What to put in my disaster preparation kit

[rhaswell79]

My friend is part of this group that stresses both man-made and natural disaster preparedness. After he talked to me about it, I realized I’m really not prepared at all. I live in California and don’t even have a plan if a big earthquake hit!

I’ve decided to purchase canned food, supplies, and bottled water. Right now, I’m storing everything in my garage; it gets to 90 degrees in there, so how long should I expect it will last before I have to throw it away and buy new? How often should I be replacing these supplies?

“A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.” – John F. Kennedy

[Outlander Systems]

Welcome to the site, amigo.

At 90°, you can expect the rapid loss of nutrients, as shelf-life for canned goods is typically factored at approximately 70°.

Others may disagree, and while I recommend freeze-dried food for bugging out, as well as something worthwhile to have on hand, what's often forgotten is that FD chow requires water. Take that for what it's worth.

Canned foods are great, as long as they are items that you will regularly eat, and can rotate the stock.

I'm a sucker for beans and white rice.

The most important question you need to consider is whether you plan to bug-in or bug-out, should a natural or manmade disaster rear its ugly head.

[fixer]

store what you use and use what you store.

i have a south facing garage door and even after insulating it, it still gets WAY over 90°F in the middle of summer!

consider storing some of the canned food in the back of a closet or under a bed inside the house.

[tracker722]

******

[Audacia77]

First step should be get out of Cali. Ha!

Just to expound on what was previously mentioned...

1. Buy the stuff you and your family eat. No sense in buy a whole bunch of food that no one wants to eat. Easy enough.

2. Easy way to build a proper supply. When you go grocery shopping, but three or four cans instead of one. Put them in your pantry.

3. Rotate your stock. Use FIFO (First In First Out). When you buy foods, just put them in the back or and pull from the front. If need be, get a Sharpy and put the purchase date on the top of the can/jar. This all depends on the depth of your shelves and how you organize your store.

4. Keep your food storage cool and dry. A garage is not an ideal place to store your food. But, if you only keep a small volume and rotate it regularly, then it won't ever be there long enough to impact the shelf life. I do recommend looking into an alternative place to store you food. I started off in my garage and have graduated to remodeling the house. Guest bedroom no longer has a walk in closet, but the pantry in the rear of the living room sure got bigger.

5. Bottled water is a great start. But, do have a means of collecting, filtering and treating additional water. A few 55 gallon poly drums (Food Grade) are real useful and fairly inexpensive.

6. Food preparation. Lots of folks go out and buy grains and wheat and have no idea how to cook with it. Make sure you have an means of heating with fuel on hand. I have a charcoal grill, propane grill with two burners, a Coleman stove, a Jetboil and a MSR micro stove. I have a lockable cabinet full of cylinders of all shapes and sizes.

[philco]

When I moved to Florida 10 years ago, we looked for a house that was close to major highways (I-75), yet out of flood zones. The house had to have natural gas with a gas stove, gas hot water heater. When the power went out I could cook and have a hot shower... Moving forward 2004, I was totally caught off guard by all the hurricanes. I was not prepared for this at all. Its really HOT!!! here in Florida. Since 2004 I now have:

Standby generator 16kw that runs on natural gas and can run the whole house.

Portable toilet with plenty of waste bags.

Hot tub that is always filled (250-300 gal. I think)

10 (5 gallon water jugs) that are used and I replaced the used every 2 weeks.

Spare bedroom walk in closet has steel shelves and as mentioned above stocked with food we eat, as well as food and kitty litter for the 4 cats. The food is used and replaced as need.

I have since installed hurricane shutters and the garage door has been reinforced. We have several tarps in case the roof leaks as well as plenty of duct tape (OD in color).

I still have the charcoal grill, and a gas grill if needed as well as fire starting items.

This year I purchased a chiminea (red neck stove) and plenty of wood.

Stocked piled more ammunition and guns.

We decided we will stay in our house and not even try to evacuate in the event of an emergency. I think that would be crazy to evacuate. I am also considering buying a tent in case the house is damaged. I should have enough to last me 3-4 weeks. (I hope)

[palmbeach31]

Duct tape and plastic sheeting

[RogerinTPA]

When I moved to Florida 10 years ago, we looked for a house that was close to major highways (I-75), yet out of flood zones. The house had to have natural gas with a gas stove, gas hot water heater. When the power went out I could cook and have a hot shower... Moving forward 2004, I was totally caught off guard by all the hurricanes. I was not prepared for this at all. Its really HOT!!! here in Florida. Since 2004 I now have:

Standby generator 16kw that runs on natural gas and can run the whole house.

Portable toilet with plenty of waste bags.

Hot tub that is always filled (250-300 gal. I think)

10 (5 gallon water jugs) that are used and I replaced the used every 2 weeks.

Spare bedroom walk in closet has steel shelves and as mentioned above stocked with food we eat, as well as food and kitty litter for the 4 cats. The food is used and replaced as need.

I have since installed hurricane shutters and the garage door has been reinforced. We have several tarps in case the roof leaks as well as plenty of duct tape (OD in color).

I still have the charcoal grill, and a gas grill if needed as well as fire starting items.

This year I purchased a chiminea (red neck stove) and plenty of wood.

Stocked piled more ammunition and guns.

We decided we will stay in our house and not even try to evacuate in the event of an emergency. I think that would be crazy to evacuate. I am also considering buying a tent in case the house is damaged. I should have enough to last me 3-4 weeks. (I hope)

Charcoal or gas grill, provided you have a few tanks stored, is good idea. A camping stove if you live in a condo, with a few gallons of fuel. Candles and some type of purification system. You can always use the water in the hot tube/pool to flush the toilets.

[Low Drag]

USB drive will scanned copies of all your important documents including current resume.

[fixer]

It is cheaper to buy gallon jugs of water rather than individual bottles by the case. You need both, but the bulk of your emergency water should be the jugs.

on the gallon jugs, not just no, but HELL NO! over the years i've read multiple reports of people who had water stored in gallon jugs only to discover that they'd leaked. the only time i buy the 1 gal jugs anymore is if i need distilled water for a battery, but most of my batteries are AGM sealed batteries now, so that's not a normal thing.

for bulk storage, Wal-Mart has Aquatainers which are blue cubes, or check the local surplus store for GI plastic water cans... but use something heavier than a cheapie water jug. i've heard of some people using cleaned 2L soda bottles.

IIRC, the plastic used in water and milk jugs is designed to breakdown quickly. the plastic used for smaller water bottles and 2L bottles will hold up better, but some brands are still very thin because they're not expected to be stored long term or reused.