this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Preppers once were the unreasonable ones. What else will be seen in a new light?

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

When Covid happened most of them collectively shook their heads and said "Nah, that's fake."

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

What else will be seen in a new light?

It's all context. There is a fine line between stupid and genius.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Tnx people for all your suggestions and advice. It helped me isolate my perceived worst case emergency. This would be a flood, as in all other events I'll be dead, or it will be very doable. So if there's a flood, this would likely mean, no water, energy, electricity, communications and probably no help, for days minimum.

For clean water access, apparently a small portable (old school) waterfiltration system would be the best option, in combination with some bottled water.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

for days minimum

This will be up to two relevant factors, only the first you know in advance:

  1. The more densily populated an area the more effort will be spend locating survivors, if you survive a flood but live remotely it on average will take longer before you are located.
  2. The extent of the emergency, the bigger the area the more available resources (including effort/ human energy) are spread out. If the flood covers a lot of area, it will on average take longer for help to reach you.

It is very unlikely there will not be any help coming.

If you survive a flood you might have gotten wet which will have massive influence on your ability to maintain a desirable body temperature. If the flood comes with bad weather and you have no acces to heating or a place to shelter hypothermia might kill you before contaminated water can. If you can shelter in place and you're safe in your own (or somebody elses) home bottled water and/or a water filter might be a great thing though, just trying to say what you'll need depends entirely on what situation you end up in.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

There are definitely many variables, and hypothermia is really an issue. I just wanted to be aware of the most critical situation. Cities with lower elevations near sea and or rivers are more suspectable to flooding due to climate change etc.

Recently, we had a flooding in Spain where the emergency signal came too late. Last year, there was one in South-Brasil where help couldn't be delivered easily, because the roads and airports were inundated.

Other examples according to Mistral AI, fyi:

Flood events where help arrived after 72 hours are often large-scale disasters that overwhelm initial response capabilities. Here are some notable examples:

  1. Hurricane Katrina (2005)

    • Location: Gulf Coast of the United States, particularly New Orleans, Louisiana.
    • Description: Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic flooding due to levee failures. The response was delayed, and many residents were stranded for days without food, water, or medical supplies. The federal response, including FEMA, was widely criticized for its slowness and inefficiency.
    • Help Arrival: Significant federal aid and rescue operations ramped up several days after the hurricane made landfall, with many areas not receiving help until well after 72 hours.
  2. Hurricane Harvey (2017)

    • Location: Texas and Louisiana, United States.
    • Description: Hurricane Harvey brought unprecedented rainfall, leading to severe flooding in Houston and other areas. The flooding overwhelmed local emergency services, and many residents had to wait for days for rescue and relief.
    • Help Arrival: The National Guard, Coast Guard, and other federal agencies conducted large-scale rescue operations that continued for days after the storm. Many affected individuals were rescued after 72 hours, and recovery efforts extended for months.
  3. Pakistan Floods (2010)

    • Location: Pakistan.
    • Description: The 2010 Pakistan floods were caused by heavy monsoon rains and affected approximately one-fifth of the country's land area. The floods displaced millions of people and caused widespread destruction.
    • Help Arrival: International aid and relief efforts took several days to fully mobilize. Many affected areas were inaccessible due to flooded roads and infrastructure damage, delaying the arrival of help.
  4. Hurricane Maria (2017)

    • Location: Puerto Rico.
    • Description: Hurricane Maria caused catastrophic damage to Puerto Rico, including widespread flooding, power outages, and infrastructure destruction. The island's remote location and the scale of the disaster complicated response efforts.
    • Help Arrival: Significant federal aid and relief efforts were delayed, with many areas not receiving help until days after the hurricane. The slow response was criticized, and recovery efforts took months and even years.
  5. Midwest Floods (2019)

    • Location: Midwest United States, including Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri.
    • Description: The 2019 Midwest floods were caused by heavy rainfall and snowmelt, leading to widespread flooding along the Missouri River and its tributaries. The floods damaged homes, infrastructure, and agricultural land.
    • Help Arrival: The scale of the flooding overwhelmed local response capabilities, and federal aid, including the National Guard, was mobilized to assist with rescue and recovery efforts. Many affected areas had to wait for days for significant help to arrive.
  6. India Floods (2018)

    • Location: Kerala, India.
    • Description: The 2018 Kerala floods were caused by unusually high monsoon rainfall, leading to widespread flooding and landslides. The floods displaced over a million people and caused significant damage to infrastructure.
    • Help Arrival: The Indian government, along with international aid organizations, conducted large-scale rescue and relief operations. However, the scale of the disaster meant that many areas had to wait for days for help to arrive.

