Storms, Disasters, Response, and Relief - Color Me Disapointed

[MikeBjerum]

Before I start, understand that I care about you and all affected in adverse conditions, however our modern mindset not only bogles me - It upsets and scares me.

For several years we have heard cries about needing help and accusations and demands about government not doing their job.  What happened to personal responsibility, family and community?  Recently Michael Bane restated his warning, and the warning sent by many: (paraphrase) Be prepared and ready to take care of yourself and your own - Noone is coming to help. You are on your own!

For decades FEMA and state agencies have had advice on how we should be prepared, and for recent years they have all posted it on the internet for all to read and follow. Information on how to be prepared for the events that could and will take place in general and in each specific region. How many people follow this to be prepared for their own needs? How many people prepare some extra for a family member, neighbor or community member who may need a hand?

I don't care how strong, prepared, organized, and/or staged relief and rescue agencies and workers are, it takes time for both immediate and sustained relief to arrive and go to work. We are each responsible for our own needs for at least 72 hours, and preferably for seven to 14 days. Having learned to never assume, how many of us on this forum are prepared to survive for 14 days? How many for even 72 hours?

The other day I heard a person ranting about the need for water in a given area. The community had been out of water for 36 hours during an event they were advised was going to happen at a set time. I asked about the size of the water heater, did they shut of their water supply where it entered the house, did they fill their bath tub and other containers? Blank stares.

Now, rather than griping about others and their lack of preparedness, what is my level, what is your level, how about your family? Supplies, bugout preparations, evacuation (either just for a home fire, or out of the region due to disaster), and home hardening to prepare for an event like a hurricane? Take what is happening in the southeast as a warning to us all that we are only seconds away from the warning that there may be something here and now.

[Rastus]

Yeah, it seems as though everyone wants the government to wipe their noses for them.  So I asked a guy once, how many relief workers per person affected did they need.  The answer was say 2 to one.  I asked how soon a response...the answer a day.

So, if you have a city of say 100,000 people, they seem to think a government can stage 50,000 people on the ground (and at least another 50,000 + to support them) within 24 hours of every major city.  Hmmm.

So in this scenario you have to have 100,000 people living within 24 hours of the affected city to service a city of 100,000 people.  Now take that to a million person city.  Hmmm...how does that make sense in anyway?  Essentially, you need the entire population of the US standing by on our dime to support us in the time of a disaster...to satisfy the naysayers who think their request is reasonable.

Amazing. 

You gotta cover yourself.

[Big Frank]

Yeah, it seems as though everyone wants the government to wipe their noses for them.  So I asked a guy once, how many relief workers per person affected did they need.  The answer was say 2 to one.  I asked how soon a response...the answer a day.

So, if you have a city of say 100,000 people, they seem to think a government can stage 50,000 people on the ground (and at least another 50,000 + to support them) within 24 hours of every major city.  Hmmm.

So in this scenario you have to have 100,000 people living within 24 hours of the affected city to service a city of 100,000 people.  Now take that to a million person city.  Hmmm...how does that make sense in anyway?  Essentially, you need the entire population of the US standing by on our dime to support us in the time of a disaster...to satisfy the naysayers who think their request is reasonable.

Amazing. 

You gotta cover yourself.

And what if half of the people who were supposed to come to the rescue of a city of 100,000 people were also in the disaster area? They would need 50,000 more people outside of their area with a 24 hour response time.


And Mike, speaking of mindset, that reminds me of a Puerto Rican guy I was in the army with. His grandmother's house was at the top of a hill, and during a mudslide it ended up the bottom of the hill. When it was time for her to rebuild, they put the new house on top of the hill where the other house used to be.   At least they didn't have to clear out a new spot for it.

