To take notice of daily fails headline to invest in an emergency war pack?

[Purpl]

So this morning I wake up and whilst browsing phone saw the headline. I ordered a £16 battery radio plus batteries from Argos & went shopping for bottled water & tinned foods. Family think I’ve gone nuts.
am also going to get a little metal box for documents and some cash next week. I recall the the US fires that’s some people wished they had done that.
where can I get a metal box from? Have a metal filing cabinet was going to put all the important docs in a portable one inside it.
surely I am not the only to do this ? I am not a conspiracy theorist by the way but know some that have planned for nuclear attack for years

Yeah, have you ever seen Threads? I want to be dead first, I don't want to be doing anything to survive thanks.
Although, being semi serious, nothing wrong with keeping important documentation safe for 'normal' extreme circumstances, like flood etc. And bottled water for emergencies - the last water emergency here (about a month ago) took the local water authority more than twelve hours to set up a stand for residents - and that was just the 'at risk' residents. Everyone else had to wait more than 24 hours or go get their own.

The being prepared is due to potentially being cut off by attacks on gas pipelines. Not a nuking.

I've 4 mini tins of beans and some milk.

Ok a war box extreme, but a few things for a power cut that lasts hours, being snowed in and not having to risk broken bones to go to the shops. Another lock down. The family having flu/sickness bug/etc. Forgetting to get meat out of the freezer. Someone losing a job or sudden bills that hinder cash fliw

having some essentials loo roll, uht milk, extra tea coffee, tins of food, pasta, rice, microwave meals, cleaning products, soap, washing powders.

I was brought up with not a lot of money, when we were flush mum and dad bought extra "it won't eat or drink in the cupboard" my dad used to say...ie it doesn't cost us anything to have in.

we have come close to being flooded with sewage, the house being completely surrounded by a puddle of it. I have a go bag so if we have to get out of dodge we have toiletries, underwear, snacks, touches etc.

better safe than sorry

I have an emergency stash, and have had one for years. Not for nuclear war specifically (much of it wouldn’t be much use for that) but for emergencies of all kinds. I think things like a cyber attack disrupting power for days on end is more likely.
But it’s also handy to keep everything in the same secure place so that I just know where everything is!

I have a fireproof envelope thing. In it are:

• Passports for all of us
• Birth certificates for all of us
• Wallet with spare debit and credit card
• Enough cash for a tank of fuel and a few meals (less than £150)
• A clockwork radio
• A power pack batter thing
• Phone charge cables
• Universal plug adaptor

I also have 12l of bottled water (barely a days worth I guess but it takes up a lot of space!). I always keep enough tinned food to last us a week or so.

Where do you live? Runcorn?

I have a fire safe. Always have bottled water, medicines, torch, batteries, light bulbs that charge when used and if power cut you can press button and they still light up. Loads of food, camping stove with 2 gas bombs. I've actually got a generator too but only because I bought it to do work on house. Get some spare fuel in a can as well as keep car topped up and buy a box of matches.

I've always done so since living in New Zealand years ago, when we always kept go bags in case of earthquake. We did have a few but thankfully not too bad. Now living rurally, and have power cuts fairly often, and sometimes the water goes off, so yes we keep camping lanterns, water, battery radio, and always lots of food supplies, loo rolls, etc. Why wouldn't you (if you have space that is)?

You can (apparently) buy fireproof document holders, or a fireproof safe, though where you keep them in your property is another thing entirely.
I’ve got larger food, water & household stocks than before Brexit & Covid, though no battery radio as yet - thanks for the tip, @Purpl
Think I’ll head over to Preppers for some tips!

I have a fire proof safe (rated 2 hours) just put documents in a bag inside a safe if you want them to be quick to grab

I always have canned food as I can’t help but stockpile, my grandmother said always have food in case you are short of money. We have a camping stove (and full camp gear) but today dh ordered a water purifier bottle, more for travel but doubles up, we have a river within a few metres.

It might have been in the DM but actually many European governments have reissued their advice on this in recent months (including ours). It’s sensible advice. We need to build resilience since nobody knows what’s around the corner.

No, it made no difference at all.

Insurance company were there straight away. Everything else was replaceable or just not needed.

Someone upthread talked about ‘grabbing stuff’ if in a fire.

Theres no time to grab anything. It took 6 minutes to destroy our house. 2 minutes to melt the pvc doors which l was sitting next at the start of the fire. You don’t think to grab anything. You just have to get out.

water disinfection

BUT it wasn’t framed in the way the Mail presented it, with some ludicrous headline like “Putin is coming” or some other crap.

This is actually a very sensible plan for practical reasons (self-reliance) but also psychologically because it gives people a small but comforting sense of control over a scary world. We can only do what we can, then take a deep breath and get on with things.

So the Daily Mail's plan for Armageddon is putting some documents in a metal box? 🤔

Wow 6 minutes that’s horrific glad you all got out

If nuclear happens nobody will survive even the rich in their bunkers will eventually suffocate in them as everything there is on back up generators which will eventually run out of fuel. I don't think the survival kits would be all that useful in reality however I completely understand why you may get some comfort from feeling prepared.

I think this article refers to a specific sort of nuclear attack that doesn’t radiate and destroy landmass but takes out all the electrical stuff over a whole country , hence causing chaos and the need for a survival kit .

I read that we are likely to see a surge in cyber attacks which could mean the banking system ie card / phone payments being out of action for a couple of days.

Ive kept about £50 in cash since my bank account got hacked and my bank froze it. £50 is enough for a bit of petrol, food etc if things go awry when bank counters are closed.

the point is that you have enough to keep you going for a minimum of 72 hours leaving medical and other emergency resources for people who need to have regular medications that can't be stockpiled.

No need to be sneery about something that benefits the people who need regular medications.

Partner is ex military. Our preparedness runs to one Fray Bentos pie,which I have posted about before.

I think the most likely chaos event would be cyber attacks, in which case being able to prove who you are and that you own your home with paper documents would be pretty essential. Obviously in normal times this is all held digitally (as pp has said they didn't need their docs after a house fire) but incase of cyber attacks all those records could disappear so the paper version would be all that existed, very different to a house fire in normal times. Although having said that if a cyber attack wiped out all our records it would be absolutely carnage anyway, probably much bigger things to worry about. A few days of food though seems like good sense.

I bought a couple of torches, rechargeable desk lamp and another power bank. Had meant to buy them for a while as power cuts here aren’t uncommon and our torches have gone missing.

Don't forget your white gloves everyone.

Back in the mists of time (about 30 years ago) my sister was in the RAF. She showed me some training manuals that decsribed what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. She wasn't supposed to because they were secret (so sue her). I am really, honestly not joking... the advice was to put on your white gloves, lie face down on the ground with your hands under your head. That was it. I can only think that they were supposed to have name tags in the white gloves, and this helped identify the bodies 🤔