Any preppers here?

[neversay]

I'm not exactly predicting the end of the world, but just wondering to what extent others here have back-up plans?

The risk that concerns me most is short-term loss of power/heat for whatever reason (e.g. cyber attack, power lines down) as our household is totally dependent on mains gas/electric. I was wondering whether getting a small portable gas heater 'just in case' was a sensible move or whether I'm just being too cautious. How much do others here prepare for 'the worst'?

N.

[Alaric]

How much do others here prepare for 'the worst'?

If you recall the 1970s a supply of candles (and matches) might remain essential household equipment. Large store cupboards as well, given the propensity of supermarkets to run out of basics like sugar and salt. Beyond that, battery powered devices give a certain amount of resilience. For heating, gas seems unlikely to be cut off, but central heating boilers won't function in the absence of electricity. Perhaps that's an argument in favour of solar panels.

[gryffron]

I still have candles and matches. And a substantial reserve of tinned and dried food.

The one that worries me most these days is water. Not many years ago, my house had a hot water tank, and a huge cold water tank in the loft. In a known emergency, I could have lasted a month on what was in the loft. My house today has zero reserve. Nothing. Water cut off, I can't even fill a kettle. (It has happened, twice in the last few years. Fortunately only for about an hour each time)

Interestingly, my new gas hob is mains powered, and won't run gas unless it is burning or you're pressing the electric ignition. Not sure it could be lit with a match or without power. Off to try now. [edit: yes it can ]

Gryff

[Urbandreamer]

Thinking some more on this, and anticipating the inevitable negative comments: I think wider society tend to look down on preppers and personal resilience generally because they have deep seated fears about their own adequacy in the event of a problem.

I'm not convinced that you are right on that. I think that it's more an exadurated opinion of preppers "fears". After all is there REALLY going to be a Zombie appocolipse?

I'm not a prepper, but like others who posted I have candles, matches, lighters, oil lamps and a wind up radio because I lived through the 70's.
I have a fire extinguisher, not only because it makes sense but because there was industrial action in the fire service.
I have 4kg of rice and significant amount of canned food, because supermarkets ran short of food in the petrol dispute.
While I cook on gas, I also have camping stoves and fuel for them.
I have a snow shovel and grit, though we are rairly snowed in.

There is a lovely line in John Ringo's book "Under a Graveyard sky".

Their neighbors were always commenting on how well prepared they were for emergencies. Which was nice until the second or third minor “emergency” when you were the only one who noticed that the lights did occasionally go out and grocery stores tended to run short when there was the slightest news of a possible disaster. Yes, we have spare toilet paper.

Ps, well worth reading.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Under-Graveyar ... veyard+sky

[Scott0966]

Funnily enough I was just watching this on iplayer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p ... armageddon

One principle is that if you don't have the luxuries in the first place, you won't miss them.

The kid has it sussed at 8:40 in.

[panamagold]

Large store cupboards as well, given the propensity of supermarkets to run out of basics like sugar and salt.

Whoa there Alaric. If your propensity for basics is the above then I don't think you need concern yourself too much with regard to the end of the world being the cause of your demise. Unless, of course, it happens this afternoon. In which case I'll see you all on the otherside.

[Gengulphus]

I still have candles and matches. And a substantial reserve of tinned and dried food.

The one that worries me most these days is water. Not many years ago, my house had a hot water tank, and a huge cold water tank in the loft. In a known emergency, I could have lasted a month on what was in the loft. My house today has zero reserve. Nothing. Water cut off, I can't even fill a kettle. (It has happened, twice in the last few years. Fortunately only for about an hour each time)

Interestingly, my new gas hob is mains powered, and won't run gas unless it is burning or you're pressing the electric ignition. Not sure it could be lit with a match or without power. Off to try now. [edit: yes it can ]

The thing that would worry me most is medications. I have high blood pressure and need them to control it - and I've had a reminder (fortunately a fairly gentle one, but still nasty while it lasted) about the likely consequences of failing to do so... If the supply chain for them were to be broken, my expected remaining lifespan would be a lot shorter than it is.

Second would be fuel. If gas and electricity were to be shut off, I would need to find things to burn and/or use solar panels. But the population density in Cambridge is high enough that I suspect things to burn would rapidly run out, and I also suspect that anything like solar panels would rapidly disappear... So I'm not all that certain that I could get enough fuel for essentials, and very much doubt that I could get enough for comfort.

