2. Bug-in Preps

Water

THE most important prep is water. Water, especially water affected by emergencies like grid failure or flooding, contains organisms that can make you very sick at the worst possible moment. And you need a lot of water. An average male body won’t survive past 3 days without water. FEMA says that 1 gal per person per day (3.8L) is enough for drinking, washing and cooking. A family of 4 for 2 weeks would need = 3.8L x 4 ppl x 14 days = 212 liters.

What containers? Most everyone uses plastic. You need Food-grade, BPA-free, HDPE plastic to be safe for long-term storage. If a container meets these requirements, then it’s almost always stamped in the plastic. You can get away with non-food grade if you’re feeling lucky. Water bottles use a cheaper, thinner plastic that will leach over time, ruining your water. Good to have if you rotate regularly, but not for “set it and forget it”.

If you’re looking mid-range then 55-gallon drums are great (the blue one). Easy to find a home somewhere in your house and it has double what you need. But it’s not portable.

5 gallon jugs are great if you find them at a good price. The ones that are higher quality will cost more. Love that they’re portable so they’re easier to rotate and use for camping, hunting, emergencies, etc. 1 gallon jugs are also good for day to day use.

How to store it? First, make sure it’s clean water coming in. Assuming your container is properly cleaned and stored, you can just fill it with tap water and it will be safe for at least a year.

Clean your containers out. Fill it with warm water and a little dish soap. Close cap. Shake. Drain and rinse. Fill it with a quart (about 15 seconds of normal faucet flow) and a teaspoon of unscented household chlorine bleach. Close cap. Wait 30 seconds. Shake well. Wait 30 seconds again. Drain and rinse. Storage location should be kept around room temperature with no big temperature swings and no direct sunlight. Sun helps things to grow inside the water and helps the tank degrade faster. So, a basement is ideal. Inside a closet is next. Remember that plastic can absorb chemicals, so try not to store water containers on cement garage floors or other places where it will contact bad stuff. Do not store outside where there are temperature swings and sunlight unless you take the necessary precautions.

How to use it? You’ll need a way of getting the water out of your storage. Smaller containers can use gravity, but you may have to buy a siphon. Larger containers need a pump and something to pump them into. Hand pumps are great but the cheap ones are pone to failure. Have some cups and other containers handy to fill from your main reserve.

Emergency water. If you have warnings before an emergency then you should clean and fill your tub. Those will hold around 100 gallons. Bonus points if you have a Water Bob. You should also fill some containers in the house. Do you have a large pot, food-grade 5-gallon pails or other containers? Fill them just in case! Emergency water should be filtered and taken care of. I won’t talk about all the possible ways to treat water like filter screens, purification chemicals (chlorination), boiling it away and recapturing the steam (distillation), reverse osmosis, UV light, or boiling, because all this will be in a second article. What you should have is a reverse osmosis system at home or a couple of pump filters. Remember that many pumps use ceramic for their filters, a naturally porous material that traps particulates. Unlike membrane-based filters that use backflushing to clean out the trapped particles, ceramic filters are scrubbed down by hand with a brush or cloth. It’s easy to do and has some advantages, such as visibly seeing how much life the ceramic has left (instead of guessing on other types) and you don’t need a backflush syringe. The ceramic filters can’t block viruses!

I recommend the Katadyn Hiker Pro or the Survivor filter pro against water contaminated with viruses. You can also use Katadyn Micropur pills

Again, theprepared has a great comparison of all the water containers

Food

Many emergency foods are not available in Europe like Augason Farms or Mountain House. That’s why you should prep on long-lasting and filling food from your grocery market. We are striving for high calories, good and cheap food that is easily prepared and can be also moved with ease. Try to buy food that you would normally eat. If you are disgusted by sardines, don’t buy 50 cans of it… Maybe canned meat would be better suited for you.

