Emergency food for earthquake kit?

mdauben said:
I would be very wary of any urban streams, whether during a disaster or not. Chances are they are not only full of bacteria and viruses, but its quite possible they are chemically contaminated, too. I'm not sure I would trust even the best water filter in such cases. Better to just buy bottled water. It's relativly inexpensive to buy enough.
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I'm with mdauben on this. While purifying filters can remove a lot of things, I don't think most can remove chemicals. Just think of the pesticides and weed killers that just your local golf course dumps into the local water, for example. Like he said, bottled water is pretty cheap.
 
mdauben said:
I would be very wary of any urban streams, whether during a disaster or not. Chances are they are not only full of bacteria and viruses, but its quite possible they are chemically contaminated, too. I'm not sure I would trust even the best water filter in such cases. Better to just buy bottled water. It's relativly inexpensive to buy enough.
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dawsonbob said:
I'm with mdauben on this. While purifying filters can remove a lot of things, I don't think most can remove chemicals. Just think of the pesticides and weed killers that just your local golf course dumps into the local water, for example. Like he said, bottled water is pretty cheap.
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Yeah, I know, I too am very wary of urban streams. Believe me, I am planning on using my own stored water supply, but since I live in a small apartment, I don't have the space to store as much water as I'd like. I have enough room for drinking water, but that might be about it. In the case that I did run out of bottled water, I was just thinking of water sources near me. Anyway, I think I'm fine on the water front, I'm just working on the food part of the emergency kit/supplies right now.

ETA: Regarding water, ideally I want a distillation type system down the line, like a bunch of watercones or something similar.
 
BushcraftBrainTrust said:
For water I would buy a few case of bottled water and 2 Aquamira Frontier Pro filters and 2 Platypus water bottles. The Aquamira filters about 50 gallons and can screw onto the Platypus bottles.
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I have one of those pro filters and a couple 1L platypus bottles, definitely handy to have, though I am getting a more effective/efficient system. I've also got the smaller filterstraw version, micropur tabs, and guyots if we need to move.

I'm picking up a dedicated filter system for sure in the next week or two, just haven't decided which. I have set aside money for that already because I definitely agree, water is a way higher priority than food in this situation. I guess I should have specified in the OP that I had that covered already:o. Combined with an improvised secondary charcoal filter system, and boiling, I should be reasonably better off if I run out of stored water and need to filter and purify stream/rain water (than if I depended on either boiling or filtering exclusively). It won't be perfect, but if that's all there is, that's all there is....



Just read through responses again, thanks guys, this helps a bunch :thumbup:

Again, it sounds like the best thing for me to do is put together and maintain a short term stash (normal canned or dried type stuff, maybe some MREs), and also get a smaller supply of packable food suitable to bugging out if we're forced to move (Backpacker food or ration bars).
 
I posted this in the other thread about water filters for your home a few days ago. Maybe you missed it??

Anyway, I have bought MANY of these filters, and they are great. Very affordable and they work. For $22.50 complete, well you need 5 gallon pails, you can't go wrong. I plan on giving them away in the event of something bad happening.

http://www.monolithic.com/stories/a-practical-life-sustaining-water-filter

Buy them here.

http://shop.monolithic.com:80/products/just-water-ceramic-drip-filter


As far as removing chemical's and metals, read below.

Spec's:

