#prepping for disasters

[theroguebanshee]

Mastering the Preparedness Mindset:Mental Resilience for Self-Reliance

In this episode of The Undependent Podcast, I dive into the crucial yet often overlooked aspect of prepping: the preparedness mindset. Jason discusses the importance of cultivating mental resilience, adaptability, and awareness in everyday life, emphasizing that preparedness is more than having the right tools—it’s about how you think and react. Through personal stories, including his experiences…

[bamsara]

Maybe its a special interest or something idk but back to this post I made about making go-bags and talking to people about what they put in theirs-

Please tell me what you guys put in your go-bags that is a non-necessity for physical survival but is something for your mental well being. Mine is a travel sized sketchbook and watercolor/sketch kit the size of an average matchbox, stuffed animal (keychain sized) and comfort scarf, tell me what yours are!!! I find it very interesting someone PLS talk to me about them

[ecoplasma]

All of your art is so amazing, even if it's just for a con I would really be looking forward to seeing jjk art in your style! (If you do end up drawing that) You rarely post for fandoms I'm in these days but it doesn't even matter, I just love staring at your art regardless of if I know the character. Congrats on getting the con booth and I hope you're doing well!

It's the big downside of drawing for multiple fandoms, a lot of people will end up disappointed if they follow for just one. So I'm always happy to hear when people stick around for the art no matter who I draw, so thank you very much for telling me this! About jjk, there is a character that's been giving me brainrot. Before I started, I figured I would probably have Gojo as my fave. but alas:

[etraytin]

Emergency Preparedness On A Budget

Hey all, just a reminder that even though many of us are looking at a warmer-than-average winter this year, warm on average does not mean we won't see winter storms! In fact, warm winters can produce some really unusual weather patterns that are even more likely to produce severe storms. The best time to prepare for a winter storm, or any other natural disaster, is well before it happens, ie, right now.

"But wait," you might say, "the economy is stupid and everything is expensive! I'm afraid my survival bunker is just going to have to wait until my lottery numbers come up, which will take awhile because I also can't afford to play the lottery." First off, good job not playing the lottery, and second, preparing for a disaster does not have to be expensive. In fact, if you start early enough, disaster preparedness can be done a few dollars at a time without much of anything in the way of special supplies.

In order to not make a single post that is a billion lines long, I am dividing my advice into a few different posts and will link them together when I am done. The links will be right here:

Food and Water Preparedness

FIrst and most important: food and water. The motto of disaster preparedness is "The first 72 is on you." In a major disaster situation, if the situation has not resolved itself within three days, that's about the amount of time it takes for outside help to get itself organized and start arriving in a meaningful way to a disaster area. Objectively three days is a pretty short period of time, subjectively it is a small eternity if you are not prepared.

Preppers (people who do disaster preparedness as a hobby, to greater and lesser levels of unhingedness) spend a lot of time discussing the best types of food and water prep for long-term storage and/or end of the world scenarios. We are not going to do that. We want cheap, easy, effective preparations that we can ideally do while grocery shopping in a Walmart. The easiest, simplest and cheapest way to do your food prep is this: Buy one or two canned, jarred or tetrapacked (that waxed cardboard box pack) meal items every time you can afford it, then set them aside. Find a little space in a closet, a cupboard, a shelf, whatever, and just keep those foods there until you have three days worth for everyone in your household, including the pets.

"Fine," you might say as you look skeptically at the back of your cupboards, "but that doesn't seem very specific. There are a lot of canned goods out there!" And that is fair! The basic rule of thumb is "Buy something you will eat, ideally without heating it up if necessary, that doesn't require much prep or cleaning." For example, my family is two adults and one adolescent, none of us with major food allergens or aversions. If I were trying for a 72-hour food prep for us on the cheap with no cooking available I'd probably go with six cans of chunky soup, which I get for a dollar each on sale, three small jars of applesauce (smaller jars are better if you have no way to cool food), a box of saltine crackers, three cans of tuna, and a big box of granola bars if I could keep them out of reach of the kiddo long enough.