An average person needs roughly 1,500 calories per day and the happyprepper has a list of 37 foods to hoard. 1,500 calories x 4 ppl x 14 days = 84,000 calories

If you want to keep track of your pantry you can use this Stockpile-o-mat or print a paper list. The expiration dates on food is an estimate required by law for food manufacturers to put on the food. This date is the Best By for color, taste, and consistency guaranteed by the manufacturer. If stored well and in colder temps, there’s little to stop these foods from lasting up to 15 years or more. Buy cans that are not bulged and that are in perfect condition. You really don’t want to die due to botulism…

Do NOT open that

Botulism is a rare illness that causes paralysis and eventual death through respiratory failure. This toxin thrives in an oxygen deprived environment, which presents a problem in particular to preppers ,because of possible improper home canning and food preservation methods, and possibly also poor storage practices. Source

Enemies of food storage:

Temperature: To maintain the optimal shelf life of your food storage, foods should be stored at 20°C(room temperature) or lower. Large temperature fluctuation and heat will destroy the foods nutritional value and reduce it’s shelf life.

Moisture: The reason foods like rice and beans last for decades is because of the lack of water in them. This is important as you are putting together your food storage pantry.

Oxygen: The reason canned foods last so long is the absence of air. Microorganisms need oxygen to thrive, leading to faster deterioration of your food storage.

Light: Foods that are exposed to light can also deteriorate quickly. This is called photodegradation, degrading its nutritional value, taste, and appearance.

Food that I recommend:

Proteins:

Dehydrated powdered milk Dehydrated eggs Canned & dehydrated meats, poultry, fish. Meal ready to eat in jars or cans but not in tomato sauce! (bear in mind the expiration date)

Fats

Oils Nuts Peanut Butter

Carbs:

Whole wheat, potato and corn flour Cereals and Oats Rice (White! brown rice can go bad quicker) Pasta Crackers and cookies Beans Potato Flakes Honey

Misc:

Drink mixes: Coffee, bouillon, tea Jams and jellies Canned Veggies (but not Tomato sauce! It can go rancid pretty fast) and Canned Fruits Salt, Sugar, Black pepper, Spices Condiments (Ketchup) Chocolate Vitamins Alcohol Baking soda Insta soup

Fire and lights

If the power grid goes down and your gas supply runs out you won’t be able to cook your food… That’s why you should buy a couple dozens of BIC lighters, some stormproof matches, and a camping kitchen. A small portable camping kitchen like this and a box of gas cartridges will be of great help. One cartridge lasts about 2 hours, so try to buy at least 14 of them for 2 weeks of cooking.

List of 2500+ flashlights, headlamps, lanterns, multitools etc http://flashlights.parametrek.com/index.html

Headlamps: The benefit of using a headlight is that you can use both your hands and still be able to see during the night! Magic! In all seriousness, the best bang for the buck are the Energizer headlamps . You can grab a couple of them for pretty cheap.

Flashlights: I recommend the Anker flashlights as they are quite cheap, durable and give out a strong light (300 lumens -900 lumens) The batteries 18650 are quite common and you can recharge them using an XTAR charger. What is also great is that the Anker flashlight also double as a charger. You can use a powerbank to recharge it.

A couple box of candles: The IKEA tea lights go in small lanterns, also from IKEA.

Lanterns: Camping lantern with different redundant power sources. This one can be recharged using dynamo, solar power, batteries, microusb and AC.

Heating:

Apart from the very obvious extra blankets, you should also probably buy an indoor propane heater like this. They use the same cartridges as the camping kitchen and you can stay relatively warm in your room during an SHTF scenario. For more serious bug in scenarios you should pick a generator (a fuel one needs to be kept outside!) because a propane heater won’t cut it. A kerosene heaters stink but a propane doesn’t and the fumes from either are noxious, and will eventually kill you if proper ventilation procedures aren’t observed. Moreover, you need to store all the propane cans somewhere. For generator please see the Power section.

Shelter:

It would be your house, home, flat. To make your shelter safe make sure:

That your roof doesn’t leak

That you have blackout blinds or place to cover the windows. One of the OPSEC rules is to not stand out. To be the grey man in a crowd of people. Same applies to your house/flat. Don’t stand out with your lights on at night during a grid down event. You should observe light discipline.

