OT: Disaster preparedness for crohns peeps

 maybe i should keep my mouth shut , but hey ive never been one to keep quiet....  with so many of us in disater zones, whether it be hurricanes, volcano's earthquakes , tornados etc... we all have to be prepared to survive on our own ...now i know this is possible cause people do it all the time ..

    i will start and then you guys can add to the list of low cost easy to do things to help us all out and not have to depend on the "guvment" for everything..

    first find some sort of large contanier to keep things in.

    1. clean drinking water is the most important thing to have

    2. shelter is number 2  a tarp or small tent is good

    3. food that will not spoil is a good thing to have, canned goods, dry food etc...plus most canned goods have liquid in them decreasing the need for water.

    4. of course a supply of needed medicines will be needed. if you cant afford to purchase a whole prescription extra for emergencies, try taking 1 or 2 pills from each one for a few months and pu them in your stash. most are good for a couple years. this way you will just renew a couple days early and no real jump in cost. byt he time your done you can have a couple weeks worth .

     5. sanitation is next or you can put it higher on the list, a 5 gallon bucket and some garbage bags, a shovel , and wiping material.

      6. some anti bacterial wipes, lotion, soap. the less water you use the more for drinking.

      7. of course a first aid kit, a fire starting kit (magnesium) so you can light cooking fires and for heat. in a disaster there will be plenty of wood to burn so dont worry about having fuel.

      8. a couple of cutting tools, knives, hatchet, saw etc... you never know what you will need them for.

       9. a small sewing kit, for more than you think, repairing your shelter, stitching an open wound, fishing, etc...

      10.  a couple books, sounds funny but you will be bored and you can use the paper for fires, tp. writing mesages on etc...

       11. and finally for my list is a means of defending your self against the ones who are not prepared, for if the situation persists, hungry thisty people WILL take what you have for your family by any means they can...

   ok so what ya got?   btw all of this stuff can fit in a container from wally world in the auto motive section are some good quality black and gray ones. by shopping around i bet you can get most or all of this for under 100 bucks.  think thrift stores, garage sales, flea markets etc...  in fact next time i make one for someone i will keep track of what it costs..

I know you put the cutting tools on there, but from experience, a can opener on a keychain is pretty important...I always seem to forget that and up taking a lot longer to open my meal...

Oh and I forgot, I even have a port a potty in the camping stuff, so I'm really good to go!!!!

I also use mail order so I usually have months of medicine on hand.

I recommend keeping a list of you VIP most important things. The govt recommends you have a ready evacuation bag but if you are in an area that doesn't have disasters much you probably won't have one. Plus your VIP items are probably things you use daily.

One day I had just got home from school... was relaxing, and there was a knock at my door. It was a gas guy saying "oops, there is a big leak on the property behind your house, we are evacuating the neighborhood." I had no idea what to grab. They were basically telling me to get out now! I grabbed my dog, my laptop, and my glasses, my meds, and cell phone. I didn't grab the cat because he HATES the car and I really didn't think the neighborhood was going to blow.

But I should have asked if the gas was toxic, and grabbed him. I didn't have a carrier ready. I didn't take dog food with me. Or her water bowl. I didn't bring a change of clothes.

Obviously I could have just gone to a friends house but it gave me a preview of how not prepared I was. We were allowed back in that night.

In the winter we always have canned goods we can cook on our wood stove if we lose power, a couple jugs of drinking water, and some fire wood.

This is a good post. I have everything except water and thought I was all set. But I never thought of saving up meds and filling scripts a few days early. That is just plain brilliant. My insurance is a wicked pain so I can only fill a day in advance, but I'm going to start this time and hopefully I should be all set before the dead of winter in the Northeast.

Randy - I think some of the reason a lot of people need help from the Govt is that the stuff that they did have to live on was destroyed in the disaster. In a snow storm for me thats not likely to happen. But in a hurricane when your house blows down and you are up to your waist in water, all those supplies you bought probably aren't going to help much.

Gloves--to protect your hands when moving debris
Wrench--to turn your gas off at the meter (common knowledge in 'earthquake country')
Medical supplies--some of us have ostomies!!
Did anyone mention a change of clothes??
Boots--broken glass and debris is not much match for tennis shoes

Good thread!

And if you're on Humira, an ice pack and freezer bag to keep your injection safe.

I have my snow/ice storm box all ready. It is also the plastic tub we take camping. It now has 3 packs of baby wipes in it after this years camping trip.

my emergency tote is bright orange so I can always find it even if the basement gets dark. And it's plastic to keep everything dry (mostly because I worry about the sump pump dying and not a natural disaster

ok the container should be about 2x2x3.a size that can be thrown in the car at a moments notice or can be taken to the basement etc.. can be lifted by one person , two if its packed full, a lockable lid to keep kids out, some of the stuff i left off like clothes etc.. cause you dont NEED clean clothes to survive. and as for a hurricane desroying your house, and leaving you unable to get to your supplies, well ask sniper why he leaves when one is coming. no huricane has hit anywhere without at least 4-5 days notice in decades. so no excuse for hanging around. i left out can openers cause so many canned goods come with pop tops now and the hatchet and knife can be used for the same purpose. i just forget many of you dont have military experiance or go camping etc... good list though im sure there is more.

Sniper: When you are starving, anything looks good after awhile! LOL, a fact I'm sure you know from "Nam.
BTW, I haven't seen a single Crohn's peep say anything about toilet paper, though someone mentioned babywipes.

Matthew

ok i forgot an good water source that i remembered after i logged off last time... everyone has one,, can you guess? ok when disaster strikes, shut off your main water conection to your home. so that your water wont be contaminated.... the answer is your water heater! every water heater has a drain valve at the bottom. each hold between 40-80 gallons of water depending on size. after it cools down you can drain the water as little as you need. the pipes in you house also contain water. open the highest faucet a little and then go to the lowest point in the system, downsatirs if in a 2 story or the basement etc.. the water will drain out enough for a couple days if your carefull. but the most important thing is to shut off your main valve BEFORE the water can drain out of your house. just more FYI, oh also the toilet tank holds a couple gallons. not too appetizing but it could save your life. at least the dog and cat can drink it if you dont want too.

Fill a clean bathtub with water. Of course this only works when you can anticipate a disaster, like a storm.

Big garbage bags can be used as rain ponchos, they can keep supplies dry, for insulation from the wet ground, protect food from insects like flies and ants.

Bug spray: mosquitoes love disasters.

Duct tape!!!!!

Bleach for sanitizing just about anything.