Emergency Food … Preparedness

[The Annoyed Man]

Something to think about if you decided to run generators in a time of emergency or unrest. The sound will eventually draw people towards you. That will probably not be the best thing.

For short-term outages it shouldn't be a problem. If it is an extended outage or unrest is occurring I think I would prefer to put up blackout curtains, kill the genny, and break out the GPAs. Lay low, stay grey.

My main problem right now is water. If our electricity goes out then we lose the well. I'd love to get a manual pump but at 175' they are hard, and costly, to come by. I am working on rainwater harvesting so that may be the short-term solution.

Not only the noise, but if people see lights on in the house they might guess you have a generator.

In my conversation today about generators a friend told me that after Ike his neighbor had his generator stolen during the night while it was running.

My primary reasons for running my generator would be to keep the refrigerators running (we have two), for cooking (we have an electric stove-top/oven), to power battery chargers, to run cooling fans when the heat gets unbearable.........stuff like that. I agree that running lights all the time makes you a target. Ultimately, if the outage lasts long enough I'll obviously run out of fuel - whether that be gasoline or natural gas/propane - and we'll turn to wood burning and other methods of food preservation, etc. I've never thought of a generator as a zombie-apocalypse survival tool. For me, it is a temporary power source, to bridge a time of temporary municipal power unavailability.....like that bad freeze we had a couple of years ago.

[Jeff B.]

There's a whole lot of really good information (TAM's post on supplies) and other comments and suggestions.

Remember, you need to be able to have water. So store or be prepared to filter/purify. I think storing a number of cases of bottled water is a good general idea as its cheap and most folks use it up fairly quickly.

If you have water, staying warm and dry is right behind, although down here, the heat could be as much a danger as cold for folks who have conditions that make bearing the heat difficult. I'm thinking very hard on a Natural Gas generator with a fail-over type switch.

Food can be addressed for the 7 - 10 day range by stocking and rotating your pantry with items that you use and regularly prepare. I have our stuff organized in rows and date each can as I buy it and rotate the new to the back. This saves trips to the store and the Sharpie date I put on each can or box makes it easier to read. For dry goods, we use uniform sized Snap-Lock containers that have a silicon like gasket to seal the top. These have flour, sugar, pasta, pintos, grits, bisquick, lentils, white rice, wild rice, crackers, cereals, noodles, barley, etc... Costco had these for a couple of years in sets of three for a good price, but hasn't had them in a while. Amazon has them but not as much of a bargain. I also keep at least one of the other stuff that we use like dish soap, cooking oil, shortening, condiments, mustard, ketchup, rubs ( ) paper plates and plastic ware. Keeping up with and expanding your pantry not only gives you a bit of a cushion should some temporary situation make getting in or out impossible, as I said before, you'll end up saving money as you avoid "quick trips" to the store where you buy another $20 - $30 bucks worth of stuff because it looked good or you were hungry.

Even if you don't have a genny, your freezer will keep things frozen and then useable for a number of days, just open it as little as possible. The little genny I have is to run the freezer for awhile, or some fans. Storing fuel is a touchy subject. Gas isn't something that you keep long term as it degrades and gasoline is very flammable and if improperly stored, dangerous.

Something else I think is a good practice is not allowing your vehicles to get below 1/2 a tank. My truck goes to DFW every week and I can fill it every other week and that takes a bit over 1/4 of a tank, which makes it easy for me. Now all I have to do is worry about the wife not allowing her car to get too low... she's pretty much on the ball and hasn't run out of gas in 35+ years. If you need to move out from your home, you don't want to have to stop for gas in the middle of an emergency situation.

I figure that most of this group has the protection angle nailed down pretty well.

You can also find the components of a real first aid kit online and assemble that over a bit of time and be much more ready to cope with a household accident or worse should the need arise, as suggested, training in first aid, basic lifesaver techniques and reference materials can literally be lifesavers.

A little rambling, but those are a few of the things we do as a part of our everyday routine. I honestly think that we have reduced our throw away items from the pantry to almost zero and made shopping easier as the pantry is fairly well organized and lends itself to a visual inventory pretty quickly.

Regards,

Jeff B.

[joe817]

Jeff, ramble alllll you want! Your comments are well thought out plans of action, good food for thought and needed. Everyone's comments are appreciated. I've learned a lot from this thread. Let's keep it up & thanks TAM for starting it!

[troglodyte]

TAM wrote:
My primary reasons for running my generator would be to keep the refrigerators running (we have two), for cooking (we have an electric stove-top/oven), to power battery chargers, to run cooling fans when the heat gets unbearable.........stuff like that. I agree that running lights all the time makes you a target. Ultimately, if the outage lasts long enough I'll obviously run out of fuel - whether that be gasoline or natural gas/propane - and we'll turn to wood burning and other methods of food preservation, etc. I've never thought of a generator as a zombie-apocalypse survival tool. For me, it is a temporary power source, to bridge a time of temporary municipal power unavailability.....like that bad freeze we had a couple of years ago.

