Emergency Preparedness

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obbop

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Tornadoes, hurricanes, flood, famine, alien invasion, zombie attacks... a gamut of possible scenarios that one should be at least partially prepared for.

Specifically seeking those who have used LED-type flashlights and/or those new-fangled wind-up radios that allow access to radio news while huddled in the vermin-infested cellar.

Want to be able to be independent of the requirement of charged batteries. Hoping that the LED-type flashlight will not drain batteries as quickly as a filament-type flashlight.

Also, input as to other survivial goodies.... water purification methods/products, etc.

Weapons info not needed, nor emergency shelter methods.

Bring it on, homies, ye dwellers of the 'hood. Lay thine experience and/or opinions on a Coot-like entity trying to hide from the peering eyes of the spy-in-the-sky orbiting cameras above.
 
I've seen LED flashlights that you can shake to light it up. Also seen LED flashlights that recharge when you leave them in the light.
 
I wouldn't depend on NOAA weather radio via the wind up method, unless the shanty is right next to the transmitter. You need a good ol handheld job with a decent antenna. Better yet is a scanner with a HUGE antenna like I have for storm spotting.

Might want to look at the national weather service storm prediction website every morning during storm season as well to see if you'll be under the gun; check back during the early afternoon as well.

www.spc.noaa.gov

Also have your local NWS website handy too.
 
I find NOAA to be pretty much useless. AM radio is much more informative what with the spotters all over phoning in reports.

The wind-ups I looked at had several bands.
 
Vienna sausage and canned ravioli got us through the two week immediate Katrina aftermath. Vienna sausage, hmmm, good...
 
Any potted meat to go along with vienna sausage & crackers? I used to eat some form of that everyday at lunch out in the field when I raked & baled hay growing up.
 
You got any more of them potted meat sammiches?
I lak dem french fried taters.

"I lak the way you tawk"---Carl
 
NOAA will be the first to relay actual weather warnings and legitimate storm reports/updates. It's their job!

With a scanner, you could also load up a section of frequencies that emergency managers and Skywarn storm spotters use. VERY nice to have that in severe weather. You can then learn exactly where tornadic potential is cause those dudes will be right there looking at it.

The skywarn website has frequencies.
 
Potted meat not so much. Causes unquenchable heartburn here even though it's pretty similar to vienna sausage. Go figure.

obbop. Our informational needs were met while off the grid for two weeks by sat tv (Direct TV) and the generator when we ran it. We watched NOLA drown on CNN, etc 90 miles to the south while we were inundated by felled trees. It was interesting but probably increased the trauma. Five gallons of gas gave us two four hour periods of refrigeration, fans, small a/c, and radio per day. Fuel availabilty and storage are the limiting factors. By day 13 it was getting old. We relied on cheap battery powered flashlights and am radio. Forget about candles or coleman lanterns for obvious reasons. There were numerous fatalities and close calls from CO2 poisoning as a result of improper generator use after K.

My current focus is storing as much potable water as I can in the form of 24 ct cases of 1/2 ltr bottles. Some few other nonperishables. I thought I was ready before Katrina and got through it without government or charitable supplies before power was restored and stores reopened. I feel more prepared now but not much more confident if a real catastrophe takes place.

Good luck!
 
I sat through several post-hurricane power and water outages living on canned tuna and soda crackers.
Simple way to purify water a la Outward Bound School was 15 drops of iodine in aquart of water, shaken and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.
These days there are more sophisticated methods, try the website for Brigade Quartermasters, or possibly LLBean,and such places.
 
I have a little "gimmick gift" my brother & his wife gave me a few years ago, has LED flashlight, built-in "scan" digital FM radio, runs on AA batts or wind up. My take: No thanks, at least for the radio.

Obbop, alkaline batteries have a shelf life of *years* these days- lets's call it 5 years just to give you a 70-100% safety factor. Or you could splurge & buy lithiums, I think they have an even longer shelf life. Whatever you do, for any problem situations, forget about most rechargeables- they go down rather quickly(few months at best) waiting to be used.

Do you need a small cheap AM/FM radio, that'll play for *days* on a pair of AA alkalines, & has good reception to boot? Sony still sells a little pocket model that's ridiculously good- costs $10, should be available at your local Sears store. If they don't have one in stock, they can order it for you. Or you can order one online from SonyStyle.com for under $13 shipped last I knew, or catch 'em on sale at Amazon. Buy a few 4-paks of AA alkalines on sale at Walgreens, or the Dollar store or wherever, & you don't need wind a crank. Analog tuner, uses a proprietary Sony low-voltage chip, keeps working just fine even after battery voltage drops to 1.1 v or so. The last set of batteries in mine lasted over 200 hrs- about 5 times longer than Sony claims. The current set is getting close to 100 hrs. I'll send you a link later on the little radio.
 
Quote:

Bring it on, homies, ye dwellers of the 'hood.

Click to expand...

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I will only buy LED flashlights from now on. Battery life is many fold better. I believe Energizer batteries have built in charge checkers.
 
PM sent on the radios. There may be some really good windup models, but I've never seen a great review on one. If I did get one I'd make sure it had some shortwave coverage, the 49 Meter band in particular(~5.9-6.2Mhz).

Ditto on the LED flashlight-battery life, my brother loves his.