...Just Water Ceramic Filtration Specifications
(filters Manufactured by Winfield and Black Jack Industries)
Product is manufactured to meet:
National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) Standard 42
National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) Standard 53
ISO 9002 Quality Standard
USA AEL Laboratories
USA Analytical Food Laboratories
USA Johns Hopkins University
British 5750 Quality Standard
England’s Water Research council (WRc) Performance Standards
The filtration efficiency is 0.5 micron
Removal capabilities as follows:
>99% Arsenic 5 and 99% Arsenic 3 (special order)
>99% Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S)
>95% Chlorine and Chloramines
>99% Taste
>99% Odor
>98% Aluminum
>96% Iron
>98% Lead
>90% Pesticides
>85% Herbicides
>85% Insecticides
>90% Rodenticides
>85% Phenols
>85% MTBE
>85% Perchlorate
>80% Trihalomethanes
>95% Poly Aromatic Hydrocarbons
>99.999% of particles larger than 0.5 micron (Staffordshire University Labs) (includes Anthrax)
>99.7% of particles larger than 0.3 micron (Staffordshire University Labs)
>98% of particles larger than 0.2 micron (Staffordshire University Labs)
>100% Giardia Lamblia
>100% Cyclospora
>100% removal of live Cryptosporidium (WRc Standard)
>100% removal of Cryptosporidium (NSF Standard 53 – A.C. fine dust – 4 log challenge)
>100% removal of E. Coli, Vibrio Cholerae (Johns Hopkins University)
>99.999% removal of Salmonella Typhil, Shigella Dysenteria, Kiebsiella Terrigena (Hyder Labs)
Product is silver impregnated
and will not permit bacteria growth-through (mitosis)
provides a hostile environment for all microbiological organisms and will not support their growth
Ceramic elements may be cleaned 100 or more times with a soft brush or damp cloth.
Performance Features:
Easy installation
Good flow rate / Up to 1 gallon of clean water per hour (gravity flow)
Up to 300 gallons per hour (pressure flow)
Filter will accept water from floods, lake, rain, well, tap, river or stream
Semi/Annual filter replacement Cleansable with clean damp cloth
 
1_BIG_BUNKER said:
I posted this in the other thread about water filters for your home a few days ago. Maybe you missed it??

Anyway, I have bought MANY of these filters, and they are great. Very affordable and they work. For $22.50 complete, well you need 5 gallon pails, you can't go wrong. I plan on giving them away in the event of something bad happening.

http://www.monolithic.com/stories/a-practical-life-sustaining-water-filter
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I probably did, I'm on BF in sporadic bursts recently :)

0.5 micron, 1 gallon per hour under gravity, removes all that stuff, and long lasting easily cleaned filter? And for that price? Definitely looks like something worth checking out. :thumbup: Thanks.



ETA: Drifting in my own thread, but how are the Katadyn Hiker Pro and MSR MiniWorks for water filters that are also portable? I've had my eye on either for a while now, but I'm wondering if there are other "better" systems out there. I heard the MSR Hyperflow is supposed to be good too....
 
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Maqua said:
Go to a Costco or Sam's and get you a 50lb bag of rice, and a 50lb bag of pinto beans. and maybe a couple of cases of canned tuna and chicken and you are set for a few months. Don't forget a huge jug of tabasco.:thumbup:
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Excellent advice. I was going to say something similar. Don't forget, you're going to need water to cook all that rice and beans and some way to heat that water.

I also recommend a good suppy of spices and salt, besides the Tabasco. (I prefer much hotter sauces anyway.) Doesn't take up much room and makes life much more bearable, while you're waiting for the fires to go out and the power to come back on.
 
shangchi108 said:
Excellent advice. I was going to say something similar. Don't forget, you're going to need water to cook all that rice and beans and some way to heat that water.
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Yes, back home in Hawaii, we had bags of rice (and lots of shoyu! :D) and canned goods (spam etc.) stocked up for hurricanes. And lots of those jars of chilipeppers and tabasco.

But the problem with that suggestion for me right now, as outlined in my OP and later posts, is the significant amount of water needed to cook stuff like rice and beans. I don't have a ton of room to store that much water.

I was also going to say I don't have a lot of free space to store that kind of food in my apartment either; making room for a 20lb bag of rice would be hard enough, let alone a 50lb bag. At least, not anywhere we won't trip over it all the time. But then I realized that boxes/cases of MREs or canned goods or Backpacker food would probably take up more room than a 50lb bag of rice and not even last as long. So moot point I guess :o (Though I can spread the boxes out on cabinet shelving as opposed to the heavy, one large lump, bag of rice.)

I can't wait until I own my own home and have the space and money to put together a really solid emergency supply. :(

shangchi108 said:
I also recommend a good suppy of spices and salt, besides the Tabasco. (I prefer much hotter sauces anyway.) Doesn't take up much room and makes life much more bearable, while you're waiting for the fires to go out and the power to come back on.
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Good point :thumbup: Spices make all the difference.


