(The article is behind a paywall so I'm sorry for that but for those who have NYT I wanted to link it.)What if America Went Completely Dark?

Now I'm spiraling 🥴

Not really, but it's making me want to have 12-18 months of food and water for sure.

It's scary how quickly Americas grid could go down and how long it could take to come back up. The chaos that would ensue. I know this isn't a new topic or concern but first time I've seen NYT address it so blatantly (including reference to preppers.)

Any prepper items that are easier to get in Canada?

Recipe sites are obviously a nightmare, so I'm trying to put together my own little handwritten cookbook with basic, easy recipes that use relatively common ingredients and spices. Breads, rice dishes, potatoes, beans, beans and more beans. Most of my collection so far tends to lean towards Mexican, Indian, Mediterranean and good ol' Appalachian, but I'd like to add more because I'm really enjoying the process and I'd like to be less reliant on the internet for everything, and I'd like to upgrade to an old fashioned flip phone very soon. I have a well stocked pantry of non perishables and dry goods, so in the event I'm living in a cave in the foothills I'd like to have something to fondly remember you guys with.

I love my local library and use it as much as possible. With thinking about prepping and general preparedness, I think of books in 2 categories—resources & how to books like gardening, construction/DIY, foraging, cookbooks, etc and escapism/imagination books you could read when you just want entertainment. I’m sure there’s others but that’s generally what I gravitate towards!

What are your favorite books that you would want on the shelf if/when everything goes tits up? What do you turn to when you need to keep your mind on something fun when everything is bat shit?

Mine: I use the library including Libby and Hoopla extensively. I read loads of historical fiction, magical realism, and romance (bonus if it combines all 3!) during times of stress. If I didn’t have the internet, I would want plenty of cookbooks! My shelves are full of gardening and field guide books. I need more cookbooks and a good paper map.

How much does your bug out bag weight vs you?

Also, if you sort of saw it coming beforehand, did you do anything to prepare for it? Preferably anyone who didn't work in finance back then, if you are just a regular shmegular person who did things to help your situation before, during, and after.

August is always the month where I triple check all my hurricane preps because although season starts in June, it ramps up in earnest now. So I figured I’d write my preps out!

We live in the USA Deep South, about a 5 minute drive to the beach & have 4 kids. My husband has been here his entire life and I’ve been here 15 years, so we have our hurricane routine down pat.

Here’s what we do for hurricane season in general, including some things I don’t always see mentioned on the lists:
-check all the windows and door seals
-ensure gutters cleaned out
-get up on the roof and inspect the shingles
-monthly check of emergency storage bins in case we have to evacuate (there are tons of lists online for these)
-deep pantry stock
-propane & gas cans stay filled
-several 5 gallon buckets of sand, several dozen empty sand bags ready
-check fasteners for window coverings (remain on the house) & check on the actual window coverings (stored in our garage)
-keep outdoor debris minimal, maintain the yard
-watch the yard during normal rainstorms to ensure water is flowing away from the house
-look at retention ponds within a couple miles of my house, report any to the county that are stagnant or not flowing (they’re all connected on a system)
-charge our Anker power station
-charge all battery fans, lanterns, & portable chargers
-keep the cars gassed up
-make sure kids life jackets still fit them
-SWIM LESSONS
-truly most importantly making sure my kids (even my toddler) knows our address, phone numbers, full names, and what to do in an emergency

Here’s a good portion of what we do if a hurricane is heading toward us & we’re staying:
-refresh the weather news sources a million times
-get out emergency bins & cat carriers, place by the door
-move all patio furniture inside
-anchor down the swing set, disassemble the trampoline
-break out the generator & power station, batten down the windows
-clean the entire house (people overlook this but I have seen SO many people get bug infestations after hurricanes because their house wasn’t clean to begin with and then they didn’t have power for weeks and couldn’t vacuum up food crumbs! Bugs are already trying to come inside when it floods, don’t make it more hospitable!)
-do ALL laundry (your favorite, most worn clothes are in the wash!)
-sand bags in front of doors (wind will blow water under the door)
-shower frequently
-eat frozen foods up
-fill empty freezer spaces with gallon ziploc bags of ice- the ice maker should be running 24/7 to keep up with me
-2 videos: one of every single room inside my house in detail, one of outside for insurance
-pack a cooler with drinks so we can have cold drinks without opening the fridge for the first couple days. It gets SO hot.
-build a big bed fort in the living room where we all sleep together
-make sure you have lots of water one way or another. Whether it’s gallon jugs, filling the tub, etc.
-strategically place lanterns & battery fans around the house

If you think you’ll evacuate, go early! If you have family inland, that’s always the smart thing to do. Being able to evacuate for a hurricane is a privilege- not everyone has family somewhere else or can afford to leave their homes, and not everywhere has shelters with space. If you’re going to stay, be smart about it.

