How prepared are you in the event of a national emergency?
 

How long do you think you could survive?

I'm not a "prepper" by any means, but I am curious about how long most of us could hang in there if there was some kind of breakdown of society, natural disaster, or any sort of emergency situation where everyone was ordered to bunker down and stay put for an extended period of time.

To answer that for myself I recently tried a little experiment. Now keep in mind that this was done while the lights, heat and water were still on and working. It was a food-only test, nothing more.

Here's what I did

Several months ago I decided to see just how long I could hold out just on the food I had on hand in the house. In fact the situation was kind of forced on me as my back was particularly bad (and still is in fact), so I thought it might be a good time to try it. There was no trip to the grocery store to stock up or anything, just a passive instant start to the experiment.

The thing of it is, as a normal lifestyle habit I have always had a certain amount of dry goods, canned goods, and other foodstuffs on hand in the house. My parents always did it and I guess it just stuck with me. Anyway I was, in the end, able to hold out for close to two months before I finally broke down and had to get some groceries. But even at that point I still had enough food to hold out another few weeks, if not longer.

However, if the power grid and water systems of the city had been shut down that would be an entirely different story, especially in winter here. As well, I don't own a gun currently, so security would be lacking. I do have some camping gear but nothing designed for keeping one alive through months of twent to thirty below zero weather.

But on the food front I'm encouraged at least. I ran out of a lot of things over the two months but still had a lot of things to work with and make great meals. Rice, oatmeal, canned goods, dried pasta, peanut butter, etc, were all things that helped get me the furthest.

So in the event you suddenly couldn't get out to bring food in, for whatever reason, how long do you think you could hold out? It's an important question in this day and age.

Everyday is a national emergency

I really dont care

My cats would be out of food and litter in under a week.

life time supply of cheetos

im prepared

Great experiment

i have 14 days of supplies for staying put- everything- food, 8 gallons water, trauma kit, tools, etc. i have a bugout bag with 4, maybe 5 days capability, that is part of the 14 day total kit. dog food, medicine, tent, emergency rig, water treatment pills, emergency handcranked radio. i have a crowbar and tools if there is an earthquake and the door jams and i need to pry it open to get loose.

I think i am prepared. i can take some pics or itemize if you are interested.

Wow! What are you worried about? I cannot think of anything that would force me to go camping for 5 days.

Whats a door jam

i'm not worried about anything. it feels good to be prepared. :)
according to earthquake preparedness articles and such, an earthquake could disrupt a building just enough such that the door gets stuck and will not open. they suggest keeping a crowbar on hand to pry the door open if that happens.

i also have a 135 db whistle in my kit in case of being trapped. also have a motorcyle helmet i've kept to use in case i need to walk about after a quake to get to safety.

The places I live don't have earthquakes. That probably is something to prepare for if you live in those areas.

I keep food for one day - I walk to the stores 1-2 times every day, just part of my plan to stay somewhat fit. Normal, healthy guy could easily go on without food for a week (in fact much longer), so I really don't know what kind of emergency would justify stockpiling food

I'm not prepped at all. Also don't think I'll ever need to.

Really? I can think of several scenarios, not the least of which is some sort of economic crisis which would cause major disruptions to all the services most of us take for granted. Put it this way, in the event of widespread civil unreast (and we've seen it in the news several times just in the past few years, in the NY area, in Japan, in S.E. Asia with the tsunami to name a few) you local grocery store shelves would be picked clean in a matter of hours, not days.

Other causes:

Natural disaster (bad storm, tornado, flood,...)
Economic collapse, depression (your area may not be prone to earthquakes but I can assure you it isn't immune from a bad economy)
War (same as above, anyone who thinks it can't happen where they are is fooling themselves)


Many people on the US eastern seaboard this past winter experienced first-hand the need to survive for not just five days but WEEKS, without power.