It's not fancy and it may not provide great long-term nutrition, but it's enough food to keep us alive for three days in a form that will hold in storage for 1-2 years without needing to rotate. Even on a very tight budget you can probably accumulate this much food in a pretty reasonable amount of time (and a lot of it is the sort of thing you might get from a food bank anyway!) For pet food, pack up three days worth of your pet's food, ideally in a glass jar but any sealed container will do, and add any cans of wet food they'd get as well.

Water is another big prepping topic that we're going to go easy-peasy on. You need, at minimum, a gallon of clean water per person per day, plus extra for cleaning and washing. Water is annoying to store and takes a lot of room, so for a quickie 3-day prep, minimizing water use is ideal. If you can scare up enough paper plates, cups and utensils to last you three days, you save ever having to wash dishes. If you can get hold of a pack of wet wipes, you reduce the amount of water for washing your body. If you can bring yourself to pee in the woods or at the very least let urine sit in the toilet unflushed, you save a HUGE amount of water on flushing.

For your water prep, you can use the bit-at-a-time strategy again. Every time you get groceries, try to bring home a gallon or two of purified drinking water. They should be very cheap, usually around 1.25 in my neck of the woods, and they last for awhile. If you have a few extra dollars, buy a flat of bottled water until you have at least three gallon containers and one 12-pack for each human member of your household Tuck them away somewhere out of direct sunlight, and rotate them regularly, taking out an old gallon and flat and replacing them with new every couple of months.

Once you have your basic setup, you can start thinking about getting fancier. There are ways to find things like camp stoves and water filters fairly cheaply, usually by hitting up garage sales or looking in the clearance sporting goods section when camping season is over, but that's basically gravy when compared to just having something to eat.

Next Time: Light, Heat and Medicine

[intersexfairy]

As someone (from the USA) who survived a severe hurricane, if there is one piece of advice I could give, PLEASE listen to any evacuation orders. This goes for voluntary and mandatory, but ESPECIALLY mandatory. If you can't get outside the evacuation zone, even just getting closer to the boundary is better than nothing.

If you are in a mandatory evacuation zone and you stay, no one (no emergency services) will be coming to save you. You will have to hunker down for however long the storm lasts.

The time to prepare for evacuation is as soon as you know you're under evacuation order, at LEAST. Do NOT delay. You don't want to be like my family who only left once the flood began (thanks, dad). Not only did we have to hurry to pack, we weren't able to prepare. At that, here are some good things to do in a hurricane:

Have a radio - an emergency crank radio is good, since it uses mechanical energy. We also had walkie talkies.

Have a good first aid kit, especially if you cant get out.

Unplug anything that you absolutely do not need while home, unplug everything before you leave. We didn't do this and my house almost caught fire (fridge outlet) - only the flood put it out.

Have a working fire alarm, charge flashlights and devices. Make sure you also have candles and lighters, too.

Be VERY careful if you must wade or drive in flood water. There will be debris, there will be down power lines. It is deeper than it looks.

Stock up on water and nonperishable food. Eat your perishable foods now. Use coolers for any excess. MREs are good to have, you can order them online.

Put belongings you can't take with you as high up in your house as you can - prioritize things that cannot be easily/emotionally replaced. Leave space for you to go high up too, if you're staying.

Use sand bags (or DIY alternatives) as flood barriers. Tie or tarp down everything you can, and don't keep it in a wide open area.

Close windows, and stay away from them. You really don't want to be there when something comes flying.

This is all I can think of for now, others feel free to add more or correct me. Remember, your life is more important than objects. Losing your life is worse than losing everything but your life. Stay safe, and stay alive.

[amoontoyou]

the real question is will dan and phil bring back rize for the phagenda tour

[joy-haver]

Let’s talk a little bit about hurricanes!

Let’s discuss where the danger lies, individual preparedness, community preparedness, and mutual aid efforts around these storms and their aftermaths.

To start, the thing to remember about hurricanes is this: It’s not one disaster. It’s hundreds of different disasters at once.

Hurricanes have their own massive winds. They also spawn tornadoes. Hurricanes bring storm surges like tsunamis, but they also bring heavy rains, swelled rivers, broken dams. The vectors for flooding are multitudinous.

