How Prepared Are You?

[Harmony]

So am I the only one who has been thinking about surviving a nuclear blast?   

I'm only semi-joking.  I am not terribly worried at this point but I have had nagging thoughts and a couple of nightmares.  We lost power in the middle of the night on Sunday and I'd be lying if I said I didn't at least consider that it could've been an assault on our power grid by Putin.  I actually did a web search on what to do if you are outside a nuclear blast zone and need to shelter in place.  I learned a few things I didn't know.  But I still have many questions.

But basically, are we prepared to shelter in place for a week?  Two weeks?  Will there be any electricity?  Running water?  Will the plumbing work?  Do I need to cover my windows in plastic sheeting?

I mean....I'm not a 'prepper' but I do think my family could be better prepared.  And not just for a nuclear bomb but for earthquakes, floods, other weather events, etc.

Are you and yours prepared?  Does anyone else ruminate on these things?

I have the lists.  I have some emergency supplies.  But I feel like I could be better prepared.

How about you?

[Adami]

I am not prepared in the slightest bit. No misconceptions about that.

I feel like Bart would be pretty prepared.


And obviously Ben lives in a hand made house with self-powered electricity with an independent water source and his own farm of healthy food that he plants himself. I sincerely doubt he'd depend on anyone or anything if it came to it.

Me though? I'd be screwed. I'd probably end up beign Channing Tatum in This is The End.

[Chino]

I've got:
3 gallons of gas, and no generator.
30 or so beers, only half of which I like.
A revolver and 456 rounds of .38 special.
Roughly 35lbs of beef, an offset smoker, 2 Weber Kettles, and roughly 100lbs of wood and charcoal.
Four LED lanterns and a couple battery banks, none of which are charged at the moment.

I'm pretty fucked I think.

[lonestar]

I'm not prepared at all...but both my work and home are probably in the 'a flash of light and we're vaporized' range. My house is a few miles from the Lawrence Labs where they develop all this shit, and my work is a few from the NASA Ames research campus, pretty sure both are fairly high on primary or secondary target list.




Plus I'm just fucking lazy.

[Adami]

I just realized I have a bow and arrows.

So I take back what I said before, I'd be fine.

[gmillerdrake]

I’m not a full blown prepper but I take my role as a father and husband seriously, of which….I believe means being prepared for a national disaster. I have enough MRE’s and water to last us several weeks….maybe longer if rationed properly.

Plus….I’m not doing bad in the ammo department so if it ever got to like movie level deterioration of society I’d be set for a bit. Call me crazy or whatever but we (close friends and family) have our meeting locations set and essentially an evacuation plan for our families and where we’d ultimately wait it out should it ever get to that level. No, I’m not exaggerating….probably underselling it a bit actually.

[King Postwhore]

I'd be the 1st one taken out in a 3rd remake of Red Dawn I'm that prepared.

[chknptpie]

I live in the blast zone if they go for the nuclear power plant nearby. No prepping here.

[El Barto]

I feel like Bart would be pretty prepared.

Yeah, not really. I'm a big believer in not dwelling on things beyond my control.

After the big freeze I'm situated to get by a while. Plenty of drugs, alcohol, and food to get me by.  If I need to hit the road, and if we're talking The Day After that's pretty likely, I'd probably do better. I'm well armed and I've got a few years worth of surplus immunosuppressants. Really the limiting factor is how much I can carry, given that cars won't be an option.

And for anybody who's interested, play around with Nukemap and see how likely you are to survive a nuking in your town. Depending on how angry they are at Dallas I'd probably survive the blast at home. At work it depends on the yield. For reference a SLBM MIRV is probably ~150kt, while an ICBM MIRV would be more like 400kt.

[TAC]

I actually thought about this very question today. Pretty sure if it goes full tilt, Boston is going to eat a nuke.

[MetalJunkie]

Not prepared at all. And pretty terrified.

[SwedishGoose]

Not prepared... and now everything prepping is out of stock in Sweden.

We have food to last us for quite some time but that's it

[Melphina]

If I die, I die. :/

[Zoom E]

I have an earthquake preparedness kit, and I believe the perishable supplies have expired.  So, not prepared.

 Honestly, l’m not sure I’d want to survive a full on nuclear war and face the prospect of a possible slow and agonizing death by radiation poisoning.

[jammindude]

Not inserting religious beliefs into it, but just as a point of interest, ALL Jehovah’s Witnesses are instructed to keep a 3-day “go bag” on standby at all times….but we’re also encouraged not to be overly obsessive to the point of being hard core survivalists.

So we’ve always kept one for each person in my household. But this thread has reminded me that it might be out of date. So thank you. I’m going to prioritize making sure it’s current this weekend.

[Cool Chris]

I am very focused on financial preparedness. I make sure we have 12 months cushion should something drastic happen to our jobs/income or should we need a significant amount of cash in an emergency.  But beyond that, nothing at all.

[XJDenton]

IMO Prepping is pointless. If a nuke falls in my city I will not survive. And unless prepping also involves an air-tight shelter with independent air filtration systems, you probably won't survive more than a few days/weeks either no matter how much food and drink you stock.

