Are you ready for a MAJOR disaster?

[Incitatus]

Poll question: Are you ready for a MAJOR disaster?

I have been thinking about stocking up on supplies.
I am curious how many DUers are prepared for a national emergeny in which the economy becomes devasted and are prepared for energy and food shortages.

I can probably go 2 months with what I have now. With the exception of water, but there are springs nearby.

[madeline_con]

1. There are two swirling off the African coast, headed this way.

They may even combine into one superstorm! yay. :(

[MercutioATC]

2. I have no more than usual, BUT...

I'm set for toilet paper, paper towels, tuna and coffee for months (I buy them in bulk when they go on sale).

[mike_c]

3. when you say "two months,' is that with or without electricity...?

I could last a couple of months too-- if the freezer keeps running. Otherwise, maybe a week or two, max. Not even many children to eat in my neighborhood. Lotsa pets, though....

[Incitatus]

8. Pets will do in a pinch

I can cook a cat so well you'd think it was a duck. :-)
I am assuming the power would be out.

[doublethink]

4. Maybe a weeks ......... supply onhand

otherwise fuck it... everything else will be looted or I will hand it out and get with my neighbors to survive. Move on .. keep the faith Peace. :)

[LiveWire]

5. Eagle Scout with military survival training...

All i have to do is get away from any populated areas, and I should be fine. My loved ones, thats another story.

[tuckessee]

16. Just make sure

you don't mess with the stuff of those of us who live in less populated areas without getting a prior OK. That includes tresspassing.

When things get tight there's not much need for strange outsiders who are of an unknown quantity so you may find the woods not as hospitable as they were before.

My old farmer friend at the end of road says the only thing more dangerous than those dogs city folks dump out here are the city folks themselves when they finally get hungry and come our way.

[The Jacobin]

6. I'm lacking water and ammo

I need to go down to a camping or army/navy store to get a portable purifier -- and a box of shells for the shotgun.

[SW FL Dem]

7. We learned our lesson last year.

We have evacuations plans. Our important stuff is identified and ready to pack. In the house, we have water and canned goods to last 2 weeks. We have extra gas cans since we have 600+ miles to go before we get off the FL Peninsula. The cans are empty now, but will be filled before any real threat to our area. If we stay, we can save enough water to last longer by filling the bathtubs, etc.

[Der Blaue Engel]

9. I live in San Francisco where we are constantly reminded

to keep an emergency supply of water, food, and first aid in case of an earthquake. I lived here during the Big One in 1989, and was without gas or electricity for three days, but still I have never gotten around to getting "prepared." I think it may be the same psychological resistance I have to preparing my will...if I never do it, it'll never happen. (Yeah, right.)

:scared:

[Richard Steele]

10. Yes. I am a toothless hillbilly from way back....

And I won't be helpless if the power goes out,
or the Grocery closes.

I'll be fine. Dirty and thin again, perhaps...but fine nonetheless.

[lpbk2713]

11. We're only about halfway thru the hurricane season

and this year has been an extraordinarily active year. Hold on to your hats. I hate to think of it but things could get much worse.

[Igel]

12. Used to when I lived in LA (i.e., Los Angeles) and in Rochester.

Proved unnecessary during the Northridge quake.

Came in handy during a particularly nasty ice-storm in Rochester, then during the NE power blackout. My wife thought I was insane, until she realized that it actually was a neat idea: power's out, we can still cook and have light. Let the ice melt and the power come back on in its own sweet time.

Moved to Houston. Hurricane-prone area. No preparations. Ice-storms, blackouts, earthquakes I can prepare for. Massive flooding ... that's a different story. Maybe if I had a house, but we're wedged in an apt.

[Pallas180]

14. Fla here. If the roof stays I can make it energy wise maybe for

a week. Food and water wise maybe two.

After seeing New Orleans, if anything like a 3 is coming this way, I'm leaving. I have one 5 gallon can...and maybe should go out and get another...but it's pretty dangerous to drive with those gas fumes in the back seat.

[Pallas180]

15. thinking of New Orleans & the Gulf cities, wondering if the banks

are still going to try to collect their mortgages.

[newswolf56]

13. I can go two months with the staples (rice, lintels, coffee) on hand.

Water would be a huge problem because economic circumstances forced me to move back to a city last year -- worst possible place to survive a disaster, absolutely impossible for anyone who is elderly (I am 65). Moreover, all my survival skills are rural skills -- vegetable gardening, fishing, hunting, trapping, even living off the land if necessary. Such skills are absolutely useless in a city, especially a city as poisonous as Tacoma, which was so toxified by ASARCO that it is now deadly dangerous to eat any vegetables grown from its soil.

[Pallas180]

17. Hint - fill empty litre soda bottles with water...have been doing

that for many many months.

Lots of canned food that is edible and tasty cold.

rice? lintels, coffee? hard to eat uncooked.

[newswolf56]

24. Good suggestion for water; better than gallon milk jugs.

As for cooking, I have a Primus stove. But my main concern is not disaster; it's the food shortage that will surely result from the breakdown of the transport system due to post-Katrina fuel shortages. (As New Orleans proves, city residents {with the exception of the rich} are utterly helpless in the face of disaster -- and because of my age and income, I am clearly one of the doomed. Thus it's very unlikely I would survive a real catastrophe, which out here would be a volcanic eruption or an earthquake of such magnitude it destroyed the water and electrical infrastructure. The one exception would be if I could somehow make it into real wilderness before my {old and sickly} automobile died. I know much of the back country around here fairly well. There -- where the knapsack portability of rice, lentils etc. becomes a positive value -- I could probably survive for some time.)

[wli]

18. my medicine doesn't last and needs continual refrigeration

I'm dead if there's a disaster, period.

[SofaKingLiberal]

19. You might want to invest in some solar panels

and a power efficient mini-fridge. I'm probably just a tin hatter, but I think things are going to get really fcked up in the near future.

[wli]

22. The shelf-life isn't long either. It wouldn't help then, either. n/t

[tuckessee]

21. Dig a hole for you medicine.

Narrow and deep. As deep as possible. Line it with a PVC pipe. Keep your meds at the bottom where it's coolest and have them in something waterproof you can pull up by rope, cable, etc.

[wli]

23. c.f. shelf-life comments above. n/t

[davepc]

20. Food, water, and a firearm. Enough to last a month.

[Cleita]

25. Yeah, I've got all my earthquake emergencies supplies

in place. Next time though I won't have a laptop computer to get online. I really have been trying to find out how to hook the regular computer to a battery, but can't get much information on it.