Chance of big life and death situation?

MaryBrosnan

I would say I’m reasonably prepared, tinned food, water, heat sources - fuel, I’m living in a city.
What is the worse situation realistically? Power out for a day.

Of us that are reasonably prepared are we out of our depths if a major event happens anyway.

Guffy

MaryBrosnan wrote: »

I would say I’m reasonably prepared, tinned food, water, heat sources - fuel, I’m living in a city.
What is the worse situation realistically? Power out for a day.

Of us that are reasonably prepared are we out of our depths if a major event happens anyway.

Can you defend those resources in the event of a major event?

judeboy101

Nothing prepared but I do have two locations in case things go sideways. I've always figured looting will be a better option than preparing, sorry to say.

MaryBrosnan

Guffy wrote: »

Can you defend those resources in the event of a major event?

Yes they are in my home and if I haven’t it I have nothing.

gctest50

MaryBrosnan wrote: »

............

I’m living in a city.


Power out for a day.

Need to be very careful running a generator if that's yer thinking of

Carbon Monoxide can build up really easily and will kill you



from USA, but anyway :

Iderown

I have a small generator in garage with its exhaust piped through garage wall to a void under totally external decking. I do not intend to be inside the garage while the generator is running, except to start and to stop it.


It is about 1.5kw and adequate to power up the central heating (oil fired) and keep the fridge going - both for maybe one hour in morning and one hour in evening. The noise is just about audible from the public road some 20 metres away. My background is electrical engineering and I have a dedicated house circuit for the generator. It does NOT use the normal house mains wiring.


In any of these preparations you need to weigh up the cost (money and space) requirements against the possibility that you will never need to use the preparations.

The Enbalmer

A loss of water for any length of time would be a big problem...almost more so than a loss of electricity.

There would be issues with drinking supply,water for washing and water to flush toilets.

It would behove any wise prepper to lay in supplies of disinfectant,antiseptic wipes,toilet paper and some sort of water purification device.

A well or access to a clean river would help but toilets must be sited away from drinking and washing supplies..the best solution is to dig a waterless toilet.

They need to be about 12' deep to work properly but they will drastically reduce the chance of dysentery and other illnesses associated with not having a functioning water closet.

Another good thing to have in store is lighters..refillable lighters and spare gas canisters for them. And as many candles as you can afford.

Stovepipe

How about surviving a fire in your house and then coping with the loss of it? I'm probably paranoid about checking plugs pulled out, fire damped, vents open,etc.

The Enbalmer

Stovepipe wrote: »

How about surviving a fire in your house and then coping with the loss of it? I'm probably paranoid about checking plugs pulled out, fire damped, vents open,etc.

Dont forget smoke alarms.

It doesn't hurt to have a couple of fire extinguishers round the house..nothing fancy,just one or two small ones.

I saw a mobile home almost catch fire when a build up of grease on a gas bbq burst into flame. If the guy hadn't had a fire extinguisher handy i've no idea what would've happened..this thing was BLAZING!

Iderown

I would be a bit careful about using candles for lighting. Just too easily knocked over.
We have plenty of fuel for the open fireplace - well guarded, of course. And our smoke alarms are regularly checked.

I sometimes wonder if the local authorities (water supply and sewerage) have stand-by generators to keep the systems running safely in the event of a lengthy mains power outage. We are close to Belfast and it may be that the water is from high in the Mournes and does not need to be pumped.

aaakev

We are lucky in this country that we dont get many major events and if we do they dont tend to last long but a few from the last couple of years that come to mind for me are the "hurricane" in October 2017 and the snow last February and March.

We lost power in the morning and it was out until late that night. No geni at the time but loads of battery power and a way to keep it charged, Plenty of fuel for the fire stocked up and loads of food bit more importantly a way to cook it without electricity. My wife cooked 2 big pots of stew and we had the in-laws and some friends over because no one else had a way to cook. Was a bit of craic for the day but if it went on for longer we would have been fine. We were the only house in the estate with the lights on and hot food that night i reckon.

The snow was great craic but we had so much warning that it was gonna be bad but people didn't listen. I ended up spending most of the time helping neighbours get to she shops and pulling stuck cars and jeeps with **** tyres that got stuck because myself and one other lad had 4x4s that could get around in the bad snow. I think it opened a lot of people eyes that ots good to have some preparations in place because of that went on for more than the few days lots of people could have been in trouble