Why do I need water and items for if the electricity goes out? Are we expecting infrastructure blackouts?
I read an article (no idea where) that talked about how if a large percentage of a population is sick and/or quarantined, then it's possible that water treatment facilities and power plants won't have the staffing they need to operate safely/at full capacity. I don't know how likely that is, but I can imagine in certain areas (ie. rural areas and small towns) it could be a real concern.
I would also think that if the cities or states start putting quarantine measures in place, incidents that are daily and run-of-the-mill get complicated really quickly.
Say that your stove or fridge quits working, but you're quarantined. Service companies are going to refuse to come to your home. You can't safely go to a hotel without exposing other people. You more or less have to figure out a way to ride it out unless it gets to the point that it's an emergency where you could go to a hospital.
If there's a storm and power goes out, or a waterline breaks, crews may or may not be willing to go into a quarantine zone to fix those things, even if they're not going into houses. ETA: We have a propane tank for heating/cooking. If our propane company's crews refused to go out to fill tanks in a quarantine zone for an extended period, it is definitely possible that our tank could run out.
Post by BicycleBride on Feb 24, 2020 16:09:14 GMT -5
This seems like a good time to ask this question- how do you guys store water for emergencies? Do you buy the gallon milk jugs of water at the store or what?
This seems like a good time to ask this question- how do you guys store water for emergencies? Do you buy the gallon milk jugs of water at the store or what?
I have a case of bottled water in my basement ... but only because it was free when my local supermarket offered a coupon. Otherwise I typically don’t store water. Before Sandy in 2012 we filled a few pitchers with water just in case but never needed them (we lost power for 2-3 days).
I have some N95 masks on hand already. They’re on a lot of emergency kit lists and a lot of people have cited 9/11 as a reason why you should have one. They’re cheap at Home Depot so I got a package a while ago, although it doesn’t sound like they’re much good against coronavirus.
This seems like a good time to ask this question- how do you guys store water for emergencies? Do you buy the gallon milk jugs of water at the store or what?
I have a case of bottled water in my basement ... but only because it was free when my local supermarket offered a coupon. Otherwise I typically don’t store water. Before Sandy in 2012 we filled a few pitchers with water just in case but never needed them (we lost power for 2-3 days).
I have some N95 masks on hand already. They’re on a lot of emergency kit lists and a lot of people have cited 9/11 as a reason why you should have one. They’re cheap at Home Depot so I got a package a while ago, although it doesn’t sound like they’re much good against coronavirus.
Right now we do not store water because we have a tank for our hot water. We would just use that water. I am not sure what we will do when we go to a tankless system.
Wow. That is a really good article. "Cold, flu and COVID-19 season" could be the new reality, huh?
In China, people are being "lectured by drones if they were caught outside"? Whoa. That is a level of tech that seems like it's out of a movie.
And I had no idea that 14% of people infected with the flu have no symptoms.
Also, this thread is making my prepper tendencies rear their head. I had to go to the store to get some stuff for dinner and I picked up some extra Sudafed, vitamins, packaged water, cash and spaghettios (with meatballs, of course). I am both chuckling at myself and yet also planning to go through the bin of supplies/bug-out bags that I've put together to see if anything needs to be replaced/updated and what I still need in order to feel like I am comfortably prepared for a week+. I'll call it pre-hurricane season prep.
Im going to pop in here to add that there's apodcast called "this podcast will kill you". It goes over the biology, history and current status of various illnesses. A few weeks ago they covered coronavirus in general and it was really intersting.
Also another reason anti-vaxxers are so dangerous:
Making vaccines is so difficult, cost intensive, and high risk that in the 1980s, when drug companies began to incur legal costs over alleged harms caused by vaccines, many opted to simply quit making them.
This seems like a good time to ask this question- how do you guys store water for emergencies? Do you buy the gallon milk jugs of water at the store or what?
We buy either the plastic 1-gallon bottles for fresh drinking water, or the 5 gallon refillable bottles. We need fresh water for a family of 3 and 2 pets. Once you have a supply and whatever emergency has passed, you can just drink those and save the jugs for the next emergency, and then refill using your filtered water or tap if that is what you drink.
When a hurricane is coming, we fill a bathtub with water to use for flushing the toilet and other nonpotable needs like handwashing (obviously done in a separate bucket or something). Worst case scenario and drinking water runs out, we can use the bathwater after boiling it.
If we caught the coronavirus and/or were in a quarantined area, i wouldn't go through the trouble to fill a tub unless we sprung a leak and had to turn off the water, or there were reports about mass outbreaks and we were worried about the water processing plant workers being able to report to work.
I have a case of bottled water in my basement ... but only because it was free when my local supermarket offered a coupon. Otherwise I typically don’t store water. Before Sandy in 2012 we filled a few pitchers with water just in case but never needed them (we lost power for 2-3 days).
I have some N95 masks on hand already. They’re on a lot of emergency kit lists and a lot of people have cited 9/11 as a reason why you should have one. They’re cheap at Home Depot so I got a package a while ago, although it doesn’t sound like they’re much good against coronavirus.
