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Preparedness......

Hedgelj

Senior Member
Supporting Member
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Mohicanish
I don't want to clog up the Covid-19 thread with my rambling thoughts so I'm making you read them in a different location. There seems to be a wide variety of viewpoints regarding that current issue but I want to propose a different way to look at it.

Preparedness. What are you prepared for? How many of us have heard of the 5 "P"'s? Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Does it mean you're ready for the zombie apocolypse or the next virus or the ? Maybe, maybe not. Lets look at major things that have happened in my relatively short lifetime and I'm going to focus on Ohio as most of us are here though we have a few TOO brothers that have to watch out for other types of disasters.
Straight line winds knocking out power to most of Ohio for the better part of a week following a hurricane down south
Occasional freak blizzards that wreck havock for a few days
Tornados
Earthquakes are possible in Ohio but rare
What do most of those have in common? Breakdown of normal routines (electricity, power, possibly gas lines) for a few days....are you prepared that you can survive that? Most grocery stores only have 2-3 days worth of normal shopping in their inventory. THat's why they empty out so quickly when there's a storm on the weather forecast. How long can you comfortably live in your home before getting desparate? Many homes don't have the deep freezers we do to store our game animals, so they are stuck with even less.

What if you're at work? Do you have the supplies or the abilities to get home to get to your family to help them if for some reason you can't drive there? Or are you at the mercy of the traffic grid?

How many of us have our concealed handgun licenses? That means we are (or are attempting to be) prepared for that disaster when we have to defend our or our loved ones lives against a criminal....but are you prepared? Have you taken a class beyond the rather minimal Ohio requirements? Do you regularly carry or are you hoping that the criminal makes an appointment so you can have it with you that day?
 

Hedgelj

Senior Member
Supporting Member
7,144
178
Mohicanish
Now let's look at the list one of our more outspoken members mentioned in another thread of preparation.

8 Gallons of Cleaning strength bleach (Not laundry Bleach)
Large 5-gallon bucket for a diluted bleach cleaning solution.
24 Red shop rags for cleaning.
4 Containers of lysol wipes - 1 in each vehicle
4 aerosol cans of lysol.
100 Surgical Masks
25 N95 Valve Masks
2x 3m Half face / replaceable cartridge / respirators
4x Tyvec Suits
4x Complete Eye Protection Goggles
400 pairs of latex gloves
4x rolls of 9x12 plastic sheeting
3x rolls of masking and duct tape
4ea bottles of Day/night Nyquil cold medicine
1000 tablets of Ibuprofen
1000 tablets of Acetomenifin
4 bottles of children's Tylenol
2 bottles of children's Motrin
1 gallon of alcohol
2x Allergy filtration HVAC filters
1/2 gallon of antibacterial hand soap (Will additionally add alcohol)
1/2 Gallon Hand Sanitizer


Outdoor Decontamination Area to be set up on the back deck

Inside of Barnette 350 ground blind
Plastic Folding Table
Plastic chair
Spray bottle Alcohol Mixture
Spray bottle Bleach Mixture
4x rolls paper towels for decon process
2x cans aerosol lysol (upon exit spray and zip closed)
Heavy Duty trash bags for contaminated materials - Clothes - Boots - Etc (Removed from Decon hut and and left in bags outdoors)

I'm not going to go into food, but safe to say 60+ days worth.

Other than the tyvek suits, and the quantity of N95 masks, I don't see much on this list that I couldn't scrounge up around my house without much effort. Do I regularly have that sort of quantity? No, do I have it now, not in all of it. But then if you saw my first aid supplies you'd think I'm strange. But my medical background gives the me the tools to deal with that and know how to carry and use all of it. Some of you would laugh at my (lack) of tools in my basement/garage but that's not my skillset.

The last part of the prep list is a good plan in case this virus thing gets out of hand. Does it guarranteee much, no but it takes the knowledge found from research and applies it to the current potentially shitty situation.

