Here is a great comment on being prepared from Tricia. We all learn from experience, and those who have experienced the worst are wisely the best prepared. Thanks for sharing, Tricia.
Hi, my husband and I have been building up a supply of food for about 8 years. After Hurricane Ivan hit and left us with nothing we had to start over. Red Cross didn’t get to us for over a week, when the military came in they passed out mre’s and water. We ate the mre’s and going on the second week I was having trouble getting them down. I found it very hard to continue eating them. When we finally found a home (8 mths later) we had been lucky enough to have a whole lot of space (we had to start over).
We purchased freezed dried #10 canned ( Honeyville) of veggies (onion, carrot, celery, peas, corn, potato flakes) fruit (strawberries, apples, peaches, raspberries, blue berries, bananas), eggs (egg whites, egg yolks, whole egg). I filled the pantry with alot of things like Olives, large can chicken, tuna, #10 canned tomatoes, chili, all kinds of canned fruit, baked beans, our thing was we need enough for family, our animals and neighbors. We buy rice in 50lb bags and we vacuum seal gallon size amounts along with oxygen removers (this is very important), we do this for noodles, sugar, flour, grits, dry milk, etc… Next is the beans, every kind, beans go
Next is the beans, every kind, beans go along way we put them in a quart size zippie bag and again we vacuum seal with oxygen removers. We stocked up on everything we use from bathroom supplies, toliet paper, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, etc… to cases of canned bread (special order) & cases of canned butter (special order) I think you get the point. We vacuum seal everything but the cans. I have everything we need to enjoy our meals.
I bought Bulk Foods (sams club & other stores that sell the #10 cans). We have the convenience of not needing to go shopping for 7-10 years. Since we lost everything we started over with furniture, we did not buy any end tables, etc.. instead we bought those nice big blue buckets with lids. I have stacked (2 high) 8 full containers behind my sofa (the fit was perfect just under the full length of the sofa) my husband cut a pcs of plywood to fit the top next I put a nice cover (sheet) over it and put some nick nacks on top so you don’t even know its there, did the same thing with the love seat and my end tables are containers.
When our pantry was loaded and my laundry room cabinets where full I had to put the food some place. I also use a dehydrator for jerky and fruit (short term). For the question about how would we move this if we had to move no problem, because of Hurricane Ivan we had to purchase an RV (30′) it would be easy to move these items into the RV.
Anything major hits us either by Mother nature or by Man we have our list
- Animal & Things (every day items)
- Medication
- Cleaning Supplies
- Emerg 1st Aid
- Emerg 1st Aid for snake bites
- bathroom items
- Lots of Bleach
- Food
- Water Purifiers (2)
- Rechargeable Batteries
- Extra Gas
- Elec & Duct Tape
- Flash Lights & Lanterns
- Propane
- Propane Heater
- RV and/or Tent & Supplies
- Tools
- Solar Panel
- Camouflage Clothes & Nets
- Generator
- Oil/Gas
- Candles
- Matches
- Batteries AA, AAA, D’s, C’s
- Extra Water Filters for Purifier
- Entertainment (brd games, dice, cards etc…)
- Protection (ect….).
We do expect the worse to happen and I have an evacuation plan list that we sent out to our close friends and family that is more detailed (a place to meet up, road maps that are marked and several ways to get where we need to go. Some people may think this is really bad but thats okay because there are a whole lot of people like us doing the same thing (food for thought).