Planning ahead

[razorback]

I'm old enough to have lived through the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, was only living about 25 miles of the epicenter when it happened. (Well, still live about the same distance but in a different direction). If I walk out the front door and throw a rock hard enough, I can quite literally hit the Calaveras Fault.

Because of this I was better prepared than some for the Covid-19 lockdown/Shelter in Place order here in California.
Everything below fits in two totes (except the TP and water) that fit into the wife's SUV or, in a pinch, my car.
- A first aid kit (made with suggestions from 3 friends, a doctor, an EMT and a fire fighter).
- 10 gallons of distilled water (regularly cycled through FIFO when we clean out the fish tank).
- Two AM/FM/SW radio that has a built in flashlight and USB ports to charge items. Is charged either via the hand crank or the built-in solar panel.
- 12 pack of Charmin (ended up not being enough as we couldn't restock during the panic but we also keep a 6 pack each in the wife and my car, along with baby wipes, for road trips. This was a
life saver)
- Solar charging station, rechargeable batteries in various sizes and handful of LED flashlights.
- Packs of regular and waterproof matches along with several dozen candles.
- Various canned and packages, long shelf life food that are rotated out with our normal buying every couple of months.
- 500 rounds of 9mm.
- Utensils.
- Cleaning items (scrubbing pads, dish soap, hand soap, Purel, etc).
- Playing cards, crossword puzzles, chess/checker board and a couple of other board games.
- Blankets and clothes (1 change plus several pairs of socks and underwear).
- Pencils and pads of paper.
- Pitcher with a built in water filter. I have a matching one at work and about a dozen filters, which will last for some time.
- Various small tools (hammer, screwdriver, multitool).
- Tooth brushes, toothpaste, floss, mouthwash and deoderant.

Things I need to revisit when the current crisis has passed.
- More toilet paper. I mean, seriously, its people like this that create the problem.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM5eO84Q9-A
- Life Straws or something similar for the whole family. Family would be sad if we drank all of Jimmy the Betta's water.
- Portable propane oven. Used to have one, no idea what happened to it but it would be handy.

We also have to P95 filters face filters, which we loaned to my in-laws, both in their mid-70's with health issues. We got them when the son and I built this furnace, like the one the King of Random did, few months back and we'll pick up some more after things wind down.



So, Preppers in the Playground, anything I'm missing?

[Willie the Duck]

What are your goals? You mention waterproof matches (and whether things fit in two totes), but not other actual camping gear. Are you looking to shelter in place in your home, or are you prepping for the downfall of civilization?

[razorback]

More along the lines of catastrophes that might come up and what I might need.
I have matches because during the 89 earthquake, we didn't have electricity for about a week or more. I don't think we had safe running water, either (a vague recollection of white aluminum cans labeled "Water" at the time).
While having watched plenty of pandemic movies that I never gave much thought to, I never planned for Covid-19 or something similar for getting a respirator. I had a couple of P95 masks for a project I did with my son and a handful of N95 for some other projects around the house. Now I need to plan to keep at least 3 of these with spare filters along with a rotation plan based on the shelf life of the filters. And, while it might not make a difference, stepping up to P100 filters.

I guess another way of saying it is I'm looking at the collected wisdom and experience of the Playground to say I experienced Problem X and, having lived through it, you should have Items Y and Z in case you run into it or something similar.

[halfeye]

More along the lines of catastrophes that might come up and what I might need.
I have matches because during the 89 earthquake, we didn't have electricity for about a week or more. I don't think we had safe running water, either (a vague recollection of white aluminum cans labeled "Water" at the time).
While having watched plenty of pandemic movies that I never gave much thought to, I never planned for Covid-19 or something similar for getting a respirator. I had a couple of P95 masks for a project I did with my son and a handful of N95 for some other projects around the house. Now I need to plan to keep at least 3 of these with spare filters along with a rotation plan based on the shelf life of the filters. And, while it might not make a difference, stepping up to P100 filters.

I guess another way of saying it is I'm looking at the collected wisdom and experience of the Playground to say I experienced Problem X and, having lived through it, you should have Items Y and Z in case you run into it or something similar.

I am sure the toilet paper issue is down to people trying to sell them for a higher price. It's basically crowdsourcing capturing the market, lots of people buy more than they need in the hope that they can cause a shortage and force the price up. They're out of luck now, here, but they may have sold enough already to have made a profit, I hope they get stuck with a huge stock of worthless waste paper, but I don't doubt that some made a profit.

[Chen]

I am sure the toilet paper issue is down to people trying to sell them for a higher price. It's basically crowdsourcing capturing the market, lots of people buy more than they need in the hope that they can cause a shortage and force the price up. They're out of luck now, here, but they may have sold enough already to have made a profit, I hope they get stuck with a huge stock of worthless waste paper, but I don't doubt that some made a profit.

