Emergency Preparedness: How Much is Enough?

[Sentry18]

And just FYI, this is from a more mainstream gun-related site not a preparedness site.

Emergency Preparedness: How Much is Enough?

by John Boch |
Mar 04, 2020 |





Courtesy Amazon


Preparedness for contingencies goes a long way to turning chaos into mere inconvenience. Finding one’s self unprepared when life throws you a curveball sucks.
Hopefully, like many TTAG readers, you maintain some level of readiness for a variety of emergencies. If so, congrats. The question quickly becomes how much is “enough” though when it comes to critical itms like food, water and ammo?
Rugged independence and self-sufficiency made America great. More importantly, by maintaining your own preparedness, you can become part of the recovery after an emergency, instead of part of the problem. The more Americans prepare for emergencies and disasters, the faster recovery will happen.
Food and Water

Bigstock

Why is water storage important? Simply put, dehydration is a horrific way to die. At the Beslan School Massacre, Muslim terrorists withheld water from their hostages – children and adults alike. By the second day in the summer heat, people eagerly drank urine from shoes. By the end of the second day, the first few began to die from dehydration.
Nobody wants that for their family.
Medical issues and death from lack of food don’t happen as quickly as dehydration. Nevertheless, energy levels drop without food. Believe it or not, even with a caloric intake of 1100-1600 per day, most people will die in a matter of months. Don’t believe it? Just look at those in concentration camps during World War II.
Those with existing health issues may see those problems made worse from a lack of or insufficient nourishment. And while Americans on average have plenty of extra weight with which to exist during lean times, medical professionals seldom recommend a starvation diet.
So, how much food and water should you put away for an emergency?
Two weeks’ worth makes a great start for your personal preparedness. If you have nothing currently, seven days’ worth is a 1000% improvement over your current state of readiness.
You’ve may have heard some say you should have a year’s food at home. That’s up to you, but know that today, not even most Mormons have a year’s larder in their homes.
Looking around, it’s easy to see why. In today’s America, a disruption of the food supply lasting more than just a few days is virtually non-existent unless you live in sparsely populated, remote regions.
When it comes to clean water, municipal supplies come filtered and treated to our taps. Cities have backup systems in case of malfunctions or power outages. For them, failures come very few and far between – and even then typically only require a short boil order of a day or two.
For the average American, a two-week supply of emergency supplies will get them through 99.999+% of anything life may throw at them.

(AP Photo/Bill Haber)

Alternatively, with no supplies, there’s always government assistance. Just like at the Superdome in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, right? Failing to prepare translates to preparing to fail.
Food and Water Aren’t Enough
Do you have special needs or want to secure additional peace of mind? Fine. Bump your supplies up to four weeks – or three months. Or a year. It’s your money, time and storage space.
I’ve been there. Before Y2K (remember that?), I had a year’s supply and a whole lot more. I earned my doctorate in preparedness the hard way. Afterwards – and to this day – I felt like a fool, but I was a prepared fool.
Today, I’m perfectly comfortable with four weeks’ worth of food, water, toilet paper — don’t scrimp on the TP stash — and baby wipes. It’s a good idea to keep a decent amount of cash on hand, too. And don’t forget candles and batteries for flashlights and a radio. Want to be sure you can charge your phone? A solar charger could come in handy.
Are you foolishly planning to come to my house in an emergency because you think I’m all stocked up? Hah! Bring a tent and some food. You can camp in the nearby park. There’s a porta-potty out there.
What about feeding family or neighbors? If you plan to start feeding others, you’ll never be able to store enough.
Residential Security
If riots or civil breakdown occur following a calamity, how long will your residence remain safe and secure? In most cases, in the near-term, it should remain relatively safe for a few days to a couple of weeks, minimum.
You know your neighborhood and what’s beyond it. Gun owners will keep an eye out for their own homes and those of their neighbors in the days following any emergency. Know the open carry laws in your city and state. Opportunistic looters will avoid gun-toting residents for good reason.
What happens, though, a couple of weeks after your neighbors run out of food and their children begin begging mom and dad for something to eat? At that point, things will grow increasingly dicey for you, no matter your level of preparedness.