Try to not cook very smelly dishes and if you need to cook them in the early hours or late hours of the day, when most people are likely to be sleeping. This will minimize the chances that someone will smell anything from your cooking.

If you have a wood burning stove and some foil or a Dutch oven, you could cook over your fire. But remember smoke travels, and if during the day someone sees smoke coming from a chimney, you will be announcing to your neighbors “Hey, I have the ability to make fire! My house is warm!” If you make a fire in the dark the smell of the smoke will carry, but it may be a little more challenging to determine which house it is coming from.

Change out all of the locks and make sure every door has a deadlock.

Change out the hinge nails (and reinforce the doors in general). Most doors are hung on short nails for the sole purpose of keeping the door there; if someone were to try to kick down your door or otherwise breach it, it would be a relatively easy task. Go for nails that go through the jamb into the framing studs.

Verify that all exterior locks work and use them!

Reinforce the locks. You can get door lock reinforcements off of Amazon for less than $15.

Add cheap magnetic window and door alarms. This way, you can know for certain if someone manages to open a door or window.

Add lighting outside. Amazon has some solar-powered motion detectors that throw a floodlight when triggered.

Remove any bushes or trees from around the house. This takes away any potential hiding places for intruders. (Edit: You can grow rose bushes and the like under windows to deter anyone from getting too close.)

If you have an external breaker, keep it locked up. You can get caught by surprise if someone flips a switch and you go outside to investigate.

Don’t forget about any upper stories! Keep those windows closed and locked and make sure no one has an easy way to get up to them.

Reinforce windows with bars (that can be opened in case of an emergency) or with a reinforcement kit. The kit won’t prevent your windows from being broken, but it will help hold its integrity and prevent shards of glass from flying everywhere.

Pandemic:

The Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, took as many as 675,000 lives in the US and more than 50 million worldwide — killing nearly one out of every 20 humans then alive. In 2018, Bill Gates, citing epidemiologists, has said that there is a “reasonable probability” of a pandemic that kills more than 30 million people worldwide in the next two decades. A tabletop exercise run at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in May simulated a global flu-like outbreak called Clade X and found that 150 million people (including 15 million in the US) would die in the first year alone. And here we are in 2020 with a Coronavirus going around. So, what to get for a pandemic scenario?

Mask.

There are plenty of different mask types:

Dust masks . Cheap masks used when people are doing construction, like cutting wood.

. Cheap masks used when people are doing construction, like cutting wood. Surgical masks (aka procedure masks). They do not protect your lungs. Instead, they prevent any particulates from the wearer’s mouth and nose from spreading outward.

(aka procedure masks). They do not protect your lungs. Instead, they prevent any particulates from the wearer’s mouth and nose from spreading outward. Respirators . usually mean the disposable N95 types or construction crew types that form a tight seal around your mouth and nose.

. usually mean the disposable N95 types or construction crew types that form a tight seal around your mouth and nose. CBA/RCA gas masks . Rated for Riot Control Agents like pepper spray.

. Rated for Riot Control Agents like pepper spray. NBC gas masks . Rated for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical threats.

. Rated for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical threats. CBRN gas masks (aka riot masks). Basically an NBC mask plus extra protection against “terrorist” threats like dirty bombs.

Naming convention of respirators in the US: N — Not oil resistant, R — Oil resistant, P — Oil proof. 95, 99 and 100 — % of airborne particles filtered. So the best respirator would be — P100.

In Europe: P is used for the half- and full-mask respirators and FFP for disposable respirators. P1 - Filters at least 80% of airborne particles, P2- Filters at least 94% of airborne particles, P3- Filters at least 99% of airborne particles. So the best would be a P3/FFP3. For Full CBRN masks use the ABEK naming convention: A — Organic Vapors, B — Inorganic Vapors, E — Acidic vapors, K — Ammonia gases, P — Dust. So a A3B3E3K3-P3 is the strongest filter you can get.