These examples highlight the challenges and complexities of responding to large-scale flood events, where the initial response is often overwhelmed, and significant help may arrive after the critical 72-hour window.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

Thanks for sharing!

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Earlier this year the European public was urged to stockpile enough food, water and essentials for 72 hours to cope with a military attack, natural disaster, power cut or major industrial accident.

Honestly, unless you have some sort of serious medical condition, most people should be just fine going 72 hours without food. We've a social convention of eating three meals a day, sure, but your body is quite able of running off stored energy for a long time. I've fasted for a week myself for the hell of it. I remember mentioning that to an aunt once, and she mentioned that she'd done two weeks.

This guy did over a year (though he was pretty heavy to begin with, had plenty of fat reserves).

Barbieri went from 456 pounds (207 kg) to 180 pounds (82 kg), losing 276 pounds (125 kg) and setting a record for the length of a fast.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

he consumed only vitamins, electrolytes, an unspecified amount of yeast (a source of all essential amino acids) and zero-calorie beverages such as tea, coffee, and sparkling water, although he occasionally added milk and/or sugar to the beverages, especially during the final weeks of the fast.

Worth mentioning imo, but you are right that most people should be fine fasting for some days if necessary. Although I would bet that almost everyone has a few days of food anyways. Unless you literally have empty shelves and buy groceries every day, most people will have a base stock of shelf stable foods like noodles, canned stuff, sugar, flour and so on.

Imo the limiting factor will be drinkable water most of the time. If something would cut off the supply immediately and for longer durations it would be a serious issue. Especially during warmer months.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Anyone tried water purifying tablets yet, and would you recommend them?

So, I did some research a little while ago, bottled (supermarket) water will stay good for a year, officially . Anything else ( like water filled jerrycan) goes bad after some days and needs a waterfilter and/or water purifying tablets.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

You have between 100 and 300L of fresh water in your cumulus and 10L in your toilets. If you have a bath, you can also fill it as soon as alert is raised and have enough water for days. Yes, it's not the perfectly clean tap water, but it's emergency situation. And you have an immune system for this.

Unless you go on treck or on country with suspicious water, don't bother with purifying tablets. You'll have to throw them away and replace every 2 years. They also give some unpleasant taste to water.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Anyone tried water purifying tablets yet, and would you recommend them?

They'll kill bacteria in water, though obviously they can't pull chemicals out of it.

I wouldn't be worried about bottled water going bad after a year


I've kept distilled water for much longer than that


but if you want more capacity in a smaller package than by storing water, you can get a water still, distill water yourself as long as you have some source of water and some sort of sufficient heat (e.g. a fire).

kagis

https://www.amazon.com/Roots-Branches-VKP1208-Little-Distiller/dp/B07WSJ2H8C

If you don't have access to a water source but have sufficient electrical power


which in the past I'd have said probably isn't very likely if the government can't get water to the public in 72 hours, but isn't as crazy as it once might have been, what with people running around with beefy home solar setups and the like


it's possible to run devices that condense water out of the air off the cold side of a heat pump, these sorts of things:

https://www.amazon.com/Solaris-WaterGen-A10-Atmospheric-Generator/dp/B0DL4N1PRG

I'd guess that for most people, the most-practical and cost-effective approach is probably just to estimate how much water one might need and store that much potable water in advance. That takes care of the "have a source of water", "get any energy required to purify it", and "purify it" points all at one go. Doesn't require a lot of expertise, effort, or place constraints on your environment to open a bottle of water.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's important to note what purification tablets do and don't do. They kill bacteria, some viruses and many parasites. They don't remove chemical pollution, or biological toxins.

You should use them if you want to drink from open water like steams and ponds, but it won't, say, remove factory effluent. It will prevent getting diseases from human or animal waste, which is the main risk.

But it won't make the water taste like it didn't come from a pond.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

But it won't make the water taste like it didn't come from a pond.

They do make water filters that will pull larger stuff out.

I understand that the American Sawyer and the Swiss LifeStraw make popular small, portable devices.

https://www.sawyer.com/

https://lifestraw.com/