Preparedness for Natural Disasters

This post is for the purposes of helping those who may not know how to prepare in the event of a disaster or other disruptions to daily living – natural disasters, wars, cyber attacks, emp, etc.

We will start with important points for the pro, then look at short term preparedness (2 weeks – 1 month), medium term preparedness (1 – 3 months), over 3 months.

This post is for all budgets so if you see something that seems too expensive for you, skip over it, that’s all!

****Also want to add that this post is primarily written for people in the US, Canada and possibly Europe.  I find that people in the South America, Caribbean or Africa already know how to go outside and build a fire and cook outdoors.  Plus you may know how to grow food and already have livestock. Most of you don’t have access to government services and so knowing that you have to figure it out for yourself is normal for you.  In the first world countries, however, there’s a dependency on the government to help and so this post is to help those of you who don’t know how to survive without the services.

Points to consider for the Pro at Preparedness (some things you may have forgotten):

1. If you’re going to have heaters and cooking equipment in your house you need to have a carbon monoxide detector.  Not the one that sounds when it’s in the air because by then you will be dead, but the one that shows the reading so you can see if the levels are rising.

2 Make sure all the items you are purchasing to use inside actually say for indoor use.

3. After you’ve bought all your equipment, set it all up and test that it works.  The time to find out that the solar generator is missing a connector piece is not when the disaster strikes.  Set up everything and check that it actually works in case you need to return stuff or missed that it said in the description on the website “not included” for an important piece.  Make sure all the panels and pieces fit together.

4 Not because you have a full house generator means you should use a full house generator. How long will your generator last if you have it running 24/7?  If you only have enough fuel to run it for 5 days what if the power doesn’t come back for 3 weeks?  What then?  Consider running only the items that are essential.  You don’t need to be running your dishwasher (this is why you have paper plates and plastic forks and knives), washing machine and dryer (go buy a clothes line and hang out the clothes), these are not essential items and you can use that power to do things that will keep you comfortable much longer than 5 days.

Along those same lines, try not to fire up the generator as soon as the power is out.  What are your neighbors doing?  Gas generators are very loud, if no one else in your neighborhood has a generator because you listened, or walked around and checked when the power went out, you are kinda making yourself a target.  If everyone has a generator, have fun…but if they don’t, try not to have your house looking like a Christmas tree when the entire neighborhood is in darkness.  Tone it down.

5 Prepare for strange weather patterns.  Do you remember when that area in Texas froze over and people died because it never snows there?  Yeah.  I believe you need to have things ready to go in case it gets freezing cold when it is generally hot, or it is using cold and now you’re hot.  Always, have things in place should your weather condition turn into something that’s out of the ordinary.

6 For the hunters who plan to go hunting for your food in a long term situation, how many other people do you think have the same idea?  What do you think it’s going to be like when we’re down to the last few deer or wild boar? Do you anticipate people being civilized?  They have guns with them, you need to be very careful.  Better to go sooner than later.  When you go sooner, you avoid the crazy desperate people who will do anything to get last deer.  Some animals almost went extinct during the Great Depression because of hunting. Now consider that you do get the deer, how are you going to store it if it’s not winter and you can leave it out in the cold?  Do you know anything about canning?  Do you have the equipment and tools on hand to do canning if you need to?  Have you tried canning something so that you are prepared when it happens?  If you don’t learn this now, and there’s no internet when something happens you are officially stuck with a deer that you cannot preserve.

7 Now let’s say you went out and bought the prepackaged meals that’s all ready to go, did you open it and taste one of each of them? There’s nothing worse than you opening that thing in a disaster situation to find it taste disgusting!  Or of all the meals your family only like ONE of them and you have buckets full of food that nobody wants to eat.  EAT one package of each to see if your family likes it.  If they don’t, buy something else or make  your own version that you put together yourself with ingredients that everyone likes.  Here’s a video.