Thus there's nothing wrong at all with someone having the preparedness that dyna is describing.

that's what prompted me to do it. it turns out to be fun!

here's my bugout bag as i just snapped it, i keep it in the shopping bag to give a bit more waterproofing in case my loft's sprinkler system comes on. but it's just a collapsing bag

http://oi38.tinypic.com/qs2kog.jpg

http://oi33.tinypic.com/xcnd4o.jpg

this is it, 5 days. i've also taken steps to lighten things significantly, the tent poles are aftermarket aluminum, i've removed a shitton of extra fabric from the tent, etc. that's a complete trauma kit in the blue bag
http://oi33.tinypic.com/2aqa39.jpg

many had to go without for 11 days at least. prior to that, i had only prepared for 6 days but i beefed-up after hearing that.

According to National Geographic's Doomsday Preppers series, studies show that around 45% of Americans have some level of preparations made, in the form of non perishable food, containers of water, and of course weapons for security, in case of emergency.

that's good to hear, i figured it was less, i've been asking around here, trying to plant the seed in some peeps when they answer that they are not backed-up.

2 cases of soup here, the 8 gallons of water, 2 serious levels of personal security.

a camp stove that burns gel cubes that heat up to 1500 degrees.

it's a fun hobby.

i'm not prepared at all. i don't eat canned food but so having to replace it every 6 months or so seems like a a pain in the ass. and how do you keep water fresh? as long as power didn't go out i'd have enough stuff in the freezer and dry goods to last a couple weeks but thats about it.if something were to happen i'd regret not being more prepared that but if shit got that bad there would be mad looting in grocery stores and i'll be there. who really has time to think about this stuff? there isn't even enough time in a day to get done all the work i want to let alone all the other day to day BS i gotta do.

cd, did ya stock back up after the experiment? !

I have assault weapons, couple pallets of ammo, beer, and toilet paper. So I'm well stocked up

i have a supermarket downstairs - in case of emergency i am going to loot that

Your home many be damaged, think about some anti-looter items. No Trespassing signs, Yellow caution/police tape. "Cross the tape get shot"

I'm pretty sure I saw posts on this very board from a few who said their bug-in lasted 2-3 weeks.

But to me that's minimal. I'd like to think I could survive for far longer than that if I had to, but after my extremely incomplete experiment I know without a doubt that while on the food front I would be okay for several months I would be in serious trouble in other areas.

Having worked at the hospital for so long years ago I do have a lot of medical supplies, bandages and implements and such. Water-wise I'm prepared for a few days, a week at most. Security-wise I'd have to say barring some melee weapons (baseball bat, lead pipe) and my years of martial arts and security training I'd be screwed in a major breakdown of society. I'd be at the mercy of a gang of any size more than four or five or any lone gun-toting intruder.



You having a 5 day bugout bag is quite awesome, and more preparedness than most. I can think of several apartment dwellers I know who wouldn't last more than a day and they'd be out of water and sustenance. I know a couple of ladies who'd be eating their cats after a week.

That was the other benefit of doing it, it gave me the opporunity to clear out my old stores, and yes I have begun replenishing my usual amount of on-hand foods with new stuff. For example I found some old bread-making kits that were a good 10 years past their expiration. Tossed a lot of stuff out. Except now I'm a bit more aware of things I would run out of quickly and am now taking at least some minimal steps to alleviate that problem from happening again.

But I'm nowhere near in the same league as some of those preppers on TV. Some of them have bunkers (both in-home and remotely located) stockpiled with enough provisions to last them a year or in some cases many years. Many have dozens of weapons, thousands of rounds of ammo, they run drills and train their kids in maneuvers and weapon handling, water collection and purification systems in place, backup generators, etc etc.

I doubt I'll ever take it that far, hopefully never had to at least. But to those nay-sayers who think it can't happen to them I say it definitely can't hurt to have at least a few things put in place. I mean, do you have life insurance? Car insurance? Do you have a spare tire and jack in your car? If so.... why? What's the point of having any of that?

"Just in case?"

People need to think of having some stored food and water, security, etc, as another kind of insurance policy.

right on, that's good eh.

i don't think i've seen a prepper show, are they any good, should i tune into one of them?

