what disasters are you looking to prepare for?

Dealing with alarmists. That's my primary concern.

Reversal of the magnetic poles will take some time and all will not be lost when this does occur.

We have mapped the trajectories of many space rocks and none of them are in danger of crossing our path (while we're there) any time soon. If there were a cataclysmic collision, there wouldn't be anything to prepare for; you're dead.

North pole ice is melting, but ice is building up at the south pole. Ice which sits in the water is already displacing it as much as if the ice were in liquid form, so I'm not worried that our coastal cities will disappear any time soon (though arguably, that would solve many of our societal problems).

In all seriousness, my family is preparing to stay as comfy as possible should all power and gas go out for an extended period during the worst weather our locale has to offer (very cold, snowy winters).

 

I am prepared for zombies, mutants, and aliens. With the current political climate now on the radar, I am forced to be prepare for socialists and the new SS-KGB types that appear to be just around the bend. Reminds me. I need more ammo.

 

We're in the country and only a few minutes from a 300,000 person city, which has TONS of defense contract companies (Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, etc.), TONS of biotech companies, and an Army arsenal. It's not so much a terrorist attack that I'm worried about (although during the 1980s we WERE #4 on the "hit list" behind Washington DC, NYC, and NORAD). No, today I'm more concerned about a virus escaping one of the biotech companies, one of the missile manufacturers blowing up half the city, or some toxic ooze escaping. Plus, we're 22 miles away from a nuclear power plant (Though safe, it's just something else to think about). Any of these situations, while bad enough, would also certainly cause people to panic/freak out. And that's what I also try to prepare for - the "human factor", which is often more dangerous than an actual event.

Like we saw several weeks ago with gas prices, there doesn't HAVE to be a crisis - just the assumption of one - to actually create a crisis. If there's a catastrophe locally, all Hell's going to break loose, and I want to be sure that I can ride out the situation. We have a decent stockpile of supplies. They come in handy, since we're always getting tornadoes, floods, ice storms, and other "fun" weather. Just pays to be prepared for many reasons.

 

Are you sure, sometimes if I have ice in a cup and it melts the cup can overflow if it's near the top...

 

I think there are probably 2 categories of disaster one can prepare for.

1) Common disaster

The Common disaster is the bad storm, when you get bad storms once every few years. Tornado Alley, Hurricane Alley, these places know this problem. The Northwest gets good windstorms every so often. The mid-atlantic, too. California gets earthquakes. In any event, it's something that happens, has happened many times, and is sure to happen again. It's disruptive, you need adequate supplies to hold you over until things get rebuilt or back to normal, or if you're in the epicenter, give you time to relocate/rebuild.

2) The Uncommon Disaster

Uncommon Disasters are major terrorist events, biohazards like bird flu, massive infrastructure shutdown (pipeline destruction, Interstate collapse, etc), economic implosion that leads to supply disruptions. These are the times where a year's supply may come in handy, and where subsistance gardening, water catchement, and dry storage allow you to live for an extended time without going to the store. If the banks go down for a week or more, and your ATM card doesn't work, do you have enough? If the truck supplying your local food mart doesn't arrive, do you have enough? If there's a quarentine on your neighborhood, and limited supplies are trickling in, do you have enough?

I think #2 is what most people think of on this forum, from what I've seen so far. And it's good to have a stockpile, and a plan. I try to consider the various #1 scenarios as "practice" for a possible #2. If I can keep the family going just fine for a week, cut off from the community for resupply, that's an excellent beginning. By then, in any major disaster, the next move will be clear, whether it's to shelter-in-place, head to one of my distant evacuation places (extended family and friend's places), or adapt to a massively changed environment where the rules are all different (apocolypse scenario).

 

As far as I know, he's right. Displacement is displacement. One cubic inch of ice will displace one cubic inch of water, etc. When the ice melts into water, the level does not rise, as the volume has already been displaced by the ice to begin with.

I think I'm thinking of that correctly... LOL

 

I agree with BKT & Smithy. Even though the threats of a global disaster are always lingering in the backs of many minds, I truly think the elected powers will keep it in check.
More common disaster preparedness to me is from a natural disaster, such as a bad winter storm, loss of power, extreme cold, flooding, tornadoes, high winds, etc. Living in the Ozark Mountains, we have experienced all of the above, on several occasions in the past few years. We stock up on supplies, and hope for the best. In my families case, we have a heat pump, propane heaters, and a fireplace. The latter two will run without power. We keep a big generator ready to go, should the power outages last more than a day or so. Back in the sticks as we are, our priorities are pretty low,compared to the big cities. When the power lines go down, we are prepared for whatever is dished out.
About 10 years ago, I built a nice substantial storm cellar, while my neighbors stood around and snickered, making remarks, like "chicken little" etc. But now that it is completed, and it's the only one for miles, EVERYONE knows where we live, and will be inviting themselves over.

