Preparedness for when

moneyistooshorttomention

armyknife wrote: »

As someone who fondly lived in Wales for a number of years, can I say surely that's the natural state of affairs, the air around Welsh hills is nearly always flooded.

...and, as someone living in Wales now, I shall be viewing all those hills in a slightly new light now. I've wondered why there seems to be very little housing on a lot of these hills and understand some of it is down to there used to be centuries ago and then the climate changed (ie got colder). In this day and age - that doesn't have to bother us so much anymore - now that we are all on mains electric at least. Hmm.....:think:.....though I'm sure its doing my leg muscles a power of good living somewhere so hilly without a car....:cool:

moneyistooshorttomention

jk0 wrote: »

I know popular media branded David Icke a nutcase years ago. However, it's interesting to hear him speak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9COUAhs8yg

Stored to view later....

I still try and get my head around the fact he isn't very bright and comes over as more than a little eccentric on the one hand in some of his ideas. But then...on the other hand....what was that prescient comment about people being microchipped?

On a second thought - and I've been wondering for quite some time what that book/film is that predicted floods of people coming over from Africa that I read about years ago and still haven't tracked down the title of it. Does anyone know? - as I'd like to read how the author envisaged it developing...

Karmacat

armyknife wrote: »

about the flooding:
And you know what, you cope, it's not the end of the world by a long stretch, the only major issue was dealing with insurance and Stupid renovation companies. My advice stay put, live upstairs and get on with enjoying life.

I understand what you're saying, armyknife, of course - but if you've no running water because the water company have shut it off, and you're surrounded for days, or maybe weeks, by floodwater thats full of sewage, evacuating might well be the right thing to do.

My town centre was flooded for a day or so a couple of years ago, so short a time I didn't even know about it, till I went in the next day by chance, and everything everywhere **stank**. I asked a shop assistant what was going on, and thats the only way I knew. And that was only a day's water

greenbee wrote: »

I moved here just over two years ago ... and not long after I moved in we had a very wet winter! The road outside lost the battle with the 'stream' that runs through my garden (actually, there are two streams, and they join at the corner of my garden). I'd had a very detailed flood survey and been told, given how far upstream I am (pretty much at the source of the river) that my nearest city would be underwater before I flooded. When the Royal Engineers were drafted in to flood farmland to prevent the city flooding I started to worry...

I did move a LOT of stuff upstairs, just in case. And rearranged and sandbagged the garage (the boiler lives in there, and it's about a foot lower down than the house). But I also realised that the house is built on the highest part of the plot, and that it is build on a floating raft above ground. The biggest danger is not that the house will flood, but that rising water levels will create movement of the raft and damage the structure of the house.

I now have a boat in my garage. It is due to go up into the roof. The builder who is sorting it out suggested that it might be more sensible to keep the boat on the floor, facing the door, ready to use...

Wow! It *sounds* extreme, doesn't it, but when the floodwaters are being channelled *onto* your area to avoid damage to other areas, it begins to make sense I hope you never have to use that boat, greenbee.

Frugalsod

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Could we all club together and get that swan an EasyJet ticket back to Siberia?

There is a cheaper method. Report it as a foreign swan trying to steal jobs from British swans and get it deported. :rotfl:

Frugalsod

Ryanna2599 wrote: »

SB44 I'm actually halfway through the One Second After book...and it's making me think about a number of things. I realise an EMP attack or a solar flare is probably very unlikely but if we were unlucky enough to be affected by one I would feel very vulnerable being in a town.

I'll drop another post once I've finished the book...

A solar flare or Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) are probably more likely than EMP depending on how stupid our politicians are.

There was a near miss of a CME only a few years ago and that would have been significant. Though it is easy to protect against. Just unplug everything from the walls, and turn everything off. In order to cause any damage there needs to be a sufficient length of cabling. While devices are plugged in that extends the cable available to induce a current in your device. Unplug it and that length of effective cable is significantly reduced. You can also put devices into earthed metal tins as a back up for really important devices.

Frugalsod

thriftwizard wrote: »

Got me thinking: what's the difference, for you, between surviving & thriving? Soap's actually really fundamental; you can be warm & fed, but feeling filthy can really get you down, never mind the health hazards. I think I'd like to make a list of things that would make the difference between just staying alive in a real, wide-based SHTF situation, and doing all right. Soap & toothpaste would come quite high up on that list. And learning how to make more, or acceptable substitutes from easily-found materials, would be a very useful skill.

I am already slowly switching out store bought cleaning agents for traditional old school solutions like baking soda and vinegar. These are also significantly cheaper as well. So lowering your normal cost of living without reducing your standard of living.

Further out though I am looking into making my own vinegar and cleaning agents as these will more valuable in a long term SHTF situation. Though at the moment the cost savings from making it at home are not sufficient to justify just yet.

mardatha

Has anybody tried making soap the old way- I mean really old way, as in medieval soap balls etc? How easy is it?

fuddle

Is that the stuff that needs ashes Mar?

mardatha

Yes, sounds pretty gruesome to make!

greenbee

Karmacat wrote: »

Wow! It *sounds* extreme, doesn't it, but when the floodwaters are being channelled *onto* your area to avoid damage to other areas, it begins to make sense I hope you never have to use that boat, greenbee.

I hope so too - they manage the 'relief flooding' carefully. It was farmland that was flooded rather than populated areas. The alternative was to open the sluices and flood further down. Although one idiot in this village tried to block the sluices to 'save the city' which would have resulted in houses here being flooded. So villagers were out at 11pm in the cold removing slates from the sluices.

The other issue we have is that we have no mains drainage. It pays to keep an eye on your septic tank as water levels rise! If we get a lot more flooding I may consider getting non-return valves fitted on the drains