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?

You can guarantee that your completely up to date serviced oil boiler will decide to break during the coldest snap of winter, usually between Christmas and New Year when all the spares people are closed!

@Diversion
Ha yes, the law of sod!
Have invested in some electric blankets too just in case!
Getting into a cold bed was horrible.

People complain about wood burning stoves (yeah - I know!), but if your central heating goes belly up, at least you have one warm room!

Yep. And more than one room if it's not a big house. We only have a smallish log burner but with all the doors open and it burning properly hot, it will warm the whole house (3 bed semi). No way that I'm getting rid of it!

Yes fireplaces and log burners offer security in times of power cuts (gas or electric).
The cold is a killer. Have we been asked to prep for that?

They are trying to increase the amount of all round resilience in the country so having the ability to stay warm is one of the essentials. I wouldn’t be without my log burners and we are lucky enough to have a good wood supply.

We don't have our own wood supply unfortunately. But if it all goes tits up in a big way there are some trees over our back fence, they just don't belong to us - seems like fair game if it's looting time though!

Just looked at the GOV.uk website.
It states 3 litres per day of drinking water per person. That's a lot to store even for just 3 days in tiny British homes.

prepare.campaign.gov.uk/get-prepared-for-emergencies/

That, together with lack of other sources of heating means the basics just wouldn't be covered.

I would think you and many others would have the same idea!
Years ago, my father had to chop up a piano in order to stay warm. This was 60s Britain.

well ive started collecting food though someone has already opened the jam and 2 chocolate bars whilst on the table and they knew it was the beginning of the stash

also some work at home is finishing so am gettimg a big delivery of coal and logs for the garage and should last oct-april for our open fite which kicks out a good amount of heat

I'd rather have a stock of valium in a nuclear apocalypse. I don't think food is that important, and we could go a few days without much. I remember getting leaflets through the door 20 years ago, saying in a nuclear attack to fill your bath with water

The reality is that if you can keep your head in the event of nuclear war you’d quite probably be ok unless you were literally in the blast zone. Everyone always says they’d just top themselves but if you were in the blast zone you wouldn’t need to and if you were not you’d stand a good chance of survival and of things remaining relatively normal once we got through the initial panic weeks.

Theres an interactive map online somewhere that allows you to simulate dropping different types of bombs and seeing the blast zone and radiation zone.

Anyway the more probable threat comes from attacks on infrastructure. If our power is taken out in winter that’s completely survivable in theory if you’re stocked up. Likewise another pandemic (and we all scoffed about the likelihood of that a few years ago).

Every additional person who takes some small steps to being well stocked and prepared keeps all of us safer since we are not competing for resources.

Copper wired phone systems need electricity, they run on 50v/25mA, its just that its supplied at the exchange, if we lose a localised sub power station, the exchange losses power too, some have battery back up but that wont last for long.
Most people only have a cordless phone at home, which needs electricity.

Business hasn't used copper lines for many years, they've been use digital lines such as DASS. Q931, ISDN2 for many years now (since early 90s) these signalling systems have now been replaced with IP and the lack of resilience is that in the past, the business would have a phone system and an internet system, now they just have the one, goes faulty, they lose the lot, cloud based systems are even worse.

We have to switch to IP because the technology, the skills (people who knew these systems) and the equipment are all old and getting unreliable, the scandal is the mtce cost savings are not being passed on to customers, in fact the reverse.

People who use lifeline etc should be given a battery backup but the industry is just hoping they all die off instead.......

@GPTec1

"People who use lifeline etc should be given a battery backup but the industry is just hoping they all die off instead."

It's not just elderly people at risk, children are too in places where there is no mobile signal whatsoever and now no wifi to operate the phone. I can't see them giving out batteries to whole villages.
They should have worked on boosting mobile coverage before switching off the copper wire system.

Its physically not possible to provide everyone with MB coverage, they'll always be black spots plus MB masts needs electricity! same as copper, same as IP systems (Internet voice)

Mobiles of course need to be charged..... the more vulnerable, tend to put them in a draw until they need them, well thats what my Mum did!

A better way forward would be to boost the reliability of the electricity network, more preventative tree mtce, instead of the stupid 2m clearance guideline, new installs underground, more mtce crews, instead of cutting back on them, as National Grid are doing now, its cheaper to pay the fines for power cuts than it is to fund the mtce of rural lines (just as the water industry do as well)

I ve still got contacts in the former Western Power, now Nat Grid, its shocking, people have no idea.

We effectively have no phone at home now. Despite living only 8 miles outside of a major city we are in a mobile blackspot. We can only get a mobile signal by standing at the bottom of the lane. We have broadband but are right at the end of the line and so have about 7mb download and 1mb upload which means uploading anything is practically impossible. We can only make calls over wifi. If the power goes out locally we are cut off in terms of communication.

The only solution we have been offered is a private line costing about £4k with a lovely monthly charge of over £600!

I'm glad I read this. I'm going shopping...

@iwishihadknownmore
Do you know why you can get a better mobile signal in the middle of nowhere in Uganda than the Uk? (Just read a Reddit post about someone who was actually there when they replied to this question on there).

Yes to upgrading infrastructure regarding electricity- we have so many power cuts due to old poles coming down in only slightly windy weather! Not surprised it's not being funded properly though.

It's worrying isn't it...

Just found this recent March 2024 parliament report. In it, it says the main providers are struggling to meet their targets for Not Spots - rural areas:

"Three of the MNOs (Vodafone, Virgin Media O2, and Three) are reportedly struggling to meet their interim coverage targets, which they are required to achieve by the end of June 2024."

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn07069/

This is the thing with any of the "shits got real bad" scenarios. If you have wood, and have a fire going, your chimney will be smoking, people will see it, and people will steal it. I'm not sure if I'm up for fending off scavenging hordes.

Maybe they just want to see if we'll do it

with my real fire i have an axe
i would like to see them try lol

I have an axe too. But 95% of men could get it out of my hands and into theirs in under five minutes, so I'm not betting on my ability to use it defensively!

I think I'll have to burn books.

Shall I start with the cookbooks?