Camping vs Emergency equipment

Stumpalump

Expedition Leader
Im in Northern CA I suspected Im older only by a few years. The concern of getting to family is the biggest issue. That and having basics enough for everyone for a week or so. Which isnt difficult to sort out if you've camped for a week with no food runs to the grocery store.

Think about the normal days how packed the roads are, how packed Costco is on a typical day. Then toss a natural disaster into that managed caos and you can imagine for at least 2 days any family members more than walking distance away should have a disaster plan for where work is etc. My wife can walk to s good friends home 20-30 minute walk from her office. She keeps old running shoes in her car given her work shoes wont work for that walk. Also water and cliff bars. I'm at the home office 8 min walk from the kids. The hardest thing to keep up is perishable goods that are mainly emergency foods stuffs, it just takes time to stay on top of it.

One thing to never forget. Traffic in the major metro areas will be complete locked up gridlock. Dont expect to drive anywhere. The 89 Quake Most of my coworkers sill at the office simply walked home. Same for many who were at the Ball park for the game.

Family in SoCal also walked home.

The walking is a good point and why I stocked the old ladies car trunk with clothes and a pair of sneakers. She is not walking far in her work dress and high heel shoes.
 

Lucky j

Explorer
Wow, are you guys prepairing for a country wide shut down?

I understand the need for prepardiness for natural catastrophy and beeing ready for a few days until rescue and help organize, bit I would say that what you need will also depend of the area where you live.

Having extra gas/fuel to help you get away under evacuation situation is great, food for up to a week is also important, water to cover deinking for same amouth of time also great, but ince the desaster as happen, you might not be able to go anywhere with your rig, unless it is a caterpilar to push debris out of the way.

I only know that in disater situation, tendancy is to help each other, with amey or national garde or other like red cross being call to bring help and support, neigbors helping each other. Riott situation are different, but usualy do not last past the night they happen.

I know that in my little neck of the wood, I will not need a gun, but to hunt for food, gas will help me a bit, but roads will probably be closed or none practicable, even with my jeep and I will probably be around anyway to help others if I not working as a paramedic.

We can pretty much drink the water from the rivers. Winter cold would be a different story if this is the week that I am a work, electrical heating only, but the week at the cabin, wood stove and gravity fed water, mountain spring not to far.

Gf and I working walking distance from house.

Just food for thoughts.
 

pugslyyy

Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
Wow, are you guys prepairing for a country wide shut down?

No, but I think this year's active hurricane season is making a lot of people think about how prepared they are, so this is a good conversation to have.

I'm not planning for the complete collapse of civilization, but we've lost power in my neighborhood for up to 2 weeks weeks before due to natural catastrophes (hurricanes, ice storms) and we've had winter weather render roads impassible with no warning leaving people stranded either at their work on in their cars with little or no supplies.

It's good to be prepared so that you can be self reliant and place as little of a burden as possible on the first responders - and you'll likely be more comfortable as well.
 

Flhtruss

Observer
IKK
Gasoline has a shelf life. Rotate or add fuel stabilizer to help. Not all generators have fuel shut off, carburetor can get gummed up, something to look into. It's hard to prepair for everything. Doing something is a lot better than what most will do.
 

MANUCHAO

Aventurero
Living in the LA basin I'm preparing for the end of the world.... if i happen to survive the shake down... i want to have enough for me and possibly help my neighbours....

Im not really expecting for the government to save my hinny, but i won't say no either if the help is being offered....

Expect the worse n hope for the best....
 

SoCal Tom

Explorer
Wow, are you guys prepairing for a country wide shut down?

I understand the need for prepardiness for natural catastrophy and beeing ready for a few days until rescue and help organize, bit I would say that what you need will also depend of the area where you live.

Having extra gas/fuel to help you get away under evacuation situation is great, food for up to a week is also important, water to cover deinking for same amouth of time also great, but ince the desaster as happen, you might not be able to go anywhere with your rig, unless it is a caterpilar to push debris out of the way.

I only know that in disater situation, tendancy is to help each other, with amey or national garde or other like red cross being call to bring help and support, neigbors helping each other. Riott situation are different, but usualy do not last past the night they happen.

I know that in my little neck of the wood, I will not need a gun, but to hunt for food, gas will help me a bit, but roads will probably be closed or none practicable, even with my jeep and I will probably be around anyway to help others if I not working as a paramedic.

We can pretty much drink the water from the rivers. Winter cold would be a different story if this is the week that I am a work, electrical heating only, but the week at the cabin, wood stove and gravity fed water, mountain spring not to far.

Gf and I working walking distance from house.

Just food for thoughts.

