to talk just about stockpiling guns and ammo. I will talk about real practical preparations. I will recommend a book. Talk about survival oriented firearms. Lots of other things.

I will even talk about current events:

Thousands of people are still without power from Hurricane Sandy.
The US is hurtling toward financial disaster.
Our increased indecision and perceived weakness invite attacks from extremists.

What to do?

First off you need to assess where you are right this moment. If the power went off right now, how ready would you be? Water, food, shelter and security?

The Rule of 10s - Will you be OK in:

    10 minutes - computers crash, clocks blinking
    10 hours - freezers begin to thaw
    10 days - store shelves are empty, water runs out
    10 weeks - riots, looting, population migrations
    10 months - organized criminal ransacking
    10 seasons - starvation and ammo worth more than gold
    10 years - new civilization begins to formalize

-- How ready are you?

3 comments:

Bubblehead Les.November 16, 2012 at 8:19 AM
Just came off 60 ours of no Electricity because of Sandy. My Preps worked.
LauraNovember 16, 2012 at 1:38 PM
Come 10 months, we might have some issues.
KnuckleheadNovember 19, 2012 at 4:30 PM
My preparations for Sandy were adequate for at least 7-10 days until they came into contact with reality. Our power was out for nearly 9 days. They we got a nice little snowstorm.

Reality #1: Spouse injured herself badly enough to require surgery. You don't want to be living in a powerless home following surgery since the thing that tends to go south soon after the power goes out is water quality. I did not stash enough water for hygiene for a surgically repaired wife. Fortunately we were able to relocate 100 miles to a relative.

Reality #2: We are never in this alone. It is one thing to have prepared enough for a couple people, or your family, to muddle through quite comfortably for a wee or three but then you discover that the neighbors did no such thing. Nor did your Mom, or sister, or any list of people you aren't about to let suffer.

Reality #3: Gasoline can get hard to come by very quickly. If you think you can siphon from your autos, you might want to try doing that some day. Even small gensets drink gasoline quickly.

What did I learn this time around?

I need to do more, stash more. When storms are on the way I get some gasoline. But I need more or, better yet, a tri-fuel genset. It takes a lot of generator to run even a small electric heater. I will have a transfer switch installed to allow me to run the gas furnace a bit.

I put up what seemed like plenty of water but much of that went into the fridge/freezers in preparation. I need twice the water I thought I did. BTW, if you prepare your fridge/freezer(s) with plenty of ice while you can, you can squeak by giving them a two or three hours a day of electricity. I don't know why people run their generators all day and night. It is not necessary for most of us and it wastes valuable fuel.

Other than that, I'll review the food and add and change. Grocery stores don't need 10 days to become empty. In my area they will be largely cleaned out in the two days prior to the storm (this presumes, of course, that there is warning of the upcoming event which may not be the case). And unless the store gets onto generators very quickly their stock will start spoiling - at least in the legalistic not allowed to sell it sense - within hours.

Last, but not least, first aid materials and medications, definitely. I thought a 10 day supply of prescriptions was plenty but it wasn't.