[jingle.boy]

I’m not a full blown prepper but I take my role as a father and husband seriously, of which….I believe means being prepared for a national disaster. I have enough MRE’s and water to last us several weeks….maybe longer if rationed properly.

Plus….I’m not doing bad in the ammo department so if it ever got to like movie level deterioration of society I’d be set for a bit. Call me crazy or whatever but we (close friends and family) have our meeting locations set and essentially an evacuation plan for our families and where we’d ultimately wait it out should it ever get to that level. No, I’m not exaggerating….probably underselling it a bit actually.

No surprise, coming from a Walking Dead fan. 

Not terribly prepared. We have a generator, and always keep plenty of necessities on hand - the onset of the pandemic taught us that. We’d be fine for a couple of weeks  water would be the issue

[MirrorMask]

People's lives in post-apocalyptic movies is always horrible, I intend to die in the nuclear blast 

[Stadler]

I have no serious weapons in the house, but in terms of basic functions, we'd do okay as long as we could get fuel.   I have a generator that will power the house; I have well-water; I have a freezer that is fairly well stocked.  I always keep "battries and lamps" ($1 and an MRE if you can tell me where that comes from; I'm looking at you Lonestar and Bosk!) around the house...

Honestly, I don't worry about the big blast - like Bart, I have enough to worry about I don't need to start worrying about a ton of things that are so far out of my control as to be basically random - but I do worry about the aftermath.  I'm in a decent town, but I feel like it won't be long before the people in the cities come up this way.  I have farms to either side of me, with cattle, so I'd make it, but I don't want to have to fight other people in order to do so.

[Lonk]

So am I the only one who has been thinking about surviving a nuclear blast?   

Are you and yours prepared?  Does anyone else ruminate on these things?

This conversation comes up at least once a year with my SO. She is a prepper. Me? Not so much, but I do like to keep some things around.

Because of our limited space in our tiny NY apartment, we can't really keep a lot of things around before we start using walking space to store things. So we keep around enough food to last for 2 weeks or so, a couple gallons of water and smaller bottles as well, first aid supplies, batteries, flash lights, etc. Is not necessarily in case of a war, but just an emergency in general. We spoke about buying a set of long range 2-way radios, but never done it.

This might sound dark, but depending on the type of catastrophe, not sure I'd want to be alive afterwards anyway.

[Grappler]

I'm not prepared. 

When the pandemic started in 2020 I was so angry about the panic buying - I needed a box of diapers for my youngest and was pretty scared about how I couldn't even find one thing that I needed, just basic supplies for my family.  Lately, it seems like we have to grocery shop twice a week because my kids are so specific in what they will eat.  It's impossible to keep enough food in the house for more than a few days.  They'd have to make do with what we have on hand in that scenario.

I live 50 miles north of Chicago.  We're out of the radius of a blast zone, and hopefully the wind carries the fallout east over Lake Michigan.  We'd take the same approach we took with the pandemic - if we were to get covid, we'll go through it as a family.  I'm wasn't going to quarantine a sick kid in their bedroom with saran wrap across the door to prevent anyone else in the house from getting it.  Same here.  If we had enough saran wrap in the house to do it, fine.  But I'm not keeping that much in the house for that specific reason.  We'll just accept our fate. 

[MinistroRaven]

I am not prepared.
And given that Maduro is Putin's muppet I guess I would die instantly by a nuke launched from the States.

[Skeever]

Prepping seems pretty pointless. Even if you do have everything you'd need to survive for weeks or even months, any situation like that and it wouldn't be long until either an armed mob or state was at your door ready to take whatever you've got. You'll be either joining them or eating dirt at that point.

[hefdaddy42]

I am not all that prepared, but I also live in a state that holds 11 military bases, most of which aren't that far from me, so I presume those would be main targets, and I wouldn't survive the first strike anyway. 

Problem solved.

[Zydar]

I'm not prepared at all. If someone decides to nuke Sweden, I'm toast anyway.

[Stadler]

I'm not prepared. 

When the pandemic started in 2020 I was so angry about the panic buying - I needed a box of diapers for my youngest and was pretty scared about how I couldn't even find one thing that I needed, just basic supplies for my family.  Lately, it seems like we have to grocery shop twice a week because my kids are so specific in what they will eat.  It's impossible to keep enough food in the house for more than a few days.  They'd have to make do with what we have on hand in that scenario.

We were talking about this last night at dinner, in a very different context.  My youngest stepson is very picky about food - textures matter; he LOVES french fries, won't touch mashed potatoes - and we have a running joke, paraphrased from Yellowstone:  "you're just not hungry enough".   I don't image that if a nuclear holocaust happens that I'd be eating roast pork with a cherry fig au jus, whipped garlic mashed potatoes and browned carrots in a lemon butter sauce.   Space is still an issue, of course, but I have a freezer in which there are staples for a couple weeks.  I don't do that for survival purposes, but just to have on hand in case we get company or the power goes out.  But still....

