Active New Top (30 days) Compact Card What can we learn from the war in Ukraine? Conrad B - April 21, 2022 One of the main lessons I’ve seen so far is the need to reassess my bug out plan. There was a 6 mile (10km) long traffic jam of refugees fleeing to Poland. At what point do you abandon your vehicle and trek it on foot? Is going on foot any better? Another thought I had was having enough water, food, and fuel on hand. You don’t want to run out of food during the middle of an invasion and try to go through a war zone to buy groceries. My heart goes out to all those affected. Even to the Russian soldiers who may not like what they are doing but have to. Let’s learn from what is going on and prepare for the future. Read More 15 32 Meta Community portable water filtration systems Robert Clements - April 21, 2022 Hello, I am a member of my local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and we are looking to replace our portable emergency water filters. Does anyone have any recommendations for a company that produces portable, self-contained emergency water filter systems? Our CERT currently has an Emergency Potable Water Program where, if our local water supplier was unable to provide potable water to the community, we would step in and supply potable water through several distribution sites. The manufacturer of our current units (Global Pure Water) has gone out of business. Thank you for any thoughts. Bob Clements Milwaukie, Oregon Read More 9 6 Gear How to communicate with out of town family during a grid down situation? TheFuries - April 20, 2022 I need to resolve how my family will communicate with my parents and teenage sister who live three hours away should the grid go down. I’m not technical, so it’s not something I know where to start researching. But, my husband is technical enough to set systems up since it’s not my strength. If cell towers and land lines go down during hurricane season (common where we live in North FL), a possible Russian cyber attack (increasing likelihood given the current global situation), or EMP, how do you communicate with others from a distance? Having done humanitarian work with refugees in Italy and Ukraine, I know how to use blue tooth technology to communicate when cell towers aren’t available. We don’t have HAM radios and I imagine walkie talkies have a short range. But, if the electric is out entirely? For months? Are satellite phones dependable during an EMP situation (if stored in a faraday)? What are other options? I’d like to invest in this for all family households, totaling three families (my husband’s parents as well in Kentucky), so I’d like to not break the bank, but if I have to… This is one of those things that keeps me up at night as we have a toddler and are very close to our families. I’ve only found vague or shallow information on this issue. Nothing that breaks things down with clear directions. Many thanks in advance for your time! Read More 18 21 Advice A list of places where you can find TP other than the forum Gideon ParkerStaff - April 20, 2022 Hey folks, here are other places where you can follow or interact with us: /theprepared: Interesting, educational, and entertaining prepping related Reddit posts. Facebook and Twitter: Top articles and forum posts are shared throughout the week. If you want to have more real time conversations you can join our Slack group (leave a comment down below if you would like a private invitation to join), or Discord server. Thank you for being part of this community! Read More 8 2 Meta Creating a prepping team Unobtrusive - April 20, 2022 No man is an island and no one can succeed in a disaster alone. Mad Max, The Omega Man, I Am Legend, even The Road had guys going it alone against the post-apocalyptic hordes. But that’s not realistic. A truly prepared individual will surround themselves with like-minded others who have diverse skill sets. The question I have is how? How do we find these people? I’ve been looking. I’ve joined groups, I’ve been on other forums. I want to enlist the people in my community, but do so without coming on like a desperate weirdo or paranoid gun nut. Where do y’all go to find others? Read More 28 40 AdviceScenariosSkills Nuclear power plant failure…options? GracedChip - April 19, 2022 So I was perusing the beginner prepper guide and was thinking about things I should start with to better prepare me and my family for emergency situations. I live in Kentucky and happened to see the map for nuclear power plants and wondered about the fallout should the ‘world go dark’ scenario – government collapse etc. So what I was wondering was…how far could you live in a place near a nuclear powerplant and not have to worry about things like fallout or radiation poisoning in the water and air? At least not enough to have to move… I’ve included an image that shows the current location of nuclear power plants and the link (Global Map of Wind, Weather, and Ocean Conditions) to a website that shows the real-time wind/weather patterns (quite beautiful actually). I obviously don’t know much about nuclear power or what their procedure is should they need to power down but I imagine it wouldn’t be pretty if they had to be shut-off permanently? I do know that in the event of a power failure they recommend everything outside of a 100mile radius to evacuate. Any references would be greatly appreciated as I really enjoy a good research rabbit hole but a starting point does help. I guess I’m just not sure how much energy and resources should be spent in a place that would prove unlivable when nuclear power fails and starts affecting the environment. Read More 7 15 AdviceScenarios How would those who live in a city survive without trucks? Alisa Felix - April 18, 2022 While taking a business trip to Southern California I looked out the window and saw nothing but buildings, roads, and urban yuck as far as the eye could see. At any time, I was probably looking at a million or two people. The thought that crossed my mind is how are all these people supported? I didn’t see any farmland, no large bodies of water, and where was the power plants? It seems like the food, water, and even power was transported in. What if all that stopped? By looking at the pictures you can see a few small bodies of water or a few football fields or parks that could be turned into farmland. I still don’t see how the vast number of people I was looking at could have enough resources and survive though. It would require a mass exodus out of the city or a large portion of the population to die off. If you live in a city, it is even more important to store water, food, and fuel. And have a way to protect those resources because the hundreds of people around you who are not prepared will get pretty desperate. Read More 10 7 Scenarios “Reasonable” preparations for a nuclear conflict—picking a place to live… jgrif - April 17, 2022 Hey everyone. Brand new to the forum; really cool to find a site with such comprehensive resources for common sense preparedness. I’ve been working on some minor preparedness here and there since COVID started a couple of years ago. Events in Ukraine are now causing me to accelerate and take things to the next level. Specifically, and sadly, I am concerned that we have crossed a threshold where the prospect of a global