Water is probably third, as I do still have a large amount in a loft tank. I would need to economise severely on its use (no more soaking in a hot bath, for instance!) but I'm fairly certain it could be made to outlast the fuel supplies. And if the fuel problem could be solved, there is enough collectable water in the UK environment that collecting it and boiling it to kill off water-borne diseases would be feasible.

Anyway, being realistic, if it were to happen, I think my remaining life would be likely to be fairly short and uncomfortable. But also being realistic, I think the biggest question would simply be about how society would respond to such changes. If it went in some of the more unpleasant directions, a short, uncomfortable life might be a comparatively good outcome...

That's all about the possibilities if the disruption were permanent or semi-permanent, by the way. A week or two's disruption to supplies is nothing like as serious.

Gengulphus

[redsturgeon]

The prepper thing seems to be much more of a US think than a UK thing and what strikes me about most US preppers is the amount of thinking they put into protecting what they have in the absence of law and order.

The fact that 3% of Amercan hold half the guns is a testament to the firepower that a serious prepper thinks they need to protect their stuff. In the UK it would seem to require a bit more thought as to how to do that...I guess a membership of the local gun club would be obligatory in order to get access to the right sort of "protection" here.

John

[UncleEbenezer]

Prepping for armageddon isn't going to help. Survivors will be from among those who are best at it today, and that's not TV survivalists but rather those with real practice: like gangs, gypsies, surviving refugees, and the military.

Prepping for a lesser event like food shortages and rationing might make more sense. If I had land, I'd be using it to grow food.

For me, the primary issues are food and people (the latter being those made desperate enough to attack other people: first down will be those of us who have neither the vigour of youth nor a powerful gang to defend ourselves). Medicine is secondary, and water is not an issue in an area that still has good rivers.

[tjh290633]

I think that our worst event was the great storm in 1987?. Two of the three phases went down on the power line. We were on the one live phase, so we ran extension leads to our neighbours either side, to keep their boilers working. Fortunately we have a big gas fire, seldom used, but it has about a third of the power of our CH boiler and can keep the house warm on full chat. We also have a gas hob, which does not need mains power. I think we also have a Camping Gaz stove somewhere.

Not much stock in the way of provisions, but we could probably last for a week on what is in the cupboards. I have enough malt scotch to last several months or more.

Candles galore, somewhere.

TJH

[bungeejumper]

No problems for me. I've got my intelligent cave in New Zealand, fully equipped with a mini nuclear power supply and a decade's food resources, and a small private army to keep it all together, and an [expletive deleted] of death rays that I bought in a CIA garage clearance sale. Now all I need is a way of getting there when the balloon finally goes up. Hmmmmm.

BJ

[Pipsmum]

Yep. Tons of candles and matches. Seeds for growing food. Self winding torches. A powerful catapult/bow and arrows for shooting small livestock to eat once the bullets run out for the rifle. Books on wildcraft eating. Knowing where the berry bushes and fruit trees are. Shack by a stream with a woodburner. That'll do me.

[gryffron]

I guess a membership of the local gun club would be obligatory in order to get access to the right sort of "protection" here.

Pretty easy to get a shotgun licence if you live in the countryside. And you can keep it at home. Much more difficult to justify for city folk I suspect.

Gryff

[XFool]

Yep, checking in.

Learning about peak oil in 2000 convinced me the whole house of cards that is civilisation really hangs by a thread that is not always going to be possible to maintain in the long run.

I am all set. I have been to badass places, met badass people and held my own. I have some useful skills.

So. Can you kill people with your bare hands?...

[stewamax]

Now all I need is a way of getting there when the balloon finally goes up.

No problem - you've answered your own question. Get in the basket and wait for a north wind.

[tea42]

I have a 4kw Gazco balanced flue bottled gas stove in our sitting room. It never gets used unless there is snow on the ground. I chose it because although we have a town gas supply I thought that the supply could fail at some time. Last autumn we came back from holiday to a failed beyond repair boiler. The stove came into its own and heated the whole house for a few weeks. I also have a two burner and grille camping stove with a very large gas bottle. Our food store cupboards are very well stocked with non perishables and tinned food. I also have a 200 gallon loft tank. We are not conciously preppers.