8 Fire Extinguisher

9 Do not underestimate the power of protein powders!!  It will help you supplement your protein.  Especially if you were one that went with the premade bucket option.

10 Don’t be Lot’s wife.  It’s great to feel like you’re secure and you have everything you need at home.  But PLEASE be prepared that if GOD says you need to leave the house, you have to walk away from it all.  If the thought of this gives you anxiety, then you need to prepare your heart for that scenario.  You don’t want to hang on to the stuff and have it cost you your life.  You have to be able to walk away when God says leave it and go.  You have Jesus and your family, you can rebuild.  The rest is just stuff.

11. Ssshhhh.  Be careful how much you tell your neighbors and friends.  One of my neighbors was so vocal about how much he had, how much food he had stored, his stash of ammo, how much water he has stored in various garages all over.  When I realized how comfortable he was telling me, someone he hardly knew, about his stash I knew he was about to land himself in trouble.  Within 1 year, he was getting jumpy about a few of the neighbors that he suspected would come to rob him in a disaster.  His paranoia is on another level now all because he talked too much.  He should’ve kept all of that to himself.  It’s OK to tell your friends and family members to prepare but telling them all that you have is just not wise.  Your house is the first place they will come when everything goes wrong.  And if you are not willing or able to feed them all, why did you tell them about what you had in the first place?  Keep it to yourself.

12 When was the last time you took a look at the items you have stored?  Make sure you don’t have mold, bugs and rats.  Check on them.

13. Cash.  Different tenders where you can make exact change.

 

Preparedness for the beginners 2 weeks – 1 month

1. Water.  You can survive without food for few days (several, if you’re a fatty, LOL, your body fat comes in handy afterall!). But you need water.  Store as much as you can.

2. You need to first think there is no electricity.  Think camping trip in the woods. That means everything is manually operated.  Manual can openers – buy more than one.  What will you use for lighting?  How will you keep cool?  How will you keep warm? This is an individual thing which means only you know your financial situation and what you can afford to buy to fulfill this.  Whatever you buy, make sure it says “For indoor use” if you intent to use it inside.

3 Start with foods that don’t need to be cooked in cans and packages that you can just tear open to eat. The easiest way to do this is to get prepackaged meals and there are several companies that do this 

4 When purchasing foods, only buy the food you eat, the food your family eats.  This way no money is being wasted.  You’ll eat it all at some point.  Set up a rotation system so that you are rotating what you are eating with what you have stored so that nothing is getting stale or going to waste.  It’s easy to store items if you make use of BOGO sales, you eat one and you store one.  Before you know it, you’ll have a stash.

5 The cans have the “Best By” date, that means it doesn’t expire.  Not even if it’s past the date, it will just be of a lower quality but not expired.

6. When you are purchasing food think in terms of your family size, macronutrients (proteins, carbs, fats) and calories, then multiply that out for 1 week.  Don’t get overwhelmed with a lot just purchase one week worth of complete meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner for your entire family.  One week.

After you have one week go to 2 weeks, then 3 weeks, then four weeks.  You will need to make calculations before you start buying items. How many calories do you need to maintain your current weight? Then you’re going to need to read the labels on the packages to know how many calories are in each thing, calculate that with your family size and then plan food for a week.  See Video

Going week by week and expanding the timeline, takes the stress out of the preparedness.

7 Lights. Flash lights, batteries, candles in a glass container for safety, matches, solar powered lighting, lanterns

8 First Aid kits

9 Vitamins, and natural supplements in case you can’t get a refill on your prescription medications.  Research what you can use as a back up and get that.

10  You don’t have Internet so how are you going to keep yourself and your children occupied.  You need games, board games, card games, any kind of games that you can use to keep yourself entertained and your mind off the situation.  You live alone? Books!  There are also digital games that don’t require the internet.

11 Hygiene products (toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss, soaps, shampoo, toilet paper, lotion, deodorant, perfume/body spray), if you have no water you’re going to need baby wipes or those whole body wipes to keep clean.

