Japan Earthquake: How many were prepared with food? Supplies?

[Melensdad]

While there is no way for a "prepper" to really prepare for a tidal wave that washes his/her home off its foundation, there is no reason to presume that people cannot "prep" for the aftermath of an earthquake.

Many people have supplies equal to 2 weeks, 3 months or even 1 year stored away for emergencies.

Reports are now coming out of Japan where people are hoarding food, diapers, water, etc. While some news sources concentrate on the economic destruction, the Scientific American points to survival with this article ; http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=desperation-panic-grip-japan-after

Desperation, panic grip Japan after quake, nuclear emergency
By Kim Kyung-Hoon FUKUSHIMA, Japan, March 12 (Reuters) - Survivors of Japan'sworst recorded earthquake and a tsunami huddled in shelters and hoarded supplies on Saturday as rescue workers searched therubble of a coastline choked by cars, boats and levelled homes.
| March 12, 2011 | 0

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By Kim Kyung-Hoon

FUKUSHIMA, Japan, March 12 (Reuters) - Survivors of Japan's worst recorded earthquake and a tsunami huddled in shelters and hoarded supplies on Saturday as rescue workers searched the rubble of a coastline choked by cars, boats and levelled homes.

. . .

Power and cellphones remained down for much of the region.

In Mito, another town in the area, long lines formed outside a damaged supermarket as hundreds waited for medicine, water and other supplies. Supplies ran low as people stocked up, not knowing how long it would take for fresh goods to arrive.

"All the shops are closed, this is one of the few still open. So I came to buy and stock up on diapers, drinking water and food," Kunio Iwatsuki, 68, told Reuters.

If it took a week or 2 before help arrived to where you live could you make it? How uncomfortable would you/your family be? Do you have medicine for your family? A source of power? Water? Most people have enough food, even if they end up eating dry macaroni, to survive 2 weeks, but would you barely survive in squalor or would you be in pretty good shape and managing OK when help arrived?

 

[Big Dog]

I'd be fine. I'm not an obsessive survivalist but we have plenty to carry for a few weeks. Live rural with a well, generators, always plenty fuel around, wildlife, and heating fuel.

I think it pretty much the same for most of our rural members, it's those there city slicker members I worry about!

 

[AAUTOFAB1]

Ive been working on a larger pantry,but it still isn't stocked very well. and would need to be somewhat Mobile as I'll be trying to travel north ASAP,easier said than done but at least i have a plan and know the high road out of the county,

 

[EastTexFrank]

I'd be fine. I'm not an obsessive survivalist but we have plenty to carry for a few weeks. Live rural with a well, generators, always plenty fuel around, wildlife, and heating fuel.

I think it pretty much the same for most of our rural members, it's those there city slicker members I worry about!

I agree with Big Dog and for the same reasons. Always remember what Hank Jr. said, "A Country Boy Can Survive".

I think we could get by fairly comfortably for a couple of weeks and then with ever increasing compromises for about 3 months or so, perhaps longer.

To me, questions like this always boil down to how much fuel do you have. If you have fuel, you can have power and with power you can do almost anything.

Of course, long before the 3 months are up, those city slickers will be leaving the city and coming out into the country to scrounge as best they can. That's whole other topic.

 

[muleman]

By conserving fuel for the generator we could go a few months easy. Not real comfortable but we could do it. Time of year would also come into play as to how long.

 

[bczoom]

Bill - How many gallons do you think you would burn in a day if you were conserving?

In a true SHTF scenario where I didn't know when electric would resume, I was going to try to limit my usage to 2 gallons per day (and 8 gallons on Saturday to do laundry and such). For those 6 days at 2 gallons, it's just enough for the sewer pump (and well pump if we dropped off city water) and keep the fridges/freezers cold. I figure 20 gallons per week. If you have 500 gallons, you could go close to 6 months.

In a normal power outage when power is expected within a week, I wouldn't hesitate burning a lot more.

 

[EastTexFrank]

The question is, "How many people on this board or anywhere else keep 500 gallons of fuel sitting around just in case?".

Now, we country folks may have 500 gallons of diesel when everything is full but I don't think that is the norm. If you use fuel oil for heating, you might be lucky if you have some way to burn it to produce power, eg a diesel generator, pto generator or such.

My experience says that most people have enough fuel to keep their generators running for 2 days to a week at most. I know that for my little gas generator during outages, I burn approximately 4 or 5 gallons a day keeping 3 fridge/freezers and 2 freezers running plus a little comfort use for the television, lights and perhaps a laptop, and keeping battery powered stuff charged. Bearing in mind that we have natural gas for cooking and hot water, I still think that expecting to get by on 2 gallons a day is optimistic. It can probably be done but that is really dropping down in to total survival, get by mode.

 

[muleman]

Freezers, well pump and circulators for boiler in cold weather are all that is vital. By limiting run times we could make the 5 cans on hand last for quite a while. The worse case scenario would be dropping the fuel tank on one of the vehicles to get a lot more gasoline. I keep my eye out for a pto driven generator as I always have diesel in the big tank for the tractors.

 

[Lia]

It would be tough, yes, but not half as desperate as it would be if one lived in an urban area... Big Dog is right on his comment about city dwellers... People who live in rural area's (especially remote rural), would appear to city dwellers to be living in the lap of luxury in such a frightful scenario, such as an earthquake or a tsunami. Because as someone said (in fact a couple remarked on it), that rural communities have certain amounts of stock in any event; it's a 'way of life' for 'out of towners.'

The other thing that I was thinking about, and Bill brought it to mind forcibly when he speculated about the length of time fuel would last. I wonder how many people actually think about storing up on extra warm clothing (gloves, hats, coats, and even bed linens), etc, for such emergencies? Because, no matter how much food stock one can squirrel away, it won't make a scrap of difference if hypothermia sets in. It might delay the onset (and that's debateable), but it'll sure as heck get you in the end.

Just a thought...

 

[muleman]

You mean all the stuff in the walkin closet I rarely go in? I have enough clothes to outfit a bunch of folks in nice warm gear. I seldom wear even long sleeves anymore unless I have to be outside for a long time in cold weather. I have not even worn my cold weather coveralls this winter. The wife fusses so much if I go out on foot when it is cold that I don't bother unless she goes away. We could get by with a much warmer temp in the house than we usually have it by wearing more clothes. That alone would lessen the need for the generator to run as often. The one thing I worry about would be scavengers coming around trying to take what we prepared for and they did not. Hate to waste ammo on thieves!

 

[Lia]

The one thing I worry about would be scavengers coming around trying to take what we prepared for and they did not. Hate to waste ammo on thieves!

lol. That must be the ultimate definition of thriftiness.

 

[EastTexFrank]

I'm a bit like Muleman. I worked for two winters up in Wyoming and have clothes stuffed away in a closet that I never wear anymore that are totally overkill for a Texas winter. I just can't bring myself to get rid of them. Besides, for me in Texas, with emergency propane heaters and a wood burning fireplace, we'll not freeze to death.

Also like Muleman, I keep 20 to 30 gallons of gas around just for the generator with anything up to another 100 gallons in 3 gas vehicles. After that I'd be reduced to using diesel in the truck or tractors to supply power through an inverter. All in all, I could probably keep going for quite a while although a PTO generator WOULD be nice.

How long do you think that it would be before "townies" started showing up at your door?