Something we've been planning on putting together for a while & making a start at it, a bit at a time.

Whether socio/political, natural disaster, or just plain extended outages. What do you have stored away for extended disaster/outage coverage?

Right now we're just putting together basic needs, water, first aid stuff, but with the general environment we're in, plus Houston's propensity for hurricanes & strong storms, we're wanting to prep for the potential of extended outages.

I have the following on hand at any given time:

-About a month of food, via a rotating supply of commonly-used canned/boxed/dry food in the pantry and overflow storage
-About a month of bottled water, rotated through regular use, plus some purification options besides just boiling
-About 15 gallons of nonethanol gas, rotated with mower/car use
-Alternative cooking options, like extra charcoal for the grill, plus a propane burner with camping propane
-Several months of basic household supplies: toilet paper, paper towels, soap, et al
-Common medications for pain relief, coughs/colds, stomach issues, etc.
-Multiple light sources - from flashlights to lanterns - with plenty of extra batteries
-Robust first aid and trauma supplies (which I'd have on hand anyway)

But I'm not preparing for the apocalypse, or to go hide out in the woods, or to survive indefinitely after the complete collapse of civilization in the face of a zombie invasion. Just being ready to deal with the more realistic possibility of an extended natural disaster/power outage/supply disruption/etc.

I also have a gas water heater and gas fireplace, so even without power - like during the not-uncommon ice storms we get - I can still have heat in at least one room and hot water. I plan to replace my electric oven with gas once it eventually craps out as well, both to be able to cook more easily during power outages as well as because I prefer gas burners.

Thanks, that's mostly in line with what we were thinking of too

Portable toilet for when there's no city water to flush the bathroom toilet.

quote:

Originally posted by rackrack:
Portable toilet for when there's no city water to flush the bathroom toilet.

If you have access to water at all, you can flush a toilet. Fill a bucket with water, and pour it vigorously into the bowl. (You want a strong pour, not just a slow one.) After a bit over a gallon, it will flush. Then refill the bowl to its normal level with a little more water from the bucket. Figure a couple gallons total per use.

Flushing toilets with bottled water is wasteful, but doable. I have a creek about a block from my house, and while it wouldn't be my first choice for drinking options (hence the bottled water supply), a 5 gallon bucket carried from the creek will be good for a couple flushes even if the city water is out.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by rackrack:
Portable toilet for when there's no city water to flush the bathroom toilet.

If you have access to water at all, you can flush a toilet. Fill a bucket with water, and pour it into the bowl. After a bit over a gallon, it will flush. Then refill the bowl to its normal level with a little more water from the bucket. Figure a couple gallons total per use.

Flushing toilets with bottled water is wasteful, but doable. However, I have a creek about a half block from my house. It wouldn't be my first choice for drinking options, hence the bottled water supply, but a 5 gallon bucket carried from the creek will be good for a couple flushes, even if the city water is out.

Luckily, if we're at home, I've got 15k gal of water in my back yard

Bingo. Pool water is perfect for flushing toilets.

That bucket trick is also handy when cleaning toilet bowls. Flushing it with a bucket drains all but the last tiny bit of water out of the bowl, and doesn't trigger the tank to refill it. You can then apply toilet cleaner all over the inside of the empty bowl without the refilling water from the tank diluting it or washing it off. After you've let it sit for long enough and scrubbed, then just use the handle as normal to fill, flush, and refill it using the tank.

Off the top of my head for my wife and I... I've also given our kids and their families 3 months freeze dried food. Side note: none of the freeze dried stuff is gourmet quality but definitely edible. Our food supply does include a desert or two per week. Next on my list is the 2-way radios in the thread Para started.

12 month Supply Augason Farm, Patriot Supply, and Mountain House freeze dried food. (2000 cal / day)

3 ea Life Straw water purifiers with 1 year supply filters
100 gal propane
xxx tons Paper products and cleaning supplies

1000 rds .556
3000 rds 9 x 19
1000 rds .22 LR
500 rds 12 gauge 00

3 ea My Medic first aid kits
6 mo Pharmaceutical meds (I'm the only one with regular prescriptions (Advair)) Expensive buy right there.
1000 ea aspirin

Depending on the disaster and your preparedness, pool water may or may not be good to flush the toilet.

Example:

For Hurricane Charley, I had no power for 8 weeks. After about 3 weeks, the pool was so gross, I used the pool vacuum hose to syphon all the water out of the pool. The wind blew my pool screen out and blew all sorts of crap into the pool. That and not being able to run the pool pump turned it into a black lagoon.

For Hurricane Ian, I had a generator and ran the pool pump. I vacuumed the pool and cleaned the filter multiple times over the first two days. By the third day, I had the pool under control. My pool guy was thankful mine was the first pool he didn’t have to spend a crazy amount of time on.

We have enough supplies to last a month. If in the first week it looks like a month isn’t going to cut it, we plan to move to Northern Michigan.

Otherwise, my disaster preparedness kit looks a lot like my regular preparedness kit.

Great Post tagging onto the Communication Post of Para's.
-Radio / Weather / CB
-Marine Battery and AC Inverter / Solar Panel

Like most we have camping gear but it is stored in some hard to get at places.
This post has got me thinking -

I’ll add gas generator and chainsaw to the list. Years ago after a tornado nearby, several from our church went to help clear downed trees on the other side of town. I quickly realized that if I had a chainsaw I could have been running it instead of hauling the wood away. Went and bought a STIHL Easy2Start MS251 shortly thereafter.

mdblanton brought up an interesting topic, generators. A little advise on those critters would be very helpful. Maybe run a furnace for a few days or charge devices for many days and all the stuff in between.

grenades

You’ll want a generator that makes clean power. The contractor type for running saws and such won’t. The type with inverters do as do the whole house ones.

In addition to what's been said, a way to boil water. We have an outdoor propane burner and a large kettle that is normally used for brewing beer, but can be used to boil water in an emergency. Having a gravity fed water filter is a good idea too.

If by weather you mean buildings knocked down then:
Hammer/nails, pry bar, bottle jack, leather boots, leather work gloves, safety glasses, tree saw, duct tape, visqueen, buckets/toilet seat, cord/twine/rope, knife, pipe wrench, pliers, fire extinguisher.

After a few weeks of cold weather, no food and scares water most of society will break down. A modest supply of greenback (singles, fives, tens and twenties would be handy but the ultimate currency will be your own not-for-sale ammo.

Newer more sophisticated HVAC systems require cleaner, better regulated power. You may want to read the manual on your system to make sure it will tolerate the power from a simple stand alone generator.

I have a gallon of sweet baby rays and a winners attitude.

Always room for improvement, by myself to date preparing for a 3-6 week Katrina type disruption with an equally long catch-up period:

o "Hord" [via early refills] 90 days of meds
o 2-4 cases of bottled water + a few 5 gallon water cans I can refill in the days prior
o 2-3 times my normal weekly consumption of canned / dry goods in the pantry (First in, first out)
o ^ same for [dry] dog food
o ^ same for TP, paper towels, batteries, over the counter meds, cleaning supplies etc.
o decent tools and materials to fix or at least patch "holes" in the house
o couple buckets of old MREs [yuk] if shit drags on longer than a month
o shit load of military / tactical gear, first aid stuff; I'll be fine in the cold, heat: I've sucked that up many times... minimal risk other than discomfort (I've lived it: with forced hydration you can live long term in 100 degree+ (Even 120+)