How do they work? Masks are filtered with very fine screens, measured down to below 1 micron. For reference, an average human hair is 75 microns wide. The N95 mask is rated such because it screens out 95% of particles that are 0.3 micron in size. Gases are the trickier ones because they slip through even the most fine-grained screens. Which is why you can breathe air (a gas) through a particulate filter. So instead of trying to block the gas, an absorbent — typically activated charcoal, a very porous form of carbon — attracts and soaks up the chemicals as they pass through. NIOSH recognizes a total of 139 agents in their CBRN testing. If you really want to see all the different chemicals, gases, and vapors that are considered against respirators, see pages 15–122 of this 3M guide. Facial hair is a big deal. Any noticeable hair under the mask rim seal will create enough of a gap to be a problem.

One thing to remember is that surgical or dust masks — the kind you typically find in hospitals, pharmacies, and hardware stores — WILL NOT HELP in emergencies. According to the CDC, “Surgical masks are not designed to capture a large percentage of small particles and will not prevent the wearer from breathing in airborne particles such as contained in wildland smoke. Covering the mouth with a (damp or dry) bandana, handkerchief, or tissue also will not prevent the wearer from breathing in airborne particles.”

What masks are the best? Theprepared has another great long list but for a pandemic you should get a N95-P100 respirator from 3M preferably a fullface one.

Goggles

Like the flu, COVID-19 is spread primarily via respiratory droplets — little blobs of liquid released as someone coughs, sneezes, or talks. Viruses contained in these droplets can infect other people via the eyes, nose, or mouth — either when they land directly on somebody’s face or when they’re transferred there by people touching their face with contaminated hands. If you didn’t buy a full face respirator P100 respirator, please buy goggles. The purpose of goggles is to prevent droplets from entering the cavities of the eye.

Gloves

In The Journal of Hospital Infection The first section of the new paper focuses on how long Covid can survive on inanimate surfaces, such as tables and door handles. The authors show that, depending on the material and the conditions, human coronaviruses can remain infectious from 2 hours to 9 days. That’s why it is so important to wear gloves and not to touch your face. Simple nitrile gloves will do.

Duct tape

Use duct tape to seal off windows and doorways. Here’s how to set up a quarantined safe room. You may also use duct tape for securing holes in your fullbody hazmat.

Tyvec suit

Buy one for every member of the family and then some for unexpected guests or for new exposures. A tyvec suit provides inherent barrier protection against dry particulate hazards, for such things as asbestos and lead abatement. It’s better to have more Tyvec suits on hand than you think you’ll need. Certainly you won’t want to discover a ripped suit at a critical time. Remember to leave the Tyvec suit outside or in your quarantine room. Allegro

Antiseptics

The best antiseptic is good old fashioned soap and water, but for when this might not be available, you’ll need antiseptic wipes. Antiseptic wipes and hand sanitizers will help you control exposure and help minimize the risks of pandemics on your hands;

Bio-hazard bags

A bio-hazard bag provides a high density isolation liner to provide maximum film strength for tough applications. They also feature star seal bottoms which allow equal weight distribution and leak resistance. Additionally, bags are red to indicate use for infectious waste or hazardous waste to warn others.

Medical

If possible, try to get a red cross certification or any first aid training that would help you in identifying the emergency and to know how to provide aid. During a SHTF event or a pandemic the emergency services will be overwelemed, Main list taken from theprepared with my own changes

General & misc:

Diagnostics:

Medications:

Any personal prescriptions or condition-specific needs ibuprofen aspirin antibiotics (Bactrim, Zithromax, Ampicillin, Cipro, Amoxicillin, Doxycycline, or Fish antibiotics) anti-diarrheal (immodium) anti-histamines activated charcoal potassium iodine Benadryl Hydrocortisone cream Honey Aloe gel Sudafed / Pseudoephedrine Mucinex / Guaifenesin Pedialyte / Electrolyte powders Afrin / Oxymetazolin Pepcid / Famotidine Dulcolax / Bisacodyl Aleve / Naproxen sodium Long-acting antihistamines / Zyrtec / Allegra / Claritin