Bigstock

How so? How’s it going to go when your neighbors smell your grill when they haven’t eaten for a week or two? Ditto for smelling bacon and eggs in the morning. Those Porterhouse steaks and baked potatoes you’ve salted away will taste mighty good to someone else after they shoot you in the back.
Storing enough for you and yours for a year will mean little if desperate people in your neighborhood resort to desperate measures to feed their families – or provide water to them.
Ammunition

Dan Z for TTAG

“How much ammunition do I need?” It’s a fair question. It depends.
For self-defense? For your Roscoe, buy some reputable hollow-point ammunition made by a leading manufacturer. Avoid the exotics like the plague. At a bare minimum, buy at least fifty rounds to test-fire in your self-defense pistol. Make sure it functions with flawless reliability. If it doesn’t, don’t make excuses for it. Try another brand instead.


Courtesy Amazon

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/preparedness-much-enough/

 

[Sentry18]

The most common causes for modern pistol malfunctions are ammunition- and magazine-related. Once you’ve found the hollow-point ammo that works reliably with your gat, buy another fifty rounds for self-defense for that pistol. Repeat for each pistol you own.
Unlike well-maintained guns, magazines do not last forever. Buy extra factory replacement magazines and have at least three magazines for each pistol.

Dan Z for TTAG

The aftermarket magazines for most self-defense pistols often lack the reliability of factory mags, regardless of whether they are “guaranteed” to function or not. And if you’re an experienced shooter using a 1911-style pistol for self-defense, you know which mags provide bulletproof reliability.

Bigstock

For your modern sporting rifle – such as America’s favorite, the AR-15, have at least three 30-round magazines and ammo to fill them (at 28 rounds each). Again, that’s a bare minimum.
For those of you who live in states with “high capacity” magazine limits, adjust accordingly.
For you bolt-gun connoisseurs, you can get by with a couple of boxes of rounds, minimum, once you’re sighted properly. Shotguns make great home and yard defense tools against man and beast, provided you’ve got fifteen or twenty rounds of #00 Buck and about as many rifled slugs.


Courtesy Remington

“Hogwash! You need to buy ammo by the case!”
While you can never have enough ammo on hand, two things: if you’re in a fire fight where you’re cranking off hundreds of rounds of ammo, you’re probably going to catch one coming back at you. Also, have you tried carrying a thousand rounds of 5.56 – or even 9mm lately? If things have devolved to the point you need thousands of rounds of ammo, someone else will appreciate your dedication to supplying them with ammo.
Also worth mentioning: just because a calamity has occurred doesn’t mean you have a green light to shoot every shady-looking character who crosses your path. The same rule of law applies – and will be applied once the emergency has passed.
If your homestead has a half-dozen dead folks rotting away on the periphery, you better have a good, legally justifiable reason why they got that way.
Drugs and Medications

Bigstock

Let’s talk drugs. No, not recreational pharmaceuticals but life-sustaining or quality-of-life drugs. Always – repeat always – keep at least 30 days’ supply of life-sustaining drugs on hand. Blood pressure, heart, insulin, anti-crazy pills, etc.
You may have to pay for that extra month’s supply, but get it and keep it fresh. AllDayChemist.com is a proven, reputable online pharmacy for non-narcotic prescription meds at affordable prices if you’re in the self-pay category.
Fuel

(AP Photo/David Goldman)

Keep your gas tank at least half full. Always. In an attached garage, you’re usually limited by fire codes to ten gallons of gasoline in cans. Storing gasoline and propane outdoors is far safer than storing even a single can or bottle of gas in your home.
Solution: buy a patio box and keep fuels outdoors if you don’t already have a shed. Keep your gas can(s) full and treated. Get yourself a 5# or 10# fire extinguisher or two as well.