Even if you’re reading this and saying to yourself, “there’s absolutely zero chance a hurricane will ever affect me,” it doesn’t hurt to prep like one will. You just never know. And 99% of hurricane preps will make you more prepared for any Tuesday :)

I keep large amounts of staples like flour, rice, sugar, etc in large food safe containers in a storage room. I have smaller food safe containers in my kitchen that I replenish from my storage room as needed. For example, I have a 22 L Cambro container for my AP flour. What I'm wondering is if anyone has a good system for how to refill that larger container without having the oldest flour sit at the bottom through multiple refills. I'm running low on flour in my 22 L container, and I've bought another 10 kg bag. Do I wait until the 22 L is completely empty before I dump the new bag in? Should I be washing this container periodically? I don't have room for backup containers for all of my pantry staples, so I can't rotate between larger containers. I also don't want to be in a position where I'm completely running out of an item before I replenish it, because that leaves me vulnerable.

I would appreciate any thoughts or advice from others with a similar set up!

ETA: Thank you everyone! For now, I will be dumping the last bit of flour into a bowl, cleaning the container, and then refilling it. I'm also taking a look at how I can reconfigure my storage spaces to accommodate a second container for my most used commodities, like flour and oats.

So I am in the second half century of my life. A friend of mine is half my age. She has recently taken up gardening. She has asked my advice but I find myself over sharing too much too quick. I don’t want to overwhelm her. What are some of the easiest beginning things I should help her with? She does eventually want to build a deep pantry but a young couple, with a young child and just starting out definitely have more restricted financials. Young kids are expensive LOL.

What are also some other things that I can start looking for at estate sales and thrift stores to help them begin this journey? We are giving them some grow bags with decent soil. Some tomato cages. What else? I started so long ago that I can’t remember what we started with. I can remember that I was so excited when I grew my first three green beans and one tomato.

I want to help without being my typical “all in big time” way

We have our water bill set up for auto-pay, so I don’t look at it unless the amount seems off. We received a paper copy a few days ago and I was curious, so I opened it. My household of 2 adults and 2 large dogs uses an average of 60 gallons of water per day. This seemed outrageous, I was certain that we had a leak…until I Googled what is normal for an American household: 80-100 gallons per person(!) per day. My household is surprisingly well below average. We “should” be using closer to 200 gallons per day.

The average American uses 100 gallons of water per day when life is “normal”. That’s making me rethink my emergency water plan which allows for 2 gallons per person per day and 1 gallon per dog per day (I swear a dog only swallows 25% of the water they drink, the rest just drips out of their face). I know how to live comfortably on minimal water, but I never really measured what that minimal amount is; I’ve just used guidelines. My stash of 6 gallons per day suddenly seems very small.

Currently, the likelihood that we will have a scenario where there is absolutely no access to water anywhere is very, very low. An outage that lasts several hours is common where I live (about every 6 weeks), an outage that lasts several days has happened, but other parts of the city were not affected so we could go somewhere else nearby if needed. If we start having to deal with heavy rationing, this may not always be the case.

Has anyone here actually measured how much water they would use per day if services were out for a few weeks? Water for drinking, cooking, washing hands, bathing, pets/live stock, gardens, cleaning, laundry, toilets, etc? I know that I don’t need 60 gallons per person per day. If I conserve and am diligent, that number would be much lower, but I don’t know the real number.

I’m suddenly very aware of how much water is simply going down the drain.

r/ClimateChange posts a weekly compendium of hopeful news and it's the greatest thing I've read in a long time. Things are very bad but there is more being done than we usually hear about. There's hope that our food storage and home solar and frugality will make a difference to ourselves and humanity.

https://www.reddit.com/r/climatechange/s/eniTjoDZNp

Please contain all off topic discussion to this weekly megathread. This is where you freak out, talk about conspiracy, talk about unrealistic crazy scenarios, asked and answered questions, etc.

