93%

[Melensdad]

That is the percentage of people in the USA who have not prepared for any emergency.

So if you are prepared (even just a little) you are outnumbered 13 to 1 from people who have nothing.

I am not at all shocked.

We had a tornado, with some associated flooding, about 20 miles north of here a couple years ago. It affected several towns, including the town of Munster, which is where I spent a good deal of my youth. My brother, a couple aunts & uncles and several cousins live there. A few of them live in the north side of town where they had some serious flooding after the tornado. The whole town was under a "boil order" for about a week, much of the town was without electric power for several days, some areas for a week or longer.

So I got a phone call from my brother. Seems he was going to lend his generator to one of the cousins but couldn't start it. . . it came with his house, he never thought about starting it. When I asked if he opened the butterfly valve to allow the gas to flow from the tank to the engine

So we are talking and he mentions "they are stealing generators" to which I reply 'that is why yours has a chain and a place to lock it to the side of your home...'

He then asks, rather rhetorically, "who thinks of this stuff?" to which I reply 'well obviously I do, you called me to find your answers!'

Now I'm not a hard core prepper. We have some food. We can sustain ourselves through a long term power failure. I can keep the house warm in the winter. But I'm constantly amazed by people who would have a hard time making through a WEEKEND if they were snowed into their home without power.

 

[muleman]

And the one thing most folks never think about is having enough fuel on hand to power things. I have cans that get rotated so the freshest one is always last used and never let more than one get empty without refilling. I went 5 1/2 days without power after an ice storm and kept 4 households in heat and saved all their food as well. The trick also is to use the generator at least every 60 days for a little bit. I plug mine into a saw and run it for a minute or 2 each time to keep it in shape. I have a twist loc plug that lets me power the whole house minus the hot tub and water pump. When we need water I just shut down 2 of the freezers while I run the pump.

 

[bczoom]

September is National Preparedness Month. Tell your sheeple about it.

For the heck of it, give them this list of potential scenarios and ask how many they're ready for. Some are extreme but some everyone should be able to get through.

Armageddon
Global nuclear war
Limited nuclear war/attack
Chemical/Biological war/attack
Weather Modification attack
Major conventional war
New colonial activity (Fr., Sp., Port., It., Germ., Japan, China, Russia, UK, Brazil, Ven.)
A new Persian Empire
Invasion of the US
Regional climate change
Global warming
Global cooling/Ice Age
Celestial object impact/near miss
Nemesis induced Oort Cloud meteorite rain
Black hole appearance
Dark matter/anti-matter incident
UN/One World Gov
NWO (New World Order)
US Coup
US revolution
Government Tyranny
Anarchy
CME (Coronal Mass Ejection)
Ozone layer depletion
Solar radiation increase/decrease
Gamma ray burst from neutron star collision
Earth orbit shift
Magnetic pole shift
Rotational pole shift
Earth Core Cooling
Massive tectonic activity
Grand Alignment induced tectonic activity
EMP attack (Electro Magnetic Pulse)
Major nuclear power plant incident
Utilities failures
Terrorism in about a thousand different forms
Martial Law
Travel restrictions
Communication restrictions
Weapons restrictions
New, more restrictive assault weapons ban
Total gun ban
Local/regional gun grab
Gold/PM restrictions
Gold/PM recall
Rampant inflation
Major economic depression
Nationwide/global economic breakdown
Personal financial breakdown
Loss of job
Personal/family catastrophic illness
Bank closure/failure/mandated bank holiday
Strikes/boycotts/embargoes/price controls
Food shortages/price increases
Water shortages
Shortages of goods and services for a variety of reasons
Peak oil
Fuel shortages/price increases
Methane Hydrate release
Gulf Stream shutdown
Overpopulation
Rapid Population Decline
Social break down
Widespread civil unrest/riots
Aztlan/Reconquista Uprising
Civil war
Ethnic war
Racial war
Religious war
Resource war
Refugees
Becoming a refugee
Landslide/mudslide
Brownout
Blackout
Avalanche
Hurricane
Hypercane
Tornado
Earthquake
Flood
Sea level rise
Sea level drop
Tsunami
Mega Tsunami (La Palma, West Antarctic Ice Sheet)
Volcano
Mega Volcano (Yellowstone Caldera)
Lahar
Pyroclastic flow
Blizzard
Hail
Lightening
Heat wave
Antibiotic resistant bacteria
Epidemic
Pandemic
Pestilence
Rainforest deforestation
Forest fire/wild fire
Fire storm
Sand/dust storms
House/apartment/building fire
Drought
Crop failures
Hazmat incident
Medical emergency
Local major accident (aircraft/auto/rail/building)
Airplane crash
Automotive accident
Shipwrecked/marooned
Becoming lost in the wilderness
Becoming lost in the megalopolis
Crime wave
Local major crime
Dangerous wildlife confrontation
Wild animal rampage
Addictive Entertainment
Eco-system collapse
Out of control bio-genetics/bio-technology/Nano-technology/robotics
Sub-atomic particle research accident
Extraterrestrial biological contamination
Evidence of extraterrestrials
Hostile extraterrestrials
Peaceful extraterrestrials
Biblical flood
Biblical plagues
Second coming
A New Messiah
The Anti-Christ
Zombies/vampires/werewolves/other supernatural dangers (just kidding!)