Have a generator? Great! Store another ten to twenty gallons of gasoline (in an outside structure or patio box) and that should carry you through a couple of weeks of keeping the sump pit emptied and the refrigerator and freezer cold.
Rotate the fuel each year in the winter months and stabilize the gas with Sta-Bil, PRI-G, or Star-Tron. Store it tightly sealed. Run the generator during the day and chain it up so it doesn’t grow legs and run away when you’re not watching.
Barter
No matter how much you practice preparedness, you will inevitably need something in an emergency. When cash may not be in much demand, you can always barter for it.
The first rule of zombies is cardio.

The first rule of barter is never trade away anything that can be used against you. Don’t buy stuff with ammo – not even .22s. And never trade away a gun.
Top three things to store for barter use: fuel, alcohol and sugar. Everyone will need fuel: treated gasoline, diesel, kerosene, etc.
In tough times, a person can trade grain alcohol for almost anything, including fuel. With about one in eight Americans showing signs of alcoholism today, booze will get you about anything you need. And with sugar, you can make alcohol.
So, consider storing a few bottles of vodka and Jack Daniels. Both will store for decades and cheap vodka sells for under $6 per bottle most places. Drinkable stuff goes for twice that.
The second rule of bartering: don’t let on that you have significant quantities of sought-after items. Doing so my attract people who are more interested in taking than trading.
In closing…
Yes, certain events can imperil civilization as a whole. However, if you’re playing the odds, you can handle almost anything life will throw at you with a little forethought and couple weeks’ worth of preparedness items.
After all, that survival mindset is the most important survival tool each of us owns.

 

[Morgan101]

Very good reminder. Time for a gut check. Do a complete inventory, and see where you stand.

 

[Weedygarden]

When it comes to food and water for emergency preparedness, the government recommends 2 weeks worth. For anyone who has been researching food storage, you know the classic standard is 1 year's worth. Is that enough? Is that too much?

 

[Morgan101]

One question I might ask is which one is easier to replace? Food or Water? For me water is not an issue, so I would go heavier on food. IMHO 1 year's worth of food is sufficient. I don't think it is to much.

Ammo? Probably like many here, I have enough to take over a small country. Definitely not an issue. Remember: You can never be too rich; too thin; or have too much ammunition.

 

[Sourdough]

I always find it interesting that the people "Never" ever consider wealth or power when discussing how much is too much. Why do people not attack those obsessed with procuring money and power as being evil hoarders of money and power.

 

[SheepDog]

What you can't eat, wear or shoot isn't an important prep.
When there isn't enough food your money means nothing.
Power fades into oblivion when everyone is fighting for scraps of food.
The rich and powerful are putting away food and water just like everyone who preps.

 

[dademoss]

We're probably good for at least a month of inconvenience. Water is no problem as long as it rains, ammo is adequate for a small revolution, food adequate for months or so. Beyond that, it's get incredibly difficult to foresee. Heating, resource renewal, social unrest, who knows what will happen.

 

[Morgan101]

We're probably good for at least a month of inconvenience. Water is no problem as long as it rains, ammo is adequate for a small revolution, food adequate for months or so. Beyond that, it's get incredibly difficult to foresee. Heating, resource renewal, social unrest, who knows what will happen.

A small consolation, but at least weather wise we are heading into the more temperate time of the year. Heating should not be a problem. Also a good time to start a garden if you haven't already.

 

[hiwall]

I noticed that the CDC suggested having 30 days worth of food and supplies.

 

[Weedygarden]

I noticed that the CDC suggested having 30 days worth of food and supplies.

I wonder how long they have had that information up?

 

[dademoss]

A small consolation, but at least weather wise we are heading into the more temperate time of the year. Heating should not be a problem. Also a good time to start a garden if you haven't already.

Seeds in hand, waiting for spring

 

[Sentry18]

I wonder how long they have had that information up?

I believe they changed it after a few of the hurricanes.


I have told this story before, but one month we decided to put our food storage to the test. NOT the food we have in preps, just the regular everyday food we have in our cupboards, pantry, refrigetators, and freezers. We made it past the 3 week mark before we had to get creative with meals. We made it almost another 2 weeks before we decided to go buy some groceries, and even then the freezers were not bare. We could have gone further if we primarily ate protein/fat. That experience taught us that living like we do in the Midwest gives us a solid 5 weeks of food without rationing at all. In my preps we have enough food to make it around 13-14 months as long as we don't take on any more calorie consumers. Feels right to me.