12. Cash because ATMs won’t work and you need all tenders including coins so that you can make exact change.

13  Gasoline canisters but you don’t need to fill these up until you know something is approaching and you may need it.  You shouldn’t store gasoline unless you know how to do it safely and properly. But having some for short term use when you know a natural disaster is approaching is a great idea.  Especially in evacuation situations, you will need it to get to your destination.

14. Batteries because all the things you’ll be using during this time will be battery powered or solar powered.  I recommend getting a mix of both. Depending on the items you buy, see what batteries they use and buy quite a bit so you never run out.  One month of operating something on batteries is a lot.

15.  Don’t forget your pets.  You already know how much food you buy for your pet and how long it lasts, just make sure you have enough to go for the timeframe that you are storing food.

16 Paper plates and utensils with trash bags.  You don’t want to be wasting your water washing dishes.

A Step up from this is your ability to Boil Hot Water

This expands the types of foods you can prepare and helps with food fatigue.

1. Camping stoves – propane, butane. sterno stoves.  But please think of this first as a means to boil water only.  This way you are conserving your fuel and it will last much longer. You can buy a dual propane butane stove for $29.99

The butane canisters are $8.28 for 4 cans 

The propane canisters are $29.98 for 6 bottles

Both the butane and the propane burns for 2 hours on high heat per canister.  Hence, if you’re only thinking of boiling water and warming up a can of soup this will last a very long time.  This is a really good option if you are thinking 2 weeks – 1 month.  I also like it because whether you have butane or propane this one will work.

Your expanded capacity to boil water will give you the ability to make coffee (french press coffee maker or instant coffee) and tea, oatmeal, cook spaghetti, cook rice, instant potatoes, ramen noodles or cup of noodles, warm up the canned food, cook eggs with minimal fuel.

Other methods for cooking 

2. Make sure you have a set of pots with thinner bottoms (camping mess kits) so that it boils the water very fast so you are saving on the fuel.

3 Get a thermos, if possible one for each family member.  There are so many meals you can cook in a thermos with hot water.  See Video

4 Paper plates and utensils.  Trash bags.

5. Going to the bathroom, what will you do if you can’t flush the toilet?  You need to have a plan to get rid of your waste.  I know, gross, but you need one!  Look it up on YouTube

6 Being raised in a country that has hurricane’s I grew up having all of the items on hand in my household and that stuck with me even as an adult.  But I realize if you’ve never been in this position before you may not know what to do. See Video for list of items

Canned Items

Other Ideas for items

7. Butane or Propane Heaters – it must say that it was made for indoor use.  Otherwise, you’re dead.

8 Carbon Monoxide detector with a digital reading that shows you the levels in your house.  When you can see the levels as soon as you put the heater on you can see the levels increase if there is a leak.  When you don’t have a digital monitor then it will only go off once it reaches the highest level, you could be passed out on the floor already. Once you bring in these alternative fuel sources through cooking and heating your house, you have to be careful that your equipment is not leaking.  The only way to tell if there is a problem is with a detector.  This is a must if you are cooking and heating inside, otherwise you can die.

9 In line with that, a fire extinguisher or a fire blanket.

A step up from this would be Generators for Electricity

1. When you are thinking about energy – you have gas generator that can power the entire house.  Solar Generators (much quieter but you need the sun).  Lower cost items like a Power bank that you can use to charge your electronic devices.

2.  When you are deciding on a solar generator, you want to consider the Wattage and what you can do with that generator because this will also expand your capabilities.

-You can run a mini fridge or better yet a deep freezer depending on the wattage of the solar generator.  So now not only can you have hot meals but you can have a cold drink.  Check the wattage of the appliances and the wattage of the generator to find what best fits your needs.  Solar Generators only work with full sun, if you know you don’t have access to full sun where you are this options won’t work for you.

After you get the generator, test it!  See how long it actually runs your appliances before it dies, see how long it takes to charge in the sun.  These are data points that will be very useful to you in a disaster situation.  You’ll know exactly what you have and the capabilities of it.

