Utilities, Neccssities and Scavenging

[Doom_Baboon]

I'm a student living in the UK, I share a flat with five other guys near the center of a major (>1 million pop.) city. This means that acquiring most of the equipment listed as good contingency gear is unfeasable in terms of finance and storage space, so I'd like to hear people's thoughts on a few questions...

-How long can I expect the power and the water to be on once TSHTF?

-Where can I find water that is safe to drink once whatever little I can store has run out?

-Where should I try looking for food once the main wave of looting has passed?

-On a similar note, what sort of useful stuff gets overlooked in the looting?

-How long should I wait before trying to leave the city? Should I even try, since I can't drive?

[ironraven]

good contingency gear is unfeasable in terms of finance and storage space

A common misperception. What kind of problems are there in your area?

Your typical disruption of normal life (TSHTF) is a temporary thing. Five days of food for one will fit into one of the cartons that paper for your school's printers and copiers fit into and be about the cost of a week of groceries. Because that is what it is. Canned and just add hot water items, instant rice, noodles, shelf stable sausages and cheeses, dried fruit, crackers (I think you call them biscuits), that kind of thing will be fine. Add a couple cases of 500mL water bottles per person, a small chaffing dish heater and a peice of tile or slate big enough to hold it so you don't light the flat on fire. Not as glorious or flashy as ration packs, but cheap and you're probably already eating the stuff already.

If you need more than that, you've got a bigger problem.

-How long can I expect the power and the water to be on once TSHTF?

Depends on what you mean by TSHTF, but again that depends on where you are. Worst case, a full fledged hurricane runs you over or you get a quake- you might be without power for a few weeks, but there will supplies shipped in from the states and the rest of the EU.

Unless it is really bad, in which case city dwellers are pretty much SOL.

I'll ignore the questions on water becuase that question is well answered- if Her Majesty's government doesn't have anything, ready.gov is a little on the short term and soft and fuzzy side but nothing there is wrong. Just optimistic.

As for looting, everything gets looted. Everything.

-How long should I wait before trying to leave the city? Should I even try, since I can't drive?

Again, what are you trying to prepare for? A radiation issue, you need to leave now. Chem leak, you evac for a few days and then go back when everything is clear. Flood, massive storm, earthquake- is the structure likely to be compromised?

If yes, you need to bug out.

If no, don't bug out. You are in a city of over a million- before you run out of your five days of food and three days of water, you'll have lorries with smiling helpful guys from all over the EU handing out water and military ration packs- checked the expiration dates. (Although, if it's old enough, the French rations did have a tiny thing of wine, but IIRC that would make it no later than mid-90s production.)

Unless of course it is really bad. In which case, well, there is no polite way to put this, but you're hosed. Hope you can swim to the Continent.

[Doom_Baboon]

Worst case, a full fledged hurricane runs you over or you get a quake- you might be without power for a few weeks, but there will supplies shipped in from the states and the rest of the EU.

That's the worst disaster that springs to mind from the Zombiesquad? I'm almost a little disappointed...

Let us imagine the world in the throes of a global uprising of the dead.

What I'm looking for is some input on surviving with minimal preparation. The "Home wrecked, BOB gone" scenario. You hit the nail on the head with the food thing, my kitchen is full of tinned beans and pot-noodle, but if the food relief people have all been eaten I want to know what I can do about it.

I ask because I know why I shouldn't need the advice, but I still want to know it anyway.

[jamoni]

Start small, then work your way up to the zombocalypse.
You've already mentioned that cash and space is a problem, so let's think cheap:
WATER. I recycle old orange juice and apple juice bottles to hold water. Clean it out, triple rinse, put a few drops of bleach into the water, your golden.
FOOD: Buy what's cheap at the cheap store. I can get canned goods for as little as $.25 a can. Buy a little extra each time you hit the store.
For a minimum BOB, I'd look at a change of socks, lots of water, food, and a first aid kit. Throw it in a backpack. You can get it done for under $30 if you try.
As for surviving without gear? That takes skills, and skills take practice. There are all sorts of threads around here on those skills. Happy hunting!