 

[muleman]

You forgot Pelosi taking over as commander in chief!

 

[EastTexFrank]

So if you are prepared (even just a little) you are outnumbered 13 to 1 from people who have nothing.

Now I'm not a hard core prepper. We have some food. We can sustain ourselves through a long term power failure. I can keep the house warm in the winter. But I'm constantly amazed by people who would have a hard time making through a WEEKEND if they were snowed into their home without power.

That's one of the things that worries me. In any sort of extended emergency situation there are 13 people out there who will end up wanting to steal from this 1.

Like you, I'm not a hard core prepper but I have taken some steps to ensure a certain degree of comfort and livability in an emergency. It won't exactly be business as usual at our house but we will get by. With a few hours notice we could get by for quite some time.

The sad thing is that even with warning of an impending disaster, a large percentage of that 93% will still do nothing. Katrina proved that. Ignorance is bliss I suppose.

 

[rlk]

I'm in the country and have no city services (water, sewer, cable, etc.)

In the event of a power outage, we can very comfortably live for a week but after a week living conditions would begin to deteriorate quite rapidly as my generator would be out of propane, therefore we would have no electric, heat, water, etc.

So, what is a reasonable amount of time for which one should be prepared? Is it 7 days, 30 days, more, less?

Bob

 

[bczoom]

So, what is a reasonable amount of time for which one should be prepared? Is it 7 days, 30 days, more, less?

Bob

I guess it depends on what you're preparing for.

If it's a local or maybe regional issue (e.g. hurricane, floods, tornados) and you have external resources that can/will come in to help, a week or 2 may be sufficient.

If it's national or such an event where there won't be any help or resources coming in for who knows how long, you may want to have more expanded provisions.

E.g. Let's use your example of you're good to go for a week.

Now, let's take that to the next step, 30 days.

If you have the means to have more provisions, that's one way to go. Just stock up the pantry up heavier and keep more toiletries around (because running out of TP isn't fun).

Another approach (in lieu of or addition to more provisions) is to develop the means before something happens so you can extend your provisions for the longer period. This may include at a high level (but is not limited to):

1) Water. Since you'll loose the well in it's traditional pump form, what do you need to get water? If from a creek, how to store and filter it? Plan on getting/storing all the water you can while you have your well pump running off the generator.

2) Food. Can goods are fine but what are you going to do with all that meat in the freezer? Establishing the means (again, before SHTF) to can or dehydrate it during that week you do have fuel will give you food instead of throwing it out.

3) Health. Always try to keep at least 30 days of medicines around, especially prescriptions.

4) Safety/security. This one you'll have to determine on your own. This thread is about those that aren't prepared. Those people may get desperate. Others will have the 7-day supply but didn't take that extra step. After about 2 weeks, you now have about 95% of the people desperate and hungry. What do you do if they start heading your way?

 

[Melensdad]

So, what is a reasonable amount of time for which one should be prepared? Is it 7 days, 30 days, more, less?

Bob

I think 7 days would be great for most people. Obviously in the event of a "Katrina" type disaster its not enough. But 7 days will get most people through events like River flooding, Tornadoes, Snow & Ice Storms. Those are probably the most common events and typically the power is restored to most affected areas in a few days, sometimes a week.

Each area will be different. If you live on high ground you may not care about floods, but if you live in low lands near water that may be a bigger deal. In that case your "preps" might include pre-packed bags for getting out all your essentials before the water rises.

In 'tornado' prone areas you probably want enough to get through all but a direct strike on your home, that may be 7 to 10 days, depending.

But imagine how much better shape the people in the affected areas would be if each of them had 7 days of food, 7 days of fuel & a generator, 7 days of medical supplies, etc. Granted, the few who's homes are totally destroyed by floods, tornadoes, etc will have to leave, but the 90% who surround them and are without services will NOT be in dire straights.

In larger events, like a regional ice storm or a hurricane, where services can be stressed for longer periods and for much larger areas, if people had the basics to get through 7 days it would give the Red Cross and other relief crews a few days to get into the affected areas and get set up before people started freezing to death, etc.

