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Preparedness for when

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  • nuatha wrote: »
    I go bag plus. The bag because if the car becomes impracticable for any reason, the bag is easier to carry than just about anything else.

    You have a boot full of chocolate? Now that is prepping to envy :)

    If it was in my house it would get eaten....... but in the boot of the car it's for emergency only.

    Like:-
    Rain falling on my car.
    running out of petrol.
    breaking a nail
    Being late for a meeting.
    Attending a meeting that goes on to long.
    See its imperative to be ready for any eventually..
    ( insert serious prepper smiley, )
    today's mood is brought to you by coffee, lack of sleep and idiots.

    Living on my memories, making new ones.
    declutter 104/2020

    November GC £96.09/£100.
    December GC £00.00/£100
  • nuatha
    nuatha Posts: 1,932 Forumite
    If it was in my house it would get eaten....... but in the boot of the car it's for emergency only.

    Like:-
    Rain falling on my car.
    running out of petrol.
    breaking a nail
    Being late for a meeting.
    Attending a meeting that goes on to long.
    See its imperative to be ready for any eventually..
    ( insert serious prepper smiley, )

    You've missed the really important one - the bar I was eating is finished :)

    Says he who's absolutely never tucked into to his emergency rations (well almost never*)

    *Hill walking emergency rations used to contain a tube of Nestle Condensed Milk, first job after returning from a trip was to buy two tubes of said, one to go back into the emergency rations, the other to enjoy that day. The milk was only ever consumed on the bus home.
  • I own my home but we have a very low water table and a lake in back of the house so digging a storage place won't work here. We are also about 6 miles from the ocean in the east and to the west are miles of woods. We have wildfires every year and one time the entire town was evacuated. Fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados and a huge alligator in the lake! Now I guess you can figure out why I'm SorryImoved!

    The only relatives I have out of town are 1000 miles away. If we have to drive out of state in an emergency there is only one highway that will be lined with thousands of people. Florida is long and narrow with water on 3 sides so everyone will probably be heading north.

    I have bags ready to go but wouldn't be able to take much. We take care of my elderly father in law and my mom too. Plus there are 2 daughters, 2 dogs, 3 cats. I go weak thinking of trying to evacuate with them all.

    GQ, thank you for the website. Some good information there. I like the idea of a storage unit out of the area.. That may be the best option.

    Tornado damage from December 14 is 170 homes damaged. At least 2 unliveable.
  • sorryImoved
    sorryImoved Posts: 81 Forumite
    edited 17 December 2013 at 1:03AM
    RAS wrote: »
    Hi that was some fright.

    The thing that struck me last year was the very very short notice anyone gets of tornados - 15 minutes max and then you are not sure whether you are going to be demolished or standing intact next door to a vacant lot. Just had not realised how fickle they are.

    My thoughts are:

    1. Have an in-car BOB at all time. A few dollars, spare undies, an emergency blanket, nibbles and basic sanitary provision. Cos much of the time you will not be near enough home to get there fast enough and you probably need to be heading the other way. Think about one for work as well.

    2. If you own your place, think about an underground store of some sort if possible; even if only a barrel cemented into the ground. Or given how often baths seem to protect people, maybe the underside space could be made into a store for long life goods?

    3. Know where is the safe places are, from home, from work, from your favourite stores and eateries etc. All within 10 minutes.

    4. One thing I note is that a lot of southern USa properties are timber-frame with timber cladding? If you move think about less fragile construction?

    My house is cinder block instead of timber but a few that were damaged in last weeks tornado here were cinder block too.

    Barrel cemented into the ground sounds like a great idea. Just can't go too deep. Thank you!:)
  • nuatha
    nuatha Posts: 1,932 Forumite
    I own my home but we have a very low water table and a lake in back of the house so digging a storage place won't work here. We are also about 6 miles from the ocean in the east and to the west are miles of woods. We have wildfires every year and one time the entire town was evacuated. Fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados and a huge alligator in the lake! Now I guess you can figure out why I'm SorryImoved!

    The only relatives I have out of town are 1000 miles away. If we have to drive out of state in an emergency there is only one highway that will be lined with thousands of people. Florida is long and narrow with water on 3 sides so everyone will probably be heading north.

    I have bags ready to go but wouldn't be able to take much. We take care of my elderly father in law and my mom too. Plus there are 2 daughters, 2 dogs, 3 cats. I go weak thinking of trying to evacuate with them all.
    Do your Mom and father in law live on your property or very close by?
    Actually having seen the swathes of destruction a tornado leaves even close by could be far enough away - keeping bug out bags/supplies at each address increases your chances that you have access to supplies post SHTF.
    GQ, thank you for the website. Some good information there. I like the idea of a storage unit out of the area.. That may be the best option.