I mean some might be profiteering but supplies restabilized here extremely quickly. I think it was just general panic buying. Its not like it goes bad either so even if you did hoard it doesnt really hurt you. It just inconvenienced people who actually needed some and couldnt get it during that week or so.

[Willie the Duck]

Okay, so stay in place, but deal with lack of services. Beyond respirators and hand wipes, think about how you are going to live for X days without outside services. Water is a good start, but there's also food and shelter. 25 miles from Loma Prieta epicenter puts you in an area where your pipes won't freeze if you lose electricity for a week, and you probably won't stay outside because of the heat. However, if you have to do so because the buildings aren't safe, you will want sunscreen and hats and the like.

Learn which appliances work without electricity (lots of gas stoves and furnaces these days have electric pilots or starters), and which have bypasses (and whether you have any business even considering doing so). Know where the shutoff valves are in the place. Know how to cook without stove or microwave. Know which miniature-gas-powered devices can be used indoors (lots of 'camp stoves,' for instance, really should not be used in a confined space). Know how to conserve BTUs. Consider having a supply of canned heat, powdered milk, butter, flour, and canned goods or dried beans/rice.

Along with TP, I would suggest getting a bidet and getting used to how it works. You might lose water service, but if not (even if the water isn't potable), it can make that 12 pack of Charmin last practically forever.

[Rogar Demonblud]

I am sure the toilet paper issue is down to people trying to sell them for a higher price. It's basically crowdsourcing capturing the market, lots of people buy more than they need in the hope that they can cause a shortage and force the price up. They're out of luck now, here, but they may have sold enough already to have made a profit, I hope they get stuck with a huge stock of worthless waste paper, but I don't doubt that some made a profit.

Actually, the issue is that people are no longer spending over half of each day somewhere other than home using their TP. And much of the time people usually spend at home is spent sleeping. So what they need at home jumps spectacularly anytime they're cooped up, like blizzards, post tornado, flooding, and quarantines.

[Imbalance]

Do you have any means of self-defense?

[Willie the Duck]

Do you have any means of self-defense?

I'm assuming they have something to put those 500 rounds of 9mm ammo into.

[Imbalance]

I'm assuming they have something to put those 500 rounds of 9mm ammo into.

One could assume, yes, but simply having a firearm and a few boxes of shells is not the same thing as preservation against attack. Or, more concerning, maybe our assumption is wrong and they just plan to toss bullets really hard at someone with harmful intent.

[razorback]

Do you have any means of self-defense?

Yes, I'm active black belt in two martial arts. I also have a collection of knives, swords, sticks, and staves if need, along with...

I'm assuming they have something to put those 500 rounds of 9mm ammo into.
Yes, a Berreta 92FS.


One could assume, yes, but simply having a firearm and a few boxes of shells is not the same thing as preservation against attack. Or, more concerning, maybe our assumption is wrong and they just plan to toss bullets really hard at someone with harmful intent.
Well, if worse comes to worse...

Realistically, I really, really hope that it never comes to anything ever resembling needing it, though.

[Vizzerdrix]

I'm assuming they have something to put those 500 rounds of 9mm ammo into.

Ruger just came out with a swanky new 9mm carbine.

Anyways, I survived the icestorm of 98. Two weeks with no power and snow so high we couldn't see the plow trucks (not that they where running at the time).

A gas stove is all that kept my family from freezing with no water. We melted snow and blocked off unused or seldom used rooms. We melted so much darn snow! People use tons of water for washing and bathroom. So if I was to recommend anything, it would be drums of water, or at least large containers for storing wash/flushing water.

Second would be food. Those survival buckets are popular, but expensive. A cheaper option is pickling. You can pickle a surprising amount of things from eggs and sausage to beets and greenbeans.

Third thing is knowledge. Super light to carry and no matter what you will always have it on you. Learn how to make a water filter from sand and charcoal. Learn what crops will grow fast. Learn first aid, and as much medical information as you can. And learn what local plants can help you. Dandelions, willow bark, and cattails are good places to start.

Last would be to know your neighbors. A lot of people made it through the icestorm only because neighbors went and checked on them and people helped each other. We organized supply trading. We transported generators to homes that needed a bit of power for a few hours. We traded information. And we kept a close eye on the elderly. It was the single biggest contributor to many peoples survival.

[Brother Oni]

One could assume, yes, but simply having a firearm and a few boxes of shells is not the same thing as preservation against attack.

500 rounds is more than a few boxes (10 in fact).


Yes, a Berreta 92FS.

Are you the only one trained in its use? Is your wife capable (and willing) to use it in an emergency, or better yet, carry her own?

