Preparing for War or Apocalypse

[CantBelieveNaive]

Am I the only one low level preparing for a disaster?
I'm low level feeling that there is some type of disaster on the horizon, be it a war, mass disease or other occurrence.
Have I watched too many apocalyptic films?
I have lots of tinned food, tin openers, water, disaster plans including lists of written phone numbers. Also plan to collect family members quickly to keep us all safe and good relationships with neighbours so we can survive together if needed.
I feel that we see so many war torn countries, war on women, natural disasters etc etc is it a logical conclusion to prepare for the worst?
Anyone else?
Genuine question.

have lots of tinned food, tin openers, water, disaster plans including lists of written phone numbers. Also plan to collect family members quickly to keep us all safe

As long as you don't get obsessed (or become a hoarder!), it's a good idea to have a plan in place in case of some type of weather/natural disaster. How would you contact family if there was a widespread cell outage, etc.

Knowing you are at least somewhat prepared eases anxiety as well.

Edit: Worrying about a post-WWIII apocalyptic scenario is taking it too far though. Don't drift into panic and paranoia

You could be the best prepper in the world and some big hard bastard thugs would eventually come knocking. If they can brazenly do it in the co-op down the road now, they’ll definitely put your best laid apocalypse plans to shit. Best to think about arming yourself and building a fortress too…

Yep, me too OP. Been saying it for weeks now.

I don't talk about it with many people, they either get it or they don't. People thought I was mad for stocking up on extra basics when Covid was still in its infancy and long before the first mention of a lockdown anywhere, those stores saw me through the entire lockdown and we never went without. Didn't have to wait in a queue snaking miles around a Tesco carpark, or get screamed at and called selfish for getting more than four loo rolls like my poor dad did.

I just think it's just common sense to have some shelf-stable food stored away, if you're able to.

You're the only one I've heard of.

Are you in the UK? I have always wondered why more people don't have generators. I don't know one person who does (including me) - I just think they seem such a good idea. Would the generator be able to power your whole house or just parts of it, and for how long?

I have heard bits of information out there about maybe prepping for three weeks, ie getting in bottled water and a few extra tins. Apparently if something does happens which disrupts our country on a large scale, this is the length of time it would take for business to resume. I have quite a few bottles of water and have been buying extra tins of stuff, just stacking them in the attic. I’m probably being a bit silly, but just want to have some prep in place, even if just minimal.

Re the generator, it isn't for powering the whole house, it would keep the freezer and some lights going. (Very noisily)
I don't know for how long per gallon of fuel… but you only need to plug the freezer in for a couple of hours a day. If you keep it closed.

Likewise, we have a huge Anker power unit, a recent gift from DS2 for my camping trips. Huge overkill, unless I want to run a houseful of electrical goods in my van!

Mum of two here too ☺️ In all honesty, where people fall down in planning is sufficient drinking water. Water bottles won't cut it because it's not sustainable. If you're looking for practical advice, it's advisable to buy a water butt and proper water filtration system - e.g. a Berkley with ceramic filters (not brita!). These filter out bacteria, particulates, heavy metals etc. Our water butt holds 100 litres of rain water and our water filter can make can make 8 litres of clean drinking water every 2 hours. Judging by the weather we've had recently, we could have at least 10 litres of drinking water a day purely from rain lol.

So are the family members all going to be very local to collect them quickly, they could be a drive away or on holiday.

It's not a bad idea to be able to stay home with enough food and clear water for at least a week. Depending on your accommodation, it's not always possible to store much but it can be useful. These last years have proven we never know what's going to happen.

These "End of the World" situations are IMO not worth considering, they are so unlikely as to be impossible.
My Aunt is a committed Christian (conventional CoE) has the answer to Jehovah Witnesses and other Doom mongers that God will not destroy the world because we have rejected HIm, which is their argument, until everyone has been taught about Christianity.
That is a long way off.

What a load of waffle!

I might get stocked up on a load of Wegovy because I'm sure there'll be a black market in it. And we'll probably be using cans of food for money which will be a bit ironic.

I do have a sense of impending doom. Russia, the Middle East, China/Taiwan. I think the world is in a very dangerous place at the moment. Add in climate change and an increase in natural disasters (floods, storms, etc) I think we have an interesting few years ahead. But I'm not sure a few tins of beans in your garage is going to make any difference.

I do try to keep a small amount of cash available in case the banking system goes down, but that's about it.

Our biggest threat is nuclear war and youd be unlucky to survive a blast from that. Honestly I don't think there's much point, apart from moving to a remote island somewhere. Then there's a risk you'd spend your whole life isolated there for no reason

I've always said and some laugh at this - The world will not come to a near end with a nuke war but from some virus via the food chain

feeling of impending disaster are a mental health problem, rather than a prediction...

Nope, that said I do have decent stocks of food, though not at levels I had at my former marital home when my dd inventoried at the beginning of covid and realised we had 37 cans of chopped tomatoes and 12kg of pasta, before we went shopping that is!

We keep £100 or so in the house in case the banking system has a blip

@RedToothBrush

I've seen the "documentary" on that, you head to the pub

How many tin openers do you have?

Relax. We'll be fine. This is the UK.

We are civilised people who aren't so stupid as those nations such as Russia and China

We will be fine. Us and the USA are a team. We're safe. Europe (most of it) safe

Our biggest threat isn't nuclear war. It is a next to 0 chance.

As a society our biggest threat is nuclear war, which is why we spend a significant amount of money on deterrents.
On the civilian level the biggest risk to ife is probably road safety which sounds a lot less dramatic, I doubt many of the people on this thread give a second thought to getting in their car and going out onto increasingly overcrowded motorways.

Our gov recently suggested keeping a survival kit at home.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/government-emergency-preparation-advice-kit-list-b1159600.html

I'm too fecking lazy though but it's on my to do list one day. Still have flash backs to the toilet roll fiasco of 2020 as well as the two previous petrol crisis. Everyone went nuts. Yes I was one who queued in my car at 4am waiting for fuel as I was down to fumes and had to make a long car journey that day.

There seems to be a big push for us to purchase a wind-up radio. Interesting..

Sometimes, when I've got yr9 p5 on a Friday, I wish for a little apocalypse. Nothing major; just a little zombie outbreak or a few killer plants.