26 replies to this topic

[aastra]

I'd like to know how the thousands of Victorians living in 700sq-ft condos are expected to stockpile, for 2 people, 7-10 days worth of food, water, fuel (gas for power generation, propane for cooking and heat)..

Methinks there's no need to stockpile. We're not talking about survivalism, are we? We're talking about being prepared for a disruption after an earthquake or some such thing.

If your cupboards and refrigerator are 2/3 full at any given moment then you've already done most of the preparation that you could ever require.

Add a rotation of bottled water (in other words, have some water in the fridge in bottles or jugs and drink/refill as part of your daily routine) and you're set.

Basic medical supplies, flashlight and batteries... everyone should already have these things.

You don't really need fuel. The indignity of eating canned food and dried fruit for a few days after a disaster won't be such a big deal, I guarantee it.

Unless our hypothetical earthquake happens to strike during the coldest few days of the year, odds are you'll be fine in these parts without heat as long as you have a good sweater and some blankets and a place to stay dry if it happens to be raining. If it does happen to be really cold then people would need to stick together and get some fires going. There would be no end of stuff to burn.

Like VHF says, it depends on the disaster. Are we talking about total nuclear war or some Hollywood-style once-in-a-million-years natural disaster that utterly trashes modern civilization and keeps it down for generations? If so, then personal preparation is almost a moot point.

Otherwise, everyone should take the simple measures necessary to hold out for a few days in the absence of outside assistance. It's no big deal, it really isn't. If you're the sort of bozo who shops for groceries every day and has an empty fridge and cupboards most of the time, it wouldn't cost you anything to prepare. You'd just need to buy more stuff at once and then shop less often after that.

Some people will say they don't want to keep a full cupboard, because the earthquake might destroy their house/building and thus put those cans of tuna and bags of dried fruit out of reach. These people are utter morons for reasons that I hope I don't need to explain.

[VicHockeyFan]

A healthy person can go three weeks without food with no long-term health effects. They'll need water within a few days though.

You can eat cardboard, it has nutritional value.

[aastra]

Yeah, but if you're one of those "empty fridge" people and you don't make any preparations whatsoever then you're only going to burden everyone else (and eventual relief efforts from outside) all that much more. A bag of dried fruit is preferable to cardboard, but when you get right down to it the former doesn't require much more in the way of preparation/foresight than the latter.

Some people just don't bother to make even the simplest preparations. I'm talking about preparations that really aren't preparations at all. Dare I say it, but living day to day when you can afford to live week to week (as 98% of us can) is really irresponsible.

Living day to day is a huge time suck, too. Grocery shopping every darned right? It's nuts.

[Holden West]

If you have no water, you should not eat anything as digestion consumes fluids in your body (and as VHF points out, an empty stomach is the least of your worries).

Grocery stores find it challenging to buy local as it's hard for area farmers to provide consistent, reliable produce in large volumes.

That said, it's hard to look at the vast wasteland of commercial roof space as seen on Google Earth or Bing and not think of the wasted space.

[LJ]

Costco was selling survival packs that provided enough food/fluid as well as a radio, flashlight, toilet etc. etc. for 4 people for 5 days. They cost about $100 bucks or so and come in a duffle bag that you can put anywhere, garage, trunk of your car, under the stairs etc.

You also have all the water in your toilet tank and hot water heaters that is potable.

[rjag]

Costco was selling survival packs that provided enough food/fluid as well as a radio, flashlight, toilet etc. etc. for 4 people for 5 days. They cost about $100 bucks or so and come in a duffle bag that you can put anywhere, garage, trunk of your car, under the stairs etc.

You also have all the water in your toilet tank and hot water heaters that is potable.

Getting a bit off subject here folks, perhaps this could be better discussed on the earthquake thread.....

Getting back to greenhouses, I get the whole "lets take advantage of all those empty roofs" argument but its not as simple as it seems. Theres building and fire codes, municipal codes indicating the uses of a building, theres square footage to take into account and revenue generation per foot to offset property taxes, there's power requirements, light polution etc.....this is not a simple prospect. I think its a cool idea, but honestly I cant see it overcoming the financial, legal and engineering hurdles and still be worthwhile as opposed to just putting greenhouses in fields that cant be farmed.

[gumgum]

Obviously an idea like this would work only purpose built. Unless the building is vacant and can be retrofitted.