Originally Posted by The Reaper

It occurs to me that in a disaster, there are going to be a lot of hungry people from here after the brevity of the food discussion, but if you guys are ready to move on, so be it. The next topic listed was sanitation. That is not just washing clothes, but includes waste disposal (both garbage and bodily waste), body sanitation, personal hygiene, household cleaning (of potentially contaminated materials or patients) with a limited supply of materials, is going to be a real challenge.

Frankly, I wish there was a way to get the 5 gallon buckets or Superpails of hard white wheat, beans, powdered milk, sugar, etc. delivered to the East Coast for less than the cost of the product, but that appears to be a briddge too far. I got a great deal on a hand/electric mill, but seem to be unable to get a good price on delivered things to grind in it. Working on it, but not much success thus far. Has anyone in the mid-Atlantic had success with this problem?

I also have been toying with a vacuum sealer and will soon be using it to can quart jars of dry foods for extended storage. The wife likes the way it vacuum seals bottles of white wine so that they do not go bad in a few days.

I have a few freeze-dried meals and some MREs, but that is only adequate for a few weeks unless you are rich or deployed with a never ending supply of them. It would be acceptable if you knew that you were only going to have to be ready for two to three two-week cycles of limited to no supply before things returned to normal. The problem is that once the crisis is over (assuming that the knuckleheads do not burn, destroy, or loot the fixtures from every store in the area) almost everyone will start to buy excessive amounts of supplies and hoard the food that the stores do manage to get in, further exacerbating the shortages. I have seen this overseas, during disasters in CONUS, and anyone south of the Mason-Dixon line has seen it anytime the weatherman predicts any amount of snow, however slight. I also lack the storage space for a years worth of MREs for a family of four.

A multi-layered system of preparedness is the solution, with stockpiles of regular food, freeze-dried, prepackaged or shelf stable (like MREs), bulk commodities (like the Superpails or dry goods), and as a final resort seeds, traps and snares, a good .22LR, etc. forming a tiered solution-set for dealing with long-term food requirements. You will need the appropriate cooking containers properly suited to you=our Add to it as your budget allows. Don't wait too long to get started.

Like many, I can afford to lose 25 pounds over a month or two. How many want to see their kids losing that kind of weight, or crying themselves to sleep at night as they are hungry and starving? We are only a few days from that possibility at any given time. Look at your preparations, then at your cupboard, and think about it. If every town in the US was like New Orleans after Katrina (minus the flooding), where do you think the help will come from? Sad fact: It probably isn't coming. You need to be prepared to live for as long as you can with what you have, for several months or more.

Be prepared or be sorry when it is too late.

TR