Old Thread can be found here.
I don’t EVER want it to be that cold in my pocket!
My opinion - highest priority first / highest scarcity first. I think the Pneum Vax & Tamiflu will be unavailable when TSHTF. N95 masks, disposables gloves will be expensive and limited supply. Water & Food are at the bottom of my list - yes, I have now prepped them.
The counter position is that with sufficient Food, Water & Consumables you (your family, etc.) can self isolate and not get the pandemic flu. HSS Leavitt recently stated that Pandemic could last 12–18 months. I don’t believe it is logical or rational to attempt to self isolate for that period of time. I do believe that by selective prepping I can minimize the potential impact of a pandemic on my family.
So: Meds to treat Flu 1st. PPE (masks, gloves, etc.) to minimize virial contact/load 2nd. Two to Three Months Food & Consumables to allow: A. Selective, Short Term Isolation B. Continuity of food, comfort and safety during supply chain disruptions 3rd.
o Pneumonia vaccination (assuming you pandemic version of flu and survived *it*) - prevent secondary infection.
o Tamiflu (2 treatments per person) - assuming you get pandemic flu
o N95 Masks, Disposable Gloves, goggles, hand sanitizers (minimize viral load) -
o Water, Food, Consumables - so you don’t have to go out as often, easier to deal with supply chain interruptions.
Let us hope that a pandemic does not come to pass, let us prepare such that we are ready as best we can.
When I grew up in Wisconsin the winter months were very cold. It was funny to see my mom out taking our cloths down off the cloths line and be able to stand them up against the wall.
The items we will miss most will be the ones we use the most every day.
For me it will be electrical power. I use it every day and almost all the time. 2 years ago we had a hurricane hit and our power was out for 2 weeks. You would not believe the changes in our life style we were forced to go through. Not fun.
bleach
toilet paper
cigarettes
ice
Pneumovax is a one time vaccination for almost everyone and you shouldn’t have a hard time getting one from your doctor now. I am putting away a lot (read liters and liters) of alcohol hand gel and dish soap for hand washing. There was a great thread about using dry pool bleach. I went that route. LOL, I tried to calculate TP consumption at my house last week to gauge where I stood with TP preps so far. Lets just say it’s a very rough science.
I’m thinkin’ there ain’t gonna be much of a reason for me to come out if the shelves in the stores are bare, the gas pumps are dry and people are falling over sick (worst case senario). My family is prepped and my friends and neighbors have had a lot of prep stuff handed to them.
I live in Florida and have become quite good at preparing for hurricanes and am using that for prepping for BF. Two things that I found were necessary when the electricity went out was a portable handheld television and believe it or not rabbit ears. We lost electriicity for 16 days, but connected our tv up to the generator so we could get information. Cable was out, and the rabbit ears were a blessing. After Ivan-you couldn’t find a portable handheld tv set ANYWHERE in the state and the stores that normally carried them were on back oder. These will become scarce and I think are necessary in maintaining a source of information.
This year we are going to invest in the portable air conditioner and dehumidifer to keep mole out if the electricity goes down in a pandemic. Those too will be scarce in the southern climates
Good idea about the little TVs/bunny ears. When we moved to this house we had no cable for a month and I quickly discovered we can’t get any stations without cable - once in a while a fuzzy PBS station. Thought I’d go nuts and lived at blockbuster to keep my kids happy. I wonder if there are any out now that would have improved reception. More to research….
Not a bad idea to have a back up portable TV since staying informed is so critical. Don’t forget any adapters you need to connect the ears to the TV. Radio Shack and Best buy had em for around $50 a while back.
good point MAV.
also you may want to consider a 12 volt tv that can be powered from car in case of power failure…
After a hurricane one time, a lot of TV stations were simulcasting over the major radio stations. So you were listening to the radio for information, but it was the TV reporters saying stuff like: “At the bottom of the screen we are running a list of local grocery stores that have power…” Very frustrating. I’ve had a portable TV in my hurricane emergency kit ever since. :-)
I’ve got a portable solar set up with battery chargers for portable TVs, radios, cell, PDA, flashlights etc. Everytime I think of those poor folks at the superdome I think how a little bit of information (ie a TV or radio broadcast) could have saved a lot of grief. Incident situational information is SOOOO critical for decision making. Not that TV and radio are the only sources, but in this day and age, cable networks are on the scene very quickly. I bet the networks are fully prepared to cover this “story” if and when it happens. It would not suprise me if they had some very advanced biohazard equipment standing by.
Bump just in case
Closed to maintain Forum speed.