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 feel your frustration. I worked in Pharmacy and we would try and warn people when shortages were expected. Things like Fybrogel and other brands bases products at the start of the Ukrainian invasion. Would they listen. Its exacerbated by older folks not using 'tinternet or mobile messages.
Its worrying because they will be the most vulnerable.

I have been lucky to have a fairly decent win on the NS&I and we stocked our pantry with about 3 months food. I would be more than willing to share if I need to. But it will only stretch so far.

I think that the government campaign is going to get underway shortly so people who have started are ahead of the curve. Put it like this, if we're put in a position where we need it we'll be glad we did. Currently I think that there's an issue with the supply of diesel, that could affect supply chains and a whole lot of other things too. Burying heads in the sand isn't going to help.

Aren't you describing panic buying though? Not preparation in advance?🤔

The government's updated advice, usually with quotes from one of the relevant ministers, has been reported in
The Guardian
The I-Paper
The Financial Times
The Evening Standard
The Daily Express
The Telegraph
The Daily Heil Mail
The Times
Channel 4 News
ITV News
Sky News
GB News
BBC News
And others
If you've only seen it on facebook/mumsnet, it's not because the massed ranks of the UK's journalists weren't TRYING.

Here is the Government advice . https://prepare.campaign.gov.uk/get-prepared-for-emergencies/

And a cut and paste on the emergency kit

Put together an emergency kit of items at home
This could include:

• Battery or wind-up torch – torches are safer than candles.
• Portable power bank for charging your mobile phone.
• Battery or wind-up radio to get updates during a power cut – a car radio can be used, however in severe weather it might be safer to stay inside.
• Spare batteries for torches and radio and a backup battery for any medical equipment you rely on.
• A first aid kit (or some first aid items) including items such as waterproof plasters, bandages, a thermometer, antiseptic, eyewash solution, sterile dressings and gloves, medical tape for dressings, and tweezers.
• Hand sanitiser and wet wipes for hygiene purposes when the water is off.
• Bottled water – there is no standard figure for this as emergencies can vary in duration and people use different amounts. A minimum of 2.5-3 litres of drinking water per person per day is recommended by the World Health Organisation for survival. 10 litres per person per day will make you more comfortable by also providing for basic cooking and hygiene needs. Additional water might be needed to make up baby formula, for medical devices and for pets.
• Non-perishable food that doesn’t need cooking, such as ready-to-eat tinned meat, fruit or vegetables (and a tin opener). As with water, how much you need will vary based on your own circumstances. Don’t forget food for pets.
• Baby supplies such as nappies and baby formula – ready made or ‘ready-to-feed’ formula is best as you may not be able to boil water or sterilise bottles.

Rather than buying all the items at once, you could just add to your emergency kit when you are able and build it up over time.

What shortages?
Worked throughout Covid
Never had a problem getting anything (including toilet roll)

Lived through the strikes of the 1970s and the resulting power cuts

Lived through Stock Market crashes and wars in far off lands and never had an issue.

Biggest problem has been with this government and their lack of understanding of human nature.
Giving a warning that people needed 3 days supply of food and water just had the results of their being empty shelves in supermarkets for a while.

Never prepped anything. I have never lived in a house big enough to have the extra room or cupboard space to put extra food and water
I also hate having a full fridge or opening a cupboard door and being faced with multiple items of food

I like my cupboards and fridge to just have 2 or 3 items on each shelf. Anything more would just trigger irritation

I really don't get folks that don't have the basics in their homes. No torches, no first aid kit, no wind up radio etc. Shear bloody madness.

Not rural then? Never cut off by floods or storms or the power been out?
Missed the news last year when Spain had a major outage of all services and infrastructure?
Never been too ill to get supplies in?
Lucky you!

After the Covid lockdowns and the (silly) panic buying, I realised how fragile our supply chains are. Ever since then I’ve had some basics stocked up in the cupboard. I did get a wind up radio (which also has a phone charger) lots of candles, a torch and some batteries.

I’m not stocking up for a big disaster or waiting for a war, more just having a back up plan in case there was a prolonged power outage etc. I think it’s just good practice really. Most countries who tend to have bad weather (heavy snow or tornadoes etc) do this anyway.

Also, worth knowing that if anyone in your house is classed as vulnerable, you can sign up for the Priority Services Register. That ensures that in a utilities outage, you’re given priority for repairs/restoration of power. I’ve registered my elderly dad and his wife.

Maybe, maybe not. We live in a town with 6 large supermarkets, plenty of smaller express supermarkets, then a few large icelands, farm foods etc. We're a small town and you can drive end to end in about 20 minutes. We can walk to 3 major supermarkets in 20 minutes, passing smaller ones on the way.

We last had any sort of power outage that was more than a slight inconvenience during the miners strikes. We haven't had a full town power outage that I know of. If the power goes off, there will be a takeaway still operating or delivering, or a fast food place a very short drive away. Or a friend or family member that can help.