 

[Caribou]

A guy that is still embarrassed about having too much in preps for Y2K, or any other scenario, is not who I will look to for prepping advice. He didn't have a car accident recently, does he feel stupid for wearing a seat belt today?

I had several months of food when I got sick, in my 20's, and couldn't work for 8 or 9 months. If my house hadn't been paid off I would have lost it. All global emergencies are national. All national emergencies are regional. All regional emergencies are local. All local emergencies are personal. When you have a personal emergency it doesn't make the paper, you are on your own.

Enough? Prepping isn't a destination, it's a journey. OMG, I feel so stupid, all these years of fire insurance wasted and my home never burned down. What if your emergency happens in the fall? It ill be a year and a half till your next harvest. What if your harvest fails, ask any farmer, two years isn't unreasonable. Pharaoh prepped for seven years, and needed it. I hired a young Mormon with a family, to work on my home. He had just started working after a years illness. I said, at least you had food set aside. He said he'd hadn't followed that tenant of his religion. I think that has changed.

I don't know how much you want. I want more. I am limited by cash and space. Over the years I have acquired several months ahead on my prescription drugs. Now that there is a looming drug crisis, with the China situation, I'm in better shape than most diabetics.

 

[Weedygarden]

I don't know how much you want. I want more. I am limited by cash and space.

This is me. Instead of an extensive wardrobe, jewelry, new furniture, and other ways of spending money, I have been focused on being better prepared. I have gotten new things, but I am not someone who is always shopping for the latest and the greatest, like other people I know.

 

[Sentry18]

I don't know how much you want. I want more. I am limited by cash and space.

I am goal focused. I assess my weakest area, set a goal, achieve the goal, then I reevaluate and determine where I need to turn my attention to next. When I feel like I am at least stable for the short term, I focus on non-prepping areas of my life. I want balance.

 

[angie_nrs]

What you can't eat, wear or shoot isn't an important prep.

All well and good........until you get sick or injured.

I wish being prepared was as easy as just those 3 things.

 

[Weedygarden]

I know this thread is about emergency preparedness, but I have thought about something for years, relative to preparedness. Basic preparedness: earning a regular income, working on a retirement plan (contributions or saving), owning property or a home. Buying a home, while still making payments is still not as secure as owning a home outright, but it is better than paying someone to live in their place.

Many people have done this for most or all of their adult life, planned and worked toward retirement, so that having a home and an income, even if meager, will not be a problem. Some people have had no thought about it.

You can have 5 or 50 gallons of water and a year's food, but if you have no place to lay your head at night, then what?

 

[hiwall]

You can have 5 or 50 gallons of water and a year's food, but if you have no place to lay your head at night, then what?

Those are the ones who say they are "bugging out".

 

[SheepDog]

Well, the home is paid for, the bank account will last for a while even if the income dropped to zero. We have the pantry stocked and well water is clear. I can defend what is mine and have family close. The nearest neighbor, across the road is in good shape too.

 

[Supervisor42]

I know this thread is about emergency preparedness, but I have thought about something for years, relative to preparedness. Basic preparedness: earning a regular income, working on a retirement plan (contributions or saving), owning property or a home. Buying a home, while still making payments is still not as secure as owning a home outright, but it is better than paying someone to live in their place.

Many people have done this for most or all of their adult life, planned and worked toward retirement, so that having a home and an income, even if meager, will not be a problem. Some people have had no thought about it.

Very important advice.
If we're lucky, old age will happen.
I'm amazed at people that have always had the coolest boat, a couple of awesome jet skis and find they will have nothing but $1,000 per month of Social Security to survive on for the rest of their life when they retire.
Old age happens; and you can't go back in a time-machine and change things.
The percentage of people that fail to prep for this, you will find simply astounding.