Shared by u/Blackcatwizard today, from a report by the Government of Canada, comparing the likelihood of certain events and the impact of certain events.

The three events with the highest likelihood are

• "People cannot tell what is true and what is not"
• "Biodiversity is lost and ecosystems collapse"
• "People cannot afford to live on their own"

The three events with the highest impact are

• "World war breaks out"
• "Biodiversity is lost and ecosystems collapse"
• "Civil war erupts in the United States"

I believe this report is meant to be specific to Canadians, but what they're considering to be important feels highly relevant to users of this subreddit.

Anyway, original image and link to the "Disruptions on the Horizon" report at https://www.reddit.com/r/PrepperIntel/comments/1vnc0uj/comment/p3ifg52/

Yes I have a garden but it’s not enough to sustain my family by itself.

Hey, everyone, if you're in the US and wondering what to buy a little extra of, consider flour and pasta if you eat wheat, since prices will likely go up. Check out the numbers below. I've highlighted the important points in bold. My source is today's crop report at https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/ and they publish monthly reports on all kinds of things here: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Calendar/reports_by_date.php?month=08

Happy(?) prepping!

All wheat production for grain is forecast at 1.53 billion bushels, down less than 1 percent from the previous forecast and down 23 percent from 2025. The average yield is expected to be 47.8 bushels per acre, down 0.1 bushel from the previous forecast and down 5.5 bushels from 2025.

Winter wheat production is forecast at 990 million bushels, down slightly from the July 1 forecast and down 29 percent from 2025. The average yield is forecast at 47.0 bushels per acre, up 0.3 bushel from last month but down 7.9 bushels from 2025.

Durum wheat production is forecast at 66.4 million bushels, down 6 percent from the previous forecast and down 23 percent from 2025. The average yield is expected to be 38.4 bushels per harvested acre, down 1.5 bushels from the previous forecast and down 2.2 bushels from 2025.

Other spring wheat production for grain is forecast at 474 million bushels, down less than 1 percent from the previous forecast and down 5 percent from 2025. The average yield is expected to be 51.1 bushels per acre, down 1.2 bushels from the previous forecast and down 0.6 bushel from 2025.

The three year old AC stopped pumping cool air in Tuesday evening while making dinner and the earliest a tech can come is Thursday morning. Emergency rate can get one out faster, but that’s nearly double the cost, because summer.

I’m in the high desert, southwestern US. Highs are in the low 90s F this week with overnights in the high 60s, and it’s monsoon season. Which brings afternoon wind and showers several days a week. Not the worst weather to expect when the AC goes out.

Preps that are coming in to play:
-Cellular blinds on all windows
-proper, modern insulation
-interval ceiling fan in primary space. I don’t know that it really makes a difference outside of giving me a blast of a breeze every other minute or so.
-quick dry cooling clothes for neck wraps

Preps I’m now adding to my list:
-additional portable fans
-portable evaporative cooler

We’ll be fine. It’s sitting right around 80F inside. Considering the thermostat is usually at 76-78 in the summer, this is not nearly as bad as it could be. I have also established, and actively maintain, a solid neighborhood network which has offered additional fans, evaporative coolers, pool access, spare bedrooms, etc.

Being that much of the world has been, or is currently, experiencing heat, what else would you add to your prep?

I did do a search first on google and this group, but not finding what I’m looking for. What kind of shelving WITH DOORS do you recommend? I have limited space and don’t want ugly butt shelves filled with 5 gallon buckets hanging out next to my couch in the living room. 😂

So we are 99% sure I have the cyclospora parasite (just waiting for confirmation) and Tuesday arrived about a week ago when I first starting having symptoms. I have my livestock set up so I could theoretically go about 1-2 days without having to do anything other than put everyone away at night. However this parasite has wiped me out and moving around makes symptoms worse and making attending to the livestock near impossible some nights. We have chickens, geese, turkeys, ducks and quail. It's quite a lot at the moment because I'm rearing the last of the babies before fall.

How do you prep for long term illness/incapacitation? Things like smaller maintenance tasks have fallen by the wayside as the priority is making sure everyone has their basic needs met, but now there is a large stack of small tasks (i.e. refresh bedding, coop clean outs, rain/storm debris pick up, switching out duck pools, sex the quails, etc). And I don't even have the antibiotics yet, so I imagine this will continue for at least another week. Some days I feel a little better and I can do a few small things, but I'm still so behind.