 

I prepare for a nuclear event. By being prepared for the worst threat, I'm covered for all the more likely scenarios (hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, etc.)

Beware the stober!!!!

 

I believe water expans a little when it freezes. As far as that rise in sea level, Al Gore's people really cussed me for my idea. The dead sea is a mile or so below sea level. It has a surface area of a little over 400 sq. miles. The low lying desert around the sea covers another 600 sq. miles. So a 1000 sq. miles X 1 mile = 1000 cu. miles. Bleed it off.

 

I agree with all of this and those are also the lines we are thinking along. Preparing to hole up here for whatever may happen.

The main focus is food and clean water and possibly in the near future, some alternative energy sources. We are building things like hybrid ovens (which aren't new and we have the materials ready) that will heat water, part of the house and cook food. Also planning to build a strawbale extension next to the house (mobile home) and one day get rid of the mobile home. 15 more bags of concrete and I'll be ready to roof it.

We are not so worried about ammunition and firearms. Most everyone in this area has guns and if it came to a gun battle, most would be dead or wounded. We want to draw as little attention as possible while doing these things.

There's a lot of things you can't prepare for, so we aren't going to waste our time thinking about them.

 

FEMA: Are You Ready?

So really I should watch tv, put in a filter, and chill?

 

Same thing farmers always prepare for....
A bad crop season!
Everything else is just minor to that!

Floods, droughts, tornadoes can kill the growing season, you you need about two years worth of canned goods to get you through at about any given time...

We had a flood this spring, we did fine and fed a bunch of our neighbors...
We made it fine through that.

We had hurricane in '92 that simply removed the garden and most farm goods from southern Fla. where I was living.
We made it fine through that...

We had a tornado that removed large sections of cities, farms, gardens in '90.
We made it fine through that.

'89 we had floods of epic proportion,
We made it fine through that.

'77 & '78 we had blizzards that lasted about 6 weeks,
We made it fine through that even though we had to dig tunnels in the snow to get to the firewood stacks!

Same as always, you need to preserve food for short and intermediate storage, storing some potable water isn't a bad idea, about a gallon per person per day,
And if you don't have a cool, dry place in a non-flooding area, DIG/BUILD ONE!

 

I worry about humans. I have a family to protect now and other people are the biggest danger to them.

I want to prepare for chaos and anarchy and the breakdown of the social contract. These are the things that can ruin a country. These are my worries.

 

National Preparedness Guidelines

See

DHS | National Preparedness Guidelines

Critical Elements

The Guidelines defines what it means for the nation to be prepared.
There are four critical elements of the Guidelines:

The National Preparedness Vision, which provides a concise statement of the core preparedness goal for the Nation.

The National Planning Scenarios, which depict a diverse set of high-consequence threat scenarios of both potential terrorist attacks and natural disasters. Collectively, the 15 scenarios are designed to focus contingency planning for homeland security preparedness work at all levels of government and with the private sector. The scenarios form the basis for coordinated federal planning, training, exercises, and grant investments needed to prepare for emergencies of all types.

The Universal Task List (UTL), which is a menu of some 1,600 unique tasks that can facilitate efforts to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from the major events that are represented by the National Planning Scenarios. It presents a common vocabulary and identifies key tasks that support development of essential capabilities among organizations at all levels. Of course, no entity will perform every task.

The Target Capabilities List (TCL), which defines 37 specific capabilities that communities, the private sector, and all levels of government should collectively possess in order to respond effectively to disasters.

The guidelines document can be downloaded at:

http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/National_Preparedness_Guidelines.pdf

 

In our neck of the woods, hurricanes are the big ticket item.

If I've got the hurricane issue covered, then I'm covered for most everything else (except NBC warfare).

 

My best recall of my high school chemistry agrees with this. Water does occupy greater volume when frozen, it has to do with the molecular structure it takes on when it goes solid - if you don't believe that, put a can of soda in your freezer and take a look at it in 4 hours (and be prepared to clean up a mess too )