nuclear conflict will be a real possibility for the foreseeable future. I have two young kids and am determined not to take a passive stance, leaving my family’s fate completely in the hands of the government. I’m also as yet unwilling to go the other extreme (living completely off-grid in a bunker). So I’m asking myself, is there a middle ground? I’ve started reading Nuclear War Survival Skills by Kearny. I’m finding that there are indeed actionable strategies that any sufficiently determined citizen can take. But the big question I’m grappling with right now is—do I want to relocate my family? Currently, we live in the southwest corner of the Denver metro. As I understand it, Colorado is a pretty target-rich environment for nuclear strikes. But that brings me to question number one: Does anyone know of any up-to-date resources available to the public that assess the risk of nuclear strikes by geography? I know that missile silos, air force bases, large civilian runways, etc would all likely be the first targets. Possibly major cities after that. But I’m wondering if any agency or individual has aggregated all these risk factors into one map. Based on my limited reading so far, it does seem that if one is located outside the primary blast radius, steps can be taken to sufficiently protect against fallout such that one could at least survive the initial strike and the following ~2-4 weeks of heavy fallout. So I’m trying to determine if there are places I’d actually be willing to live that might be far enough from the most likely targets. Has anyone researched this before? Curious what you’ve found? Read More 18 80 Advice Food storage/self reliance Azure639 - April 17, 2022 I applaud that you are advising (like the Red Cross) to have 2 weeks of shelf-stable food stored, however, it’s rare that disasters occur singly. There are always cascading effects. FEMA, quite quietly, advised a few years ago not to expect them to show up for a week (previously it was 3 days and that’s after state governor declares disaster). So a scenario might be that a disaster happens, then you have to self quarantine for 2 weeks. Or you lose a job and it takes a month or more to find a replacement. Professional searches have been known to go for months. So building your storage can and probably should be gradual, buying what you eat and eating what you buy. At the other end of the continuum are the Mormons (LDS church) who take it as part of their faith to prepare to survive for a year (or more) on stored items and have tools to plant during that year for the longer haul. I’d say 1 weeks worth of self reliance is a good start, but then extend the goal to a minimum of 3 weeks if you have the storage capacity. Shelter in place is often the best strategy for many disaster scenarios. Read More 9 8 Advice Mass shooting NYC Subway. Bombs found Bill Masen - April 14, 2022 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10711479/NYPD-searching-man-gas-mask-rush-hour-explosion-shooting.html No matter if its a criminal or a terrorist or a nut job, theres no way on earth I’m letting my wife fly to NYC for a shopping trip in July. Be it US, UK or EU cities are fast becoming no go areas. gunman wearing a gas mask and orange construction vest is on the run in Brooklyn after shooting at least 13 people on a packed subway station platform in Sunset Park during rush hour on Tuesday. At least five people are believed to be injured, with four said to be either shot or hit by shrapnel and another shot on the R train at the 36th Street station in Sunset Park. At around the same time, there were reports of an explosion nearby. It’s unclear where the gunman is now but NYPD units are hunting for him. An NYPD spokesman could only confirm that a shooting had taken place and that no one was in custody. Multiple undetonated devices have been found at the scene that the FDNY is now working to remove safely. ‘Originally, the call came in as smoke in the subway station. Upon arrival, officers found multiple people shot and undetonated devices. Read More 3 5 Free DIY: How to make small waterproof containers using plastic trash Gideon ParkerStaff - April 13, 2022 It’s great to store smaller bug out bag items in waterproof containers, like medication, tinder, or water purification tablets. In this post, I show how to DIY a free and quick method that recycles/upcycles the plastic bottles you’ll be throwing out anyway. When deciding what containers to upcycle, favor sturdier plastic with quality caps, like the too-expensive disposable water bottles. –A 16oz water bottle or old apple sauce container provides a large capacity inside the lid and a definable lip that can be cut across.– Next take a hacksaw or sharp kitchen knife and cut below the lid. If you need a slightly larger container, leaving a portion of the neck of the bottle will give some extra capacity. After that, sand down the rough plastic to create an even and smooth surface. You can even just rub it against some concrete. The nice thing about this project is that it does not need to be exact or perfect and further steps will make up for any imperfections. –Before and after sanding– Taking another piece of thin plastic that would have ended up in a landfill for the next 500 years, trace around the lid and cut out the little circle, this will form the base of the container. –-I cut out clear plastic circles (which is why they are hard to see in the picture) so I could see inside of the container, but you can go with colored plastic if you want.– Run a thick bead of hot glue or super glue around the rim of the lid and press on the plastic circle. Hot glue is nice because the thickness of the glue fills any imperfections between the sanded portion of the container and the plastic circle base. Any excess that comes out of the side can be wiped or scraped off. Possible uses: The container made out of the large apple sauce bottle can store three large cotton balls that can be coated in vaseline for an excellent tinder source. Learn more about how to make these by reading this post by forum member Jay Valencia. Using one of those slim and more eco-friendly water bottle lids, I created a small container that can hold red pepper flakes for spicing up food. On the right is a container made from a full sized lid that is able to hold four ibuprofen liquid gel capsules, perfect for throwing in a pocket or purse. By combining two wide mouth Gatorade bottle lids, a larger container can be made. Or you can place one of those plastic circles in between the two halves and make a container on either end. Perhaps one side is your medicine in the morning and the other end is for the evening. By screwing a waterproof container on the end of a Sawyer Mini or Hydroblu Versa, top rated in the Best portable survival water filters article, you will protect the protruding tubes on either end that can be damaged if dropped and also stop any leaking of the filter inside your bag after use. Read More 11 2 Gear Inflation preparedness Calvin - April 12, 2022 Alternatives to the US dollar (eg gold, bitcoin) are frequently discussed as insurance against inflation. But are there other steps one should be taking to prepare? Should a renter try to become a homeowner? What storable goods are likely to become expensive? What storable (yet