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?

If it's UHT, it's not a nice cuppa!

But the warnings have prompted me to have a good old clear out of the cupboard, chucked out things we don't eat so much at the moment and replaced them with things we do eat, especially for my son.

We haven't got more than we'd normally get any more, which is still probably at least a week of food depending on the crisis. A skinny week for us, sure, but fine for our son.

I've always shopped that way because I grew up rurally in a place with lots of powercuts, floods and cut offs for snow.

that Black out video is making me really anxious about being on a tube!

@HoraceCope what black out videos ?

Where am I missing all these updates ?

Updates or baloney?

quoted above

100% this
Its selfish to not prepare if you can

Plenty of coffee and gin.. everything is going to be ok.

You buy insurance in the hope that you never need to use it.

Would the power bank with a plug socket power an electric blanket ?

Yes, have lived through a couple of them.

@FairKoala Do you think a scared population is easier to manage?

So, what's wrong with stating a fact? We've had this advice where I live for years. People have the choice to either be prepared or not. Do you think you are some sort of hero and we should all be standing around admiring your idiotic rebellious streak?

I'm a massive fan of post apocalyptic fiction and so very much feel that if everything goes down for more than a day or two we are totally screwed!

Having said all of that, I'm not too worried about electric, we have an EPS switch on our solar and battery which means we can operate off grid. Its worth saying that this is not standard with most solar installations and if you have had a standard solar or battery install you will not be able to use your solar or battery in a power cut without an extra bit of kit. We get a lot of power outages here so I thought it was worth paying for.

Water bothers me as we don't have much stored and I think I'm going to fix that. Although I am slightly bothered at how many people are relying on water purification tablets. They are not fool proof and many don't kill viruses. The simplest and best way is to filter water (pour it through a coffee filter or fabric) and boil it ensuring a rolling boil for 5 mins.

Food, again like most people even if the issue arrived on my shopping day I could probably still cobble together enough calories to keep us alive for a few days, so I may keep a few extra tins but I'm not going to build a huge stock.

I do worry about us keeping warm if the gas stopped but we are fit and healthy so a few days of blankets and hot water bottles wouldn't hurt us.

Although we don't have a fire I'm a guide leader and I have built and cooked over many open fires and if worst comes to worst I can do that and I live near a wood so have plenty of fuel available but frankly if we've got to that point we as a society are probably very very screwed.

I havent seen any thing about this from the government. Only here

Have you looked back on the thread? Because on this thread and at least one other current thread a variation of your statement/question has come up a number of times and been answered in various ways including the link to the Gov.Uk advice which has been posted over and over again...

UK govt website plus pretty much every newspaper has reported it.

We are potentially looking at bad weather, cyberattacks (Russia or Iran, take your pick), fuel shortages (leading to supermarket deliveries not getting through), food shortages (poor harvests due to hot weather and drought), increasing food and fuel prices due to economy. Not an exhaustive list but you get the picture.

If you check the govt website they will tell you what you should be stockpiling. It includes powerbank, torch, radio, food, water, first aid.

🙈

This sounds like some Gardeners World version of The Purge 🤣