Bone & joint:

Cuts & soft tissue:

Burns & blisters:

Burn Jel Moleskin Straight needle and thread Leukotape

Dental kit:

Feminine hygiene, menstruation, and pregnancy:

Menstrual pads and/or tampons Monistat Birth control: condoms, pills, patches, and/or diaphragms Pregnancy test (4x) Plan B / emergency contraception (2x) Midol What To Expect When You’re Expecting or similar book for parents Midwife reference guide Prenatal vitamins Suction bulb

Things to avoid:

Theprepared has a list of common items to avoid:

Decompression needles / “chest darts”: You don’t have the training or equipment to properly use these needles commonly found in military settings.

Sleeping pills: Most OTC sleeping meds are just antihistamines — literally the exact same pill as something like Benadryl, just with different packaging and pricing. Anything beyond that needs a prescription.

Smelling salts: Falling out of favor among pros because it delays doing a good assessment, and if a patient’s brain shut down, there’s probably a reason you don’t want to override.

Neosporin / triple antibiotic ointments / Neomycin / Bacitracin: Studies show these topical creams don’t actually add much value beyond using plain petroleum jelly.

Strong anti-constipation meds: The risk of dehydration and straining isn’t worth the value in most survival situations.

Cough lozenges: No clear evidence that they have any positive effect, and a recent study found that heavy use of cough drops (especially those with menthol) actually make things worse.

Plaster and cast-making: If you’re in a situation where you’d make your own cast, you’re also in a situation without X-rays, and there isn’t much value in making a cast for a busted bone you can’t see / fix.

Surgical tools, intubation kit, surgical airways (crich), etc.: We may do an article specifically on these advanced tools (let us know in the comments if you want it), but this gear is far too advanced and unlikely to ever be used by most people.

Hygiene

wet wipes,

hand sanitizer,

soap,

Kitty litter or other organic material to use with the potty bucket

Off-grid toilet/Potty Bucket (5-gallon bucket with seat)

Toothpaste, Toothbrushes, Dental floss

Deodorant

Solar shower for hot showers without electricity

Garbage bags, rubber bands or twist ties

TOILET PAPER

Communication

FM radio working with solar/batteries/hand crank

2 x Baofeng UV-5R ham radio

Walkie-Talkie Motorola T60 up to 8km. Allegro

Baofeng USB programming cable

CB mobile radio

CB handheld radio

Power and devices

This section will be divided into two. The first part will be about the Portable devices and portable power options and the second one about the more robust power generators.

Portable and cheap:

Devices:

2 used and working Samsung galaxy note 4. The phone is excellent for a prepper because it is the last widely available phone that is both powerful and easily repairable.

Cheap tablet Dell Venue 8 or nvidia shield or even lenovo tab4 10

Ebook reader Inkbook Classic 2

Data storage

Micro SD cards. Plenty of fast 64GB+ micro SD cards

A micro sd card holder like this

Plenty of USB flash drives

Cables and adapters

I recommend Anker or Aukey. Multiple for redundancy

Multiple little adapters. From lighting to USB-C, from Sd card to USB male, from Microusb to USB-C etc.

USB adapters for phones something like this

USB A female to microusb OTG here

Cheap wired headphones (at least 6–10)

Micro sd to sd adapters

A couple of wall quickchargers

Headphonejack splitter akin to this

microusb to HDMI. For showing stuff from phone to TV without wif. here

Power:

2x-4x Aukey 30kmAh best bang for the buck amazon link

Couple of smaller powerbanks

2x Solar charge. I recommend the Bigblue 28W here and Rockpals 100W here

Service parts For Note 4 (or a third working used phone)

Protection

Tools

Phone repair kit ifixit or similar.

GPS receiver GlobalSat

Cheap BT keyboard here

Batteries Review of best spare batteries:

AAA

AA

9V

18650

CR123A

14500

and Charger Xtar or Opus BT-C3100. CAUTION! Don’t connect the charger straight to the portable solar chargers! First, charge the power banks and then use the power banks to charge the batteries!