[TAC]

Space is still an issue, of course, but I have a freezer in which there are staples for a couple weeks.  I don't do that for survival purposes, but just to have on hand in case we get company or the power goes out.  But still....

I have two loaded freezers in my basement, but that's because my wife can't ignore a good sale.

[Stadler]

Have to admit, I'm a little bummed out no one got the "battries and lamps" reference.   In 1989, an earthquake hit San Fran during the World Series between Oakland and SF (two local teams, for those that don't know).   And in an interview, one of the Oakland players, Ricky Henderson gave an interview where he advised everyone to get "battries and lamps".  It was, in the midst of a horrible situation, kind of amusing. 

[El Barto]

I think people might be overestimating the damage caused by a missile delivered nuke, as well as the likelihood of their city eating one. The only reason to waste a warhead on Dallas would be retaliatory, and while that is a possibility, I suppose, it's probably not the most likely scenario. Moreover, unless they rain MIRVs down all around the Metroplex, most people would do alright.

The bigger issue is what King referred to as "the second die off" in the Stand, as well as a profound ignorance how to do things for themselves. Minor accidents that would typically be no problem can now cause lethal infections, for example. And how many people can survive off of the land. By way of example, Stadler mentioned living next to cattle farms. How many people could figure out how to kill and slaughter a steer without the internet to guide them?

[TAC]

Have to admit, I'm a little bummed out no one got the "battries and lamps" reference.   In 1989, an earthquake hit San Fran during the World Series between Oakland and SF (two local teams, for those that don't know).   And in an interview, one of the Oakland players, Ricky Henderson gave an interview where he advised everyone to get "battries and lamps".  It was, in the midst of a horrible situation, kind of amusing.

Huh. I've never heard that. I was in college, and while we did have a TV, I worked most nights and didn't really see a lot of the coverage.

[lonestar]

I think people might be overestimating the damage caused by a missile delivered nuke, as well as the likelihood of their city eating one. The only reason to waste a warhead on Dallas would be retaliatory, and while that is a possibility, I suppose, it's probably not the most likely scenario. Moreover, unless they rain MIRVs down all around the Metroplex, most people would do alright.

The bigger issue is what King referred to as "the second die off" in the Stand, as well as a profound ignorance how to do things for themselves. Minor accidents that would typically be no problem can now cause lethal infections, for example. And how many people can survive off of the land. By way of example, Stadler mentioned living next to cattle farms. How many people could figure out how to kill and slaughter a steer without the internet to guide them?

Yeah, cities eating onis highly unlikely, whereas both the locations near my work and home are very likely to eat one. Ames research is where they launch spy planes, I've seen them take off from there, and Lawrence labs is a no brainer with how much high end government research is done there.

[XJDenton]

[Harmony]

Ok now I've gone from being worried that my family is not prepared to being worried that NOBODY is prepared.   

I hear what people are saying about not wanting to live in the aftermath of a nuclear detonation (who does?) but does that mean if you actually survive the initial blast you would eat a bullet or something?  I'm not trying to be maudlin but some of us have children.  I'm not going to leave my kids alone by offing myself in the aftermath because my primary responsibility is to them first.  If I alone were to survive, I'd probably find a way to take myself out.

What Barto is referring to is a bigger issue that people should be aware of.  There will be no 911, no hospital, no urgent care to set that bone or stitch up that head wound.  Many people will suffer extreme burns and possibly blindness and deafness after a blast.  Buildings will collapse on top of people.  Nobody will be coming to help.  It is worthwhile to consider having some medical supplies on hand to tend to the people in your household.  When my step-father died on hospice he left 2 pretty gigantic jugs of liquid morphine.  I'm almost certain it is technically expired but I will hang onto those just in case.

For those of you talking about how much food you have in your freezer have you considered how long that food is good without electricity or how you will cook this food without electricity or gas?  We have some camping gear but that will only last so long.  We got rid of our charcoal BBQ in favor of our Traeger grill which will be rendered useless without power.  We do not have a generator.

I think for us, having enough water is a concern.  That is on my to-do list to stock some extra water and to go through my emergency supplies to replace and replenish expired items.

So question for those who know more about nuclear fallout.  Obviously the best place to shelter would be a basement but our home does not have one.  We have many windows and a skylight so being able to fully be away from windows would be nearly impossible.  We do have a small space under our house where we keep our wine cellar but it is not sealed or really temperature controlled in any way so I wouldn't believe it to be safe from fallout.  Plus there would be no access to bathroom, sink, etc from there without having to go outside.  I'm thinking staying put inside the house would be preferable, no?

What do people have in order to stay connected to information?  I'm looking at a solar powered/crank AM/FM radio that can charge my phone online right now.  I have no idea if these are good options or not.

[cramx3]

If we are talking nuclear war, just vaporize me in the blast.  I don't think I want to survive in such a world.  But I would not be prepared for such a scenario if I did survive the blast and we are facing nuclear war on home turf. 

If being prepped for a couple weeks home in the case of natural disaster, I think I'd survive. Considering I survived without power for 2 weeks from Hurricane Sandy, this seems like something I may be good for even though I'm not specifically prepared for such an event.