    Tornado damage from December 14 is 170 homes damaged. At least 2 unliveable.

    If most people will be heading North, is there an area or accessible higher ground to the South that might make a better choice for locating a storage unit?
    My house is cinder block instead of timber but a few that were damaged in last weeks tornado here were cinder block too.

    Barrel cemented into the ground sounds like a great idea. Just can't go too deep. Thank you!:)

    If you can't go deep, go wide - A wider but shallower container could offer as much space, may well be easier to dig !!! well. There's the new patio you were planning (I don't know how close your neighbours are, but I wouldn't want mine to see me burying supplies and a large hole which is just refilled could look suspicious.
    Another possibility is to build the ground up - a large raised bed.
    Keep in mind the balancing act of security and ease of access in an emergency.
  • RAS
    RAS Posts: 32,539
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    My house is cinder block instead of timber but a few that were damaged in last weeks tornado here were cinder block too.

    Barrel cemented into the ground sounds like a great idea. Just can't go too deep. Thank you!:)

    Given where you are, can you peruse the back copies of Mother Earth News; my suggestion was based on something I saw in MEN some years ago.

    And given the ground water levels think plastic barrel; we get thick blue ones that have been used for bulk storage as well as dustbins/garbage cans. However making them water tight from above might be an issue.

    I know Florida is subject to evacuation when hurricanes visit and that often the damage is exacerbated by rainfall after the event. Might be worth going to the hardware stores or similar and pricing up a couple of large tarps to stash for emergencies?
    The person who has not made a mistake, has made nothing
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008
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    Forumite
    edited 17 December 2013 at 5:18PM
    I own my home but we have a very low water table and a lake in back of the house so digging a storage place won't work here. We are also about 6 miles from the ocean in the east and to the west are miles of woods. We have wildfires every year and one time the entire town was evacuated. Fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados and a huge alligator in the lake! Now I guess you can figure out why I'm SorryImoved!

    The only relatives I have out of town are 1000 miles away. If we have to drive out of state in an emergency there is only one highway that will be lined with thousands of people. Florida is long and narrow with water on 3 sides so everyone will probably be heading north.

    I have bags ready to go but wouldn't be able to take much. We take care of my elderly father in law and my mom too. Plus there are 2 daughters, 2 dogs, 3 cats. I go weak thinking of trying to evacuate with them all.

    GQ, thank you for the website. Some good information there. I like the idea of a storage unit out of the area.. That may be the best option.

    Tornado damage from December 14 is 170 homes damaged. At least 2 unliveable.
    :( Oh my goodness, that is a serious set of challenges, both in terms of the Florida geography and the logistics of your family.

    I'm guessing if there was a mass evacuation, say after a devasting tornato/ other event which rendered the area temporaily unihabitable, there would likely be the grandmother of all traffic jams as people tried to drive out of the area all at once. I recall reading books about New Orleans and the rush to get away from Hurricane Katrina and people being stuck on the highway in appalling heat and using up all their fuel getting nowhere.

    Didn't Katrina cause quite a bit of damage as it passed over part of Florida on its way to the Gulf Coast states?

    Thinking that you might have to look at sheltering in place and looking to retreive belongings from an out-of-state storage after the worst had gone over. How far would you have to travel to be out of the worst of the risk area?

    And I have heard of burying of PVC piping from the hardware with special waterproof end caps. Described as a suitable cache technique for guns and ammo, so obviously water tight. Saw it on an American preppers site, haven't got a link as I have loads of stuff that I dip in and out of, but maybe if you did a search?

    ***************

    I'm almost too cream-crackered to go to archery club tonight but don't want to miss out so will force myself out in my festive red microfleece top. £4 on offer at TK M@xx, yay! Can't wait to see what Christmas archery involves.

    :D Here, Rudie, Rudie, come to mama.............
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • GQ if you get him I've got the butchery book to sort him out on my shelf!!!
  • Ye Gods and little fishes.

    I tried a brew, made with a Builder's Teabag last night. :eek:
  • Bedsit_Bob wrote: »
    Ye Gods and little fishes.

    I tried a brew, made with a Builder's Teabag last night. :eek:

    And you are now finally off to bed?...

    Are they any good? I hate insipid tea. Currently on Yorkshire tea but it is quite expensive and I have gone off the taste.
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