[Tomcat1066]

What I'm looking for is some input on surviving with minimal preparation. The "Home wrecked, BOB gone" scenario. You hit the nail on the head with the food thing, my kitchen is full of tinned beans and pot-noodle, but if the food relief people have all been eaten I want to know what I can do about it.

First, for serious long-term survival, you seriously need to rethink the idea of using "minimal preparation". If you're not prepared, you're good and truly screwed. However, I think you don't fully understand preparedness.

First of all, you will need knowlege. Learn survival skills for your area, thing like water finding and edible plants, learn how to trap animals for food, build improvised shelters. Then, stock up on the materials you'll need to accomplish that.

However, it's a miserable existance like that. If that's the kind of preps you want to make, have fun. However, don't expect a long life expectancy.

Tom

[MICKPORNO]

However, it's a miserable existance like that. If that's the kind of preps you want to make, have fun. However, don't expect a long life expectancy.

Tom

damn tom...ray of fuckin' sunshine aren't you!?!...

i'm with jamoni on the salvaging of containers and finding canned goods on the cheap...stack em high and deep...just like ammo...

skills are something you should already have by the time you reach my age...come from a redneck family (another thread) consider myself a redneck and proud of it...used to be a boy scout **til i got kicked out for fighting**, camped a lot as a kid...still do...prefer the farm life over the city life anyday...

worst case scenario?....radioactive zombies (runners) over running the planet and devouring everything like locusts....burning them doesn't kill them...shooting them in the head doesn't kill them....dismembering them doesn't kill them, they keep coming.....and any contact with them will kill you....WTF do you do then??

[Doom_Baboon]

If you're not prepared, you're good and truly screwed. However, I think you don't fully understand preparedness.

I suppose in a way you're right in that I imagined the disaster as waking up to a quiet but hostile world "28 days later" style and trying to live from there. Upon reflection it becomes clear that things are going to go through the "Warsaw Ghetto" stage before they get to the quiet earth (barring the bomb being dropped in which case living here will get me the quickest sun tan in history).

I guess the best survival strategy is to get elected to public office. Someone else will feed you and fight for you, and there's a cosy bunker waiting if things really go down the tubes.

worst case scenario?....radioactive zombies (runners) over running the planet and devouring everything like locusts....burning them doesn't kill them...shooting them in the head doesn't kill them....dismembering them doesn't kill them, they keep coming.....and any contact with them will kill you....WTF do you do then??

Then I would take to sea on a water barrel with an oar and an upside-down umbrella and live by drinking rainwater and straining krill through my beard!

[Tomcat1066]

However, it's a miserable existance like that. If that's the kind of preps you want to make, have fun. However, don't expect a long life expectancy.

Tom

damn tom...ray of fuckin' sunshine aren't you!?!...

i

I try.

Tom

[ironraven]

That's the worst disaster that springs to mind from the Zombiesquad? I'm almost a little disappointed...

No, just the worst ones that anyone in the UK is likely to survive. It is an island with a relatively small population- blow the Chunnel, sink anything that tries to float or fly away, and your problems will self contained.

Realistically, prepare for what is likely. That will cover the rest.

The "Home wrecked, BOB gone" scenario.

You become a refugee. Or it caught you while you were sleeping, in which case you are a corpse. Or lunch.

If Tomcat is a ray of sunshine, then I must be a moonbeam.

[Packin' Heat]

I would take to sea on a water barrel with an oar and an upside-down umbrella and live by drinking rainwater and straining krill through my beard!

best.....plan.....ever!

[Robot]

If you get bit by the preparedness bug you will be amazed how many supplies you can fit into a small space. Like removing the box springs of your bed and stacking boxes of ammo and/or canned goods in its place. Fill boxes with supplies cover them up with a nice piece of fabric, then a glass top, and use them as coffee tables. The options are limitless.

[Doctor Jest]

But do take up jamoni's suggestion and read through the material here. There are golden nuggets of information buried. For example, I was reminded here that many people forget that the hot-water tank in their home holds a useful amount of water, even after the water pressure has stopped.