By the way: I read a review on the little Sony AM/FM about a year ago, reviewer said about 40 people were congregated in one corner at a public shelter in a high school gym for a flood/hurricane/something, all listening to one of these radios with its great-big 2 1/4" speaker. Said you coulda sold a truckload of them in that gym alone. In a lengthy emergency/survival situation I suspect a few of these radios, still sealed in package, with a few batteries apiece would become very valuable trade goods.
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I have a nice solar panel on my truck camper. Puts out about 7 amps in full sunlight. 2 6volt gel batteries hold about 225 amp hours worth of energy. Also, have a nice katadyn water filter and some freeze dried food stuffs to tide us over in case of disaster. I like to be prepared.

-Doug
 
Assuming your home and everything in it is not blown away...

Lots of batteries is a must. I have several of all sizes, including the excellent lithiums.

Some 2 way radios. Not cheapie junk ones though if you can help it. I have some commercial Motorola's that are 2 watt GMRS units that work well. Don't believe the 4 mile ---- in real situations.

Canned food of various kinds.

25 gallons of stabilized fuel with a 7500 generator and house wired transfer switch. I also have a battery back up auxiliary sump pump that kicks on automatically.

2 30,000 BTU kerosene heaters and 20 gallons of kerosene for winter months. ALSO, battery operated CO detectors on every floor of the house.

Battery operated lamps and several flashlights with fresh batteries.

Water? Funny thing. I never thought of the most important thing my family will need. I amaze myself sometimes.

Cash on hand, at least a couple hundred in small bills. ATM's and credit don't work without power!

Sorry coot: lotso guns and ammo. Sorry again.

Duct tape, plastic sheeting, etc.

Chainsaw.

Well stocked first aid kit (I mean WELL stocked)

Pink Floyd Dark Side of The Moon t-shirt from 10th grade.
 
"Sorry coot: lotso guns and ammo. Sorry again."

No need for sorrow. I already know what I need to know about weapons of local destruction and well-versed in their use and fully capable of using them. Coot trained at an early age by ex WW2 Marine and, then, cop... a very hard-core dude.

Hey!!!!!! At the (borrowing this wondrous name) Great Wal-of-China-Mart today I espied a most wonderful goody for 7 bucks..... a wind-up LED flashlight. Works great. Plenty bright for emergency needs. Either one or all 3 LEDs can be activated, depending upon how the switch is activated. The "winder" feels solid and secure, as if it will last awhile. The unit as a whole feels as if it is tight and solid and the internal gearing for the winder is smooth with no sign of "slop."

Sure, it's just a plastic thingy made in China but subjective opinion and feeeeeeeling leads me to believe it may last awhile, especially with the small amount of use it will get.

Time will tell!!!!!!

Will grab some iodine for water treatment use.

Isn't there a method wherein X amount of bleach can be used to treat water AND to add to stored water so as to extend its storage life?

I did some Googling but, this time, I am having to wade through a LOT of sites to get info, most returns so far have been for-profit sites masquereding as info sites, the type with associate links that give the originating site a cut of the action if you buy from the linked-to site.

Getting late. Off to the pallet to shoo away the spiders, at least until the love-the-dark variety crawl out of their hidey holes and commence hunting, some crawling over the warm living lump chock full of that which spiders like to eat.

Predator when awake, a member of the most efficient killing machines ever seen on this planet, the bipedal primate with the BIG brain... when asleep, the Coot becomes prey. A bulbous blob of flesh and meat and blood, easy prey for

SPIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

clock_legs_small.jpg
 
Well there're lots of good items listed. As far as specifics on certain types of items.

LED flashlights, haven't looked at the windup variety, but there are numerous good LED lights out available, and they keep getting better all the time. Most of the cheap LED flashlights these days use the small 5mw LED's, but there are much more efficient LED's now. The 2 good ones are the Cree Q5 emitter and the Seoul P4 emitters. They put out much more light at a given wattage. companies make use of this by providing digital control allowing for many different intensities. On 100%, one of these small lights about the size of a mini MagLite (powered by 2 AA batteries for instance) is brighter than a 6 D-cell Maglite, but on the lower settings, it can put out continuous light for 200+ hours.

What I did was get a Princeton Tec Eos headlamp. This lamp uses a 1 watt Luxeon LED and is regulated to about 1 hour of use on the Max setting, about 8-10 hours on Medium and about 44 hours on low. The low is good enough for most in home things (depending on your nightvision). Nimh rechargeables provide longer runtimes though. The headlamp uses 3 AAA batteries. I keep this headlamp in my car and use it often so the batts get recharged at least every 2 months. The Luxeon LED can be replaced (with a little soldering) by a Seoul P4 and it now produces as much light on the low setting as it used to on the medium setting. 44-50+ hours on 1000mAh Sanyo NiMH cells.

As for water filters, the Katadyn is one of the best portable units available. Bleach can be used to purify water at very, very low concentration. 4 drops per quart or 16 drops per gallon. Water/bleach mix must be allowed to sit for at least 30 minutes. Unless you have filtered water (tank, tap etc.) you should filter the water (from streams, wells etc.) before purifying it. The great thing about the Katadyn is that it's user cleaneable and lasts for up to 13,000 gallons, where a lot of other water filters require replacing the filter after about 100-200 gallons.

For eg. in a flood situation, it's possible to use the Katadyn to filter the flood water and then purify it with Chlorox Bleach (must be regular unscented bleach). Although the filter on it's own can provide potable water, it's safer to use the bleach as well under thoe conditions where there may be viruses. The filter works down to 0.2 microns which eliminates giardia, cryptosporidium and bacteria, but viruses can be even smaller. Although most viruses will tend to attach themselves to larger carriers and as such will be filtered out, adding the chlorine is safer.

BTW, iodine sucks. Most folks who actually try it can't get over the taste. chlorine on the other hand, is already added to the water coming out of the tap so most folks are used to the taste.


Max
 
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