how long at home

[drewdunnrespect]

Hiya gang
Now a question
How long could u servive at home with out power gas or water
Cos in its present state my mum and dads house about two days cos they have a Weston mentality cos well yes they have supply stored but not water or ways of making fire or a proper fire place and well when I move out I will Deffos be more prepared

So what's your situation like

 

[Retired Member southey]

Pretty good, we have pots to boil water in, wood over the road to burn, lakes over the dual carriage way for water, deer and rabbit locally, plus a spar and a big tesco\asda\St Michael's, emergency services, main Garrison emergency contingency plans and routines, and a new cool as fudge axe! oh and a fiver in my wallet!

 

[udamiano]

Indefinitely.

open Fireplaces in every room, garden to grow stuff, water near by. woodland for fuel.

local game (Rabit,etc).

Quite lucky really

 

[santaman2000]

Southey I'm glad you mentioned the fiver. Most people planning for power outages forget they'll need cash (preferably in small denominations) Why? Well because in a power outage the ATMs won't work. Neither will the credit card/debit card readers in the stores and shops.

Every hurricane we get here, someone always forgets to get some cash beforehand.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Its always the first thing that gets put into anything preppy wise, ten pound coins, 2 fives, 2 tens, 2 twenties, but then I used to empty my bank account every pay day too, so i would know exactly what i had to spend\save\payout, now were in debt but slowly on the way out of it

 

[Paul_B]

Ha! can beat that. Got about a tennersworth of coinage. Plus several bags of one and two pence pieces in various drawers in the house.

I have plenty of stoves and pots too so can always cook. I live near a canal which I guess could supply water if filtered and boiled but I'd not want to. Would much prefer to loot the Tescos and other supermarkets near me if in a disaster. Sorry if that is too near the recent looting for propriety but we are talking about things going wrong I reckon.

I have a freezer full of fruit at least which I'd have to use quickly or jam up. Also have relatives within walking distance (2 miles and about 8 miles away). Heck It would take me at worst 2 or 3 days to get to my sisters who is two hours drive away. I'd be able to go cross country not the long way round that is the roads. Can walk about 50 miles a day if necessary.

However I fully admit that living in the UK I don't expect things to go sooo wrong that I need to do that. I do think the worst we generally have is now electrickery and perhaps no water/gas or other utilities. The shops would supply the water or as I said relatives who live near enough to walk to but far enough away to probably be on a different water line. I have enough warm clothes to cope without heating. Heck I went about 6 years without central heating and only two gas fires which I never used (one in wrong room and other dodgy as hell). Had storage heaters in wrong rooms for me. This all meant I don't have much problem with the cold. Kind of used to it and have warm clothes. I have also managed before now without hot water. Cold showers can have positive effects don't you know.

One of my relatives had a problem with a new boiler. Was under guarantee but it took a long time to get sorted out. They had an electric shower though and coped well enough.

It is funny in that people worry about things going wrong but when it actually does people cope. We are all capable of finding a way round problems, it is what has given us our advantage on earth. Whilst forward planning makes things better but in most cases you will still get by without this planning. Just find a way!!

 

[Retired Member southey]

To my mind the biggest problem is never normally where YOU are(floods and fires withstanding) when we lived in Kinloss, the first year the snow was worse than was expected, the A9 and the A96 were closed so the distribution hubs didn't get resupplied or a week or so, so the stores like tesco and smaller slowly emptied, they never ran out as the roads were cleared, but if it had continued for a further week it would have become an issue, we could get to Forres no worries due to driving a chelsie tractor Wrangler(as my sister called it but then she could get off here drive while i was out driving to Avimoor) another example of this but a little abstract, i worked for Marks and Spencer ,in there call centre, people ringing up complaining that they hadn't had there orders, when explaining about the depot being snowed in they called me a liar, it was fine at their house so WHY couldn't the van get to THEM! not all problems that affect you are local.

 

[Barn Owl]

Probably quite some time as I live in a village with plenty trees, water, fish and game about.

Plenty horses too fore by cattle and sheep.

Reckon if it was a really long outage then the school would be used to make sure the children were all accounted for to have food and meals taken to the elderly.

The village is full of guys who are countrymen.

 

[mrcairney]

We'd be sound. There's a Lidl 100 yards down the road.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

The good thing about gas & electrickery is that you don't have to cut down or mutilate trees for fire wood & supermarkets mean you are not obliged to exterminate the local fauna to eat. No one can exist now just relying on local resources, they would soon become depleted & if there was an energy black out, you wouldn't be the only one using them.