Thanks for all the input guys, will shop around. And try to free up more storage space :).
 
Having spent a couple week stay with the lights off thanks to a hurricane, there are a couple things I learned first hand.

I always had supplies, enough for my intended purposes as well as reserves for neighbors/friends in need. I didnt account for the supplies in my house that we live off of day to day. Id look to where you can apply synergy to your stay home stash to your day-to-day food. Suggestions like Tabassaco, salt, pepper are all likely in your cabinet, at much larger quantities than you would need during a relatively short term disaster. The first day without power, most will be cooking up everything in their refrigerator (eggs as an example). The second day will be the freezer. Im a hunter/fisherman so I have MANY lbs of fish, venison, and duck I cooked to eat that day, and smoked much more into jerky to eat over the next couple days. At a minimum, Id say most people have 2 solid days of parishable food, that must be eaten those first 2 days or the food is lost. Thats not counting whatever cans of soups or veggies or boxes of cereal are in a persons pantry at any given day. I didnt break into any of my supplies other than the water until day 4, although Im sure I could have gone longer if I was willing to eat the canned corn or green beans for the 3rd meal in a row... Longer term food storage, and easily portable food items are priorities, 3-5 day food plans are of limited value to me.

The other thing I learned, is gasoline and water are worth their weight in gold. That seems obvious, but while thats not nearly as fun as most survival gear is, water and gas are my number 1 and 2 preps in order of priority (this is for my AO, your mileage may vary). Water consumption was very high, out here I worked from mid morning until dark every day in 90+ degree weather clearing road ways and helping friends, a major earthquake would probably involve much more work than cleaning up after a hurricane too. When gas finally started showing up in my area 4 and 5 days in people were waiting in lines for hours, some pushing cars that were out of gas.

Just my 2 cents on the subject
 
allblackz28 said:
Longer term food storage, and easily portable food items are priorities, 3-5 day food plans are of limited value to me.
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I agree with your priorities, and thanks for sharing your experience :thumbup:. That's why I've been looking towards longer lasting (primary) and portable (secondary) options. My concern with regards to food (ranked lower than water, shelter, first-aid for me) is not so much the 3 days, but for an extended period of time.

allblackz28 said:
The other thing I learned, is gasoline and water are worth their weight in gold. That seems obvious, but while thats not nearly as fun as most survival gear is, water and gas are my number 1 and 2 preps in order of priority
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Having extra gasoline on hand is something I should work on. We have a five gallon downstairs, but obviously it's a mere drop. Again, it just comes down to storage room for me. We might not be able to get very far at all by car if the earthquake's a bad one, but better to have and not need than need and not have :thumbup:.
 
rksoon said:
Having extra gasoline on hand is something I should work on. We have a five gallon downstairs, but obviously it's a mere drop. Again, it just comes down to storage room for me. We might not be able to get very far at all by car if the earthquake's a bad one, but better to have and not need than need and not have :thumbup:.
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Gas is probably more important to me than most because of its design as part of my preps, it runs my trucks to provide transport, power for cell phone charging, and A/C to cool people off to avoid heat stroke. It comes in handy running chainsaws, generators (although I dont personally own one) and I have a dual fuel stove that will run on unleaded gas to use as my 3rd cooking source (behind propane and charcoal).


dawsonbob: thanks for the welcome. Ive been a lurker here for a long time, but dont generally speak unless I have something specific to add. This is a great forum.
 
allblackz28 said:
Gas is probably more important to me than most because of its design as part of my preps, it runs my trucks to provide transport, power for cell phone charging, and A/C to cool people off to avoid heat stroke. It comes in handy running chainsaws, generators (although I dont personally own one) and I have a dual fuel stove that will run on unleaded gas to use as my 3rd cooking source (behind propane and charcoal).
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Yes, it certainly does have many other uses :thumbup: Until I get an adapter specific to my phone for my hand-crank radio/charger thing, the car is pretty much the only way for me to charge my cell if the power goes out.