Right now we do not store water because we have a tank for our hot water. We would just use that water. I am not sure what we will do when we go to a tankless system.
This never even occurred to me. We have two 80-gallon tanks. I guess you could shut off your main water supply and just use the hot tap knob to access it?
We tend to keep backups of everything we consume on a regular basis. This week we went ahead and ordered a few extra of everything shelf stable. Our front steps when a regular Costco mail order arrives is amazing to see. Tripe that. LOL. I also bought Mucinex, filled my current migraine script, and refilled allll of our asthma medicines that were due for refill. I can't risk any of that going out of stock. Think about how impossible it can be to get your hands on Tamiflu when there's an outbreak in your area. You don't need to deal with that if you can toss some Mucinex into your medicine cabinet today.
@@ I asked myself what OTC meds we would want if DS were to, say, spike a fever. I ordered a refill of Tylenol for him, and replenished my Aleve / Advil.
This seems like a good time to ask this question- how do you guys store water for emergencies? Do you buy the gallon milk jugs of water at the store or what?
We have 5 gallon delivery service bottles stored in the garage and rotate them through with enough water for our family + our pets for 7-10 days.
Right now we do not store water because we have a tank for our hot water. We would just use that water. I am not sure what we will do when we go to a tankless system.
This never even occurred to me. We have two 80-gallon tanks. I guess you could shut off your main water supply and just use the hot tap knob to access it?
Exactly. We also have a bunch of water filters we use for camping so we can filter the water because I am not sure we have ever used that tap and it might not be the cleanest.
This seems like a good time to ask this question- how do you guys store water for emergencies? Do you buy the gallon milk jugs of water at the store or what?
We keep bottled water, gallon jugs, and a couple of 6 gallon camping storage tanks filled. I will emphasize that having water already stored away is key. Our water supply was contaminated for several days - once it happened, there was no filling anything. No water, full stop. Due to nature of the contamination, boiling was not an option. We had to wait for levels to stabilize and the entire municipal water system to flush out. It was probably a once in a lifetime event, but we are not taking chances after that experience! Our hot water tank was already contaminated as it took a few hours for the issue to be found and alert system to notify.
Serious question. We have N95 masks where I work. Should I be stocking up on them? Curse all those shows about pandemics around the CDC having me on edge.
Ultimately you do what you’re comfortable with. I’m in healthcare in a city that is treating Coronavirus patients; my hospital is urging staff to limit use of N-95 masks unless absolutely indicated and to reuse masks when appropriate. There’s a concern that high worldwide usage for a product that is largely manufactured in China is putting a strain on the system such that the people who need them may not have adequate access
I’ve been tempted but I haven’t touched our supply. If we all hoard we could be in much greater trouble down the road.
Post by basilosaurus on Feb 25, 2020 0:26:33 GMT -5
I just had a 48hr stay in the observation ward of a local gov't hospital after getting stitched up. Head lacs are oh so fun and oh so very very bloody. When I say ward I mean a room with 20 beds. Almost everyone, staff and pts, wore masks. Except they wore surgical masks and often didn't really wear them, so, what's the point? Oh, and there was a pigeon under the bed next to me, just to provide character. I thought I was having auditory hallucinations and had a minor freak out. So I'll put my chances on the higher end of that Atlantic article.
What I don't understand is how there are so many increasing cases in this part of the world yet Thailand's official count is nearly stagnant. I think 3 confirmed new cases in 3 weeks bring the total to only mid 30s. But suspected 1400 more. We can't really say anything publicly due to lese majeste, but I doubt I'm the only 1 looking askance at that discrepancy especially when at the start of the outbreak we had the most outside of China.
I know people in Daegu, ROK, home of the disease cult and US military posts. The city is on de facto quarantine. Last I heard that just authorized funding but didn't mean lockdown.
Grabcar (SE Asia's version of Lyft) now has a popup to tell us to wear masks at any hint of illness when we book. AQI is regularly in top 10 globally, so as I've said a few times, we already wear them (OTC N95, not the hospital kind), and there are government sources that provide them as well.
Serious question. We have N95 masks where I work. Should I be stocking up on them? Curse all those shows about pandemics around the CDC having me on edge.
Ultimately you do what you’re comfortable with. I’m in healthcare in a city that is treating Coronavirus patients; my hospital is urging staff to limit use of N-95 masks unless absolutely indicated and to reuse masks when appropriate. There’s a concern that high worldwide usage for a product that is largely manufactured in China is putting a strain on the system such that the people who need them may not have adequate access
I’ve been tempted but I haven’t touched our supply. If we all hoard we could be in much greater trouble down the road.
I wish that they were doing this when my mom was at Palomar last month. She was in isolation in one of the special air filtration rooms because they didn't know what was wrong with her. It had a small room that everyone had to enter so they could don their masks before going into the room. They were easily going through 20-30 masks each day just going in and out of her room. It would've been nice to just have a spot to leave my mask so that I could reuse it every time I went to visit her.
