AIBU to wonder whether the three day emergency advice is serious?

[Mich1986]

I know I might sound crazy, but is anyone else worrying about all the posts about stockpiling and prepping for 3 days that the government is telling us to do? Is anyone actually taking their advice and buying torches, extra water and wind up radios? I just don’t know whether to take it seriously?

I read this and was tempted to Google "recipes for Squirrel casserole.

Yes! I started getting a few bits together last year. Batteries in various sizes, torches including head torch, wind up radio, large water pouches, Candles, camping stove, wind up hanging camping solar lamps, hot water bottles and water straws. Extra blankets, foil blankets, Bleach, soap, toothpaste, hand sanitiser, antiseptic wipes, first aid kit. Extra prescribed medication. Food wise, I have got tins mostly, stuff I would eat and easy to heat up. I am far from being a prepper, feel happier knowing I have a few bits, just incase I need them. Not a toilet roll in sight though😂

This is a genuine conundrum for me as I always keep extra food in stock but I don't buy bottled water due to the microplastic and environmental issues. But if our water was cut off for a few days we'd be in a bit of a pickle. We could use the water butt for flushing the toilets and we do have a life straw for camping but I've got young DDs so I do need to think about what we'd drink. So far I've gotten round it buy buying lots and lots of cans of tonic water as I use them in G&Ts anyway 🤣.

I know they still contain plastic, but you can get water in large cardboard cartons. M&S do them too.

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Thank you @Nuthatch26 I've never seen those before but they look good!

To be honest if we didn't have water coming out of the taps I'd happily drink bottled but if that doesn't come to pass I don't want to waste things. I don't like to keep anything in stock that won't get used up so I can rotate to keep items in date.

Yes I know what you mean. I avoid plastic where I can, but I buy packs of water in 2l bottles only because they fit nicely in my fridge. I keep them in the garage, but when they need using I pop a few in the fridge and replace. Helps me rotate and none gets wasted.

the poster is correct. I worked in a university during covid. We knew about the outbreak since October/November. In Early December advice came for all non essential work to be done from home. By Xmas the university was ready to go into hard lock down waiting for Government green light. That didn’t happen until effing March.

This campaign was inspired by COVID and how unprepared the Government was for something like that!

I buy bottled water but just for emergencies. I rotate my stock by the following:-

freezing in the summer months as my chest freezer empties as it’s more energy efficient to run a full freezer

take frozen bottles camping or when travelling to keep food in coolbox cool. Can then drink when melted.

donate to my scout troop or dd’s guides for camps (frozen or not)

if bottles are past safe drinking date, relegate to washing instead of consumption.

If plastic bottles worry you, you could buy glass bottles for drinking and plastic for washing. You can put tap water in glass bottles, but the lifetime will be less and you would need to rotate the water and wash bottles more often. When we’ve been given bottled water by the water board during supply issues, the plastic bottles are very thin and don’t seem as safe as the ones you can buy - the water tastes a bit off. So I understand your reluctance to buy plastic bottles.

I used to live in a country that frequently had no power and water. We had at least one candle set up in each room so you could light them in the rooms you were using and you could walk about the house easily and didn't have to have torches shining in everyone's faces or have to hold them to do everything. Our water filter had a large container at the top that we kept topped up. If the water was going through a very erratic patch, we would fill the bath with water when it came on as it was an easy way to store it. The water wasn't safe to drink so it had to be boiled. We had a cooker with a gas cylinder so we're self sufficient for that. Food couldn't be bought that regularly so we always had some available but there was a limited choice. Rice and lentils were useful but you need water to cook them. Tinned stuff was also good. We had powdered milk but I thought that was disgusting. We had a vegetable patch.

Not having access to safe drinking water or a way to make it safe is the worst thing. You can survive for quite a while without most of the other stuff.

I've just bought another powerbank for £11.99, this one https://amzn.eu/d/00J1z4kN amzn.eu/d/00J1z4kN]]]]
It has wrote good reviews, comes with cables built in, hoping it'll be ok, just thought I'd post due to the price which seems reasonable.

I am in the process of checking my power banks and they are years old. My supposedly 10,000 only has 10% and charges my Android to 30% so needs replacing.

If you have the space and can afford it, it's wise to be prepared for any sort of emergency where supplies could be restricted.

It's government advice. So you should take it seriously. It's not some random tiktoker. Why would you opt to ignore practical and clear advice from the government and just hope MN says, yeah, don't bother?

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I havent prepped specifically but I do generally;

• keep my battery packs charged. Only because it is annoying when you need one and it's flat
• have a head torch that i use for dog walking anyway
• have candles and matches because i actually like and light dinner candles
• have food tgat I could eat for a week in the house. Might not be proper meals but it is food. Just the regular back of the cupboard stuff
• have drinkable water under the stairs. This was only because we had quite a few water outages this summer.

I do not have a back up generator or solar panels if the power goes out - so freezer contents wouldnt last.

If everything went to shit and the world order actually collapsed it would be very bad for longer than anything I could store anyway. We'd be screwed.