My uses are similar to yours. Not so much a zombie-apocalypse tool for as you mention fuel will be depleted soon enough. It's the scenarios that last more than a few days. Hurricane Ike is a good example. People displaced and services interrupted for an extended time. That's when folks start getting desperate and start looking for targets of opportunity. If the electricity is only down for a day or two just in my little corner of the world it's not going to be an issue. If a tornado takes out the nearby city and the masses start ranging then it may become more of an issue. If the terrorist take out part of the grid and the region has no electricity for several weeks then it becomes a lot more real.

It would be easy enough to have enough fuel on hand to keep a genny running a couple of weeks or more with frugal use. After a few days it might start attracting unwanted attention or unsavory types might remember that they heard or saw a generator when they passed by your house. Those nice neighbors down the street might feel they are deserving of your stores as the days stretch into weeks.

It will be a judgment call. If it looks likely that it is a temporary disruption then fire it up. If it looks like it is going to be a longer ordeal one might consider leaving it in the garage. A lot will depend on where you live, who are your neighbors, and how long you plan on staying up each night to stand watch.

For people just starting out in preparedness it doesn't hurt to discuss with those close to you some of your plans but I would be hesitant to broadcast all my preparations. I already have enough friends that say if something happens they are coming to my house because they suspect I have some stores. I have in a joking, but serious way, explained that if they aren't prepared themselves then they don't need to bother coming.

I'm not much of a doomsday prepper but I do feel that there is enough of a potential for natural disasters, terroristic threats, and the potential for civil unrest that I try to stay prepared. It would be very hard to survive TEOTWAWKI alone. I'm just trying to make sure we can make it through the storms.

[Excaliber]

Something to think about if you decided to run generators in a time of emergency or unrest. The sound will eventually draw people towards you. That will probably not be the best thing.

For short-term outages it shouldn't be a problem. If it is an extended outage or unrest is occurring I think I would prefer to put up blackout curtains, kill the genny, and break out the GPAs. Lay low, stay grey.

My main problem right now is water. If our electricity goes out then we lose the well. I'd love to get a manual pump but at 175' they are hard, and costly, to come by. I am working on rainwater harvesting so that may be the short-term solution.

The depth of the well isn't as important as your static water level, which determines how hard a pump has to work to get water to the surface.

The best manual pump solution on the market is the Simple Pump. It's not cheap, but it's very well made and reliable.

If your static water level is less than 150 feet, the Flojak pump is also an option.

[ScottDLS]

I'm thinking about using my pool as an emergency water source for "medium term" prepping scenario. I have 25000 gallons. If I put a cover on it that would keep it reasonably clean. I could take a suction using the filter pumps and pump water out of a spigot that is on the pumps. Of course that would require the generator and fuel (gasoline, NG, or propane. Could definitely use it for washing with the water going through the chlorinator. Drinking might be better to pump it into a food grade barrel and then treat. In intermittent water availability situation could refill whenever water is there. Not a TEOTWAWKI scenario, but could get by for several months on 25K gallons assuming food and fuel supplies. Sewage disposal could become an issue of the city system is out long term. I don't know how long it takes to back up.

For rural folk a windmill well water pump with a big tower tank would be a long term solution. Septic for sewage. Solar/battery and windmill for basic power. Generator for bigger loads (diesel? propane?).

[Dadtodabone]

For those of you considering a generator, don't forget to plan and prepare for maintenance. My generator required oil and filter changes every 100 hours of operation, 3 quarts synthetic and cartridge filter. Air filter at 300 hours. Kohler also recommended monitoring the oil level every 8 hrs.
In the aftermath of Ike we were without power for 11 days. The gen ran from about 10 am until 11 pm for all 11 days. This was temperature driven, with 80 degrees being the trigger.
My son and his young family bugged in with us and we were a neighborhood resource as well. The 'hood was 3 to 5 acre lots with single family homes. It was an amazing thing giving comfort to moms and kids(2 months old to toddlers)with a little cool, and a place to store cow, goat and mothers milk.
We repacked our upright freezer to allow for saving some stuff for others. When space was gone, a long unused chest freezer from a neighbor appeared in my garage an it too was filled up. We had grills set up in the circle and as the days went by we cooked a lot of food before it spoiled. Tree crews, power crews, PD, FD, a kprc news crew, insurance adjusters, all ate well on the combined resources of our little subdivision.
I don't think I ever worried about the gen getting stolen. There probably 15 people sleeping in the family room or on the patio most nights. And yes, I'm sure several were armed as well as myself, my wife and my son.
So, I guess you could "gray out" and lose the utility of your gen, or you could share and be comfortable and gain the gratitude of family, friends and neighbors.

[EastTexasRancher]

A lot of great info here.

My only add is this: If an event happens that is truly bad, say the electric grid goes down, society will come unhinged within days, not weeks. A growling generator four days into said event is a beacon leading right to you.

How will you hold onto what is yours, especially your life? Consider things like hidden storage, making your home look empty while you are in a hidden room/safe room, or preparing your home to be as much of a fortress as it can be.

Pre-plan with neighbors (we've done this on our cul-de-sac), and have a plan to come together.

If things do get bad, a lot of preppers' pantries will become grocery stores if they don't consider and have a solid defense plan.

[txglock21]

Just an FYI pertaining to this thread, this weekend is a tax-free "holiday" on some emergency preparedness items. Maybe a good time to stock up on batteries and such and save a few dollars.
http://comptroller.texas.gov/taxinfo/ta ... _1017.html