 

[Weedygarden]

Very important advice.
If we're lucky, old age will happen.
I'm amazed at people that have always had the coolest boat, a couple of awesome jet skis and find they will have nothing but $1,000 per month of Social Security to survive on for the rest of their life when they retire.
Old age happens; and you can't go back in a time-machine and change things.
The percentage of people that fail to prep for this, you will find simply astounding.View attachment 36384

We probably all know people who are living in the moment, and always have, like the grasshopper, not like the ant, with no thought to older age, retirement, how they will live in the future. I find it is often those who avoided commitments, responsibility, owning property, saving, and instead were out having a good time, partying, playing, being entertained, are the ones who will also not have a home at the end, no retirement fund, and living on little money.

I just think that ultimate preparedness involves getting some of those ducks in a row, as opposed to just making sure you have a few beans and a little water.

 

[angie_nrs]

We probably all know people who are living in the moment, and always have, like the grasshopper, not like the ant, with no thought to older age, retirement, how they will live in the future. I find it is often those who avoided commitments, responsibility, owning property, saving, and instead were out having a good time, partying, playing, being entertained, are the ones who will also not have a home at the end, no retirement fund, and living on little money.

And who are easily coaxed into voting for the candidate who says they will forgive all those debts b/c they were 'somehow' taken advantage of. I guess in a way they were, b/c if they went to the public school system of today, they won't learn our real history, or learn real math,.....and likely probably didn't read Aesop's Fables and learn about the grasshopper and the ant.

 

[Morgan101]

Put this one in the ammo category. How much do you carry? How much is enough?

 

[Weedygarden]

Those are the ones who say they are "bugging out".

I belong to a Facebook preparedness group, and in early March, one of the guys said he was getting ready to bug out! Maybe he had never really saved any money, stocked up on supplies? Maybe he thought if he belonged to a group like that, that preps would come to him? Or maybe he had a plan: a place he could go to and live.

My response to him was, "So you're going to be a refugee?"

Many people who grow up in the city acquire all of their food with money as opposed to hunting, fishing, gardening, foraging and more to supplement their foods. Frozen pizzas were one of the first thing I saw that were sold out before I stopped going to the grocery store.

 

[Amish Heart]

I've heard plenty of people say that if things get bad, they'd head for the mountains. What does that mean? Where would they live? What would they eat? These are not mountain men.
Tom Petty said, "You don't want to live like a refugee". Agree.

 

[Meerkat]

I don't know but I do know we don't have enough .

 

[hiwall]

I've heard plenty of people say that if things get bad, they'd head for the mountains. What does that mean? Where would they live? What would they eat? These are not mountain men.
Tom Petty said, "You don't want to live like a refugee". Agree.

Lot fewer people in the mountains because it is much tougher living there. So that must mean if things get bad they want it tougher on themselves. I guess to see if they can meet the challenge.

 

[LadyLocust]

This will sound a little off topic, but hear me out. I once told a gal I didn't believe in Minimulism, but I do believe in Enoughism. I said I don't want clutter, but I want enough to feel secure and comfortable. I've recently had to come up with our real net worth. In doing so, one of the numbers to provide was cost of household goods - meaning furniture, dishes, towels, etc., all of it. In college, I could have done that on one page. Now I am doing it by room. We down-sized significantly last year and one of the goals in doing so was to get down closer to necessities. Yes, we have furniture but a significant portion is "kitchen/pantry" which includes not only food and dishes, but food preservation items. My next goal is to figure out how many canning jars I have. So I guess all of this is to say, food is good, but do you have the means by which to grow more & preserve it for when it isn't plentiful? I know a gal with 2 years worth of freeze dried food, but she has no way to preserve food that she might get. (Is this just a me being weird thing?)
I also agree never enough ammo. The other thing I would like to stock more of where we live now is propane. Up the mountain, we had a 480 gal. tank we could pull from.

 

[Bacpacker]

I agree Lady, you can have huge food stores, but if you can't produce more you will run out at some point in the future. Multiple ways to perserve it is needed as well. We can, freeze, & dehydrate. But I want to get a freeze dryer and go that route as well.
And yep, no such thing as enough ammo