[scotia]

There's a vacant personal nuclear shelter up on the NW coast at Achmelvich.
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j& ... 6038473267
And that link covers a beautiful walk.

[Rhyd6]

We're preppers though out of experience not fear of armageddon. We regularly get snowed in, suffer from loss of power, the nearest supermarket is ten miles away and to reach the main roads we have to negotiate some rather narrow lanes. We've got a multi fuel stove which we can also cook on plus a camping gaz stove. We've got a couple of shot guns and a cross bow, plenty of sheep to hand if necessary though the chickens would have to go first. Well stocked store cupboards are a must and I'm always teased about the large supple of loo paper I hold in reserve. If the water should freeze, this did happen in 1948 and 1963, (we have our own water supply) we still have the old "ty bach" and oil lamps to guide us to it. My father's motto was "hope for the best but prepare for the worst" and I think some of it rubbed off on me.

R6

[bungeejumper]

Thanks Rhyd6, I'd say you've got the most viable/sustainable fully-rural solution there. As for the rest of us, I'm resigned to the view that not many of us would last very long if The Anarchy were ever to descend. Unless we're built like Rambo (and aged and armed accordingly), and unless we live in the kinds of homes that desperate, violent yoof wouldn't want to take from us, then we're going to be easy pickings. Chubb locks? mortices? CCTV? Yeah, got all that, and a fat lot of good it'll do us in the middle of the rural night. Large dog? Not unless it's armour-plated.

And that, beyond a few front-line defences, the better thing to do would be to enjoy what we're doing and not let thoughts of doom shape our lives too much. I refuse to be bunkered into a tinfoil hat mentality.

At a lower level of crisis, we're closer to Rhyd6 but without the shotguns. Always two months' food somewhere in the cupboards - we have a big pantry at Bungee Towers, although it'll be a small problem if the booze runs out. Gas heaters we have, Camping Gaz cookers also, candles, plenty of warm bedding. And best of all, we have our rural neighbours who look out for us, as we look out for them. Why, they'd probably let us have a sheep or two if the urban scum hadn't shot them all yet.

BJ

[UncleIan]

We've had campfire discussions about it at explorer scouts, "if there was a zombie apocalypse..."

The general consensus was crucial thing is going to be clean water, closely followed by being able to defend yourselves/your supply of water. As I'm a leader with no storage space in a scout hut, I guess I'm a bit more "be prepared" than most. I've got camping stoves, battery lights, paraffin lamps, axes, saws, knives, water containers, water purifying tablets, first aid kits, a fair bit of flour and random bits of food. I've also got keys to the local campsite and scout hut so more gas and more stoves and cooking equipment, archery gear, air rifles. The campsite has a borehole but I assume there's a powered pump so it would probably need some reengineering to have a hand pump or solar or something, though a river runs next to the site, so there's no shortage of water, it would just need purifying. There's a good supply of gas there. There's a llama or alpaca flock next door, and horses and cows in the surrounding fields, so fresh meat shouldn't be a problem for a while. Actually, a raid on the rural life museum down the road would furnish some useful stuff I'm sure, could start harnessing the horses and get ploughing and farming.

I guess the main trick would be to see it coming in enough time to do something about it. I mean, at the slightest sign of severe weather there's empty shelves in the supermarkets, and if everyone's already gone all Mad Max it's a bit late. And then it's a question of whether you make any assumptions about how long it'll go on for, so whether you need to start ploughing fields, planting crops etc, or if a raid on Sainsburys and a few tins will see you through.

Time of year could alter your chances drastically, as well as what actually happens, I mean, if it was a contagion that wiped most people out (but not me and mine, miraculously) then it's all 28 days later and the shops will have something useable in them, if everyone's alive and there's no power and no civilisation, soon enough there'll be no gas, no water, no food, it's all going to kick off pretty quick.

So I guess, apart from stocks of food, I'm pretty much accidentally prepared, I've never thought I needed to get stuff for the end of the world, it's just I need the same stuff for scouts!

Storms of 87 was the worse I've experienced, power out in our village for 10 days, had gas, and luckily a gas oven, and only blocked in by trees for a couple of days, but we had plenty of paraffin lamps and candles, and I could go shower at friends houses in town, so it was hardly Bear Grylls The Island.