necessary) goods are likely to become scarce? Read More 17 16 Scenarios Do I need more than a whole house generator? jaybee - April 12, 2022 I have a natural gas line into my home and a 22kw whole house generator that automatically kicks on when the electricity goes out. It can easily power everything in my home, including my gas furnace (necessity) and my whole house a/c (a nice luxury during a summer outage). The primary worries in my area are winter storms and high-wind storms (including tornados, although I don’t live in “tornado alley.”) My question: “redundancy” seems to be a key concept in prepping, and I’m beginning to wonder if over-reliance on my generator for heat and electricity is wise. Thoughts? Read More 9 16 AdviceScenarios Sunflower oil: UK bottler has a few weeks’ supply left Bill Masen - April 12, 2022 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60941091 The biggest cooking oil bottler for UK shops has said it only has a few weeks’ supply of sunflower oil left.Ukraine and Russia produce most of the world’s sunflower oil and the war is disrupting exports, said Edible Oils.The company, which packages oil for 75% of the UK retail market, is ramping up supplies of other oils for shoppers.Meanwhile, manufacturers of foods that contain sunflower oil, like crisps, oven chips and cereal bars, are reworking their recipes.The Food Standards Agency has advised people with allergies to look out for extra information from shops and food makers.Kim Matthews, commercial director at Edible Oils said 80% of the global supply of sunflower oil comes out of Russia and Ukraine.”So obviously, with everything going on out there, we physically can’t get sunflower to be coming out of the country,” he said. If you buy any cooking oil on the supermarket shelves, chances are it has come from the Edible Oils plant in Erith, on the outskirts of south-east London. It bottles oil for brands and retailers own label products.”From a UK consumer perspective, sunflower oil is the biggest oil. It’s used more than anything else,” said Mr Matthews.”It’s a fast moving situation. We’re still trying to see if we can get some more but it’s looking very tight.”Edible Oils Ltd has upped production to 24/7 to try to make sure it has plenty of rapeseed and other oils to put on the shelves when the sunflower oil goes.”Sunflower is great because you can cook at high temperatures. Rapeseed is very similar. You can do exactly the same with it,” he said.But it was far from clear when sunflower oil supplies will be back to normal, he said.”At the moment, Ukrainian farmers should be sowing the seeds now for the harvest in October and November.”Clearly that’s not going to happen… we’re probably going to miss the season so we could be impacted for 12-18 months.” Read More 7 12 News You can never stock too much _________ rebecca - April 12, 2022 What are some things you can never have too much of? Read More 9 11 Scenarios The Guardian profiles international go-bags atlanticrando - April 6, 2022 “Your life is under threat. You might have to run any second. What do you take?” – The Guardian I thought folks here might find this to be of interest. The piece highlights the diverse and rational needs for personal preparedness that are not at all the apocalyptic or paranoid variety. While only a few of these kits would be The Prepared-approved for their thoroughness, most of the bags reflect some preparedness staples: important documents, communications, medicine, hygiene, and family care. I think it shows some interesting perspectives and that a go-bag is not a one-size-all solution: people do have distinctly different needs, priorities, and scenarios depending on their circumstances and personal values. A complete 30-50lb kit is not going to be achievable or useful in a lot of circumstances, especially for those living in high density urban environments for whom mobility is most important. Read More 8 8 News Using a vintage hot water bottle to stay warm and lower your energy bill Alisa Felix - April 6, 2022 I’ve seen many news articles and posts on the forum here about rising energy costs and rightfully so, it is discouraging. Following the example of brownfox-ff from the weekly news roundups, I would like to share an idea to help. Take action rather then be reacted upon. I don’t thank brownfox-ff enough but I do read their weekly uplifting support and try and work on one or two that week. The past few months have been cold, especially at night. Instead of turning to the thermostat and clicking it up a few degrees to solve the issue I have been thinking of ways I can overcome my trial in a different way. Tip #1 One of the big solutions that has helped is to move my couch and computer desk in front of windows so that when I am just sitting there, the warmth of the sun heats me up. Tip #2 I’ve been wearing more clothing lately. It involves putting on another shirt or a jacket when just around the house during the day. At night I put on a hoodie, a beanie, and an extra blanket on top of my pajamas to keep the warmth in more. Tip #3 When I just can’t seem to get warm from the above steps, I go to my secret top tip of using a hot water bottle to snuggle up to. These have been around for years and years but I’ve seen them fall out of fashion. Here’s a classic red one on Amazon for $6. The one I have is blue and has a comfortable outer sleeve to reduce the heat against bare skin. If you don’t have one with a sleeve you can sew one up yourself or just wrap a dish towel around it. All this costs me is the energy that it takes to boil two electric kettles of water and then I have hot water for the entire 9 hours I sleep. I wake up and the bottle is still warm! I bought this as a way to stay warm without having to rely on a fireplace or furnace and couldn’t be happier. It’s a nice little preparedness item that you should consider. Even if all the stuff hits the fan, we can probably boil some water over a fire. Thank you all for reading. Read More 15 6 Gear Battery best practices Jon StokesStaff - April 6, 2022 One of the main recommendations we make in our guide to rechargeable batteries, is that people should quit using alkalines and transition entirely to rechargeables. We have a couple good reasons for this that I wont’ get into, here (read the guide!) But here’s the thing: I’m not actually doing this, and I’m the one who wrote the recommendations. The reason I find myself unable to do this, is that the rechargeables are expensive, so I don’t want them to go into random kid toys and the like where they’re liable to get lost or thrown away. I hoard those things like the costly little gadgets they are. This means I end up buying alkaline batteries for kid toys and throwaway stuff, and since I have those on-hand I just use them for everything else, too. So my stash of NiMH batteries sits mostly in special box with my chargers and other battery-related equipment. I suspect I’m not alone in this approach, and that very few preppers are actually moving to NiMH in all daily-life use — despite the theoretical reasons why it’s a good idea. On this basis, then, I’m thinking of changing the battery guide language to reflect reality. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Have others made the jump to all-rechargeables? Or should I go ahead and concede that people will stick with alkaline, and then focus on storing the NiMH for emergencies? Read More 21 19 Book Review: Emotional First Aid brownfox-ffContributor - April 6, 2022 (image credit: Nick Fewings on Unsplash) “Emotional First Aid” by Guy Winch is a handbook of practical exercises for healing and recovering from mental and emotional injuries, and building better emotional resilience. Winch is a clinical psychologist who has spent decades distilling the latest research into practical steps and exercises for his patients. He found himself repeating the same advice over and over. So he compiled it into a book. The book covers seven of the most common emotional injuries that people experience in everyday life: rejection, loneliness, loss, guilt, rumination, failure, and low self esteem. Winch describes the issues, how they can affect us, and also provides a plan with steps to tackle each type of injury. Each chapter is split into two parts: first describing the psychological wounds that each type of injury inflicts, especially symptoms or behaviour that may be hard to recognize. Then the second part outlines treatments and steps you can use to work at healing. Winch provides multiple different options and “dosage” guidelines – of various types and intensity – so it’s easy to use the techniques that work for you. He also provides advice on when to seek professional help. Part of Winch’s motivation for writing this book was to raise awareness of emotional health, and give people a better “first line of defense” for handling and healing emotional injuries. His analogy is right in the title – just as we have a medicine cabinet and first aid kit for first-line dealing with physical injuries, we can also benefit from creating a basic toolkit for dealing with psychological or emotional injuries. “Many of the diagnosable psychological conditions where we would seek professional help could be prevented or healed if we applied ‘emotional first aid’ to our wounds when we first sustained them”. Winch notes that it is often easier to recognize when a physical wound needs more treatment – e.g. recognizing a minor cut vs a wound that needs stitches. It is more difficult to recognize emotional wounds, so we are more likely to neglect them until they get more serious. “We would never leave a cut on our knee unattended until it compromised our ability to walk. But we leave psychological wounds unattended all the time, even until they literally prevent us from moving forward in life”. To help with framing and recognizing the different types of emotional wound, Winch compares each of them to a corresponding physical injury. For example: rejection is compared to “the emotional cuts and scrapes of everyday life”; while loss and trauma are like “walking on broken bones” and guilt is “poison in our system”. This helps to frame the treatments by keeping the physical analogy in mind. The steps in each chapter are practical and approachable. For example, to fight back against self criticism and build self-esteem, he advises exercises like: List or write out negative or self critical thoughts that you have Then build counterarguments to each of the criticisms Refer back to the counter arguments whenever you feel overwhelmed The book is littered with examples from (anonymized) patients and their steps to improvement, to show that it really can work. And it is all backed with references to more than 250 peer-reviewed scientific studies. “Emotional First Aid” feels useful to have as a reference, especially in a remote or austere environment. Winch directly notes that his book should not be a replacement for professional help for serious emotional or psychological injuries. However, he also notes that seeking professional help may not always be practical or possible. “Emotional First Aid” is quite accessible and clearly written; it should be usable by anyone. Read More 13 7 1 gal water containers for storage RaspberryJ - April 5, 2022 I’m new to prepping, and I’m working on water storage. My sister and I live alone together, and we aren’t particularly strong, so we want to store a portion of the water in 1 gal containers. Those will be easier for us to carry and use, especially for short-term emergencies when we might not even need to break into our 5 gal containers. From reading The Prepared, I understand that we shouldn’t use cheap plastic containers like milk cartons or soda bottles. Would a beverage cooler like this one be appropriate? https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-1-Gallon-Beverage-Cooler-Jug-Blue/23787717? My concern is that it might not seal securely enough for long term storage. If this won’t work, can anyone suggest an alternative 1 gal container? Thanks in advance! Read More 9 8 AdviceGear Including Naloxone in EDC or IFAK Colorado Jones - April 5, 2022 Naloxone is new to me but has been featured in several TV news clips in my area over the past month. Basically, its a drug that by-standers can administer to somebody overdosing on opioids which will potentially save the person’s life. https://www.cdc.gov/stopoverdose/naloxone/index.html Wondering if others living and working in busy urban areas keep this on hand as part of their EDC preps. Read More 8 15 Gear Some very interesting assorted YT vids closely associated with Prepping Bill Masen - April 3, 2022 https://www.youtube.com/c/PracticalpreppersLLC Read More 6 4 Coleman kerosene pressure lanterns available again! Waldog - April 3, 2022 Coleman kerosene lanterns are available again. They only make these sporadically and haven’t been available for quite a while. Buy from Coleman direct for $119 and free shipping. I highly recommend these lanterns. They are among the brightest lanterns Coleman ever made. Coleman bumped the price to $129 since I first posted this. Still a good deal. https://www.coleman.com/lighting/lanterns/kerosene-lantern/SAP_3000004258.html Read More 8 0 Gear Storing 1 lb. propane cylinders Seasons4 - April 1, 2022 Over the summer, I bought a camp stove and a couple of 1 lb. propane cylinders. I also bought a couple of the small propane/butane backpacking stove containers. I’m trying to figure out where to store them over the winter. From a quick Internet search, it looks like they should be stored outdoors year round, and I don’t have to worry about them freezing in my cold climate. I live in a condo with no garage. There is an uninsulated storage shed attached to the condo. While it’s not detached from the living space, it seems like this would be my best option. Do you agree? Maybe store the cylinders upright inside a storage cooler (the kind for storing food during a camping trip)? Or? Thank you. Read More 17 51 < Prev 1 2 3 … 24 25 26 … 59 60 61 Next > Recently Active News for the Week 2025-3-31 - 3 days agoNews for the Week 2025-3-24 - 1 week agoNews for the Week 2025-3-17 - 2 weeks agoNews for the Week 2025-3-10 - 3 weeks agoNews for the Week 2025-3-3 - 1 month ago RULES This forum is heavily moderated to keep things valuable to as many people as possible. Full community policies are here. The basics: 1. Be nice to each other. 2. Stay focused on prepping. 3. Avoid politics, religion, and other arguments. 4. No unfounded conspiracies, fake news, etc. 5. Debate ideas, not people. FILTER Show all Advice Gear Meta News Scenarios Skills