Here in Socal, there is no river to drink from. My planning is generally in line with FEMA recommendations. Just enough to get through until help can get there. In FL recently that was about 10days without access to stores.
Tom


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ArkansasDon

Observer
I'm building my trailer currently to the fact of you stated along with personal pleasure use: fly fishing, hunting, trapping & off grid camping. 100% off grid is what I am going for. I sold my Norwood "Nash" 5th Wheel for the issues that its limited to back country camping, but I had it set up for off grid too. I like what you have listed and agree there is no better way than being prepared no matter what the situation is, man made or mother nature. Food, Water, Medical, Shelter, Communications, Security, & Faith is what I go off of in life. You can only live 3 days w\o water (drinkable) after that your life is done, 3 weeks w\o food, 1st week will suck, all the others are just as important, Faith, I'm a Christian and w\o faith you will have a difficult time dealing with a ugly situation like a crisis.
Simple rule here; 3 is 2, 2 is 1, 1 is none. Items to have, one breaks, goes bad, lost or stolen you have a replacement. If you just had the one, then you have none.

I have purchased my camping gear for dual purpose: personal pleasure use & preparedness SHTF situation. My trailer I'm building is all solar as of charging system, 1 stationary 100 watt Renogy panel & 1 portable Renogy Suit Case 100 watt panel. Water Purification System is a Sawyer Gravity system w\extra filters, Cooler Fridg\Freez Engel 34 Qt.12v, & K2 70 dry cooler along with a Canyon Scout small dry cooler, 12v Mighty Cool MK3 portable A\C. All my flashlights are AA batteries, which I have a small portable solar charger that charges D's, C's, AA's & AAA's. I am installing a mobile CB 40 channel radio (in the tongue box) w\4ft antenna on the tent rack of the trailer, radio is a survival style solar, hand crank, battery (AA's) & 110 electrical powered. The list is endless, food is important (the right foods), security is just as important too. Items to cut firewood, split it, items to have when propane, batteries & other perishable's recourses are gone. Most of these items with the exception of the Renogy Solar System I already had from my 5th wheel & being in the preparedness life style in my home.
One thing to remember is, you can not pack the entire house (you will go crazy if you try), so the important items to survive a crisis is what is more important like the list I mention food, water, medical, communications, shelter, security & faith. I like to think of the "Grey Man" scenario aka do not draw attention to you, noise, smell, appearance will only get you in trouble (the rolling Wal-Mart sign). Conceal your supplies (out of sight out of mind) by blending in with the crowd before or during an emergency will make your chances of survival higher with less attention. The unprepared aka sheep or zombies will go to any lengths to get what you have in a post SHTF situation. Once a crisis happens everything thing off the shelf will be gone in a blink of an eye. No better time to start than now.
 

calicamper

Expedition Leader
Here in Socal, there is no river to drink from. My planning is generally in line with FEMA recommendations. Just enough to get through until help can get there. In FL recently that was about 10days without access to stores.
Tom


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Keep in mind shakey ground tends to be very localized unlike Harvey or Irma hundreds of miles across and moving adding more distance and potential blockages for the regular truck deliverys to transit. If a really big one hits LA there are massive wearhouses stock full of goods all part of the delivery chain less than 3 hrs away. Roads damaged? Goods will be flown in if its really bad. The Texas 10+ days in large part was due to how far out you had to look before finding infrastructure that wasnt damaged or impacting transport of needed goods to the affected areas.

Its a great idea to target 10days but Westcoast disasters wont affect areas as large as the Harvey mess.
 

calicamper

Expedition Leader
In CA lived here my whole life the most common issue youll encounter is having to leave your house in 15minutes. AKA wild fire tearing through your neighborhood. You can have all the gear you can dream up, but only have enough time to grab the dog, a pair of shoes and your evac bag containing ?????? Think of it like a sinking boat your getting the F-ck out ASAP, do you have your grab bag packed?

The quakes are different, you stay, shut utilities off, drag out your gear, maybe patch up a neighbor or two that walked through glass bare foot given their shoes were down stairs by the door, "one of the most common injuries btw" and you start the process of fixing and cleaning up.

Wild Fire you just GTFO

A few friends in Texas that stayed.. Are now pretty convinced they are switching to the GTFO model if anything stage 3 and up starts to point in their direction.
 
Last edited:

perterra

Adventurer
sorry for the long post. just wanted to get my thoughts across.

With all that is going on it the world, TX, FL, Mexico, the Caribbean. It got me thinking. I live in SoCal and what happened in Mexico can happen here. I have been planning for such an issue for years. As a kid I lived through the 94 Northridge quake. Unfortunately my parents were not ready. Although our house sustained minimal damage we were without electricity and gas for almost a week. Our neighbors made a fire pit out front and people in the neighborhood brought stuff to cook so it wouldn't spoil.
I have two kids, and seeing all the devastation I don't want to be one of those people that when something happens I am caught with my pants down. Seeing everyone fleeing an area barely moving for days in FL, and these are people that had many days notice. If we were to have a large catastrophic earthquake here I could see roads being closed due to many issues and may need to stay put in an area for a week or longer. Now of course we cannot know everything that will happen, and to what extent but I would like to be as prepared as possible. Some of the things I have accumulated over the years, as well as some things I have done. Now some of the things I have done may end up being demolished due to I am not trying to make my life inconvenient for the sake of a natural disaster that may or may not happen. i.e. I have two chest freezers in the garage on is converted to a fridge and requires little energy. If my garage falls I may lose my freezer and fridge.

