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.

No thanks. I'm 62 I just want to die if it all goes to shit.

I can see sense in having a week's worth of water, camping stove , battery torches etc just based on the last couple of years.
Beyond that, I'd just like some emergency "slip into a deep sleep and don't wake up pills". As my old man said in the 1980s, if the bomb goes up run towards the light.

3 - one for us and 2 spares for friends, although one child has nabbed one for college! 🤔!

How many tin openers do you have?

Sorry - cross post!

@CantBelieveNaive
There is a whole subject topic on MN called Preppers (under 'other stuff' In topics) if you want to share hints etc with others who do this - seems to be a way of life with some people .

Nothing you can do. Why worry? It is not in your control.

What do you use to fuel your generator? How long will it last? Is storing a whole pile of fuel in your house a good idea - especially if the apocalypse with lots of fire or earthquakes etc is imminent?

Part of my 'how to survive the zombie apocalypse plan' is how you brew beer. This is essential as it's also relevant to water purification once you've run out of your bottled water and your water purification tablets.

If you have no knowledge of how to brew, quite frankly you are fucked. However I don't recommend brewing with nettles cos it tastes like complete arse.

Like I say I have thought this through quite a lot.

If you don't have certain areas of knowledge, you are pretty screwed. And even then, you need a bit of luck because even if you are a qualified doctor, you aren't a lot of use if you don't have antibiotics to hand and someone gives themselves an injury whilst using an axe to chop firewood.

An extra tin opener isn't going to kill many zombies. Nor stop you dying from radiation poisoning.

Petrol, don't know and fuel is stored in a brick shed away from the house.

It was bought a few years ago for power cuts and snow, rather than for a zombie or other apocalypse.

I understand that proper preppers would be wary of running a noisy Jenny in case people noticed.

PS we got it from Lidl!!!

Water is never easy to store much. But having just a few litres means you have enough at 6pm to get your household through until tomorrow if the main water pipes had local issue. Saves you having to queue for water late at night with small
tired children, when you can wait until tomorrow. So it’s a temporary amount for most people.

We could supplement water with apple juice, lemonade and Disarano right now

My way to get ready for society's collapse was to train in a basic skill, so I am an expert at something crucial for other humans to survive. This is the best way to get respect, protection and the basics of life in a society in crisis.

No underground bunker full of manky tins of tomatoes will get close to guaranteeing this.

Nope. I have a few essentials put away in case of an earthquake, and that's it. but I know I could cope for a few days on very little.

If anything else happens I will just take my chances.

I have a good stash of Pepsi Max as it was only a fiver a crate in Tesco.

But if they usually manage why would covid make any difference? We were allowed out to get food.

What natural disasters are you preparing for?
If near coast I suppose flooding is possible.

Geology of UK makes earthquakes and volcano eruptions impossible.
What is worrying people?

You would have to lower your standards somewhat and just use what you need. Honestly, in the face of some sort of disaster you can't carry on as normal. How the "I must wash my towels after every use, my clothes if they've been worn once, and I must mop my floor every day" brigade will cope I really don't know!

I did a bit of prepping through the lockdowns and then at the start of the Ukraine war, but I've decided that as an able bodied and resourceful person, I'm happy to take my chances.
If I needed to walk 4 miles to a government food distribution centre to be given my weekly ration of turnip and oats, I'd be fine to do so and would be able to make a meal out of it. I live on high land near the start of a water source, so could access clean-ish drinking water too.
If it got much more shit than that, I'd rather just die 🤷🏼‍♀️

Zombies!

I said before.

I'm prepared and have a plan for zombies.

In the late 70s/early 80s we all talked at school about preparing for nuclear war and what we would do in the "final 3 minutes". Being 13 that tended to revolve around which 6th former we would kiss and which table we would hide under. Perhaps not entirely practical, but it stopped us worrying about something we could not control

Giveupnow · Yesterday 19:53
I don’t understand how people can prep enough water? You’d needs hundreds of litres to last? 2 litres per person a day, 14litres a week per person. For a family of 4 a week you’d need 56 litres. That’s a lot of water.”

Get yourself some water purification tablets and find a river.

not a disaster prepped but we’ve kept some since the kids were small after our water was out for a couple of days.

Are we in for more damaging storms due to global warming? That's the only natural disaster threat in London I can think of lol. There has recently been contamination of the water supply in some areas. We've not been affected but it looks like plenty of bottled has been distributed. I suppose if it was more widespread there could be water wars.

@PollyPeep thats a great point! I am going to get this filter thank you. 👏

I used to be much more prepared, but tbh there's too many variables for any long term prepping for it to make sense unless you have infinite space, time and money.
Skills, community, and personal health and fitness are far far more important than a lot of preppers think if there is anything other than a short term scenario.
I think its liberating to decide not to burden the joy of life now by prepping for, say, an economic collapse, then finding it was pointless because actually its a supervolcano erupting that wipes us out.

Having said that, general prepping for lifes bumps is an entirely different matter. If possible, some spare food and water, some cash, an emergency fund, a box of bits for power cuts are all good.
Some planning on where things are if you have to leave your home quickly. Some planning ( even a list) of what you need to take if you're panicking and can't think straight. A pre determined meet up point if you're separated and can't return home. Some first aid training.

I don't think I'm ruthless enough for long term survival.
The only way to survive would be to watch others die around you while you choose not to help or share, and I think life knowing how you've survived would be torture.

I have on occasion, as part of previous jobs, been involved in resilience planning. Current govenrment advice is about dealing with storms or short term service outages. For an actual long term wide spread emergencies it is about as much use as the 1980s advice about sitting under your kitchen table in a nuclear blast.

For wide spread, long term emergencies central planning is about mobilising the army and making sure there are enough body bags - not sitting at home with your three days worth of tin cans and bottled water.

I have batteries, matches, candles, a power pack, a decently stocked food cupboard and a couple of bottles of water (TBH that is more because of bastard Thames Water currently constantly breaking pipes in their supposed upgrade works). That is just sensible short term planning for any situation where you may not be able to leave the house.

The bigger prepper stuff - naah! I live in London - in a longer term disaster we would either be prioritised for any intervention or frankly we would go proper feral and start eating each other after day 4, in either situation I see no reason to do serious prepping.

Also I am not sure my downstairs neighbours would appreciate it if I had a generator!