Btw, I feel honored your first post after lurking for so long was in my thread :D


ETA: I'm glad you older guys who've been through natural disasters are chiming in. I'm young and haven't been in a major one yet. I was only around 6 or so when Hurricane Iniki hit Hawai'i, and we on O'ahu didn't suffer nearly as much as Kaua'i. Anyway, when you're that young, you just get excited about school being canceled and the thunder, lightning, and rain. You don't really pay attention to how people prepare for it etc, and just how serious things can become. But now that I'm older and living in a disaster prone area, I'm realizing the importance of being prepared for natural disasters.
 
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I teach emergency prep at the county, city and church levels, but most of what should be said has been said. Lots of good advice here. I've been through a lot of natural disasters: living in Asia with typhoons, volcanoes and earthquakes; in the South with hurricanes, tropical storms and tornados; in the West with blizzards, wild fires and earthquakes,, etc, plus having lived in several war zones in the military. Because of this, emergency prep is important to me and I teach it because the more people who prepare the less taxing they are to the system, which makes my life easier.

As far as the short term preps you're trying to do, you likely have the food you need in the house already if you're staying at home. MREs are good for your BOB as they do not require water, but strip them down first to just the essentials to save weight and space.

One of the preps I do is to "copy can": for staples you just buy one extra for each can you use, so if you use a can of corn then you buy a can to replace it and an extra for storage. This allows you to slowly build up your supply cheaply. Start with things you eat every day so that you can incorporate it into your budget more easily. Cases of freeze dried foods, hundreds of pounds of wheat, etc. are great but you aren't likely to rotate it into your everyday living so it costs more if funds are limited. Once you have a months food supply then you can redivert funds towards longer term food storage...then learn how to cook with it and you have an automatically rotating food supply.

You can buy a water cooler to use for everyday water and store several of the large jugs of water. This allows you to keep water rotated every day and then you don't have to remember to drain and fill every 6 months. 15 gallons of water per person is often recommended, but I like to have more. If a natural disaster does happen then fill up your tub, sinks, jugs, bowls, etc. You never know when the water supply will be shut off and if you think it's contaminated then you can still use it for flushing the toilets, etc. Also, flush out your water heater as it probably has a lot of sediment that makes the water disgusting in an emergency. Also don't use those chlorine disks in the backs of your toilets as it renders the water there non-potable.

If space is at a premium and you can't modify your current place of residence then consider building corner or shallow shelving systems into the backs of closets, cabinets, etc. to expand storage space. You can buy or build lifts for the legs of your bed and raise it up higher to store cases of food or water under there. Do you have space under your couch? How about throwing up a single long shelf up near the ceiling in every room to store essentials while keeping them out of the way? Do your kitchen cabinets go all the way up to the ceiling? If not store items there. If you have indoor stairs you can put shelves into the stairwell above your head. You can cut a piece of plywood and put short legs on it and put that on the floor of your closet to store cases of food under while taking up minimal room. You can do the same with the trunk of your car to store emergency supplies while taking up only a few inches of space that aren't likely being used (you can also store wool blankets in the trunk of your car by lining the trunk with the blanket taking up less than an 1/8" of your trunk space). Take a reciprocating saw and cut doors into the space beneath your kitchen cabinets to store item (just do a neat job so that you can easily hide your handiwork from the next tenant). If you have 2 doors going into one room, consider closing off one of the doors and turning that corner into storage space (when I lived in Japan I had a tiny apartment with 2 inside doors going into my kitchen so I closed off the door with a short hall way and turned it into a spacious walk in closet for emergency supplies, camping equipment, etc.) Think outside the box and look at your rooms with a critical eye.

Just remember to rotate your food and water, sooner than recommended if you'll be storing it in hot places like near the ceiling or an attic.

I'm sure I'll think of more, but I'm trying to do this in a hurry.

Good luck with your preps! If you need help with a list for your first aid kit then email me.
 
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A big jar of peanut butter - the real stuff that contains only peanuts and salt - will keep you going in a real emergency for a long time. It gives you protein, fat and calories, and does not take up much space. Maybe its not perfect nutritionally, but we are talking about staying alive and active for a few days, not nutritional perfection. JMO.