What can we learn from the war in Ukraine?

Conrad B - April 21, 2022

One of the main lessons I’ve seen so far is the need to reassess my bug out plan. There was a 6 mile (10km) long traffic jam of refugees fleeing to Poland.

At what point do you abandon your vehicle and trek it on foot? Is going on foot any better?

Another thought I had was having enough water, food, and fuel on hand. You don’t want to run out of food during the middle of an invasion and try to go through a war zone to buy groceries. 

My heart goes out to all those affected. Even to the Russian soldiers who may not like what they are doing but have to.

Let’s learn from what is going on and prepare for the future.

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Community portable water filtration systems

Robert Clements - April 21, 2022

Hello,

I am a member of my local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and we are looking to replace our portable emergency water filters.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a company that produces portable, self-contained emergency water filter systems?

Our CERT currently has an Emergency Potable Water Program where, if our local water supplier was unable to provide potable water to the community, we would step in and supply potable water through several distribution sites.

The manufacturer of our current units (Global Pure Water) has gone out of business.

Thank you for any thoughts.

Bob Clements

Milwaukie, Oregon

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How to communicate with out of town family during a grid down situation?

TheFuries - April 20, 2022

I need to resolve how my family will communicate with my parents and teenage sister who live three hours away should the grid go down. I’m not technical, so it’s not something I know where to start researching. But, my husband is technical enough to set systems up since it’s not my strength.

If cell towers and land lines go down during hurricane season (common where we live in North FL), a possible Russian cyber attack (increasing likelihood given the current global situation), or EMP, how do you communicate with others from a distance?

Having done humanitarian work with refugees in Italy and Ukraine, I know how to use blue tooth technology to communicate when cell towers aren’t available. We don’t have HAM radios and I imagine walkie talkies have a short range. But, if the electric is out entirely? For months?

Are satellite phones dependable during an EMP situation (if stored in a faraday)? What are other options? I’d like to invest in this for all family households, totaling three families (my husband’s parents as well in Kentucky), so I’d like to not break the bank, but if I have to…

This is one of those things that keeps me up at night as we have a toddler and are very close to our families. I’ve only found vague or shallow information on this issue. Nothing that breaks things down with clear directions.

Many thanks in advance for your time!

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A list of places where you can find TP other than the forum

Gideon ParkerStaff - April 20, 2022

Hey folks, here are other places where you can follow or interact with us:

/theprepared: Interesting, educational, and entertaining prepping related Reddit posts. Facebook and Twitter: Top articles and forum posts are shared throughout the week. If you want to have more real time conversations you can join our Slack group (leave a comment down below if you would like a private invitation to join), or Discord server.

Thank you for being part of this community!

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Creating a prepping team

Unobtrusive - April 20, 2022

No man is an island and no one can succeed in a disaster alone. Mad Max, The Omega Man, I Am Legend, even The Road had guys going it alone against the post-apocalyptic hordes. But that’s not realistic. A truly prepared individual will surround themselves with like-minded others who have diverse skill sets.

The question I have is how? How do we find these people? I’ve been looking. I’ve joined groups, I’ve been on other forums. I want to enlist the people in my community,  but do so without coming on like a desperate weirdo or paranoid gun nut.

Where do y’all go to find others?

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Nuclear power plant failure…options?

GracedChip - April 19, 2022

   So I was perusing the beginner prepper guide and was thinking about things I should start with to better prepare me and my family for emergency situations. I live in Kentucky and happened to see the map for nuclear power plants and wondered about the fallout should the ‘world go dark’ scenario – government collapse etc. So what I was wondering was…how far could you live in a place near a nuclear powerplant and not have to worry about things like fallout or radiation poisoning in the water and air? At least not enough to have to move…    I’ve included an image that shows the current location of nuclear power plants and the link (Global Map of Wind, Weather, and Ocean Conditions) to a website that shows the real-time wind/weather patterns (quite beautiful actually).   I obviously don’t know much about nuclear power or what their procedure is should they need to power down but I imagine it wouldn’t be pretty if they had to be shut-off permanently? I do know that in the event of a power failure they recommend everything outside of a 100mile radius to evacuate. Any references would be greatly appreciated as I really enjoy a good research rabbit hole but a starting point does help.   I guess I’m just not sure how much energy and resources should be spent in a place that would prove unlivable when nuclear power fails and starts affecting the environment.

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How would those who live in a city survive without trucks?

Alisa Felix - April 18, 2022

While taking a business trip to Southern California I looked out the window and saw nothing but buildings, roads, and urban yuck as far as the eye could see.

At any time, I was probably looking at a million or two people. The thought that crossed my mind is how are all these people supported? I didn’t see any farmland, no large bodies of water, and where was the power plants? It seems like the food, water, and even power was transported in. What if all that stopped? By looking at the pictures you can see a few small bodies of water or a few football fields or parks that could be turned into farmland. I still don’t see how the vast number of people I was looking at could have enough resources and survive though. It would require a mass exodus out of the city or a large portion of the population to die off.

If you live in a city, it is even more important to store water, food, and fuel. And have a way to protect those resources because the hundreds of people around you who are not prepared will get pretty desperate.

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Scenarios

“Reasonable” preparations for a nuclear conflict—picking a place to live…

jgrif - April 17, 2022

Hey everyone. Brand new to the forum; really cool to find a site with such comprehensive resources for common sense preparedness.

