FEMA: prepare a two-week supply cache (emergency preparedness)

[lindisfarne]

Indeed, the Federal Emergency Management Agency advises that Americans prepare a two-week supply cache because it could take that long for help to arrive. FEMA says on its Web site, "A two-week supply can relieve a great deal of inconvenience and uncertainty until services are restored."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/10/business/10prepare.ready.html?incamp=article_popular_3

Some other good quotes from the article:
"You could survive for two weeks just on Tang," said Eric Zaltas, nutritionist with PowerBar Inc., a maker of nutrition bars.

In almost every disaster, cellphones have proved remarkably useless

[incapsulated]

1. And if you live in a small apartment...

With little closet space where do you put the tons of water to go with your Tang??

Do they still make Tang?

Anyway, I'd be one of those looters, I guess.

[brokensymmetry]

4. Well...actually....

two weeks wouldn't take up that much space.

An MRE is about 1200 calories, so you'd need 14 of them. That's about the size of the CPU unit on a full-size desktop computer.

A gallon of water per day per person is ample; three five-gallon bottles in the bottom of the closet should fit.

But who's going to do all that? :shrug:

[incapsulated]

5. Well, I live in NYC

There aren't a lot of natural disasters here, the only real fear is the man-made kind. And then, air would probably be the main concern, so... we're fucked, if that happened, pretty much. 5 gallons of water takes up a lot of space when you don't really have any to spare, although I always have a few gallons of spring water in the house.

However, after the last blackout, I've always made sure that I have more canned/packaged food on hand. No refrigeration was a real pain. Although not as painful as walking up many, many stairs every day.

[aquart]

2. TWO WEEKS????

Uh, in a small apartment?

Even their plans don't deal with reality.

[sandnsea]

3. Filters & purification tablets

http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-617.html

You still couldn't drink the water in New Orleans, but it would work for many parts of the country.

[slaveplanet]

9. MRE'S

are key, because you won't need a fuel source.

Filter technology has come a long way recently ... the small sport Black element Berky's are swamp grade. And would have made toilet water drinkable at least for the first few days.

One airdrop at the Superdome of just a 1000 sport berky's
would have relieved much suffering.

France proposed a filter drop but was denied presumably because they were French.

[sandnsea]

10. And 2 naval ships and a hospital ship

That were in the Caribbean and offered on Sept 1, but who's counting. Shipments were finally flown in on the largest airplane in the world... to Alabama. :crazy:

[politicat]

6. Replace the coffee table with a storage trunk.

There are some nice looking ones on the market that are inexpensive. 3 cases of half-liter bottles of water would be water for 2 plus small pets and 2 cases of Balance (or similar) bars per person would not fill the trunk, leaving room for other stuff as needed. If one's not enough, buy two and put 'em back to back, with maybe a sheet of glass as a tabletop.

Get the lifters that raise a bed 12 inches off the floor and store stuff in underbed storage boxes.

We live in a small house with little storage, too. Getting creative with the storage space is like my second job.

Two to four weeks is about what we keep in the pantries and freezer; as long as we have either gas, the propane appliances or electricity, we can save the frozen stuff. Water we do in both the half-liter bottle cases and in 5 gal bottles. I've gotten used to walking around the bottles because that's the reality. But then again, my kitchen is about 30% of our living space....

[I_Make_Mistakes]

8. I look in my cabinets and laugh that I couldn't live for 2 weeks!

That thinking is not without, water, electric, gas etc. These people must have their heads up their butts.

Oh, yeah, that's right, We are the Ownership society, You are on your OWN!

Oh, yeah, We are all independently weatherly! Please excuse me, I actually live in the REAL world and not in the REALITY that I created!

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. hmmm the standard used to be 72 hours before katrina

are we now living in the post katrina world?

For the record I am getting ready to take care of myself for a month... I don't trust them bastids

[Kailassa]

11. necesseties of life

Did they also mention having your own oxygen supply for when your attic fills with water?

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. nope

welcome to DU

[Kailassa]

16. ty

Thanks ;-) It's an interesting forum, lots of great people here.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. We try

:-)

We also try to think and do things, maybe join the DU Activist Corps

[Kailassa]

19. exciting idea

I googled to see what you were talking about; it's a great idea, and I hope a lot of people will realise that things can be changed when folks work together.

If I was an American, I'd definitely be joining your Activist Corps and doing my utmost to get rid of the murderers presently in power.

Remember, nobody in a society has power on their own, it takes a group to hold power, and they only have power for as long as they have henchmen to carry out their wishes.

People must be persuaded that the Republicans, (not just Bush, he's just an innane figurehead,) are not good for them, personally. These days people are trained to be "me-firsters", with no empathy, and the government encourages this by putting an either-or provision on anything it spends in the community, so that people are fooled into believing that helping anyone else will hurt them. So Bush-Co can gradually shred society without an uproar, as long as the people voting for him are kept comfortable ... until the time comes when they too are in the way of his plans.

The America you believed you lived in as children could become a reality, and I pray it will, but only if people link their dreams, work at it, and take risks together.

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. It is probably more important

to our security and the rest of the world to get rid of these bums and the sooner the better. Then we might not need to worry as much about finding a place to put 2 weeks worth of supplies.

BTW: Welcome to DU :hi:

[newyawker99]

23. Hi Kailassa!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Kailassa]

26. Thanks DoYouEver and NewYawker :-)

[spuddonna]

13. Don't forget your Noah's Ark schematics... and duct tape...

I still don't know what a cubit is... :shrug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. hmm from readying the bible

in school (Jewsish school) they believe it was the measure of the arm from the tip of extended fingers to the elbow

[spuddonna]

15. Yeah, but I'm vertically challenged and Keebler-elf like!

My arms are little stubs! Or is a cubit a relative size...

Still, either way, it's gonna be a small ark... :crazy:

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. may fit you and your pets

maybe me and my kids, I am short too

Remember Noah was likely not higher than 5.5 anyway (meter sixty)

[spuddonna]

24. Hmm... He was only 5.5? That's not bad...

I'm 5'1"... so I could probably get some neighbors and their pets aboard...

And if I have duct tape and plastic sheeting, we could rig sails! Yeah! That's the ticket...

(I obviously need more coffee...)

[Kailassa]

21. space-saver

Anyone seriously short of space should pick up a few cartons of dehydrated water, and food can be looked after, if you don't mind chewing on raw space-alien monkeys, by ordering a few packets of sea-monkey eggs from the back of a comic book. Of course if you're a reporter, you might be able to chase down an elephant and grill it, that makes the best meal ;-)

[elare]

22. Hauling a 2 week supply cache to a shelter might be

just a bit difficult.

[MissMarple]

25. Especially the gallon of water a day per person...quite heavy.

:eyes:

Does anyone remember in the 60's the big boxes of emergency provisions stored in public buildings? Every time I went to the downstairs stacks in the library at college, I passed numerous stacked boxes and barrels of food and water. That was "emergency preparedness" for the cold war nuclear threat.