School has been closed for my kids until March 9 and we have been asked to minimize outside interaction. Ask me in two weeks and I’ll tell you what I wish we’d had.
ETA: we live in an apt. Building with 4 tennants . Apt. 1 is the CEO for LEGO Korea, Apt 2 is the CFO for Kimberly Clark, Apt. 3 is the Australian representative for the Aussie Food and Wine industry and Apt. 4 is us. So we’ve got LEGO, masks and plenty of wine and cheese. Could be worse.
That moment when you realize that the US has no coronavirus cases not linked to China *because the CDC will only test people for coronavirus if they have travelled to China or have worked closely with someone *already identified* by the CDC as having coronavirus* (not travel to South Korea, not Iran, not Italy, not that ski resort where the British cases spread, let alone in country contagion from someone asymptomatic)
(ie. who knows if what happened in Britain or Italy or Iran is happening here because we aren't testing people. We've had a spike of flu related deaths if you look at the CDC graph, that went beyond expected but not quite into epidemic threshold, but sure, if you don't test for it, you can't have it. Just ask Iran.)
So when this finally breaks through to recognition, I think we are going to see a fast spike in cases and deaths. Not because there will have been an actual fast spike, just a slow growth confused with seasonal flu. And while it won't be public health catastrophe, I do expect the associated hysteria/quarantines/school shutdowns etc. to go off the rails.
Time to head to Costco for that case of canned tomatoes and tp. (hyperventilates into a bag)
ETA: I woke up today realizing the US has too much hubris to quarantine. We won't acknowledge it's here until we are ready to say it can't be controlled.
My cousin lives about 60 miles west of Shanghai and his town has been closed off since end of January.
The day his town closed he had a grocery delivery scheduled but they did not allow the delivery person through the town barricade. He went to the store but there was very little available. He wasn’t able to get anything fresh except for eggs so he bought as many of those as he could.
Since that time there have been a few times deliveries have been allowed into the town (to stock up the stores - not personal deliveries) but they are sporadic.
He has no issues with electricity, water, etc. he lives in a giant apartment building (he’s on the 26th floor).
He is generally a loner but is bored out of his mind.
Just an account if people are trying to think of what they would want in such a situation.
That moment when you realize that the US has no coronavirus cases not linked to China *because the CDC will only test people for coronavirus if they have travelled to China or have worked closely with someone *already identified* by the CDC as having coronavirus* (not travel to South Korea, not Iran, not Italy, not that ski resort where the British cases spread, let alone in country contagion from someone asymptomatic)
(ie. who knows if what happened in Britain or Italy or Iran is happening here because we aren't testing people. We've had a spike of flu related deaths if you look at the CDC graph, that went beyond expected but not quite into epidemic threshold, but sure, if you don't test for it, you can't have it. Just ask Iran.)
So when this finally breaks through to recognition, I think we are going to see a fast spike in cases and deaths. Not because there will have been an actual fast spike, just a slow growth confused with seasonal flu. And while it won't be public health catastrophe, I do expect the associated hysteria/quarantines/school shutdowns etc. to go off the rails.
Time to head to Costco for that case of canned tomatoes and tp. (hyperventilates into a bag)
Yeah, the fact that the US isn't reporting more cases is really shady, IMO. The one interview with the epidemiologist that I read yesterday said he thought there was actually 100-200 cases in the US that we just haven't identified yet.
At the same time, there just aren't enough test kits to go around. But I think it's leading to a false sense of security.
I live in a city that had one confirmed case (a person who returned to ASU from Wuhan). that was like three weeks ago. The news at the time said the person self isolated, but you can't tell me they didn't come in contact with anyone else until that happened.
This seems like a good time to ask this question- how do you guys store water for emergencies? Do you buy the gallon milk jugs of water at the store or what?
The milk-jug type bottles of water aren't good for long-term storage; those tend to leak and degrade over time. They're fine in a pinch, but don't use them for the longer-term. Our water storage is primarily made up of one-gallon bottles from Costco - they come in the heavier-duty plastic kind of like juice does. I also have smaller water bottles as well. But generally I prefer the larger ones.
This seems like a good time to ask this question- how do you guys store water for emergencies? Do you buy the gallon milk jugs of water at the store or what?
I bought a gallon of distilled water to use in my Netipot. I used a little and then stored the rest, thinking it would be good to have on hand. I went to clean out my under sink storage and the bottle was practically empty. It had a snap on lid, not a screw on so I guess those aren't airtight? New it had the piece of plastic that you peel off but those don't seem airtight either. There's got to be an airtight option for medium/longterm storage?
Post by basilosaurus on Feb 25, 2020 9:34:43 GMT -5
If any of you have a west marine or similar, they make big storage containers for water as many boats cannot carry much in their holds. I have no idea what they cost, but they're definitely heavy duty. We'd fill them up at the beginning of every hurricane season. We of course used them on boats, too.