The only other thing I would suggest are N95 masks rather than P95 ones when things calm down, since those are more easily cleanable in a pinch (hot air at 70C for half an hour without contacting a metal surface (https://utrf.tennessee.edu/information-faqs-performance-protection-sterilization-of-face-mask-materials/#author_link)).

If you wear glasses, a spare pair; if you don't, then safety goggles of some sort.
Your wife may require other sanitary products if she is unwilling to go the medieval route.

[razorback]

Are you the only one trained in its use? Is your wife capable (and willing) to use it in an emergency, or better yet, carry her own?

The only other thing I would suggest are N95 masks rather than P95 ones when things calm down, since those are more easily cleanable in a pinch (hot air at 70C for half an hour without contacting a metal surface (https://utrf.tennessee.edu/information-faqs-performance-protection-sterilization-of-face-mask-materials/#author_link)).

If you wear glasses, a spare pair; if you don't, then safety goggles of some sort.
Your wife may require other sanitary products if she is unwilling to go the medieval route.

No. The wife and son both have gone shooting with me and friends on several occasions. One friend is a local PD who is also a range master and I let him walk through the gun safety with my son.

The P95's we have were for a project but are nice to have. It good to know about cleaning the N95 and as we can go through this current crisis, I'll pick up some N95 masks.

Good call on sanitary products.

[Algeh]

Speaking of sanitary products, a Diva Cup has been a very convenient thing to have during this stay-at-home order. I've been using one for over a decade, and it had quite the learning curve at first, so I'm not sure how useful a new user would find it during these times, but it's certainly given me one less thing to worry about.

In general, I hate running out of things and having to go to the store, so I try to live my life so that happens as little as possible. That means I've gone for reusable products (like the Diva Cup) whenever possible, and buy in bulk for anything that won't go bad and isn't reusable. It helps that I have a decent amount of storage space, but the thing that's helped me the most during all of this is to be in the habit of adding things to the shopping list when I have 1-6 months of them left rather than when I'm out.

For things like dishwasher soap or laundry soap, I always have one and a spare, and when I open the spare, I start watching the sales at Costco and buy another one as soon as it goes on sale. This both saves me money and means I had a 4-5 month supply of dishwasher pacs on hand when all of this started. I'm now down to only 3 remaining 6-packs of toilet paper, and will buy more the next time I see it at Costco, but my usual pattern (since it doesn't really go on sale at Costco much) is to buy a new Costco 30-pack whenever I open the previous Costco 30-pack, so I started this whole adventure with 5 6-packs in the main bathroom (from the one I just opened), 1 6-pack in the spare bathroom, and one "extra" 6-pack in the pantry even though toilet paper started being scare the very week I'd have usually bought it.

Similarly, I'm about halfway through my usual 50 pound sack of flour. It'll be annoying in about a month if flour is hard to come by, since that's getting closer to when I'd usually replace it, but it won't be a real problem for me for another 2-3 months. It helps that I usually eat all of my meals at home so the things I eat regularly that aren't fresh dairy or veggies are things that I can rotate through a stock of regularly about as fast as I'm eating them now. (My main limiting factor for needing to buy groceries is milk. I quite like milk, and don't want to give it up right now, so I have to go to Costco every 2-ish weeks to get another 2 gallons of it. If that weren't the case, I could probably make it a month between needing eggs each time, although frozen veggies do get boring after a while. Since butter freezes I have a nice butter stockpile, and I bought cheese in February so I should be set for a few more months on hard cheese, although I'll pick up goat cheese at Costco again between now and then as it only keeps a few months.)

One thing I've been meaning to research for potential future earthquakes is how useful pool chlorine would be for treating water for drinking, bathing, or cleaning. Given that I have a swimming pool, I will almost certainly happen to have a stockpile of pool chlorine and water testing strips when a given disaster strikes, and it would be nice to know more about how to use it depending on other options. I figure treated pool water would be fine to at least wash clothes with (although it would bleach them a bit, particularly if there was nothing lower-chlorine to rinse with), but it would be nice to have more information in advance about how stupid I was being at any given time. It's not so much that pool chlorine is something I'd buy to have on hand in case of a disaster as that it's something I'd have on hand in spite of a disaster, but it'd be nice to have more information on when and how it'd make sense to use it.

[Brother Oni]

One thing I've been meaning to research for potential future earthquakes is how useful pool chlorine would be for treating water for drinking, bathing, or cleaning.

Cleaning, definitely. Bathing should be all right, although you will probably get skin dryness over time. Don't drink it.

