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How long could you last?



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Seraph




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 19 2009, 9:48 am
If ch'v there was something catastrophic, and you had no water supply, gas supply, electricity supply, no food supply because no stores have any stock nearby, no medical supply in your area, etc...
As in, you were totally stranded pretty much with what you currently own...

How long would you and your family last, most probably?
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amother


 

Post Sun, Apr 19 2009, 9:58 am
My husband would be dead within days without access to medication. He tries to get a bit more than one month's supply for this reason. Lack of clean water would probably kill him before the meds ran out though.
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MommyLuv




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 19 2009, 10:13 am
Every family should have an emergency stockpile for disaster including bottled water, non perishable food, ice, extra gas for car/generator if you have one, medications and first aid supplies, batteries, flashlights, candles....

I really should put one together one of these days Confused
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Seraph




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 19 2009, 10:59 am
Do you know just HOW MUCH water you'd need to stock up to last a REAL emergency?
Right now we've got about 20 liters of water, probably enough to last my family of 3 about a week, probably less.
I plan on buying a big huge barrel or two that hold enough water for one person one month, if used sparingly. They're expensive, or I'd buy more.
I plan on buying up food in bulk, enough to last us a good few months or more. We have 2 small propane camping stoves, but that cant last more than a couple of days. Thinking of buying a gas balloon to use in an emergency. (Right now our gas in our apartment is from a gas line.) We have about 50 candles, nowhere near enough. Must stock up on that. We have about 200 matches... Chickens that lay eggs once in a while (we got 5 in the past week or so but none before that for at least 2 months). I have a huge supply of medicine.
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tovarena




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 19 2009, 12:29 pm
I live in a hurricane zone so we are supposed to go through this exercise every June. I think rule of thumb on water is 2 gallons per person per day. For food, we usually have 15 to 20 La Briute meals (shelf-stable, self-heating meals) stockpiled. And lots of general staples like bread, peanut butter and jelly. Those could all go a long way in an emergency.

There's not usually much of a concern of being "on our own" for more than 3-4 days, though. Water, particularly is usually restored quite quickly. Roads are cleared in 2-3 days at most. Power can be a whole different issue. But you learn to get inventive in those circumstances. We stock up on charcoal beforehand and use our grill for the first 3-4 days to grill everything in the freezer (and whateveer veggies we have on hand as well). It takes about that long for things in the freezer to come to room temperature. After that, the staples come into play. And if power is still out then but there's still freezer food left, the first task of each morning is driving to an area that has ice. It can mean an hour+ in the car, but that's a nice reprieve when the car is the only place you can get air conditioning!

In the case of being ground zero of a seriously disasterous storm (like Andrew that hit South Florida in 1992), once the roads are cleared, you just do whatever you have to do to get out of town. Someone you know is likely to still have a car in working order. You can generally get a ride even if your car(s) is totaled to some area where you can rent a car and get out.
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Raisin




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 19 2009, 2:00 pm
I think we would have enough food to last out a hurricane or a snowstorm or some similar emergency, but probably not a nuclear disaster.
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freidasima




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 19 2009, 2:28 pm
Well raisin under the circumstances your food gets nuked as well so you can't use it anyhow...
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Liba




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 19 2009, 2:52 pm
I have one technologically dependent child so we wouldn't last long. If he was well and didn't need his O2 and would tolerate feedings without his pump (we could gravity feed) we have enough formula for him for 6 months so he would be set. Smile

The rest of us, we don't have water stored so after we finish the two cases of grape juice, we could either drink my son's (not kosher to our general standards) formula or dehydrate, eh? We have plenty of food, though if we didn't have gas, how we would cook after we ran out of charcoal is a good question.

Med wise we would be okay, I have a stockpile of our important medications and medical supplies and there is a local gemach, so I really am not worried.

All in all, we aren't terribly prepared though.

Plenty of food, not enough to drink and no way to cook.
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msctwg




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Apr 30 2009, 1:07 pm
10 minutes. then I would become a mental wreck. no joke
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Happy Mom




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 03 2009, 4:31 pm
I was just talking to my kids about this yesterday. I don't think that a huge percentage of the population has even thought about the possibility that something unexpected could happen that could affect their ability to have the basic services we all take for granted. And even of those who have thought about it, most of them are minimally prepared. This is what I find the most frightening, how very few people can take care of their own needs for more than a couple of days without outside help.

