Preparedness for when

VJsmum

Mmmm Tom Hiddleston.....

Benedict Cumberbatch for me - strangely beautiful..

Is this off topic?:p

lally666young

Yeah I have to agree with you Vj, Benedict Cumberbatch and Chris Moyles as he would make me laugh my socks off!!!
Quite happy With DH really, just as well I would have to put up with him!!

craigywv

agree with 2t Johnny Depp!!!!!!!1

GreyQueen

Oh yeah, Grandma, I remembered when stashing my plastic water bottles that they mustn't go on the concrete floor but didn't remember why...thanks. I've got them up at the top of the rack, in a scruffy shopping bag, minding their own business.

My bike shed is a princely 5 feet 9 by 3 feet wide and holds (surprisingly) my pushbike, a skinny steel shelving system on the back wall and a wide shelf along one side above head height and some coat hooks mounted on a plank with bags hanging off them.

Because of the theft risk, I don't keep the big-ticket stuff in there and what I do store is in scruffy bags and boxes. It looks a bit of a mess on the rack and the shelf (nothing bar the bike is on the floor) but it's deliberately-designed to look unexciting, scuffy and low value.

I know exactly what's in there and can put my hands on anything in about 2 seconds, so it's a ruse not a reality.

2tonsils, sounding grim for those poor souls in the US. I was reminded of some stuff which I read on this site, which I got from further back in this thread:

http://www.grandpappy.info/hbasics2.htm

It's prescient about staying vs bugging out and has useful info about pre-positioning stuff in storage units in a go-to town if you have to evac your city/ town of residence, and stay out for some time. As in weeks and months.:(

Obviously, this is planning for extreme weather events, for which the US is more prone than ourselves, but perhaps a modified version might be of some use?

For example, I already keep a few (3 or so) pieces of clothing at my parents' home where I visit for a weekend every 2-3 months. I'm thinking of expanding that to a duplicate washkit and a few more clothes, in the event that something catastropic befell Shoebox Towers, which had suffered a gas explosion in times past caused by unbridled human idiocy. So, if I had to bug out to the parents, I'd have a few duds, my smellies, and copies of my documents.

Regarding people's attitude to predictions of extreme weather events, I find that some people are very arrogant about the supremacy of human society and ingenuity over the forces of nature. To the degree that they vastly-underestimate how fragile we are personally, how unsuitable a lot of this planet's climate is for at least part of the year, and the sheer amount of resource and technical skill being used day-in-day-out to keep a modern society up and running.

I watched with astonishment as New Yorkers went about preparing for the imminent outage of their power etc by buying a small handful of perishables. If someone told me that a huge storm was incoming in a few hours, I wouldn't be stocking up on freaking hummus, like one of the interviewees in the last hours before the storm hit.

Most people were buying a tiny amount of food, enough for one day or so. They didn't seem to be too poor to buy more, it was a case of oh the store will be shut tomorrow maybe but no concept that it could be longer than that.

I appreciate that many appartments in NYC are minescule but for the sake of keeping well and warm, you would've thought people could put up with a box or two of groceries underfoot for a week.

A lot of people don't understand where their water and power comes from. My leccy is via a substation which is all of 15 meters away. It's close to the boiler house. The boilerhouse is close to the river but lower than it. River tops over, boilerhouse floods. If the leccy is off, even briefly, all the boilers have electical controllers and will shut down. There are 4 gas engineers who have the keys to the boilerhouse and the expertise to work on these big industrial boilers and one lives well out of town. SuperGran is on first-name terms with our engineers, as am I, hence knowing this.

The 6" water main on the other side of the towers is a frequent offender in terms of rupturing. When it goes, water rises to 2 feet plus in about an hour. Then it starts to head towards the substation and the boilerhouse......... such fun.

Soooo, this is just one small part of a dozy little lowland English city but it has a fair amount of vulnerabilities, doesn't it?

I have to admit that if I see anyone digging up the road around the Towers, I'm in there. Partially the galloping curiousity as there's fascinating stuff under there (2,000 years of human settlement) but I also love asking people questions.

