Survival and Emergency Preparedness

bdc wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 1:14 pm I am not "short" on anything.
I took heed in January when scheduling a cruise for May. To give an idea of the scope of preps, I purchased 4 cases of tp alone from Costco at that time. My cruise is now cancelled and I am out only $25.

The thing that concerns me is the very long term. I prefer to eat fresh veggies every day. That preference causes me to shop every few days. Things will not go back to "normal" for months and months. I will be exposed to the epidemic.

Booze comments. A very long time ago, I made the birthday and Christmas gifts of alcohol for rational reasons: 1. it was something people could use or serve to guests; 2. I know the wine and liquor industries and when the "sales" occur; 3. any wine or liquor purchased and not actually gifted constituted a potential preparation for shtf; 4. empty pint plastic liquor bottles (if you have to do trading) are inexpensive. My personal drinking is probably at the level of a six pack of beer, 2 gallons of wine and less than 1/2 a bottle of liquor a year. However, I estimate that I have 20 gallons of wine and 30 gallons of liquors. And, yes, I have a lot of relatives. Example. My mother drank Old Grandad. My older brother likes to make traditional pecan pies with Old Grandad. So I bought a case. He comes by at least once a year - and gets a bottle. Another example. I have a French amoire in one room. It is loaded with wrapped gifts for family members - booze/restored knives/books/Leatherman tools. I give credit to my late wife. She kept a closet of gifts for potential weddings and for the Los Angeles County orphanage downtown.

Since you know the alcohol industry any tips for buying it cheap? Mejier's supermarket has sales occasionally and like you I cruise. Can usually find full liter bottles for sale on the cruise ship cheaper than 750ML bottles back home. I try to stock up but cruises are few and far between these days and prices on board aren't as good as they once were.

So any secret ways to score cheap(er) booze?

Oh, and I just thought of something we are short of and haven't been able to find at the store...Acetaminophen aka Tylenol. I'm old and I have aches and pains and I've been working out a lot. I can't take IB Profen and we've not been able to find T at any stores recently. I probably have enough to last a week

Umm, nothing... We have been good for years and could be good with the essentials for a couple of years. We even are real good on bacon which makes up half of the deep freezer. Since the last kid moved on his bedroom became the pantry and we keep it full to the ceiling. We have been waiting for this for a long time. We haven't broken out the hazmat suits or the NBC masks yet... Might dig out the N95 stash tomorrow tho.
When the TP craze first started the wife and I just looked at each other and laughed... We haven't been near a store in weeks.

What if Zombie Corona Virus destroys all the Utility workers?

How long will the bacon last?

Bob wrote: ↑Tue Apr 07, 2020 10:29 am What if Zombie Corona Virus destroys all the Utility workers?

How long will the bacon last?

A bit of a thread drift from the OP, but your post brought something to mind. If anyone has seen Zombieland 2 Double Tap, they make a comment that electricity is still on because the power stations kept working. Something about the dams still running. Now of course that is fiction but it did make me think about it. If 'something' happened and the various power stations were no longer manned, they definitely would NOT be running for long. Particularly nuclear power plants. All these things require constant monitoring, adjustments and repair by technicians. How long would a nuclear power plant continue to operate without anyone at the controls? And what happens when the core isn't properly maintained? Well it melts down of course. According to google:

"There are 60 commercially operating nuclear power plants with 98 nuclear reactors in 30 U.S. states"

Which means you're eventually going to have 60 melt down events that spreads radiation into the air and water. The severity of these events may differ but it can't be discounted. How many miles away from a nuclear reactor do you need to be to be 'safe'? I'm sure they all have fail-safes but if they were completely unattended I doubt even fail-safes would be of any use. Stuff has to be maintained and when it isn't it breaks in some way, shape or form.

For non-nuclear plants...what could happen? Just go off-line and stop producing? Could a fire break out that spreads? Power stations at dams, what happens there? What are the chances the dam is damaged or even breaks/over flows?

Just tossing out things that the 'movies' never seem to address.

Pretty sure all US nuclear power plants will shut themselves down automatically..

maypo59 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:23 pm Pretty sure all US nuclear power plants will shut themselves down automatically..

But at some point the water level on the rods will come down right? It has to be maintained at a certain level.

We have been doing good. We were stocked for general emergencies and paid attention so we were able to stock up on items before everything went crazy.

The only thing we didn't have was Twinkies and my dad wanted Twinkies. Haven't been able to find a box of regular Twinkies in the stores, so he has had to suffer without.

Bob wrote: ↑Tue Apr 07, 2020 10:29 am What if Zombie Corona Virus destroys all the Utility workers?

How long will the bacon last?

Lasted a couple of years in the movie I Am Legend...


What's the matter Bunky, forgot the bacon didn't you.

Bacon last a good while if it's still on the hoof...
But having bacon in NY is tough to do as NY doesn't let you do anything.

But back to OP;
Still not really missing anything other than prev mentioned.... will be picking up some Jameson today ( good thing liqueur is priority )
Just still running on mostly freezer (2)/shelf items, other than greens we get about every 10 days, all is good.

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