I’ve been working on some minor preparedness here and there since COVID started a couple of years ago. Events in Ukraine are now causing me to accelerate and take things to the next level. Specifically, and sadly, I am concerned that we have crossed a threshold where the prospect of a global nuclear conflict will be a real possibility for the foreseeable future.

I have two young kids and am determined not to take a passive stance, leaving my family’s fate completely in the hands of the government. I’m also as yet unwilling to go the other extreme (living completely off-grid in a bunker). So I’m asking myself, is there a middle ground?

I’ve started reading Nuclear War Survival Skills by Kearny. I’m finding that there are indeed actionable strategies that any sufficiently determined citizen can take. But the big question I’m grappling with right now is—do I want to relocate my family?

Currently, we live in the southwest corner of the Denver metro. As I understand it, Colorado is a pretty target-rich environment for nuclear strikes. But that brings me to question number one:

Does anyone know of any up-to-date resources available to the public that assess the risk of nuclear strikes by geography? I know that missile silos, air force bases, large civilian runways, etc would all likely be the first targets. Possibly major cities after that. But I’m wondering if any agency or individual has aggregated all these risk factors into one map.

Based on my limited reading so far, it does seem that if one is located outside the primary blast radius, steps can be taken to sufficiently protect against fallout such that one could at least survive the initial strike and the following ~2-4 weeks of heavy fallout. So I’m trying to determine if there are places I’d actually be willing to live that might be far enough from the most likely targets.

Has anyone researched this before? Curious what you’ve found?

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Advice

Food storage/self reliance

Azure639 - April 17, 2022

I applaud that you are advising (like the Red Cross) to have 2 weeks of shelf-stable food stored, however, it’s rare that disasters occur singly. There are always cascading effects. FEMA, quite quietly, advised a few years ago not to expect them to show up for a week (previously it was 3 days and that’s after state governor declares disaster). So a scenario might be that a disaster happens, then you have to self quarantine for 2 weeks. Or you lose a job and it takes a month or more to find a replacement. Professional searches have been known to go for months.

So building your storage can and probably should be gradual, buying what you eat and eating what you buy.

At the other end of the continuum are the Mormons (LDS church) who take it as part of their faith to prepare to survive for a year (or more) on stored items and have tools to plant during that year for the longer haul.

I’d say 1 weeks worth of self reliance is a good start, but then extend the goal to a minimum of 3 weeks if you have the storage capacity. Shelter in place is often the best strategy for many disaster scenarios.

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Advice

Mass shooting NYC Subway. Bombs found

Bill Masen - April 14, 2022

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10711479/NYPD-searching-man-gas-mask-rush-hour-explosion-shooting.html

No matter if its a criminal or a terrorist or a nut job, theres no way on earth I’m letting my wife fly to NYC for a shopping trip in July.   Be it US, UK or EU cities are fast becoming no go areas.

gunman wearing a gas mask and orange construction vest is on the run in Brooklyn after shooting at least 13  people on a packed subway station platform in Sunset Park during rush hour on Tuesday.  

At least five people are believed to be injured, with four said to be either shot or hit by shrapnel and another shot on the R train at the 36th Street station in Sunset Park. 

At around the same time, there were reports of an explosion nearby. It’s unclear where the gunman is now but NYPD units are hunting for him. 

An NYPD spokesman could only confirm that a shooting had taken place and that no one was in custody. 

Multiple undetonated devices have been found at the scene that the FDNY is now working to remove safely. 

‘Originally, the call came in as smoke in the subway station. Upon arrival, officers found multiple people shot and undetonated devices.  

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Free DIY: How to make small waterproof containers using plastic trash

Gideon ParkerStaff - April 13, 2022

It’s great to store smaller bug out bag items in waterproof containers, like medication, tinder, or water purification tablets. In this post, I show how to DIY a free and quick method that recycles/upcycles the plastic bottles you’ll be throwing out anyway. 

When deciding what containers to upcycle, favor sturdier plastic with quality caps, like the too-expensive disposable water bottles.

–A 16oz water bottle or old apple sauce container provides a large capacity inside the lid and a definable lip that can be cut across.–

Next take a hacksaw or sharp kitchen knife and cut below the lid. If you need a slightly larger container, leaving a portion of the neck of the bottle will give some extra capacity. After that, sand down the rough plastic to create an even and smooth surface. You can even just rub it against some concrete. The nice thing about this project is that it does not need to be exact or perfect and further steps will make up for any imperfections.

–Before and after sanding–

Taking another piece of thin plastic that would have ended up in a landfill for the next 500 years, trace around the lid and cut out the little circle, this will form the base of the container.

–-I cut out clear plastic circles (which is why they are hard to see in the picture) so I could see inside of the container, but you can go with colored plastic if you want.–

Run a thick bead of hot glue or super glue around the rim of the lid and press on the plastic circle. Hot glue is nice because the thickness of the glue fills any imperfections between the sanded portion of the container and the plastic circle base. Any excess that comes out of the side can be wiped or scraped off.

Possible uses:

The container made out of the large apple sauce bottle can store three large cotton balls that can be coated in vaseline for an excellent tinder source.

Learn more about how to make these by reading this post by forum member Jay Valencia.

Using one of those slim and more eco-friendly water bottle lids, I created a small container that can hold red pepper flakes for spicing up food. On the right is a container made from a full sized lid that is able to hold four ibuprofen liquid gel capsules, perfect for throwing in a pocket or purse.

By combining two wide mouth Gatorade bottle lids, a larger container can be made. Or you can place one of those plastic circles in between the two halves and make a container on either end. Perhaps one side is your medicine in the morning and the other end is for the evening.

By screwing a waterproof container on the end of a Sawyer Mini or Hydroblu Versa, top rated in the Best portable survival water filters article, you will protect the protruding tubes on either end that can be damaged if dropped and also stop any leaking of the filter inside your bag after use.