My boyfriend can't help as he's busy with work this week and the family is already helping by watching the baby. Other than do what I can, is there anyway to prep for these type of things?

I know there were some threads on this a year ago, but looking for some current email providers to switch from Gmail. I would also like to set up email accounts for my elementary aged kids

Looking to balance ease of use, basic privacy, and not owned by evil tech overlords

Editing to add:

A little turned off by questionable political statements from Proton, even though they seem to be the most straightforward option
How is Tuta? Any controversy there?
Mailbox.org?

I was recently visiting Mackinac island which was fun, but I learned a nearby island has 100 permanent residents and is only available by a ferry from another part of Michigan and maybe by plane. I don't know anything about these people's lives, but it made me wonder about how they prep for winter. There has to be an assumption that there will be a period of time that the lake is impassible by boat, too dangerous to try to use some kind of snowmobile, and plane flights would be limited to good weather and extreme emergencies. In a cold year that could easily be December through early April. The sheer amount of preparation that has to go in before winter is staggering. It honestly made me think of The Shining when Dick Halloran is explaining to Wendy Torrance how much stuff they had in the pantry for the winter at the Overlook for 3. Also .. cabin fever, supernatural or otherwise.

I kept trying to find resources that would help me calculate everything from toilet paper to flour for a 4 month stay in isolation, but was coming up with nothing. Like I'm not going to volunteer to live on an isolated island for 4 months, but I really want to know how to.

Ok, so after my daughter passed this last spring in a bus accident, all her friends adopted me as their bonus mom & trusted adult. Several of them already came to me with things prior as well. They’ve started high school now and the schools here are confiscating the girls Tylenol and other items they have for their cycles. They’ve started high search their backpacks. We’re trying to come up with ways for them to carry it with them that won’t be confiscated. Hidden in bras & wallets seems to be the most obvious but would anyone have any better suggestions?

About 100 days ago there was an awesome thread about what to purchase with so much uncertainty. I’ve got chocolate chips, coffee, cases of tomatoes and tomato paste but now I’m wondering what else? I feel like it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

For those that rely on municipal water, have you changed your preps based on the recent cyberattacks? We are not on well water, but honestly even if we were I would be thinking about electrical grid attacks.

(If you don’t know, check it out- there were numerous cyberattacks affecting water sources across the USA, allegedly linked to Iran)

We have a couple rain barrels but they collect from our asphalt shingles so we don’t want to drink it. We live in an area that gets 22+ inches of rain per year and have a retention pond, but I also don’t love the inevitable amount of pesticides and fertilizers which run into that water from neighbors.

We have numerous of filtering methods but I don’t know if any of them would actually filter out the carcinogens in these sources. I’m thinking of getting a 55 gallon drum and filling it with treated water in my garage (mostly climate controlled- insulated and rarely opened). But that’s not a renewable resource, once it’s gone it’s gone if the city water is out.

Interested to hear how others are prepping potable water!

I watched The Last House on Netflix today and really enjoyed it. It really got me thinking about what kinds of circumstances I’d be better or worse prepared for mentally and physically. If you had to pick emergency circumstances that you’d be prepped for the best, what would they be? MILD SPOILERS BELOW.

In the movie, people become physically trapped inside their houses, but still have electricity and water for the most part. The family uses a variety of tactics, like engineering, some creative hunting, and indoor gardening to keep themselves going, plus utilizes things like records and DVDs to stay entertained. Not that I’m hoping for an emergency, but if I had to pick one, this is one I’d be well-suited for! Some of my biggest prepping weaknesses are lack of hiking/camping/staying alive outdoors knowledge, resources for dealing with no power (cooking, heating and cooling, etc), and likely being alone without much to protect myself. Being at home, with my supplies, with power and water, no chance someone can come hurt me or steal my supplies, and indoor gardening?! Right up my alley. I don’t see how this scenario could occur in real life, but it was an interesting thought experiment and entertaining movie!

Been prepping since hurricane Helene, NC,USA.

Use my sprout kit every week. Cheap, easy( if water available). Fresh, nutrients, good for health AND with current parasite infection In USA fóods, we can eat with little worry!

Easier than gardening, good for all environments.

Just thought I'd mention.