I figure that it's easy enough to think ahead and get some of what you need together now, when there's no reason to be pressured - the worst time to try to buy these things is at times of true need, when everyone stampedes the stores. None of those things are items that would need in an emergency are things you'll be sorry to have - would it really bother anyone to have more shelf stable food in their pantry, or extra bottled water? Flashlights or a backup way to cook are useful, too.

The most important things are: water and food, with water being absolutely crucial. You can improvise for a lot of other things. There are lots of little steps a person can take towards the goal of being more prepared - it's expensive and stressful to try to do it all at once. For example, after Shabbos each week I rinse out the empty grape juice bottle and refill it with sink water, then put it away in a cabinet in the basement. Over time this builds up. When you go food shopping, buy an extra bag of rice or a couple extra cans of veggies (making sure it's something that you usually eat). No significant cost or time, but it helps.


Last edited by Happy Mom on Sun, May 03 2009, 4:40 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Happy Mom




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 03 2009, 4:38 pm
>>In the case of being ground zero of a seriously disasterous storm (like Andrew that hit South Florida in 1992), once the roads are cleared, you just do whatever you have to do to get out of town. Someone you know is likely to still have a car in working order. You can generally get a ride even if your car(s) is totaled to some area where you can rent a car and get out.<<

I'm wondering how well this scenario would work. If someone was evacuating an emergency zone, wouldn't their car be filled with their precious belongings and supplies? Even if they made room for you, would you have room for the essentials you'd need to be prepared wherever you ended up? I'd be afraid to rely in a life threatening situation on someone else's good will at a time of fear and stress to take me along. And even once you got to a car rental place, what if their cars were all rented out? Or the workers had also fled the area, or the power was down so they couldn't take your credit card?

I know that these scenarios sound unlikely, but the point is what would we manage if the unexpected happen? Dealing with life as normal isn't a big deal, since we're prepared for it.
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tovarena




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, May 04 2009, 12:34 pm
Happy Mom wrote:
>>In the case of being ground zero of a seriously disasterous storm (like Andrew that hit South Florida in 1992), once the roads are cleared, you just do whatever you have to do to get out of town. Someone you know is likely to still have a car in working order. You can generally get a ride even if your car(s) is totaled to some area where you can rent a car and get out.<<

I'm wondering how well this scenario would work. If someone was evacuating an emergency zone, wouldn't their car be filled with their precious belongings and supplies? Even if they made room for you, would you have room for the essentials you'd need to be prepared wherever you ended up? I'd be afraid to rely in a life threatening situation on someone else's good will at a time of fear and stress to take me along. And even once you got to a car rental place, what if their cars were all rented out? Or the workers had also fled the area, or the power was down so they couldn't take your credit card?

I know that these scenarios sound unlikely, but the point is what would we manage if the unexpected happen? Dealing with life as normal isn't a big deal, since we're prepared for it.


Agreed that it's not good to rely on others. BUT a person could very well have made every effort to do what was necessary to help themselves and yet still is in a situation that they must ask for help. Even if you've stockpiled your food and water and stored your car in a safe place, that doesn't mean you're okay to be on your own for a week or two. If your roof blew off and your only car got crushed under a tree, you're going to need help. And amazingly, I've seen time and again that in a disaster situation, people really do step up to help.

You'd think think the scenario after a disaster is as you described - each person/family scrambling to cover their own possessions and not worrying about others' lots. But having lived in a hurricane zone for almost 20 years now, I can tell you, it's not the case. I've seen it many times. Two very human responses seem to come out after a disaster - either the desire to gouge and thieve, or the incredible, selfless desire to help, which really is the majority. Most people, once they've got "their own" covered, it's absolutely amazing to see the way they'll help each other. And getting themselves covered is not as you'd think - not taking every scrap and possession before helping others. The worse the damage, the more it's true - people seem to instinctively want to reach out and help other PEOPLE before anything else.

In terms of evacuating, the idea is typically to get to the closest area that still has hotel rooms and/or rental cars available and other supplies (water, ice, food, etc.) plentiful. For most natural disasters, that's probably not TOO far. Tornadoes, hurricanes - both relatively limited in geographical scope. Tornadoes? For sure 50 miles in one direction or another can get you there. Hurricanes? Well, a minor hurricane 50 miles will get you. Okay, a more major one might be 200-300 miles to get out of the impacted area. But that's truly rare. And for 50 miles, many people will give friends/neighbors/people in need lifts to wherever they can get out to.
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Happy Mom




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, May 04 2009, 3:35 pm
That's really nice to hear about the dynamic in human interactions that you described - so encouraging!
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