Some kinds of freeze-dried packeted foods have a shelf life of 20 years or more. And despite the standard "expiry dates", canned goods and other dry goods like corn, rice, oatmeal, etc, can be just fine for far longer than 6 months. 3-5 years or in some cases more, depending on how it's stored and at what temperature.

Some people by crates of bottled water and store them. As long as they're unopened they will last a very long time until needed. Those giant "water cooler" jugs of water are great too. Some have rain barrel collectors and are prepared to pre-boil collected water using various camp stoves or other independant cooking devices.

One guy even put in a large in-ground swimming pool in his backyard and has a device that can filter and purify the pool water back into drinking water. (he won't let his kids swim during the day in order to prevent their sun screen lotions from tainting the water)

I'd last about three hours.

"Doomsday Preppers" on the National Geographic channel is pretty good. It's made more interesting by the way they also assess each preppers preparedness at the end of each segment. They use a 100 point scoring system, a possible 20 points each for food, water, security, shelter, and something they call the "X factor", presumably to do with additional skills or plans put in place for intangibles and the unexpected.

Most of the hardcore preppers haven't scored more than 70 out of 100, surprisingly.

haha, i'll have to look for that. i'm not surprised preppers are not prepared. not unlike truthers not being able to handle the truth.
they prolly yap more about prep than actually being prepped. :1orglaugh too funny!

I'd be fucked after a week.I guess I would be out pillaging or resorting to selling my ass for food :(

Oh, if you get watching a few episodes of this show you'll definitely learn a lot about prepping, including several things NOT to do.

One girl in Houston has a decent plan in place. She has maybe 6 months of stuff stored at her apartment, she has a spare vehicle always parked outside the city that she plans to WALK to carrying her bug-out backpack if the city were ever attacked, overrun or otherwise shut down. The problem as I see it with her plan is that she tends to dress in tight short-shorts, low cut tank tops. Although not what I'd call "beautiful" she is very fit, has decent boobs and a big but very firm ass. In other words during the "on foot" part of her plan she'll likely get raped, likely to death.

She'd be better off getting herself a good solid mountain bike, scooter or small motorcycle to get her to her bug-out vehicle.


Like I said, some guys on that show have literally massive amounts of stockpiles in place, spread out in several locations in some cases. Some own the water rights to the land their hideout is on, some do not. Some are buying old empty train-car type shipping containers, burying them in the ground and making bunkers inside them. Others have built fortresses miles from civilzation and have such things as sniper towers in place, guard dogs, traps, IED's, etc.

Yet in all that the show's experts usually always find holes where the prepper has overlooked something or just doesn't have enough planning put into something, etc.


Me, if it came to that I would probably bug out to my uncle's lake place in N Ontario. The only problem is how to get there, it's a 6-7 hr journey by car and in a crisis situation gas stations are probably not going to be open and welcoming travellers with anything but a gun barrel I would think.

Might have to pedal. :(

good advice though the swimming pool thing is a bit beyond. i should really stop making excuses and just do it.

I fear you (and me both) would starve if it came down to relying on that.

Up to 3 months no problem except I'm missing my air conditioner. 3-6 months and I'm relying on purifying water but food is ok. Over 6 months, well, things are tighter and I'm sure very interesting.

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next step is forraging.. How much food can you gather just going out in nature, do you know what you can and cant eat?

i use a multi-pronged approach to water

8 gallon aquatainer for drinking refill every 6 months
aquamira water treatment drops, treats 33 gallons
bath tub for non essential water


various collapsible nalgene containers

I'm not a prepper by any means and right now I honestly would be in trouble if something major happened, that stopped me from getting access to a store. with that said knowing the area I'm pretty sure I wouldn't starve to death.. but would be very inconvenient.

I have a small fresh water river right behind my place I could fish in and there are always deer to be found around here. If I had to get all survivalist I'd at least be able to get stuff to eat and a supply of fresh water from the river.

However I'm in the process of setting up a camper van to travel around the country for the next year or so. Once that's complete I guess I'd be set up pretty well no matter what happened.

The van is set up to be completely off-grid, meaning it gets it's power from solar and stores it in a battery bank. Long as the sun shines I have power. The stove is propane as well as the water heater.

