We need to have enough tinned food and bottled water to be self sufficient for three days

[CruCru]

There’s a thing in the Times about the Prepare campaign - people need to be prepared for risks like localised flooding, another pandemic, a mass cyberattack which cuts off the internet, disruption to UK space systems that affect GPS signals, conflict and nuclear attack.

I must admit that my first thought was that there are countries in the West Indies who have these sorts of rules - mainly in case of hurricanes. It probably would be useful to have bottled water if we had flooding and the mains water would be turned off. Am a bit horrified by the mention of nuclear war but perhaps this has been overly highlighted by the Times.

Have you seen this? What do you think?

Thank you @godmum56 x On the last push now so slightly wired. And hugs x It's a shitty club to be in x

On a side note is anyone else wishing they hadn't watched "Leave the World Behind" ? 😝

Tap water lasts for ages. I used some in a plumbing emergency, it must have been in the bottles for about a year. In a disaster you make do with what you have, some of you are going to have to lower your standards. 😂

As for where you keep it, surely most people have a cupboard? What is so difficult about disposing of the old water? You tip in down the sink, on the ground, down the loo, water the plants ........

The UK must be the last place in the world to have some sort of disaster planning! Other countries just take this as a fact of life. This thread is mind boggling to those of us living in those countries.

Also, even if the phone masts were working, in a large scale disaster when everyone is trying to phone others the system will be overloaded and you might find yourself being asked to only use the phone for emergencies.

Thank you, yes it sucks.

If only we had a non electrical telephone system with a dedicated wire going directly into every home and office building in the country which worked in a power cut.

Oh hang on, we did for decades and they’ve just disconnected it so that we are now all solely reliant on bloody Wi-Fi…

Tesco have rationed bottled water to 3 items per customer. I’ve still got a god supply of food from Brexit. I have a gas BBQ but no other means of cooking if the electric goes off.

On phones. If there is an event where the phone system still works but there is a risk of it being overloaded by people checking up on friends and family, like on NYE when it takes hours for happy new year message to get through, there's the technology in place to restrict the general public's access to leave it free for essential communication by the authorities.

It's also likely that payphones are most likely to keep working so if you know of any still in existence its worth remembering this.

On nuclear blasts. These aren't necessarily world ending. There could be a small scale tactical detonation that could have localised serious affects like death and injury but the radioactive contamination will be more widespread.

This won't have any health effects on most people but it will probably be necessary to put restrictions in place to protect people, the scale of these will depend on what has happened and will be similar to existing provisions in case there is a leak from a nuclear site, eg after Chernobyl the wind brought contamination over western Europe which then came down in rain.

People will be told to stay at home and there might be restrictions on water, milk etc. Hence the advice to keep a few days food and drink in so you don't need to go out for supplies. After a few days the worst of the radioactive cloud is likely to have passed, deposited in the ground or washed away by street cleaners.

Noro is doing the rounds, maybe it's as simple as that.

General Election is doing the rounds, maybe it's as simple as that.

Is it worth getting instant bbq? Probably not if cooking tins?

Never use a BBQ indoors, disposable or not, the fumes are deadly.

you can get indoor barbecues but they run on electricity

camping gaz stoves are a better option. With care they can be used indoors and are better for a kettle or a saucepan

I keep 7 nuclear warheads up my butt in case of a bird flu. I will fight those birds with everything I have in me.

9 cookies in each bedside table, each one with a cherry placed in the centre, 4 strands of bog roll, 19 quarter paracetamols and 45 strains of fungi. I also keep 4 Persian ginger cats, shaved and dressed in diamond gymnastics leotards trained to spot the first signs of a factor 45 blizzard.

Hit me up if you need equipment.

I'll take one of those cats please

This has been going on for as long as I can remember from Bay of Pigs as a small child through the seven day war, Russian tanks rolling into Prague and the Millenium bug and a lot more in between. I really cant get worked up over any of it.

Depends on where they chuck it. The simulation of sending a nuclear warhead this way that's gone from the internet now I think. Showed it hitting the water just off Ireland. Causing a radioactive tidal wave to cover most of the UK. Probably would disable the country somewhat for a bit.

I refuse to stress about nuclear bombs. It's too much for the brain to handle I think.

Never mind the radioactive tidal wave swamping most of the UK, it was going to swamp us first and we hadn't done anything to Russia! Except refuse them planning permission for the unfeasibly large extension to their embassy and let Sarah McInerney interview their ambassador on the radio.

Sarah was bit tough on him, admittedly.

I’ve got a large stash of water in my garage after we had no water about 18 months ago. Although we were supplied with drinking water from various pick up points, flushing the toilet was an issue! So, as soon as the shops were restocked, I ordered some large bottles to keep in case this happened again. It doesn’t matter if the water goes out of date as I mainly want it to flush the toilets!

Water is already rationed in shops near me, despite there being no actual emergency, panic buying has started again!

I got caught out at the start of Covid as I don’t really keep a big stock of tinned food so was rather limited in what I could eat initially. I am unable to go to the shops due to very bad arthritis so rely on online shopping so I might pop a few things in my basket over the next couple of weeks but I’m not sure what tinned food to get that I can eat cold - assuming the electricity supply might be an issue. No other means of cooking as don’t have a bbq or camping stove! Guess it will be cold beans, peas, sweetcorn, tuna and corned beef! Yuck!

Do you have any evidence for this @slore ?

Me too

This reminds me, I should bung some Steradents in our water carriers before we go camping in (consults calendar) three weeks.

Switzerland is truly bonkers with its obsession of nuclear shelters for every one of its population - reminds me more of Enver Hoxhka's Albanian than modern Europe,,,

Agree - Campaign Fear

So that's where those missing nuclear warheads went