I have 2 72 hour dehydrated food packages that I took a sample of. Now it won't last 6 days unless I stretch it, but to be honest I'd have to cut back on how much I eat if it was still there. I also have lifeboat rations for 5 days to supplement it, and in case I run out of water for the dehydrated food. If I lived in an area likely to get hit by a natural disaster, like the majority of people i the U.S. do, I'd take things more seriously. The east coast and Gulf areas have been hit by hurricanes for centuries and it shouldn't surprise anyone in those area that it will happen again in the future. And if you live in California, you should be prepared for earthquakes, fires, and a couple other things at all times.

[Rastus]

<snip>
I have 2 72 hour dehydrated food packages that I took a sample of. Now it won't last 6 days unless I stretch it, but to be honest I'd have to cut back on how much I eat if it was still there. I also have lifeboat rations for 5 days to supplement it, and in case I run out of water for the dehydrated food. If I lived in an area likely to get hit by a natural disaster, like the majority of people i the U.S. do, I'd take things more seriously. The east coast and Gulf areas have been hit by hurricanes for centuries and it shouldn't surprise anyone in those area that it will happen again in the future. And if you live in California, you should be prepared for earthquakes, fires, and a couple other things at all times.

A few pounds of beans and rice along with a propane stove and some spice will keep you going for a long time for not a large expenditure in standby $$$'s.

Below is a very simple plan using easily stored items that I put together some time ago.  Add some dried meat, salt, pepper, sugar, etc. and it won't be so drab.  I pulled this from several sources to get the planned amounts.  You can feed a family of four or five for a year for around $1,500 or less.  It will get really boring, but it will keep you going.  This information could make the difference of having regular meals or not.  I have a spreadsheet with the items below and prices (updated last spring?) from Sam's Club that include the items below and a few other things to make the meals less boring.  You can see exactly what it costs with or without tax.  Message me your email and I'll send you a copy of the spreadsheet.

1 lb dry rice = 2-1/3 cups, therefore 1 lb dry rice approximately 1,635 calories.  Enough to keep you going for one day in calories with a little to spare if you want to get out of your chair and look out the window.  So, a 50 lb sack has 116.5 cups in it…or 81,750 calories.  Subsistence is 1,200 calories whilst waisting away so count that as a minimum so about 68 days per person per 50 lb bag of rice.  I would say make it a 60 day supply per person per 50 lbs.  A person needs, therefore, 300 lbs of rice to live for one year eating rice three time a day.  200 lbs per year eating it twice a day..

½ cup of Pinto beans is 115 calories…about right for a meal.  So, for lunch and supper 1 cup per day pinto beans adds 230 calories on top of the rice and adds protein.  But a ½ lb of pinto beans is 1.14 cups so let’s say we use ½ lb per day and that boosts the calories about 270 a day or 135 per meal.  So, for a month eating beans twice a day you will need 15 lbs of beans, or about 180 lbs per year per person.

Recap:  Two meals rice and beans per day is 800 calories of rice and 270 calories of beans requiring yearly 200 lbs rice and 180 lbs beans.  Nice ratio…round up on beans maybe.

So, starting out a family of five needs 1,000 lbs of rice and 900 lbs of beans to meet 2/3’rds of their daily subsistence level.

Now for breakfast.  160 calories per biscuit and plan for two, bake 12.  That’s two cups flour, ½ cup shortening and some salt, baking powder/soda, etc.  A person for a family of 5 get’s 380 calories a day splitting 12 biscuits 5 ways.  So…you’ll need 145 cups of flour and 26 cups of shortening per person per year.  Four cups equals one pound so a person needs 36.25 lbs of flour a year.  One lb of Crisco is 2-1/3 cups so…11.2 lbs of Crisco per year per person.  A family of 5 needs 181.25 lbs of flour and 56 lbs of Crisco a year.

One person for one year:  200 lbs rice, 180 lbs beans, 36.25 lbs four, 11.2 lbs of Crisco

Breakfast :  384 Calories

Lunch:  535 Calories

Supper:  535 Calories

Total for the day:  1,454 Calories.  You can make it on that.  Nothing extra for activity, mostly just sitting around calories.