Meaning long as I can get propane when I happened to run out I'd be fine and dandy to set up where ever I needed. The only thing that could really hold me back in some sort of crazy natural disaster would be if I ran out of gas and could no longer drive.

Even if that happened in a worse case scenario I could just stay where I was and still have constant electricity. I'm setting up the water system to feed from portable 5 gal tanks meaning I just pull one out slip the other in and refill the first.

Meaning in about 2 months I'd be as set up as any hard core doomsday prepper, even though it's just a camper for me to travel in and see the country.

Even Daniel Boone wouldn't last for long foraging in todays world.

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Both places I call home have never seen a war. Or at least not in the last 300 years or so.

I am insured so in all those cases, I would go to the other place and file a claim. Done.

Well prepared...for my dog and I...we can live for an indefinite period of time.

People who say they aren't worried or it can't happen, know this:

During hurricane Rita that hit the Eastern US there was a 100 mile traffic jam outside of Houston that lasted over a week. Upwards of 2.5 million were involved.

When Katrina hit NO they had such a poorly constructed evacuation plan in place that the resulting traffic jam was mayhem.

Massive flooding in Austraila (queensland), Eastern and Central Canada (Saguenay River, Red River Valley in Manitoba), etc, in recent years left tens of thousands of survivors stranded and literally hooped without power for weeks and longer.

In fact google virtually any major hurricane, flood, tornado or earthquake, in recent years or older, and you'll find the same thing. Same with major nuclear reactor accidents.

Now sit there and tell me it can't happen where you live. Is buying an extra few cans of beans or a sack of rice and maybe a case of bottled water really too much for your busy schedules?

The casual dismissiveness some of you have on this is astounding.

I fear you (and me both) would starve if it came down to relying on that.

Canned soup and fruit should last a couple of years and costs less than a dollar a can. Every Thanksgiving when charities have food drives I turn over everything and spend a few hundred bucks to replace it. (I seldom eat canned food) Rice and pasta are almost free.

I drink a lot of bottled water anyway and just rotate new into my reserves each week. I don't plan on wrecking my car, having a heart attack or losing my home but insure them anyway, same with necessity shortages.

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There are a couple of guys on that preppers show who were into this. One guy lives right in LA and knows how to gather edible plants and greens for salads etc just by looking around underpasses, along rail lines, and nearby reservoirs etc.

Of course those types of plans, while useful to a degree, don't take into consideration the effects of, oh, say any kind of radiation or nuclear fallout, acid rain, etc. In the case of the environment being compromised such a forager would definitely need a plan B.


Another guy has taken to growing edible algae/fungus, spirulina I think it was. It's naturally dense in a wide array of nutrients vital to human survival. He says he has enough growing that he could feed himself and a large group of his neighbors indefinitely with it. The look of it reminded me a lot of cooked spinach, which I like. (Although I think I'd need to re-hydrate a freeze-dried NY strip steak every once in a while to go with it)

i'd really ask myself if surviving in a world where i need to live from algae would be worth it.

i've already asked myself that. the answer was based on a more than likely scenario: i will survive the situation and then be left to my own devices after that. in that case, i would rather take care of myself than run around like a chicken with its head cut off post disaster, dying slow by starving, no water, bleeding out with injuries that could be treatable with a 1st aid kit.

Yes, I'm not all that gung-ho on that one myself. But as a dietary supplement say, where you have a lot of other stuff you can ration along with it, I could operate that way for a long time.

Me being the uber chef that I am I have no doubt I could come up with some creative ways of adding it into things and making them still taste good. Algae lasagna anyone?

Pasta: check
Canned sauce: check
mushrooms: check
dried onions and peppers: check
blend of various dried cheeses: check
Precooked jarred and preserved ground beef: check
powdered garlic: check
algae: check

Now, with the power out all I need is an oven.

if i lived in an area of potential natural disasters (earthquake, tsunami, hurricane), it would be stupid not to be prepared

but since i can rule all those three things out over here, i have never given this a single thought.