If you have the money you can buy a solar generator just to run your mini deep freezer and have another one to run other small appliances and charge devices etc.

 

Medium Term Preparedness 1 – 3 months

1. See Video

2 Your strategy here may need to change a little.  You can multiply out the food you already have to a 3 month supply or start thinking more about long term food storage ideas

3.  For this amount of food, you’re going to need a designated area to store your food because this will be quite a bit.  You may have to repackage things for space, in case you don’t have it. Invest in a food saver/vacuum sealer.

4 Be mindful of how you are storing items.  The cooler the spot the better. Temperature matters and now you have to be concerned with rodents, weevils and rancid food!  Anything that has oil in it will go rancid – cookies, chips, nuts, crackers.  You need to look at the expiration dates of these items because they do matter when it comes to long term food storage.  Consuming it within a month is one thing but now that you are planning up to 3 months pay attention to the dates.  The items with oils definitely need to have some kind of rotation set up with the foods you currently eat or it will go bad.

5 You need to learn about food storage for long term, canning, fermentation.  You’ll need the vacuum sealer and the bags or dehydrators or freeze dryer machines (expensive).

6 Now you need a level up on what you are using to cook.  You can either buy a lot more canisters for your little stove or go ahead and upgrade to a gas stove with larger propane tanks.  If you have a gas grill with a side burner then you’re already there!  Just buy larger propane tanks and store those.  If you have a backyard, and the ability to get firewood, then this is also another way for you to cook.  Now you can cook so much more than you did before.  You also use a coal stove.

For those of you who don’t know how to cook

1 Learn.  You just need to get 10 easy recipes that you like under your belt and then practice.  Keep making them until you know just the right amount of ingredients you need for each.  Once you perfect one dish, move to the next.  You have to learn.  In these times you are not going to be calling for a pizza, Uber Eats or Door Dash.  You better know how to feed yourself without all that.

7 Vitamins and Supplements.  You’ll need these especially if you’re not eating a balanced meal.

3 months+ and longer

Honestly, at this point there is obviously a bigger problem than just a natural disasters.  Call me Christine Columbus, but I never heard the term “prepper” until 2021 when I started researching some of these items and realized that there’s a whole community of people preparing for the apocalypse!  Yikes!  I never grew up thinking like this we only prepared for hurricanes so it was more short term food storage, maximum 1.5 months and even so there were streets and other neighborhoods who got their electricity back before we did so we would just go over to their house to charge stuff and store items in their refrigerator.  So truthfully, I’ve never had to store items longer than 1.5 months.

At this point, your strategy has to change.  This is where these prepper channels on YouTube come in handy because they know about this stuff.  You can think about this if you feel there’s a war coming that you need to prepare for or things like that will cause long term changes to your lifes.  It is not far fetched because Joseph stored food for 7 years, so this is a possible situation.

1 At this point you should be a pro at canning, long term food storage techniques because this is what you’re going to need.

2. You can supplement all of this with the prepackage emergency foods that come in the buckets and protein powders along with  Freeze Dried canned foods

Once you get to this point these should all be shelf life stable for 25 years, so you won’t have to worry about it anymore.  You just need to keep adding to the stash until you get to the amount the Lord told you you need.  Because you certainly need to ask Him how much you need before you start buying all of this.

The shorter term things 2 weeks – 2 months you can rotate with the things you eat on a weekly basis but the long term storage stuff will sit until you really need it because it is shelf stable.

3. Having a vegetable garden will come in handy as well as planting fruit trees and having your own chickens and other livestock.  Obviously, this is not something that you just start doing at the 3 month mark but more something you thought about ahead of time and start learning how to plant items, what works for the seasons, etc.

4. If you are on medications, see if you can get a larger supply from your doctor. You should know what the natural remedies are for what you take so that you can store enough of those supplements, just in case you need them as a last resort.  Planting herbs will help a well.  There are many videos on YouTube that can help you know what you need to take for different ailments.