Heavier and more expensive:

If you want to go all out you can buy:

Generator:

Gasoline:

A gasoline generator must ALWAYS be used outside. If you are planning on 5 days of power — you will need 2 -3 5gal containers of gasoline

Best bang for the buck: Honda EU2200i — about 45 pounds and the size of a piece of luggage, 2200 surge watts/1800 continuous, super quiet — can talk next to it, very efficient, consumes a gallon every 8–12 hours (depending on the load, will last for a long time and hold its value. Also uses an inverter, so it can accelerate with the load — meaning it can run slower when you aren’t asking for as much power — fuel efficiency — big generators will often run at a fixed speed regardless of the load and power demands.

Solar:

Lightweight thin and portable solar panel — Powerfilmsolar or you can choose a more durable but not very portable Renogy 200W panels. And then buy or build a solar generator. Kodiak or GoalZero have some nice solar generator with deep cycle batteries. But they are on the more expensive side. Link

You can also connect your solar to different DIY stuff — for more

Tools:

Watch mechanic/solar like CASIO AQ-S800W-1BVEF

axe,

shovel,

work gloves,

wrench for your gas lines,

zip ties,

duct tape,

Locks and lockpicking

Crowbar

Knives (fixed blade like RAT-5 Ontario)

Saw

Multi-Tool

Paracord

Cash. In different currencies. At least 3K in each currency.

Self defense

Pepper spray

Handheld Taser: check your local laws. Have to get in extremely close proximity to use it. Effective, non-lethal.

Flashlight (strobe): keep people at a distance. Discombobulate/blinds. Non-lethal, Non-invasive.

Rings: heavy metal rings protect your knuckles while punching, can penetrate skin, and add weight to the pump.

Gun — How to get a gun permit in Poland Braterstwo

Entertainment

Boredom and kill, if during a pandemic you are isolated and quarantined without internet access you can go mad. That’s why it is so important to hoard as much media as possible because your access to Netflix, HBO or Disney+ can be severed.

board games, card games, dices

Books,

movies

TV shows

Podcasts — Clementine PC downloader

Ebooks

Youtube videos — Videoder desktop downloader

Websites — using HTTracker

To prepare your electronics for no access to the WWW:

Install this APK extractor on your daily driver and extract all apps that you would need for a postshtf or download apk from apkmirror

You will need a pdf reader,

an ebook reader,

offline maps, Google maps or Here

mx player

Word, excel type of editor

Emulators /r/EmulationOnAndroid

Documents

Try to scan all important documents and put them on sdcards or pendrives. Keep the originals in a safe or a fireproof bag.

copy of deeds/titles,

insurance policies,

birth certificates,

Medical history

maps,

pictures of family members,

Data and knowledge:

3. Bug-out Bag BOB

A bug out bag is designed to get you out of an emergency situation, get you to your bug out location, and typically allow you to survive for up to 3 days (72 hours). Bug Out Bags are designed specifically with temporary survival in mind, whereas hunkering down can see you taking to your basement where protection is increased, with the benefits of knowing exactly where you are and with all of your home resources but a floor away.

The bag. A hikking bakcpack that doesn’t screen “military!” and is water-resistant. Something like this

Outdoor cloths. You might need to evacuate in varied weather conditions so your bug out bag should have clothes for rainy, cold, or hot weather. Outdoor clothes are your first line of defense against the elements, they are one of the most important pieces of gear you can have in an emergency.

Rain poncho

Hiking shoes and good socks!

Ultralight tent

Sleeping pad and sleeping bag

MRE for 3 days

A portable stove with camping cookware

Headlamp

Duct tape, saw, small axe,

Ferro rods, BIC lighters, storm matches

Compass

Toilet paper

Garbage bag

toiletries, Wet wipes,

earplugs

Sewing kit

First aid kit

Maps

Binoculars

Above electronics (FM radio, cellphone, Ham radio)

Flashlight

Water + filtration + 30 Water Treatment Tabs

Knife

Pozdrawiam Wykop!