 

[malente]

we would last about one and a half day. Though we have stoves and facilities to boil etc, we do not currently have provisions for this kind of event. Plus three kids under 5 (4, 2.5 and 1). We'd be pretty screwed.

 

[locum76]

We live and work on an organic smallholding with all the veg you can think of, turkeys, chickens a shop and a cafe. The whole thing is in a small estate rich with edible flora and fauna and it's own distinct water supply.

The only problem would be we're all peace loving hippies so keeping marauding sqauddies and punters from nicking our stuff might be difficult.

 

[Shewie]

Looking at the amount of tins in the kitchen cupboard I reckon we could go ten years no bother

 

[Laurentius]

Being very conservative about it, at least a week, having been cut off from the water before I store enough to get me by. I could be cut of from gas indefinitely as I don't even have a meter connected, something my housing association finds hard to believe. I'd feel with the power gone the deprivation from the internet more than anything, I have light enough indefinately from a solar panel and battery, I could revert (although my housing association would not like it) to lighting a fire and cooking by it. I can boil water in my kelly kettle anyway. The real restriction would be sewage, if you can't flush the loo. I could use the portapotti in the short term of course, but where do you empty it?

I have emergency food for 72 hours and probably enough to surviivee uncomfortably for longer than that if I had to. Anyway if it came to it, I'd be more likely to take myself off to a campsite or something

In the long run I could get water, though I don't have a filter so I'd have to boil, what it would depend on fuel wise is how many others out there who are collecting, if most of them have evacuated however, I'd be fine.

In reality though if I knew in advance there might be a problem I'd take myself off to a campsite.

 

[Retired Member southey]

If you have a toilet you just need fluids to pour down it to flush away your solids, pee into a Jerry can, use this to wash away your stools then a drop of bleach to counter the smell.

 

[British Red]

Oh a good while if FYGTs little one stops trying to fall in the well .

We would certainly be warm, fed and watered, lit, drained, entertained, internet would work etc, till Spring without leaving our land

 

[silentpaddler]

A decade ago this area suffered the worst ice storm on record; taking out power lines and trees everywhere. Some were without electricity for over a month, which can be
a real problem as it was mid-winter. The army was making rounds in the backwoods areas near here, checking on people and clearing trees from across roads, etc.
I remember a news story at the time about the soldiers checking on an elderly couple who lived back in the hills...they asked the couple how long they had been
without power and were told 'forever'. The old folks cooked and heated with wood and used gas lanterns and weren't even aware that there was an emergency going on.

 

[Miyagi]

We live and work on an organic smallholding with all the veg you can think of, turkeys, chickens a shop and a cafe. The whole thing is in a small estate rich with edible flora and fauna and it's own distinct water supply.

The only problem would be we're all peace loving hippies so keeping marauding sqauddies and punters from nicking our stuff might be difficult.

Hahahahahahaaa.

You also have man sized (long pig) lockable freezers to suffoc... **cough** detain trespassers.

Liam

 

[Laurentius]

A decade ago this area suffered the worst ice storm on record; taking out power lines and trees everywhere. Some were without electricity for over a month, which can be
a real problem as it was mid-winter. The army was making rounds in the backwoods areas near here, checking on people and clearing trees from across roads, etc.
I remember a news story at the time about the soldiers checking on an elderly couple who lived back in the hills...they asked the couple how long they had been
without power and were told 'forever'. The old folks cooked and heated with wood and used gas lanterns and weren't even aware that there was an emergency going on.

Well that is the way I would like to be, sadly it is not the way I am because the authorities won't let me.

 

[jackcbr]

well, let's take a look at this one.

Water - stream across the road and around 3995 litres left on my Lifesaver filtration bottle, not to mention boiling (quite a long time)
Fuel - woodland across the road and one up at the farm (quite some time)
almost forgot, solar panels on roof, so hijack a few car batteries (got 3 good ones at least, plus a few not so good ones)
Food - freezer well stocked with meat and veg
local rabbit and squirrel, lamb and beef from the farm and the cat does quite well for mice
veg patch at the farm, but limited
the knowledge to forage
Heating - got a great ammo can wood burning stove thingy and an ingenious mind

So, depending on the situation, I think we're in not too bad a place. Minimum 2 weeks I'd say, Longer if it was winter as we could use the cold to preserve the freezer food for longer