With any disaster, the danger isn’t always direct. While many people die die in the immediate storm, often the deaths continue to accumulate for months after. This is because people don’t just go on living just because the storm is over. All of us have lives that are dependent on infrastructure. Medical infrastructure, food infrastructure, social infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, electrical infrastructure. When any of these fails it can put strain on the rest. People go hungry, go lonely, their disabilities go untreated, injuries are more likely in the wreckage, they die of infection and disease and suicide because it seems so hopeless. So many become homeless, displaced, losing everything. And often there is nothing in the way of aid.

And bigotry can often exacerbate. white supremacist groups and police become vigilantes, killing those who scavenge the wreckage. Even in milder hurricanes, police violence and violence from store proprietors increases. Disabled people are often pushed out of hospitals to die at home. People are euthanized.

Hurricanes exacerbate the worst parts of the system of domination.

But they also bring out the best in communities and people who believe in caring for one another.

After every hurricane, tens of thousands of volunteers go out in their airboats to save people from the floods. People prepare food, develop water filtration. People open their homes to those who have fled, those who often have lost everything. These volunteer armies of aid workers are from all accross the south east, from many paths of life and from every conceivable part of the political spectrum. On the flat boats of the Cajun Navy, in their supply lines, you will see maga hats standing next to anarchist abolitionists, both concerned primarily with how they will get an old woman both just met her medicine. Months and years after the storm you will see flocks of children flittering like bees around stripped down homes, helping to remove what is tainted and rebuild towards home again, and they will be working aside those same people who helped in the immediate aftermath.

Even when government aid does come in, it is not the government that manages all of it. They pass off many of the resources the mutual aid organizations for distribution.

The environmental cleanup, the saving, the feeding, the rebuilding; the vast majority of the work is done by everyday people. That can include you.

So, What Do We Do?

1. Individual and household preparedness.

The biggest step is preparedness. A pound of cure is nice, but it is better served with an ounce of prevention.

Individual Preparedness begins with risk evaluation.

Ask yourself these questions;

-what is the likelihood of my home flooding? Has it flooded before? How much could it flood if it did? Do I have sand bags or flood walls to prevent minor floodwaters? Do I have roof access in high floodwaters?

-what is my evacuation plan? Do I have friends in a safer area (away from coasts, outside of a flood plane)? Do I have transportation to their? If not, how can I find other people that do?

-how long can I live without power? Do I have life saving medical equipment that needs power? If so, who do I know with a generator?

-how much water do I have stored? What vessels around my house can hold water? (Remember, you can always use less than drinkable water to flush toilets).

-how much non perishable food do I have stored? How would I cook it without electricity? How much cooking fuel do I have access to? How would I continue to cook and wash dishes if I had limited access to water?

-What would keep me going if I lost everything I own? What motivations to live and keep going could I hold onto?

-do I have home insurance? Do I have pictures of the things inside my house stored on the could or a third party location incase I need to make a claim?

-where are my important documents stored? Are they safe incase of a flood, or the house falling down?

-how acclimated am I to the heat? Have I been spending enough time outside? Will a loss of air conditioning make me unable to function? Do I have a plan to get cool if that happens?

2. Community preparedness

Of course, individual preparedness is not enough, nor is it the most efficient. Survival and rebuilding comes from communities working together. So how do we do that?

Let’s talk a bit about skills you can have, and skills you can look for in your community, that might come in handy in a hurricane or post hurricane disaster.

-airboat and pirogue navigation! This is how you save lives. Flat bottom boats you can get people into.

-food storage and preservation. Networking with folks who doing canning, save beans, store large amounts of rice, gather nuts, dehydrate greens and fruits. These folks will often provide much of the food before outside aid arrives, and after it dries up.

-outdoor cooking!

-water purification. This is huge. Clean water is the hardest thing to come by. Having water purification tablets and devices, or knowing how to make your own, can save hundreds of peoples lives.

-cautious eyes. Everyone needs help spotting downed power lines in these environments.