5. Be aware of who your neighbors are.  Pay attention to the nosey parkers, the chatty Cathy, and those who are just plain ole predators if something should go wrong.

6 Find out who you can team up, who you check on and who will also check on you.  Be kind to people because you never know when they are the same ones that will come to your rescue.

7. In terms of protection, you need to ask God about this one. What I do know is that when true suffering sets in and poverty goes long term people will resort to crime and you need to be aware of that. Some people are quite comfortable with guns and others are not.  Get something that you feel comfortable using.  There are non lethal options.

What is the take away here?  You need to learn long term food storage techniques – canning, freeze drying, dehydrating, powdered foods, planting your own food, having your own livestock, buying all long term storage food 25 year shelf life stable.  You’re going to need a cool, dark, dry spot for them.  You need these techniques because if you don’t store it properly you will get bugs, rodents and mold.  Food goes bad when it is exposed to air and light, sunlight and hot weather. That’s why you need to learn this.  Pretty much everything you have has to be repackaged to store it over 3 months.  Everything. Unless it is already in a sealed can. Otherwise, you’re going to be throwing away your food because you didn’t store it properly. This can get expensive if you’re doing it for a family which is why you need to focus on starting small – 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks.  If you just focus on the first week and grow from there when you get to the long term items you won’t be stressed because you already have something and then you just add when you have the money to do it.  This is where the beans and rice come in handy but then you need to have the fuel to cook the beans, you can’t be cooking that on butane!  Because it takes about 45 minutes or more to cook beans and that’s if you presoaked it overnight.  When you get to this part, you need to think it through carefully.

Mental health bucket

We all need one of these.  You are human so clearly your family will get on your nerves after too long of this so you have to have a place where you can go for walks or just have time alone with yourself and your thoughts.

You need this. Where will you go to get some space?

For me, they are used to me going off to be alone with the Lord.  This will not appear suspicious in anyway. Therefore, stashed in the “prayer closet” are dark chocolates, cheez-its type crackers (since I had to break up with the actual cheese-its), potato chips, almond joy, sugar free gum.  LOL.  All the things I love to eat!!!  When they see me coming out looking all chill and calm, they’ll think it’s the prayers when it was really dark chocolate! LOL  I just have to make sure there is no remnant of the chocolate on my face when I exit the room.  Sssshhhh don’t tell them!

You need to have a stash of things that you just love to eat or drink!  You’re not a robot!

This is a video of someone who went through hurricane Helene and was without power for 12 days.  He’s sharing tips on what he learnt from the experience

 

Anyway, hope this helps you.  For those of you who know about this, did I miss anything?  Write it in the comments.

Blessings

3 thoughts on “Preparedness for Natural Disasters”

  1. Something additional: If your North American/European local government/neighborhood laws and regulations allow it, you can purchase an independent water source by digging what is called a borehole on your premises and private property.

    In my country, the water supply from the government water works company is often interrupted and not always constant, so families and individuals create boreholes in their homes. It is not something you can dig on your own, it requires engineers because they drill deep into the earth to find the pure water table, so its best you hire a professional company. In my state a borehole costs on average between $700 to $1000 and it can last many years even decades. They charge based on how deep they have to dig, so if you live in an area where water is closer to the surface and not desert like terrain, it may be cheaper and cost you even less than the amount stated above.

    After you dig the borehole on your property, its also important to heed the counsel of MOP and not go around broadcasting it to every and anybody, incase in the event of a disaster or destruction of the public water facility, thousands of people mob or show up at your compound property because you’re the only one who has clean running water.

  2. What about using a charcoal grill to cook on? I know it has to be outside to use but it could help IF we can go outside during that time.

  3. Thanks, Nicole. This is really helpful. I live in a rented shoe-box studio flat in London, UK. I’ll need to make some choices and keep must-haves personal items only in order to accommodate at least some emergency items.

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