Outside of guns and ammo.

I’ve had purchased water tanks for the basement, enough for a week at least for the family.

We’re stockpiling some generic canned goods like beans and veggies.

Heat in our home is natural gas so that should be good for our current situation.

Im in the middle of the city and thinking a generator wouldn’t be a bad idea, least to keep the fridge and freeze going a while longer. Charge cell phones, etc. Luckily up here being without an AC isn’t as bad as Florida.

I feel like I could be missing some important things to think about.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: OttoSig,

Do you or your family take prescribed medication?

Any dogs/pets needing food or meds?

First aid/gunshot/blood control kits?

And, after 2020, toilet paper???

One thing about power outage that many never think to have is books, playing cards, or anything else that can stave off boredom. A good supply of candles and a way to burn them with relative safety and efficiency could be good. Or old school lanterns, given an adequate fuel supply. I have never thought that battery powered light was efficient for ambient lighting when you don't know when you might ever get power again.

You know, party like it's 1899.

A traditional generator is a curse. They are very noisy (attracting all sorts of unwanted attention), and you have to store gas for them. I recommend a solar battery-pack style generator. They are silent, non-toxic, and recharge from sunlight. I have one I got on sale at Amazon with a 200 watt solar panel. It will power the fridge for several days, at least, before it needs to be recharged.

Avoid the 100 watt solar panels, they are woefully inadequate.

Of course, we have food, a propane camp stove, and water filtration system as well.

quote:

Originally posted by 2Adefender:
A traditional generator is a curse. They are very noisy (attracting all sorts of unwanted attention), and you have to store gas for them. I recommend a solar battery-pack style generator. They are silent, non-toxic, and recharge from sunlight. I have one I got on sale at Amazon with a 200 watt solar panel. It will power the fridge for several days, at least, before it needs to be recharged.

Avoid the 100 watt solar panels, they are woefully inadequate.

Of course, we have food, a propane camp stove, and water filtration system as well.

We hunt, fish, and camp a lot, even ice fish in the winter. Adequately somewhat prepared. Honda 2000i is our go to for everything but have been looking at solar powered elect generators myself. More of a noise thing and gasoline use. What did you get off of Amazon and how do you really like it. Interested in one for ice fishing. We have hard side fish houses, very similar to campers/RV's.

How is the heat covered because you have natural gas?
My system still requires electricity to run the fan and ignition.

Gas fireplace and gas stove. Longterm storage food with purported shelf-life of 25 years. Canned food, bottled water, outdoor grill with a stockpile of charcoal.

The only thing that I know I need and I haven't done yet is purchase a water distilling machine. I have got to focus on that and get it done.


.

I have bought a few cases of the freeze dried food. We have cracked a few open just to try them and they are ok. Sportsmens carries a few different types and you can try them. These keep for 10 years or more.

I need to look into the solar generator combination. I agree that the traditional generator is very loud and is a pain. But it does work and I just have to manage the gas and oil and take care of it.

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:

Heat in our home is natural gas so that should be good for our current situation.

Im in the middle of the city and thinking a generator wouldn’t be a bad idea, least to keep the fridge and freeze going a while longer. Charge cell phones, etc. Luckily up here being without an AC isn’t as bad as Florida.

I feel like I could be missing some important things to think about.

Well, winter is coming.....

Generator, NG isn't going to do you any good if you can't run the forced air system that distributes the heat, you'll want to keep those supplies fresh so having the freezer/fridge going is important.

Psychologically it will help everyone cope with the power out, and you communications systems will be operable such as TV, phone chargers, iPads, internet modem.

Something about being able to maintain your lifestyle in a disaster that takes a lot of stress off the situation.

Selling and relocating. The new place will have a nat gas/propane generator, at least 500 gallons of potable water storage and dry/frozen food for 120 days minimum. Chainsaw and other tools required for sustenance. Ammo is already sufficient

quote:

Originally posted by Powers77:
How is the heat covered because you have natural gas?
My system still requires electricity to run the fan and ignition.

Damn! You’re right.

Basic preparations for what event? Weather related, civil unrest, government lock down? You can have your home prepared with food, power sources, self defense and so on but what if you are forced out of your home due to a tornado relocated it without your permission or you have to evacuate for some reason? Or your hundreds of miles away when an event occurs. It's difficult if not impossible to prepare for everything and you will spend thousands doing it and most likely never need or use it.