-ham radio enthusiasts. These folks can be the lifeblood of rescue operations, resource distribution, and medical assistance. This is probably the most under utilized skill in disaster response and management

-construction. This is huge. Rebuilding requires many many volunteers. The wonderful thing tho, is you can just show up and learn most of the time.

- cleaning. Mold is a huge problem post hurricane.

-first aid!!!!

-physical strength. Many frail old people need to be carried out.

-a strong sense that flood water is dangerous. This might not seem like a skill. It is. Being willing to instill this sense of fear and respect in others will save lives.

-networking. This is huuuge. Somone has to connect all the rednecks and Cajuns and gays and aid organizations and churches and restaurants and whatever else. None of this works without relationships. Knowing people, building trust ahead of time. Being the person they come to with their resources.

-grant writing. Get that government money into the community.

3. Resource evaluation

Skills to offer your community are very important, but that’s not all we have. We have access to other resources, and if we leverage those right, those too can save lives.

Community preparedness begins with resource evaluation, and needs evaluation.

Here are some resources you might have, and how you can use them.

-a safe home, high off of flood zones. You can be an evacuation destination.

-a generator. You can be the place with power that people flee to to save their medications, or to use medical equipment, or simply to keep from having a heat stroke

-a large pot and propane burner. You can be the person who cooks for masses of displaced people. Or you can let someone else use it and cook.

-flat bottom boats. You can save people, or let others use them to.

-construction equipment and supplies. You can bring these in after a disaster to help.

-access to large buildings with generators. If you are the janitor at the stadium, you can open the gates to that high ground. If you are the secretary of the church, you can unlock the doors of shelter.

-contacts with people in nearby cities who have been through this before, and have their own resources. Hurricanes are terrible, but they don’t hit the whole south at once. We can take turns saving each other

- a pool full of water people can use to flush toilets.

- storage of food.

-space others can store any items listed

-access to lots of sunscreen, insect repellents, and mosquito nets

-access to soap, detergent, toothbrushes, toothpastes, menstrual products, and deodorant. Specifically go for free and clear soaps, dial gold, and dawn. They all have different applications.

-an excess of phone chargers. Phones are lifelines. They are one of the most important things you can have.

-an excess of medicines. Rationing and saving prescriptions might save your life or others.

-first aid equipment

4. need’s assessment.

All of this is great, but to make best use of it, it’s best to know ahead of time where resources will be needed, and who might need the most help.

Begin learning this by focusing on these things.

-do you know the people who live around you? Do you know who’s old and alone, and might need to be checked on in a storm? Do you know who is disabled? Do you know who lives at the bottom of your hill by the flooding creek, and who lives at the top where it’s safest? These questions can save lives!

-do you know who might need help evacuating? If you plan to evacuate, do they know you could take them with you?

-do you know who needs access to generators for life saving equipment?

-do you know who is too poor to afford to be prepared?

-do you know who might need help putting sand bags around their home?

-do you know which mutual aid and charity organizations might need help connecting to local communities?

Thank you for reading!

Stay safe out there, and help as often as you can, while still keeping yourself stable enough to help again later. Right now many homes are flooded in Florida, power is out in Georgia, and a dam broke near Asheville.

Volunteer : https://stability.org/default.aspx

Donate : https://nonprofit.resilia.com/donate/

https://nonprofit.resilia.com/donate/

[sarenth]

A Heathen Prepping -Bug Out Bags

For the most part the A Heathen Prepping posts have focused on at-home preps. Bug Out Bags, or BOBs, are for when that is not the best option or when you are away from home. There are a lot of SHTF (Shit Hits The Fan aka emergency, disaster, or catastrophic) scenarios that can make your home dangerous to hunker down in. Fires, floods, earthquakes, and civil unrest come to mind. BOBs ask us two…

[confused-disaster32]

Hi to any Americans out there what actually is a prep rally?

(Also are prom posals rlly that big of a thing? Or is that a movie over exaggeration?)

[themelanindigitalwave]

🌍 The World is Changing: Are You Ready? 🌍

Right now, we are living in unprecedented times. Political tensions are rising, racial divisions are deepening, the migrant crisis is overwhelming our cities, and violence seems to be at every corner. Inflation is making it harder to get by, the Israel/Palestine conflict continues to escalate, and homelessness is becoming a growing crisis. As Black people, we have always been resilient, but now is the time to prepare and protect what matters most—our families.

Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late!

The Urban Survival Playbook is the single most important digital product you can purchase right now to navigate these uncertain times. This isn’t just another guide; it’s a blueprint for survival, crafted with our community in mind. Whether it’s mass shootings, economic collapse, or civil unrest, being prepared can mean the difference between chaos and control.

🛡️ Why You Need This NOW:

• Stay ahead of the curve—learn how to protect your family before disaster strikes.

• Get practical, no-nonsense strategies to keep your home safe.

• Plan for emergencies like food shortages, natural disasters, and power outages.

• Build mental resilience to handle the stress of an unpredictable world.

💡 Take Action Today!

Don’t wait until a crisis catches you off guard. Your family’s safety depends on your preparedness. Visit our website and get the Urban Survival Playbook now. It’s time to start planning for the unexpected. Waiting could cost you dearly, but being ready will give you peace of mind.

[kawaiijohn]

Did u know your periods aren't supposed to cause you debilitating pain? Did you know you're not supposed to be anemic to the point of passing out? That you're not supposed to be passing clots as big or bigger than a half-dollar??

Did you know that your cycle should be /predictable/ and consistent by your early 20s? Should be happening every 3-5 weeks?

That if your cycle is unpredictable or random or even lasting more than a week (like heavy for more than 3-5 days) you should ABSOLUTELY get checked out for that?

That if you have such intense pms that you wanna kys every month that it is NOT normal either? (I dealt with this one, not fun.)

Hormonal and reproductive health is important and more people who have periods /should/ be taught these things.

Endometriosis and PCOS are only two things that could be fucking with you. Both can send you to the emergency room! I personally know someone who's been sent to the ER for both conditions near killing her!

Please talk if you have abnormal or painful period problems!!

[thatdisasterauthor]

Also, with this cold incoming, here is the CDC graphic on recognizing and treating hypothermia and frostbite. There are a lot of myths out there that can actually be very dangerous, so be sure to do your research beyond just this introductory graphic:

(click it for a better view if tumblr isn't showing it well. Or go here to see it: https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/infographics/ast-frostbite.htm )

[flango87]

Maybe it’s just my feed but the only place I’m seeing anything about h5n1 is twitter. PAY ATTENTION TO IT!!! Prepare NOW! not when everyone starts to hear about it, not when everyone starts to care, not when the CDC finally admits it’s an issue (if they ever do). Prepare right now. While you have the chance. I am talking to everyone in my life about masks and precautions. I was hesitant about it before bc fear of confrontation but I’m cracking down now. I am going to stock up on essentials. My list right now is non-perishable foods, masks, bottled water, first aid kits, basic medications, and other essentials I can think of. I am going to be incredibly diligent about hygiene and selective about where I go in public. This is not me trying to fear monger. I would rather be paranoid and alive than dismissive and dead. This has high potential to be so so so serious. Please treat it as such.

[kumquatqueenb]

9-1-1 fans on tumblr: omg!!! I’m so excited to watch the first episode of s8 Thursday evening!!!! I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen with the season opening disaster!!!

Me *Im not like other girls”-ing my way through this*: ahaha omg!! I can’t wait to live through my very own self-insert 9-1-1 season opening largescale disaster on Thursday evening!!!

(I am on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico)

In all seriousness tho, to anyone else living in a potentially impacted area, stay safe, make sure you’re prepped, and know your resources and your hurricane plan. And also, hey, don’t worry about missing the episode premiere if your power and/or internet goes out because you won’t be able to access social media either so you won’t see any spoilers!! :) just make sure you download a nice long fic ahead of time to get you through it!

[adashofniallandasprinkleoflunacy]

home from work

[petula-xx]

I wonder how many people around the world this year have discovered that their 'prepper shed' full of ammo, weapons and tinned food has been completely useless after a catastrophic flood.

Helping each other out, skill sharing, pooling resources, team work and community mindedness are proving pretty useful for survival right now though.