:thumbup:
 
Kage - Thanks! "Copy Can" is more or less something I've been unconsciously doing, and we did it back home in hawaii (bulk costco/sam's club runs :)) That's something I'll try to do more now. My gf and I don't eat a lot of canned stuff now, but I'll try to work em back in. And I've definitely been through the fill up tubs, sinks, buckets and pots with water drill in the various hurricane warnings etc back home, also one of the first things to do if a disaster hits :thumbup: I'll look into the water cooler idea, though space in my kitchen is limited at best. I've been trying to maximize space in the apartment, but we simply don't have a lot of closet space, cabinet space, and floor space to work with. I am going to look into shelving, have to make sure they'll be safe in an earthquake. I'll see if I can juggle things around more, there's just not much to juggle :thumbup: Thanks for the great input!

Delbert - great link, thank you!

PowerNoodle - I know, peanut butter is really dense stuff; I definitely should just get a big jar rather than the normal sized ones. Thanks (and to the other guys PB fans) :thumbup:.
 
Another thing that I have used when backpacking is the starkist foil packed tuna and a few packets of mayo along with some pita or bagels. The foil packs are very light compared with the cans and contain no extra water. They last quite awhile too, just broke open packs I had stored for 6 years and still tasty. Worth adding to any short or long term kit in my opinion.
Thanks,
Del

Rksoon,
Glad I could help.
 
Hello,

Doing the exact same thing currently...
re; practical short term emergency food supply.


We wanted replaced a bunch of Y2K vintage stores of dehydrated stuff, and MRE's. I spent way too much on it then, and would not do either again for the price compared to what you get. After eating a bunch of both, I think there are way better choices...the only thing they have going for them is lighter weight.

I also am planning for 2, and last month we tried one of pretty much everything available at local stores, to replace the dehydrated stuff and MRE's. We spent about $100 on samples of anything that looked practical, and was available locally. Not going to list everything we tried, lol...just the highs and lows.

Our only critera was...
no cooking/no water for prep required/no tools required.


The bad first...waste of $$ for us.

We found all canned fish/sea food pretty disgusting...even the good tuna.

All canned beef found was from Brazil...we decided to pass on that.

Tried many canned soups and beans...ok, but not great...would have been better heated no doubt, but we tried everything cold, and most of these required a can opener.


The good...

Spam has gotten a whole lot better over the years...

Spam...was very surprised...very much improved from years past. Regular spam now comes in small "half can's" that are a very practical size. We tried all the available flavors, but liked the regular best of these.

Turkey Spam...both my girl and myself like this better than regular, but could not find it in the more practical half can size.

Cliff bars...tried every food bar we could find...Cliff bars were better packaged and better taste by far than any other tried.
Of the cliff bars, we liked Choc Chip the best.

Canned nut's.

Of about 50 products tried, these were the clear winners, (for us).

We will no doubt keep an eye out for other stuff to try, but for us;
Full size cans of Turkey Spam
Half can size of regular Spam
Cliff bars
Gatorade drink powder
One a Day multi vitamins
Canned nut's
...are now our emergency stapels, and I think way better than what we had before. (way cheaper too).

We tried this combo on a 7 day river camping trip, and found the Cliff bars/ Spam (regular-small cans), and good quality canned nut's go well together, were not too heavy to pack, and no upset stomach/loss of energy, (unlike MRE's). We did not feel deprived or unhappy because of food issues, and had plenty of energy...no ill effects at all.

On water filters..the Katadyn Pocket filter model is worth the extra $$. When you consider the cost of spare replacement elements for the lesser filters, it comes out about the same, and the Pocket filter is a much better built unit, with thousands of gallons more filtering life in a single unit. For us, we found it made more $$ sense to just buy another complete unit than just a spare filter element, but the Pocket Filter model was way cheaper when we got ours than they are now...well worth it though, a no regret item.

Best of luck,
Chris.


............................
Partial list of good trades I've had here since 1999...Thanks!
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124818
 
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