I'm not against prepping or being prepared it just comes with a lot of questions and the chance of spending lots of money only to find out you prepared for the wrong event or you just never needed to do it to begin with.

quote:

Interested in one for ice fishing. We have hard side fish houses, very similar to campers/RV's.

I run an 8X16 fish house in the winter. I didn't want to drag a generator and gas tank around with it. I've seen too many guys on the ice yanking like crazy men on a generator recoil. Done it myself for several years and now my shoulders say "don't do that anymore".
I set my house up to run on batteries. I run a 165ah lithium battery as the main house battery. Powers led lights, tv, DVD player, microwave, coffee maker and a pizza maker on occasion. It runs through a 2000 watt inverter. I only turn the inverter on when I need something that is 110V. I can stay on the ice for 2 nights and three days. I usually still have about 50% battery left after that. The battery is connected to the house wiring via an Anderson connectors so I just unplug it and bring it home with me to charge when I'm done fishing. Would not be hard to add solar to this but so far I have found I don't need it.

Then I have a 100ah battery in a smart battery box for charging phones and other devices. Even run my Humminbird sonar off of it. If the main house battery gets drawn down I can swap the 100ah in to run the house. They key here is I put in a 20,000 BTU radiant propane direct vent wall mounted heater. No fan no thermostat that keeps cycling it on and off. Been in a lot of houses where the forced air furnace cycles on and off every few minutes. It can get annoying actually. Once my house is heated I can turn the furnace to the lowest setting and it stays warm. I even crack a window an inch or so. I use USB rechargeable fans to move the air around the house. Nice not having to go at 3am on a cold dark morning to fuel the generator or figure out why it just stopped running.

I'm focused on a month or less events (i.e. I'm not preparing for an event that lasts years/generations) and hyper focused on hurricanes.

I have a Kohler natural gas whole house generator. Oil is good for 200 hours run time so I keep a filter and an oil change on hand. Every May (reminds me I need to schedule it), the generator gets its annual tune up which is way more extensive than just an oil change (e.g. voltage regulators checked, wire tightness checked, etc)

My home has a natural gas fireplace. It has a D-battery gas safety valve which bit many people in the ass
during Winter Storm Uri so I always have a pack of Duracell's on-hand and check their expiration date every winter.

I have a big green egg and charcoal on hand. Also, my range is gas so I can cook with gas.

I purchased a 1-month supply of freeze dried food

Thanks to Sigforum, I foresaw COVID runs on grocery stores about a month before everyone else. I'm still eating the can goods I bought.

Every June, I buy 9 gallons of distilled water and this is my primary emergency drinking water. Every February, I begin using it to water the seed starts for my winter (i.e. it's how I rotate it out).

I have the bath tub water bladder that I can fill up before a hurricane. I also have two 55-gallon blue water drums I can fill as well as water purification. This is for flushing toilets, but also back-up drinking water.

I still have my camping gear from Alaska in plastic totes so nothing chews it up. This includes 4-season tents and US military surplus flexible temp sleep systems (i.e. sleeping bags that can be set-up for 3 different temperature ranges).

I have battery powered LED lanterns not just flashlights. Flashlights are great for pointing at something needing detail, but lanterns excel at keeping a room reasonable. I bought my ex a Harbor Freight $5 LED for her apartment and she said it was awesome during Winter storm Uri with 3 days without power.

I'm stupid prepared for cold weather as I still have all of my Alaska arctic survival gear that is rated for -50F. Hell has frozen over if Texas ever gets this cold.

I'm stupid prepared for an earthquake due to my California and Alaska days. I don't live in an earthquake zone.

Good first aid kits including stop the bleed trauma in my house, my truck, and my motorcycle.

Unfortunately, all of my guns and ammo experienced an accident and are in the bottom of a lake

One reason I picked this many weeks of preparedness was from my Alaska days. My coworker was a teenage girl when the Great Alaska Earthquake occurred on Good Friday 1964. It was M9.2 (i.e. the largest earthquake ever recorded in North America and 2nd largest ever recorded worldwide) and between the liquification of soil, landslides, and tsunami's it was a very slow emergency response. The international airport was put out of commission as well as the ports so it took 3 weeks for aid to arrive from the Lower 48. She said even cash became worthless because there was nothing to buy with it by the time help arrived in 3 weeks.

Looking back at my list, a few takeaways for the OP:

What duration of event are you focusing on (e.g. 3 days, 7 days, 21 days, etc)?