We don't get flooding.

So we're very sheltered and cosseted but I don't know how unusual we are in this set up. We've never had to think about an emergency situation.

A few years ago during 'the beast from the east' I lived in the centre of Edinburgh. I could walk to an iceland, a sainsbury, a coop within 5 mins. None of them had milk because the delivery lorries couldn't get through the snow. Luckily I had rushed out and bought the last of the milk at Iceland very early in the morning (and it was literally the last milk off the shelves I got). My neighbours were not so lucky and were literally drinking their coffee black and complaining about it.

I honestly would not have believed that living in such a built up area surrounded by supermarkets, takeouts etc that there could be a shortage of essential supplies. It happened really quickly as well.

Same thing could happen I guess if diesel runs out for the delivery lorries.
I'm well stocked up with UHT milk now along with all my other 'supplies'. If I don't need them then yes I have spent money I didn't need to spend. If I do need them then I will be very glad.

Watch this very realistic documentary movie on you tube and see how fast it can all go wrong.

I take it they're afraid of a massive Russian cyber-attack that would paralyse everything, incl. banks, I suppose. Shops wouldn't be able to operate properly, and the supply of gas and electricity and fuel could well be affected since we pay for most of those things by card or online too. It makes sense to have some stuff in reserve.

@NightNightSleepyHead yeah I think prople underestimate supply chain. The fact that I can walk to my tesco in 15 min means nothing if lorries can't get there

I think living in a major city as opposed to living in the countryside is down to choices made not luck.
If I am that ill I can’t get food in then I am probably too ill to want to eat anyway and there are always others in the household to do shopping or on line shop

I think that yes its ok to have a few things if you choose to but for some people a government telling its citizens to have 3 days of food and water in triggers something in their brain and reason, history and common sense go out of the window

Covid showed that for some people following rules that made no sense was more important than anything.

As I said I lived through the 1970s strikes and the resulting power cuts.
Not being a keep afford a loaf of bread because it was 5p when I picked it off the shelf and 6p by the time I reached the till was the issue more than any lack of bread

Referring to pieces of fiction is not showing a reasoned argument to stock pile

Ever thought that this government knows that at some point sooner rather than later there is going to be a general election and having pissed off a good proportion of the electorate they know they aren’t going to get in for another term.
It’s a pretty good plan to whip the country into believing disaster is round the corner and get people to stock pile food and water and spend money on all sorts of goods that result in a booming economy and then after the next government get in and panic is over it creates a downturn in spending as everyone eats their way though their stockpile and stops buying all the stuff they thought they needed in a disaster.

No matter who many supermarkets there are you still need a torch. Last winter i spent 4 days without electricity or mobile signal. Shock horror even the local takeaways had no power nor did the supermarkets. It happens. Even in recent times both Spain and New York lost all power.

"Prepping" for what though? If it's nuclear,a packet of wet wipes won't help.

Yes, because nuclear obliteration is the only thing that could ever cause disruption to our lives.

Ever heard of floods, power cuts, cyber attacks, heavy snow, storms?

No one is prepping for a nuclear attack, don't be daft.

It is for a few days of service interruptions - weather, power cut, cyber attacks on infrastructure, contaminated water supply, fuel shortage etc. Any one of many scenarios that mean food, water or power is not available.

To be clear, I'm not making an argument for people not needing these things. I'm laying out that many people live in areas where they have never yet needed these things, so don't see a need for them. As I said above, we last would have needed a torch (well, candles but the disaster planners are warning against candles) during the miners strikes! So have had nothing more recent to concentrate our minds on some small preparations.

I think it interesting that lots of people have never lost water or electricity. I'm rural but 30 miles from central London. We have power cuts at least once a year. The sub stations break down. Trees fall on overhead lines. Then they knock out the water pumping station and recently flood water got into the processing plant.

Its very common occurance

See I don't understand this argument at all. Things I have seen on the news recently include floods, landslides, power outages, cyber attacks, terrorist attacks, and food shortages. I have no trouble whatsoever thinking about how I'd cope or not cope in an emergency and what I might need. I just don't get the whole 'these things happen to other people in other places' mindset.
We're all human, we're all fragile and vulnerable, and anything can happen anywhere.
We've just come through a drought in which farmers in this country have warned about possible shortages. Trump is banning diesel exports. The BOA and the Government and various other bodies are putting out warnings. Let alone the AI stuff.

Why do people think nothing will ever happen to them?
Just seems foolish and lacking in imagination to me.

I could be wrong and all my neighbours might be secret preppers!

I expect quite a few of your neighbours have experienced power cuts or the water going off in the past, enough to be able to imagine it happening again. I think you might be quite unusual in not having that happen to you recently or not having known people in other areas it's happened to.

We all instinctively have normalcy bias where we find it hard to imagine things being radically different tomorrow to how they are today.

I just came here to remind people to buy some UHT and teabags. Can't be facing the end of the world without a nice cup of tea!