Pool chlorine covers a number of different products, each with their own set of chemicals, so read the label on your container of pool chlorine. Some cleaners have sodium hypochlorite, ie liquid bleach, while another I believe, is a chemical touted by snake oil salesmen to be effective against SARS-CoV-2 (while true, it's the same way that eating cyanide is also a cure for SARS-CoV-2).

It's one thing to take an accidental mouthful while swimming, something else entirely to rely on it for your daily water needs; using sodium hypochlorite: This paper (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4421444/) indicates the oral LD50 in rat is 290 mg/kg (the amount needed in to be swallowed in a single dose to kill 50% of the population), therefore:

A 70kg (154lb) person would need (290 * 70) 20.3g of sodium hypochlorite.

Pool cleaner is typically 14%, so (20.3 / 0.14) 145 mL or a little over half a US cup.

Note that this is for acute (sudden onset) toxicity. Chronic toxicity (for when you're exposed to something over a long period) occurs at much lower levels.
TL,DR: Don't drink industrial strength cleaning products.

[J-H]

You can buy and store powdered pool chlorine for water treatment, but be aware that it's very corrosive. You need to keep it in an airtight container, outdoors, and well away from your tools or anything nice. It'll eat through most containers and will cause rust or damage if it spills anywhere.

I've believed in keeping some extra around for a long time, and we made the jump out to living on acreage in a rural area a couple of years ago. All this has changed for us is that it's shown how dependent we are on store-bought fruits (I have over 60 fruit trees planted, but they won't fruit for another few years) and (frozen) vegetables and sweet potatoes for our daily diet. I have 3 steers in the field due to go to butcher in a couple of months, but we still eat more beef than we produce (sell 2/keep 1, plus we butchered one last Nov and it's gone).

One thing we had to use last year during a 22-hour power outage that worked really well was an inverter. I started my truck, hooked up the inverter, and ran a 100' low-loss extension cord (bought for this specific use years ago) inside, powering each freezer and refrigerator for about 15 minutes each. If you have an inverter and a car with fuel, you have a generator! Not enough to run air conditioning on (Texas), but enough to keep your food safe with.

It's all volunteer fire departments out here - even in the closest town - so response times for fires are in the 20-40 minute range. We are on a well with a reserve tank and booster pump (65psi) running in a 1" line to multiple places on the property, including feeding the house, where it gets necked down to 3/4" for some reason. I recently put in a 1" T just out in front with a ball valve and threaded adapter, and ordered a used 100' forestry service fire hose + fog nozzle off the internet. I now have a hose with a strong enough jet and reach to water the roof and ends of my house (in case of wildfire) or to go through a window and fight a fire anywhere in the house. True firefighting capacity is about 125gpm, but my setup only puts out about 35-40gpm (per some equations I found online). It's still a lot better than a fire extinguisher and a 40 minute wait, and it'll run as long as the breaker box powering the well pump does not get damaged. I estimate it'll take about 2 minutes to get it online (go outside, open box, unroll hose, deal with any kinks, turn on). I build the storage box for the hose this week (left over cement board from another project).

Re: guns, find and attend at least one IDPA session. It's an eye-opening difference when your course of fire switches from "stand at a table and shoot a stationary target" to "engage 9 different targets with two shots each from four different firing locations while reloading in the middle, all with a timer running." Will you have 9 targets IRL ever? No. Will a real gunfight involve time pressure, movement to multiple firing locations, and the use of cover? Yes.
Going to one of these made me make some substantial upgrades to my home shooting range. 500 rounds of ammo isn't that much...that's like 4 practice trips to the shooting range for 1 person.

[Asmotherion]

If you have a backyard, planting a bunsh of trees and vegies could help. I suggest wheat, coffee, chockolate, olive tree, Orange, Lemon and perhaps a banana tree.

A stock of coper wire and nicel wire can help you make a makeshift battery with some accid agents (lemons for example).

You can have a prepared carbon-sand-rock filter to purify water. Add to that couple barels to your roof to collect rainwater.

A magnifying glass can help you start a small controled fire on your backyard, in order to cook food and distil water.

Spices could help you deal with the plain taste of supplies.

Have some wood cut, and turn some of it into coal.

A sling. Can be very good alternative to hunt small game if you run out of amunition.

[J-H]

If you have a backyard, planting a bunsh of trees and vegies could help. I suggest wheat, coffee, chockolate, olive tree, Orange, Lemon and perhaps a banana tree.

If you're in the US, you must be along the Gulf of Mexico or in California. Most of what you listed are tropical/subtropical crops that will die in a freeze. The only exceptions are olives & wheat.

[Peelee]

If you're in the US, you must be along the Gulf of Mexico or in California. Most of what you listed are tropical/subtropical crops that will die in a freeze. The only exceptions are olives & wheat.

Aye. Even I live too far north to grow citrus, much to my chagrin.