I'm very appreciative of the time the civil engineers have taken to answer my questions over the years. They're more than civil (groan, sorry, getting my coat right now).

wondercollie

2tonsils wrote: »

No, but he would come over for my stash of protein powder and steak lol....my saviour of choice would be Johnny Depp, not much good at defending me but he could sit and look handsome for days LOL

Number two son has been told he looks like "a young Johnnie Depp" by passport control and the women at the airport check in counters. :eek: Should I send him your way?

[Deleted User]

GQ - Great post it's what I meant about utter complacency and the ubiquitous 'They' will sort it out if it happens so I don't have to do anything really do I?' attitude that so many people have these days. It is going through life with blinkers on knowing there are bad things out there but only acknowledging the pretty shiny ones that catch your eyes directly in front of you, never looking elsewhere to see if there is a problem. How you change perceptions is beyond me and it is a very lowering thought that by preparing the way we do on here we may just be targeted by the unprepared in an extreme situation. Perhaps, and this is a very difficult thought to have, let alone write down, if there was a humdinger of a disaster and folks couldn't be helped and we had to watch the aftermath knowing nothing could be done, that might change a few minds, but again maybe not if we all think it will never happen to me!!!

I only know I feel safer to have contingency plans in place and a wary watchful eye on the world and all its affairs at any given time, not infallible but more useful than sitting back and waiting for the cavalry to come!!

These are only my personal thoughts and not intended to scare or offend anyone, Cheers Lyn xxx.

maryb

GreyQueen very good idea to have scanned copies of your documents but it might also be an idea to print some off and get them certified as true copies of the original by someone - solicitor, accountant, doctor, clergyman, teacher, magistrate etc. Often, if you need to prove your identity they will only accept originals or certified copies. A set of certified copies stored at your parents' place could save some grief proving that you do exist. Eg if you didn't have means of getting money you could go into any branch of your bank and if you have ID they should let you access your funds (big of them isn't it?)

maryb

Also, don't forget, you need something that shows your address to verify ID. Driving licence is good but a less than 3 month old utility bill is also accepted. I still get paper copies of my John Lewis statement so that I have got a regularly updated proof of address because most of my bills are online statements only. Each month I chuck out the one that is now more than 3 months old and keep the most recent one.

GreyQueen

wondercollie wrote: »

Number two son has been told he looks like "a young Johnnie Depp" by passport control and the women at the airport check in counters. :eek: Should I send him your way?

Depends; is he legal?

Sorry, I'm now old enough to cackle evilly and embarrass young men but wouldn't show myself up by making a move on anyone I could have given birth to.

My lust object of choice would be Keanu Reeves, when he was younger and cuter. I could stare at him for hours. A pal remarked that he can't act and I said I don't give a damn, he's pretty.......:rotfl:

maryb wrote: »

GreyQueen very good idea to have scanned copies of your documents but it might also be an idea to print some off and get them certified as true copies of the original by someone - solicitor, accountant, doctor, clergyman, teacher, magistrate etc. Often, if you need to prove your identity they will only accept originals or certified copies. A set of certified copies stored at your parents' place could save some grief proving that you do exist. Eg if you didn't have means of getting money you could go into any branch of your bank and if you have ID they should let you access your funds (big of them isn't it?)

That's a good idea.

I have two passports, my current one and my old one which was returned by the Passport Office with one corner cut off after the renewal. Although it's an expired passport, do you think it would function as proof of ID? In which case, it'll go into the document stash at the folks' place.

I used to be a CAB volunteer and the troubles we'd see with ladies who were newly-widowed and who had no way of proving their ID. Pensions went into a joint account (unavailable for a while after hubby passed away), no driver's licence, no passport, no utility bills in their own name. Whereas I can prove my name, address, DOB and NINO a dozen different ways.

If ya can't prove your ID ya can't easily get a bank account and benefits are paid into bank accounts..........

I had to show my passport to the JobCentre last time I claimed JSA and to my current employer as part of the hiring process and I was born all of 20 mins up the road.

maryb

having just opened a building society account in the fruitless search for an account that pays some, you know, interest, I think their requirements were that it had to be a current passport, in which case a certified copy would be better