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Gear

Inflation preparedness

Calvin - April 12, 2022

Alternatives to the US dollar (eg gold, bitcoin) are frequently discussed as insurance against inflation. But are there other steps one should be taking to prepare? Should a renter try to become a homeowner? What storable goods are likely to become expensive? What storable (yet necessary) goods are likely to become scarce?

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Scenarios

Do I need more than a whole house generator?

jaybee - April 12, 2022

I have a natural gas line into my home and a 22kw whole house generator that automatically kicks on when the electricity goes out. It can easily power everything in my home, including my gas furnace (necessity) and my whole house a/c (a nice luxury during a summer outage).  The primary worries in my area are winter storms and high-wind storms (including tornados, although I don’t live in “tornado alley.”) My question: “redundancy” seems to be a key concept in prepping, and I’m beginning to wonder if over-reliance on my generator for heat and electricity is wise. Thoughts?

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AdviceScenarios

Sunflower oil: UK bottler has a few weeks’ supply left

Bill Masen - April 12, 2022

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60941091

The biggest cooking oil bottler for UK shops has said it only has a few weeks’ supply of sunflower oil left.Ukraine and Russia produce most of the world’s sunflower oil and the war is disrupting exports, said Edible Oils.The company, which packages oil for 75% of the UK retail market, is ramping up supplies of other oils for shoppers.Meanwhile, manufacturers of foods that contain sunflower oil, like crisps, oven chips and cereal bars, are reworking their recipes.The Food Standards Agency has advised people with allergies to look out for extra information from shops and food makers.Kim Matthews, commercial director at Edible Oils said 80% of the global supply of sunflower oil comes out of Russia and Ukraine.”So obviously, with everything going on out there, we physically can’t get sunflower to be coming out of the country,” he said.

If you buy any cooking oil on the supermarket shelves, chances are it has come from the Edible Oils plant in Erith, on the outskirts of south-east London. It bottles oil for brands and retailers own label products.”From a UK consumer perspective, sunflower oil is the biggest oil. It’s used more than anything else,” said Mr Matthews.”It’s a fast moving situation. We’re still trying to see if we can get some more but it’s looking very tight.”Edible Oils Ltd has upped production to 24/7 to try to make sure it has plenty of rapeseed and other oils to put on the shelves when the sunflower oil goes.”Sunflower is great because you can cook at high temperatures. Rapeseed is very similar. You can do exactly the same with it,” he said.But it was far from clear when sunflower oil supplies will be back to normal, he said.”At the moment, Ukrainian farmers should be sowing the seeds now for the harvest in October and November.”Clearly that’s not going to happen… we’re probably going to miss the season so we could be impacted for 12-18 months.”

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News

You can never stock too much _________

rebecca - April 12, 2022

What are some things you can never have too much of?

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Scenarios

The Guardian profiles international go-bags

atlanticrando - April 6, 2022

“Your life is under threat. You might have to run any second. What do you take?” – The Guardian

I thought folks here might find this to be of interest. The piece highlights the diverse and rational needs for personal preparedness that are not at all the apocalyptic or paranoid variety.

While only a few of these kits would be The Prepared-approved for their thoroughness, most of the bags reflect some preparedness staples: important documents, communications, medicine, hygiene, and family care. I think it shows some interesting perspectives and that a go-bag is not a one-size-all solution: people do have distinctly different needs, priorities, and scenarios depending on their circumstances and personal values. A complete 30-50lb kit is not going to be achievable or useful in a lot of circumstances, especially for those living in high density urban environments for whom mobility is most important.

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News

Using a vintage hot water bottle to stay warm and lower your energy bill

Alisa Felix - April 6, 2022

I’ve seen many news articles and posts on the forum here about rising energy costs and rightfully so, it is discouraging.

Following the example of brownfox-ff from the weekly news roundups, I would like to share an idea to help. Take action rather then be reacted upon. I don’t thank brownfox-ff enough but I do read their weekly uplifting support and try and work on one or two that week.

The past few months have been cold, especially at night. Instead of turning to the thermostat and clicking it up a few degrees to solve the issue I have been thinking of ways I can overcome my trial in a different way.

Tip #1 One of the big solutions that has helped is to move my couch and computer desk in front of windows so that when I am just sitting there, the warmth of the sun heats me up.

Tip #2 I’ve been wearing more clothing lately. It involves putting on another shirt or a jacket when just around the house during the day. At night I put on a hoodie, a beanie, and an extra blanket on top of my pajamas to keep the warmth in more.

Tip #3 When I just can’t seem to get warm from the above steps, I go to my secret top tip of using a hot water bottle to snuggle up to. These have been around for years and years but I’ve seen them fall out of fashion. Here’s a classic red one on Amazon for $6. The one I have is blue and has a comfortable outer sleeve to reduce the heat against bare skin.

If you don’t have one with a sleeve you can sew one up yourself or just wrap a dish towel around it. All this costs me is the energy that it takes to boil two electric kettles of water and then I have hot water for the entire 9 hours I sleep. I wake up and the bottle is still warm!

I bought this as a way to stay warm without having to rely on a fireplace or furnace and couldn’t be happier. It’s a nice little preparedness item that you should consider. Even if all the stuff hits the fan, we can probably boil some water over a fire.

Thank you all for reading.

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Gear

Battery best practices

Jon StokesStaff - April 6, 2022

One of the main recommendations we make in our guide to rechargeable batteries, is that people should quit using alkalines and transition entirely to rechargeables. We have a couple good reasons for this that I wont’ get into, here (read the guide!) 

But here’s the thing: I’m not actually doing this, and I’m the one who wrote the recommendations. 

The reason I find myself unable to do this, is that the rechargeables are expensive, so I don’t want them to go into random kid toys and the like where they’re liable to get lost or thrown away. I hoard those things like the costly little gadgets they are. This means I end up buying alkaline batteries for kid toys and throwaway stuff, and since I have those on-hand I just use them for everything else, too.