Do you have to lay up supplies for just your family or is there others who will crash with you with zero supplies (e.g. cut the days of supplies you have by x%)? For example, if you have a family of 4 and 4 unplanned people crash with you then your days up supplies is 50% less.

How are you going to cook the food you're stockpiling?

Most lists focus on the drinking water portion of water, but that's only part of the usage. You need water for cooking, flushing toilets, washing hands, etc. (i.e. the reason I have more than the distilled water). Do you have a plan for these water needs?

Do you have a water rotation plan? How do you plan to preserve the water you're stockpiling?

Does the item you're depending on need batteries, require oil change, or need annual maintenance?

Do you have a food rotation plan (e.g. FIFO) so you don't wind up with a bunch of spoiled food that doesn't do any good?

Do you have stuff to entertain kids that doesn't take electricity or require driving around in your vehicle (i.e. burning precious gas)?

Do you have LED lanterns not just flashlights?

Have you done a threat assessment for the natural disasters you may face? From the outside looking in, it looks like you're focusing on winter and power outages. For example, do you have a threat of a flood and need any contingencies for that?

Do you have a proverbial line in the sand, where this is too bad and your family needs to bug out? For example, we got 51" of rain from Hurricane Harvey, and they (i.e. first responders, national guard, and cajun navy) were doing high water rescues one neighborhood over from me (i.e. the neighborhood that is bordered by the most likely source of flood in my area). I relied on being above the 500 year flood plain, and it paid off as neither my house nor any of my neighbors houses flooded. However, my back-up plan was inflating an air mattress or going in my attic and having a chainsaw with me in case water got too bad. Neither was a good plan so I evacuated and got out before my neighborhood turned into an island.

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Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

For those in high humidity areas that have secondary power. A dehumidifier can provide a water source. I can get enough drinking water for my wife and I by running mine. South Texas is humid 9-10 months out of the year so I can dumb my dehumidifier into my Berkey and have drinking water.

quote:

Originally posted by 2Adefender:
I recommend a solar battery-pack style generator. I have one I got on sale at Amazon with a 200 watt solar panel. It will power the fridge for several days, at least, before it needs to be recharged.

I'm somewhat skeptical on this.
What's the power rating on your generator?
I have a 1kwh system and it'll run my fridge for maybe a day before needing recharge.
And that recharge takes pretty much a full day (~10 hours) of full (cloud free) sun with my 220w panel.

The wife and I have agreed to gas up our vehicles when we reach 3/4 of a tank. We also started to keep a comfortable amount of cash on hand, nothing larger than a $20. Both practices are related to concerns over an EMP type event that could disrupt our ability to make purchases the way we are used to.

My son and I have both obtained our HAM licenses. We also have battery operated gear and solar generator capability. We have agreed on specific frequencies to reach out on should cell phones become paperweights.


Following the toxic train derailment in East Palestine Ohio in 2023, just west of us, we identified four very specific mustering locations for family. One north, east, south and west of us. All roughly 2 hours away. In the event we can't shelter in place it gives us a bit of a plan to get out and meet up based on wind direction.

200 watts of charging is about 1/4th of what I have, and I'm not banking on a bright sunny day to top off a Bluetti portable power station... As for generators, I only use dual fuel LP/Gasoline stuff plus a NG whole house, more options are better. LP also stores indefinitely.

quote:

Originally posted by SHOOTIN BLANKS:


My son and I have both obtained our HAM licenses. We also have battery operated gear and solar generator capability. We have agreed on specific frequencies to reach out on should cell phones become paperweights.

With EMP as your concern, do you have those radios in shielded bags/boxes?

WRT the OP question on preps:

2 adults living at home - zero chance of anyone else coming by to try and leech.
Rural(ish) setting.

Minimum of one month of "normal" food on hand.
"Normal" food also supplemented by a fair amount of freeze dried stuff in #10 cans.
Also have about 3 months of Mountain House packets stashed up.

Propane generator that cuts on automatically on power loss with buried tank.
One (1kwh) backup battery device w/ a set of panels. (Getting more of these is on to-do list)
Before-mentioned propane tank feeds gas stove for cooking.
Also have backup food cooking items (like a camp stove for example).
Fair supply of TP and PT.

I just recently got my HAM license so I've started stocking some radios.
Got a handful of them in a faraday shielded bag (along with charging apparatus).

First aid supplies are slowly growing.
Prescription meds are of course a concern - but there's only so much you can do there.

We also both have "get home" bags that get placed in vehicles whenever we leave with some shielded radios, food, first aid, etc..