Preparedness for when

mardatha

Fuddle pet - what hell you doing up at half four in the morning writing lists !! Get back tod bed and get your beauty sleep ! xxx

mrs_lds

Looks like the cake mix might be hitting the fan in Cali USA. There is an overwhelming smell of bad eggs sulphur normally smelt prior to earthquakes.

vanoonoo

I've added my hand sanitiser (apparently good for lighting fires?) as said earlier, also found the mini sewing kit, a lipbalm (also good for helping to get a fire going?), a lighter and some foam earplugs which have a variety of uses from fire starting (possibly?) to blocking out noise to plugging leaks temporarily! I'll weigh the bag tonight, with and without my filofax which is the heaviest single item and probably doubles the weight of the entire bag!

vanoonoo

For me, the key to all the "being prepared" stuff is having easily available to hand the things that would keep me comfortable in the event of an emergency. If I have a fire drill at work I grab my handbag and know that I can get myself home safely with what I have in there, ie car keys, busfare, house keys, mobile phone, contact numbers of friends, family, neighbours.

If there's a gas leak near my house and we are asked to leave the area I have a grab bag with essentials in to keep me going for the suggested 72 hours (thats how long it can take to get support to an area in crisis). I havent done the pets bags yet but they are almost assembled.

If we have loss of power or water to the house for a short time but are asked to stay in the home, we have enough power and water and food to keep us going for a few days.

I dont yet have local maps of our area or a reliable compass or a portable wood burning stove - but I do have a tin of roses chocs and a grill from my halogen oven thanks to this thread!!

keep it simple, keep it real (even the zombie bits!), keep it smart, keep it oldstyle, keep it moneysaving and keep yourselves safe and comfortable - most of all PLEASE keep sharing ideas!

GreyQueen

mrs_lds wrote: »

Looks like the cake mix might be hitting the fan in Cali USA. There is an overwhelming smell of bad eggs sulphur normally smelt prior to earthquakes.

:eek: I've just been looking at a map. 664 earthquakes in the week up to 00.11 (local time) today. Quite a few in the last day. Is this normal?

mrs_lds

Higher than normal me thinks.

[Deleted User]

VANOONOO - You have summed up why I prepare so beautifully simply - to keep us comfortable in the case of an unforseen event - enough power and food and water to keep us going for a few days. I remember things like the 1987 hurricane and the heavy snow of 1986 and they were severely disruptive but made much more tolerable by the things we had indoors when they happened. Thank you Cheers Lyn x.

D&DD

Morning all will catch up when things settle down a bit here catching up on 6 weeks paperwork,have appointments all over the place and the house is a pit...nothing changes eh?:rotfl:

Hope all is well with you all XX

catznine

2tonsils wrote: »

Hi all, sorry I have been missing in action for a few days. I had problems with my internet, partially solved by changing to a more secure browser called Opera. But due to my penchant for reading underground Greek sites, mainly about what is going on here.....My internet use is being monitored. Luckily they think this is an innocent site and don't seem to be worried by it LOL.

Had a good weekend making the most of the heatwave we still have! Hottest summer ever and expected to last till October. It's not doing a lot for my prepping for the winter. It's hard to think of open fires and warm jumpers when its 92 in the shade!

I got some money for my birthday on 21st of this month and found some kid leather boxer boots with warm lining ready for the winter. They will be worn on the scooter and comfy enough to run in or go power walking up the mountain away from tsunamis or the like. I have a great hideout bunker in mind at the top of the mountain and it only takes me nine mins power walking to get there.....if I was being chased it would probably take me five with the adrenalin. Its also near all the allotments that the local co operative run which are full of veg and fruit...

Stocked up again at the weekend as things are looking decidedly dodgy here. My partner went to the bank to change some pounds into euros and put it in our euro account...and the teller asked if he was sure he wanted to do that....with the result he took it all out in euros and went and paid the bills with it all. Good thinking! So now the bills are paid and we only have a very small amount of euros, enough to last a few days. But we have good stocks in of things we can drink, eat or burn for fuel.

I read your comments earlier about the books, there are no libraries here and the families with no books are not likely to have internet as its expensive here. I see more and more on pushbikes and scooters now so they are selling their cars to raise money and so they are not subject to luxury tax for having one.

At the moment you have to pay for the doctor and meds in full even if you have health insurance cover as they are owed hundreds of millions by the G. Government (that gets it round the filters that spot key words lol). Luckily we knew it was coming so got stocks of meds in.

I would add that I find it necessary to keep up to date with all that is going on in the world. Someone mentioned the many volcanoes earlier and the food shortages.....its worth getting to know what is happening and plan for it just in case.... don't depend on the tv and press to tell you what is going on.....that is like asking a politician for the truth :rotfl:

Thanks for the updates 2tonsils! Stay safe! Guess who is off to Greece for their hols at the weekend? Yep that will be me and the dh Booked it ages ago when to be honest the shtf could have been anywhere in Europe! Oh well thank goodness it is an all inclusive at least! We are leaving getting the euros until the last minute and will take any meds, any other advice would be gratefully received!

maryb

Wouldn't having Euros in cash be fine even if G reece does crash out? It's the locals who wouldn't be able to get their Euros out of their bank accounts who would have to take d rach mas instead. I suspect it would be a bit like the old Iron Curtain countries where you could use US Dollars unofficially. It would take the whole Euro system to fall apart before they were reduced to worthless bits of paper. There was a report in the FT last week about US companies making contingency plans for a sudden G rexi t (hope my putting spaces in key words gets past any filters, 2Tonsils) and it said that they would put people onto trains and planes with suitcases full of Euros to pay their locals