Am I prepared for complete and utter societal breakdown? Hell no....but I think I have a better chance than most of being comfortable if this virus makes america go to shit for a few weeks.
 

giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
The biggest part of being prepared is mental. If this goes to hell here and we need to stay home for a couple of months, we won’t hardly notice if the power stays on. Even if the power goes down it won’t be a big deal beyond the kids video games being down.
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
I think Doug makes a great point about leveraging your specialty to the benefit of the group. Know what you do well and lean into that; then seek out those that complement your strengths. My wife is an RN that can bake and sew. I'm a project manager with enough hard skills to plan and execute a variety of tasks. My arsenal of tools is well beyond most in my demographic, as are my wife's. Preparedness+ is much more than having supplies on hand. Do you have a plan and can you execute it?
 
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hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,720
248
Ohio
More difficult questions: who is in and who is out? If your brother or sister or mother in law is a liability who brings nothing to the table. . . .can you tell them "figure it out. I cannot support you."
 

Hedgelj

Senior Member
Supporting Member
7,144
178
Mohicanish
I think Doug makes a great point about leveraging your specialty to the benefit of the group. Know what you do well and lean into that; then seek out those that complement your strengths. My wife is an RN that can bake and sew. I'm a project manager with enough hard skills to plan and execute a variety of tasks. My arsenal of tools is well beyond most in my demographic, as are my wife's. Preparedness+ is much more than having supplies on hand. Do you have a plan and can you execute it?

Precisely, just like a first aid kit is only as good as the person using it.

More difficult questions: who is in and who is out? If your brother or sister or mother in law is a liability who brings nothing to the table. . . .can you tell them "figure it out. I cannot support you."

That all depends on the scenario, nothing is black and white in my book. A week or two without power vs teotawki..... totally different. Also, how fast did this event occur? Many of the least prepared and functionally worthless people won't survive a devastating initial problem long enough to travel to you unless they already live close. On a slower onset you can teach them the skills your group needs, or you have to make hard choices at some point. Once again it reflects back on training and your plan.
 
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giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
This needs to filter down as well. Things as simple as teaching your kids how to cook is all in prep for life. Let them play with fire, it’s how they learn. If they want to do something dumb, let them! It’s all in prep of life. Being prepared is part of it all. I know adults that can’t boil water, that isn’t their fault, that’s a parenting fail. Those kids not having the skills to even cook, will never be able to prepare for anything really altering.

I’ve mentioned it before, I think someone like @Jamie will welcome the change if it lasted a while. He is prepared and I don’t think that was his life plan, it just happened. He has the skills, some food put up and the ability to maintain off the land. Others like @Bowkills are also on the way to being legends and just don’t know it. Those two guys don’t have to try, they have it. The rest of us need to prepare to be prepared.
 
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Jackalope

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More difficult questions: who is in and who is out? If your brother or sister or mother in law is a liability who brings nothing to the table. . . .can you tell them "figure it out. I cannot support you."

Funny that you bring that up because I had that direct discussion with them last night at Sunday dinner. I told my SIL and FIL to at a minimum purchase cold and flu medicine to cover illness. Enough for everyone in the household to medicate for two weeks. I also told them that it probably wouldn't hurt to have a couple of weeks worth of groceries on hand. If this turned out to be nothing then the worst case is they don't have to go grocery shopping for a bit and it's not like they'll never get the cold of flu again. They're not out any money because it's things they will use anyway. I said "Listen or don't listen, that's up to you, but understand now that if you're unprepared I am not plan B"
 

Bowkills

Well-Known Member
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85
Nw oh
the straight line wind year we lost power for about a week. pond baths happened that week along with dipping ditch water to flush toilets. Nothing wrong with people prepping Ull always use the stuff sometime anyway but I can't see anything happening where ud need to live more than a few weeks on what u have. If it got into months I'd think weapons and ammo would be number one prep Thing to have.
 
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