Now some of the things that I have accumulated as well as may need to upgrade in the future.
I do have a 4x6 expdition trailer that will have 98% of my emergency/camping equipment this thing is built like a tank and sits in the back of the yard. It should be ok withstanding an earthquake.
within the trailer I have the following:
Propane heater
All things required to make meals as well as freeze dried food for a week for four.
All things required to sleep
4 Goal Zero lights that take 1 amp each
12 volt electric shower and Shower/bathroom tent
Bucket with toilet seat and toilet chemicals and toilet paper
Tent
screened tent
Volcano BBQ that can use Propane/wood/or charcole
flashlights
60 watt solar panel /want to upgrade
34 Amp hour portable battery with all types of connections with battery charger to charge flashlight batteries
Basic First aid kit
14 gallons of spare gas for Generator or Car

I do have a detached 10X12 office in the back about 50ft from the main house that if left unharmed could be our temporary living. If not the tent will suffice.
Now in this office I do have some emergency supplys
240AH battery debating on placing in Trailer. I think overkill for camping
portable DC fan
10 amp hour Lithium battery/ also use for camping
110 gallons of fresh water.
2000 watt generator inverter

I may of missed something above but overall it should be mostly there.
Things I think I need to add and please help if a miss anything
In the trailer maybe have a few days of clothing
toiletries like toothpaste and toothbrush. not sure how that would hold up to outside heat and cold.
maybe a few board and card games. we typically have those in the house and take them with us when going on a trip.
Emergency band radio

You sound pretty well set up, after Katrina hit I read where booze and cash were the preferred moneys. So maybe a stock of booze and some hard currency in small denominations to use if needed. A pint of whiskey had great value, one guy got all the labor he needed from some of the locals for a quart of cheap brandy. Plastic is worthless. As someone else said, a few different ways to cook, I have gasoline, propane and a fire pit. But something like one of these https://www.amazon.com/Shnozzle-SAFEST-Propane-Adapter-Cylinders/dp/B00EV59S1W can get you the ability to help neighbors. And if it goes to hell, your neighbors will be the ones you neeed.

And as much as it is a lightning rod, a way to protect yourself. Also in Katrina I listened to a reporter interview of an old guy with a generator, he said a thug came by, told him old man, I'm taking that generator. The old guy said I dont think so. The thug pulled out a knife, the old man pulled out his 357 (his words) the reporter asked what happened? The old man said, he decided he didnt want it no more. I dont think it needs to be much at all, but it doesnt hurt to have it and know how to use it.
 

grogie

Like to Camp
LoL
If your assests apear to be soo great you need a gun? You would need an army to fire more than just one gun. Best defence against looting is simply not parading around your assets like a cocktail waitress looking for tips.

If an angry mob wants your junk a gun wont stop em.

He didn't say that he was going to take on an angry mob, and a 9mm and a shotgun have different purposes/advantages. His recommendation is prudent.
 

Chiz45

New member
A buddy of mine lived in Compton, CA, during the Rodney King riots. He described seeing groups of kids going door to door to "forage" for stuff. They avoided the 'hardened' houses, i.e. a couple of armed adults at or near the front of the street entrances. Even now, home invasions, i.e. "hitting licks," are at an all time high, with people treating others' homes as ATMs. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that all houses would be targeted in a time of stress.

LoL
If your assests apear to be soo great you need a gun? You would need an army to fire more than just one gun. Best defence against looting is simply not parading around your assets like a cocktail waitress looking for tips.

If an angry mob wants your junk a gun wont stop em.
 

calicamper

Expedition Leader
A buddy of mine lived in Compton, CA, during the Rodney King riots. He described seeing groups of kids going door to door to "forage" for stuff. They avoided the 'hardened' houses, i.e. a couple of armed adults at or near the front of the street entrances. Even now, home invasions, i.e. "hitting licks," are at an all time high, with people treating others' homes as ATMs. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that all houses would be targeted in a time of stress.
In those days and in that area all the houses were hard targets. LOL even today they all sport barred windows and doors. If you live in an area like that and are viewed as an outsider a gun wont save your stuff.
 

SoCal Tom

Explorer
A buddy of mine lived in Compton, CA, during the Rodney King riots. He described seeing groups of kids going door to door to "forage" for stuff. They avoided the 'hardened' houses, i.e. a couple of armed adults at or near the front of the street entrances. Even now, home invasions, i.e. "hitting licks," are at an all time high, with people treating others' homes as ATMs. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that all houses would be targeted in a time of stress.

I don’t speak about my self defense plan. But there is one.



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calicamper

Expedition Leader
Regarding the riots my dad had two students arrested in his class room two weeks after the riots 600 miles away sitting in Biology class. Seems both families rented a Uhaul together and went down to LA to um go shopping during the riots. You never hear about looters being picked up later, but yes they get caught.
 

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