So my stash of NiMH batteries sits mostly in special box with my chargers and other battery-related equipment.

I suspect I’m not alone in this approach, and that very few preppers are actually moving to NiMH in all daily-life use — despite the theoretical reasons why it’s a good idea. On this basis, then, I’m thinking of changing the battery guide language to reflect reality.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Have others made the jump to all-rechargeables? Or should I go ahead and concede that people will stick with alkaline, and then focus on storing the NiMH for emergencies?

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Book Review: Emotional First Aid

brownfox-ffContributor - April 6, 2022

(image credit: Nick Fewings on Unsplash)

“Emotional First Aid” by Guy Winch is a handbook of practical exercises for healing and recovering from mental and emotional injuries, and building better emotional resilience.

Winch is a clinical psychologist who has spent decades distilling the latest research into practical steps and exercises for his patients. He found himself repeating the same advice over and over. So he compiled it into a book.

The book covers seven of the most common emotional injuries that people experience in everyday life: rejection, loneliness, loss, guilt, rumination, failure, and low self esteem. Winch describes the issues, how they can affect us, and also provides a plan with steps to tackle each type of injury.

Each chapter is split into two parts: first describing the psychological wounds that each type of injury inflicts, especially symptoms or behaviour that may be hard to recognize. Then the second part outlines treatments and steps you can use to work at healing. Winch provides multiple different options and “dosage” guidelines – of various types and intensity – so it’s easy to use the techniques that work for you. He also provides advice on when to seek professional help.

Part of Winch’s motivation for writing this book was to raise awareness of emotional health, and give people a better “first line of defense” for handling and healing emotional injuries. His analogy is right in the title – just as we have a medicine cabinet and first aid kit for first-line dealing with physical injuries, we can also benefit from creating a basic toolkit for dealing with psychological or emotional injuries. “Many of the diagnosable psychological conditions where we would seek professional help could be prevented or healed if we applied ‘emotional first aid’ to our wounds when we first sustained them”.

Winch notes that it is often easier to recognize when a physical wound needs more treatment – e.g. recognizing a minor cut vs a wound that needs stitches. It is more difficult to recognize emotional wounds, so we are more likely to neglect them until they get more serious. “We would never leave a cut on our knee unattended until it compromised our ability to walk. But we leave psychological wounds unattended all the time, even until they literally prevent us from moving forward in life”.

To help with framing and recognizing the different types of emotional wound, Winch compares each of them to a corresponding physical injury. For example:  rejection is compared to “the emotional cuts and scrapes of everyday life”; while loss and trauma are like “walking on broken bones” and guilt is “poison in our system”. This helps to frame the treatments by keeping the physical analogy in mind.

The steps in each chapter are practical and approachable. For example, to fight back against self criticism and build self-esteem, he advises exercises like:

List or write out negative or self critical thoughts that you have Then build counterarguments to each of the criticisms Refer back to the counter arguments whenever you feel overwhelmed

The book is littered with examples from (anonymized) patients and their steps to improvement, to show that it really can work. And it is all backed with references to more than 250 peer-reviewed scientific studies.

“Emotional First Aid” feels useful to have as a reference, especially in a remote or austere environment. Winch directly notes that his book should not be a replacement for professional help for serious emotional or psychological injuries. However, he also notes that seeking professional help may not always be practical or possible. “Emotional First Aid” is quite accessible and clearly written; it should be usable by anyone.

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1 gal water containers for storage

RaspberryJ - April 5, 2022

I’m new to prepping, and I’m working on water storage. My sister and I live alone together, and we aren’t particularly strong, so we want to store a portion of the water in 1 gal containers. Those will be easier for us to carry and use, especially for short-term emergencies when we might not even need to break into our 5 gal containers.

From reading The Prepared, I understand that we shouldn’t use cheap plastic containers like milk cartons or soda bottles. Would a beverage cooler like this one be appropriate? https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-1-Gallon-Beverage-Cooler-Jug-Blue/23787717? My concern is that it might not seal securely enough for long term storage.

If this won’t work, can anyone suggest an alternative 1 gal container? Thanks in advance!

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AdviceGear

Including Naloxone in EDC or IFAK

Colorado Jones - April 5, 2022

Naloxone is new to me but has been featured in several TV news clips in my area over the past month.  Basically, its a drug that by-standers can administer to somebody overdosing on opioids which will potentially save the person’s life.

https://www.cdc.gov/stopoverdose/naloxone/index.html

Wondering if others living and working in busy urban areas keep this on hand as part of their EDC preps.

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Gear

Some very interesting assorted YT vids closely associated with Prepping

Bill Masen - April 3, 2022

https://www.youtube.com/c/PracticalpreppersLLC

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Coleman kerosene pressure lanterns available again!

Waldog - April 3, 2022

Coleman kerosene lanterns are available again.  They only make these sporadically and haven’t been available for quite a while.  Buy from Coleman direct for $119 and free shipping.  I highly recommend these lanterns.  They are among the brightest lanterns Coleman ever made.   Coleman bumped the price to $129 since I first posted this.  Still a good deal.

https://www.coleman.com/lighting/lanterns/kerosene-lantern/SAP_3000004258.html

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Gear

Storing 1 lb. propane cylinders

Seasons4 - April 1, 2022

Over the summer, I bought a camp stove and a couple of 1 lb. propane cylinders. I also bought a couple of the small propane/butane backpacking stove containers. I’m trying to figure out where to store them over the winter. From a quick Internet search, it looks like they should be stored outdoors year round, and I don’t have to worry about them freezing in my cold climate. 

I live in a condo with no garage. There is an uninsulated storage shed attached to the condo. While it’s not detached from the living space, it seems like this would be my best option. Do you agree? Maybe store the cylinders upright inside a storage cooler (the kind for storing food during a camping trip)? Or? Thank you.

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