So how much is enough? I dunno. I figure I could make it closer to 30 days, be eating some crummy food for the last half of that period but nobody is going to die. Short of a strong earthquake knocking out our natural gas line, we'd still have power for the longest outages. But I could also switch the generator to run on gasoline too. Biggest issue would be critical medications like Insulin. I try to keep about 30 days of that on hand.

Honestly I just wish most people could survive a week in reasonable comfort. If just that was the case there would be a lot fewer problems in every 'event' situation.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

to be honest, we might be able to last a week. plenty of canned foods and can store some fresh water easily. i would like to invest in a generator though. to keep a freezer and a heater going, along with something else, like a TV or radio, would a 5500W suffice?

 

[bczoom]

That would depend on the heater. What do you have in mind? Is it enough to keep your pipes from freezing?

 

[EastTexFrank]

i would like to invest in a generator though. to keep a freezer and a heater going, along with something else, like a TV or radio, would a 5500W suffice?

Rusty

I try to stay out of those, "What size generator do I need" discussions because everybody's situation is unique. We all have different needs and requirements.

Let me just say that you can do a lot to make life easier during an outage with a 5500 watt generator. A lot. Unfortunately, that's not the problem. Having the fuel to run the darned thing is the problem. Most generators of that size have about a 6 gallon tank and will run roughly 8 to 10 hours on a tankful of GAS. Realistically that's about all you really need to run your generator in a day but even that is 42 gallons of gas for a week. That means you have to keep 40 gallons of fresh gas around "just in case". The bigger the generator, the more gas you need to keep around. It gets to be a real chore and totally impractical after a certain point.

I just mentioned this to give you something to think about. Choosing the right size and type of generator that'll work best for you in your particular set of circumstances is not an easy decision to make.

 

[Melensdad]

Frank, that is exactly why I chose a Tri-Fuel generator. I run mine on Natural Gas under normal circumstances but can just as easily run it on gasoline. I keep about 10 to 12 gallons of gasoline in cans. But in a power failure if I was snowed or iced in I could just as easily siphon a bit of gas from a car, or two. If it was a Katrina like situation then everyone is pretty much screwed and you might not be able to leave but might still be able to get some gas by borrowing cans from neighbors who don't have generators but have a gas can . . . in exchange for letting them watch your TV or sit in front of a fan, etc.

If I was not stuck in the house but could actually get out and just had to live without power, I'd simply go to the gas station and fill my gas cans daily.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Yea Bob, as you know I've been toying with the natural gas standby/tri-fuel generator for some time. The problem is that we never lose power often or for too long. The longest time was for 5 days and that was 10 or 12 years ago. These days outages are rare and short. So if I did upgrade my little gas generator it would just be to increase my "warm, fuzzy feeling".

I do exactly what you suggested. Given a little warning, I fill up all 3 gas burning vehicles and that gives me about another 80 gallons to supplement the 25+ gallons I usually keep on hand. Then again we don't need huge gobs of power. We have natural gas heat, hot water heaters and cooktop. My little generator was bought primarily to run 3 fridge/freezers and 2 freezers and they don't need to run all the time or all at the same time. That's why it's so difficult to give useful advice on generator sizing and type, everybody's needs are so different.

As I write this and I'm sitting here thinking about all the propane heaters, kerosene heaters, electric heaters, fans, evaporative coolers, emergency lighting, inverters to run stuff off the diesel dually or the tractors and potable water storage, maybe I'm a little more hard core prepper than I readily admit to.

 

[darroll]

The neighbors barking dog is looking better all the time.

 

[rlk]

When Hurricane Fran hit NC several years ago, many people had gasoline generators, however, the local gas stations had no electricity, therefore, you could not get gasoline for cars or generators. Those gas stations that did have electricity sold out of gasoline during the first day or so.

And, that is why I wanted a propane generator. The generator runs off of the same tank as my HVAC system. The problem with this is if we loose power a week or so before I'm scheduled for propane delivery, then I'm out of luck for running the generator very long. Perhaps a dual fuel generator is the way to go: run propane for as long as possible, then switch to gasoline.

The main electrical circuit feeding our house also feeds the emergency sirens for the local nuclear power plant. My neighbor who works for the power company said the Nuclear Regulatory Agency gives the local power company he77 if the emergency sirens are out of service, so the power company tries to get them up as soon as possible. Because of this, we are fortunate that we usually only loose power for a couple of days during a hurricane or ice storm.

I know I'm ill prepared in the case I had to leave my residence. While I have a couple of bug-out-bags, I know I need more.

Bob

 

[SShepherd]

I'm in the process of getting a 15kw continuous run stang-by gen right now. 2 fuel, propane and NG.
I've been a sucker for camping gadgets since boy scouts

If all hell breaks loose I can hole up for a decent ammount of time.

What worries me most is the attitude these days of "I want what you have and don't care"

it would suck having bodies piling up on your property.