Crisis What Crisis? Will the Fridges of Doom Prove Your Friend Right? Continuation thread (4)

[RedToothBrush]

Twas the night before the US Midterms...

Continuation of the AIBU to think my friend is overdoing emergency stockpiling thread for discussion about the government advice to stockpile for an imminent emergency and what the heck that emergency might actually be.

Spoiler: it's more of a perfect storm of lots of factors coming together to potentially form one great clusterfuck from economic woes, global energy shortages (mainly diesel), potential food shortages, war and madmen to crazy weather patterns rather than a clear identifiable singular thread.
This is a practical thread and a bit of a handhold thread to make sense of events and how they may affect you. This is not an end of the world thread.

Remember an emergency can range from a temporary unexpected event to a much longer crisis but the underlying principles generally stay the same.

This is the official government information and advice, if you want further details on what the actual recommendation are, here is the newest campaign blurb
https://beready.campaign.gov.uk/

Not going to do a status report this time, mainly because it's all about What Trump Does Next right now.

Previous threads
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5576816-aibu-to-think-my-friend-is-overdoing-emergency-stockpiling?page=1

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5585259-crisis-what-crisis-is-my-friend-over-doing-the-stockpiling-and-am-i-too-continuation-thread-2?page=1

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5591677-crisis-what-crisis-the-one-you-start-to-wish-youd-stockpiled-like-your-crazy-friend-continuation-thread-3?page=1

Checking in for the new thread. Again, thanks RTB.

I haven’t read all of the threads, but wondering why people think the Iran war could escalate now? Is there a quick reason, or a post that somebody can link to?

Yikes.

Briefly, US mid-terms tomorrow. It's thought Trump may well kick off the war again especially if he seems to be losing in the election (which of course he will strenuously deny and claim the voting is 'rigged'). Also ditto Netanyahu and Israel, waiting to see what transpires there re the leadership, then they'll get on with the war.

150 UK Red Cross resiliency centres has piqued my spidey senses...

Finally bought a couple of camping stoves plus gas canisters. ✅️
Food. ✅️
Water. ✅️
Cash. ✅️
Candles and matches and torches including head torch. ✅️
Foil blankets. ✅️
Giant water butt in garden. ✅️
Mineral supplements and medication. ✅️
Yet to get wind up radio, power bank. Add to food and water. Couple of new hot water bottles. Water purifying tablets and equipment. Bit wooly on this last one.
I'm feeling nearly well-enough sorted.
If anyone can spot any gaps in my list please say so. My head goes round and round with this stuff. 🫨

It’s all kicking off…

It is??

Yes, same here. Not great reading at 3am when I’m having trouble sleeping anyway. 😅

Sorry, I mean the mid terms are beginning to hot up. Wrong turn of phrase

Phew, was scanning the news to try and find if something especially bad had just happened!

do we have to connect freezers to the internet in the UK?

DH was walking near Ladybower reservoir the other day and said he’d never seen it this low in autumn. You can apparently see the village buildings - it’s on the site of a village that was flooded.
This is part of Manchester’s water supply for those who don’t know. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/c8r4yd2g53klo

Joining in if I may. Had put water purification tablets in my Amazon basket weeks ago then decided I was being daft. Decided to buy them this morning and those ones were sold out! I've found some others now but wondering if I should spaff £20 on a life straw or if that's silly. The only water source near me is the Thames and that is quite grim.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx240mrm3g8vo

US strikes on Iran apparently. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be able to explain how serious this is as I'm not sure, but it seems worrying.

Welcome! I have a life straw, it's a neat piece of kit. Of course you can't filter larger amounts of water, it's just a personal device for drinking, but I think worth having.

Not having clean water could be your number one problem as water's so essential to life, and you don't want to get ill with some bug with everything else going on.

Checking in. Next few days could be “interesting”

thank you 🙏

I don't have a life straw as they don't filter out all nasties apparently ( can't remember the details)
Filter water through cloth to remove bigger debris then bring up to a rolling boil ideally for a few minutes.
I only have water purification tablets so I have multiple redundancies. I have focused on having multiple heat sources but I am fortunate enough to have a garden and open fire indoors.

However, this is not to say life straws don't have uses. For example if you're on the move, drinking through a life straw is better than not drinking at all.

Might be worth knowing how much water goes into a hot water bottle, if that's your main source of warmth, then adding extra water to your stock for it.

More a lurker than a poster, but appreciate these threads.

The grayl geopress is one of the best portable mechanical filtration systems. It only does about 700ml at a time and muddy water clogs up the filters pronto. It can't be used in saline. You also need to have at least a normal amount of strength to operate it. But it's effective and I'd trust it for even very contaminated sources of water if desperate.

Hi, can anyone recommend a wind up radio? I've had a look on Amazon and there are so many to choose from.

I've recently been stocking up on water and canned/packet food but am looking at other things to do.

I have a life straw. I'd only want to use it with running water but I figure it's better than nothing and a useful piece of kit for hiking.

This weekend I bought four 5 litre water storage bottles and have sanitised them and filled them with tap water. I'm storing them in a box in the garage and they apparently only need changing every 3 to 6 months if you want to use them for drinking water as long as you've kept them in the dark and cool. We can use the bottles for camping too so they'll get used.

I'm thinking of installing a second water butt. I wouldn't want to drink from it but I figure we could use it for flushing/washing in a pinch.

Foil blankets are a good idea, I've just ordered a pack of six from Amazon for less than £9 so I'll split them and put three in each car.

Okay ordered a camping water filtration set. Might be a complete waste of £40, but the water thing has been bugging me. Whilst I have 20l in bottles that won't last long so in the worst scenario I will go to the river and filter and boil.