 

Cooked Rice Calories (white, long grain, regular):

*       3.5oz (100gr) – 130 rice calories
*       1 cup (158 gr) – 205 rice calories

Raw Rice Calories (white, long grain, regular):

*       3.5oz (100gr) – 360 rice calories
*       1 cup (195 gr) – 702 rice calories

Another thing is the type of rice. The rice calories can really vary according to the type. Let’s compare white rice calories, brown rice calories and wild rice calories:

White Rice Calories (long grain, regular, cooked):

*       3.5oz (100gr) – 130 rice calories
*       1 cup (158 gr) – 205 rice calories

Brown Rice Calories (long grain, cooked):

*       3.5oz (100gr) – 111 rice calories
*       1 cup (195 gr) – 216 rice calories

Wild Rice Calories (cooked):

*       3.5oz (100gr) – 106 rice calories
*       1 cup (164 gr) – 166 rice calories

[alfsauve]

Miss Kitty has pounds and pounds of dried beans put up.  Several different types.  That along with other things like honey and Bourbon.   We've got rice and sugar put away as well as about 2 months of those sealed prepared meals.   I check them every year, at Halloween of all times, for expiration.  I hate those meals, but I hate going hungry even more.

I'm 25+ feet above 100year flood plain and next to my house is a trickling artesian creek coming up out of the granite strata.  As long as the N. GA aquafer is good I'll have  source of reasonably fresh water.   Oh wait.  I have several water purifier filters as well.

One creative thing I saw, and I already have some, are those solar charged landscape lights.  You can get them on sale cheaply at times.  Put them out during the day and they'll provide light for ~8 hours at night. 

[Sponsor]

[Rastus]

Water is essential!  The solar lights are a really good deal too.  I remember Michael Janich mentioning that on the Best Defense Survival and I rushed over to wallyworld to get a couple after I heard that.  The technology since then is much better and the various offerings supply pretty much every need you can have.. 

We have quite a few solar motion detector lights going on out here on the ranch.  There are a lot of indoor products that have outdoor solar panels for cheap.  You can find just about anything you need on the amazoni beast.  I have a 600' driveway along the pasture and woods to the back house.  One side has a fence and every other fence post has a little solar wedge looking motion light....they do a lot to dissuade trespassers. 

With the food storage adding some blueberry pancake flour, dried onions, beef bullion, and other long term dry storage food really augments that basic flour, beans and rice I noted above.  Of course you need something to cook it on if everything goes sideways.

[Big Frank]

That was a lot of information Rastus. I didn't have any idea how much beans and rice you need to get by on. And if you restock with new as you eat up your old stock, they would effectively last indefinitely. Unopened bottles of hot sauce to go with your beans and rice will last for years and years. And most kinds don't need refrigeration once they're open, as long as you keep them in a cupboard where the sun doesn't shine on it and degrade it. As long as you have something to spice them up, the beans and rice wouldn't get boring nearly as fast. If you have bullion, add some flour and water to make gravy. If you have a few different flavors you can top plain rice with each flavor of gravy to break the monotony even more.

[Big Frank]

The solar lights are a great idea. I never thought of that. My friends have them around their cabin and their house, so they could use a few, store the rest, and have light for a long time before they wear out. If you have water for a month and food for a week, or just for a day, you can get by a lot better than if you have food to last a year and no water. I knew someone who fasted for a month every year and it didn't seem to cause any problems, other than hunger pains. He said they go away after a couple of weeks. I think you just get used to it.

[billt]

The wife and I have 3 freezers packed with food. And 3 generators to keep them running. I also keep all 3 vehicles full of fuel, with approximately 75 gallons between all of them, available for transportation and / or siphoning.

[Rastus]

Bill have you ever checked in on propane refrigerator/freezers?  They use very little propane so they are good for long periods of no power, diesel or gasoline.