Survival in the event of an emergency

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I think it may also depend on ones profession... I do risk management (from an IT perspective) so dealing with/planning for disasters/disaster recovery is a daily part of my life...

I guess when you do it at work all day, you start thinking about your situation at home as well...

Plus, most of the kit is quite geeky/usefull if you go outdoors a lot... e.g. I'm currently looking for a new mountain tent - i.e. one that can deal with large loads from snow on top of it, and strong side winds... quite useful as an emergency shelter in case your house burns down (or has other issues)...

<M.
 
Firearms are a minefield in the UK... a good longbow, recurve or compound seems like a much easier solution... crossbows are too slow to reload... plus, we all know that zombies come in heards :p

M.

Do tend to have a fair stock of stuff at any one time but that really is down to our periodic large scale Costco buying habits. No danger that we will be short of bog roll for a while. Oh dear me no.

Living off the land is really tough, especially in winter months, and in the UK is never really going to be an option long term. At best you might prolong a miserable existance for a while.

It is sensible as a general concept to have modest stocks of food & water available because really the veneer of of society is very thin and our food supply chain is not very resiliant.

What you need is up to your location and circumstance. My family comes not from north of the Thames but north of Inverness and we always used to have at least 30 days supplies in hand (water tends not to be a problem in Scotland....) and suppose that habit clings on.

But the Zombies, ah yes, tricky problem that. Difficult to distinguish from some of the locals.
 
I'm currently looking for a new mountain tent - i.e. one that can deal with large loads from snow on top of it, and strong side winds... quite useful as an emergency shelter in case your house burns down (or has other issues)...
I've got a caravan with two fully charged 120 Ah batteries and two full gas bottles that would do very nicely for temporary accomodation in that scenario! Plenty of tinned/dried food in there too, and a couple of boxes of water purifying tables.
 
................if Nuclear war was imminent I would get a parachute and get on the next flight to anywhere and then exit the aircraft mid flight.
Naturally I would then be protected from the fall out.
 
Do tend to have a fair stock of stuff at any one time but that really is down to our periodic large scale Costco buying habits. No danger that we will be short of bog roll for a while. Oh dear me no.

You southerners are too soft by far. Adopt the Scottish approach. 3 sheets per person. An upper, a downer and a polisher.
 
Survival scenarios are difficult things to predict. In many instances things will be governed by personal circumstances. A young fit single male/female on their own is going to have a range of alternatives not open to say a family of father mother and 3 young kids. The extent, duration and time scale of any disaster may also govern what actions you can take. Expect the "authorities" to exert an influence on your possible options- restriction of movement, rationing, martial law, forced evacuation and housing/accomodation in designated "shelters" may be the order of the day. This assumes such authorities still exist of course. It would appear that key to survival for most populations caught up in such events- earthquakes, famine, floods, fallout etc is the geographical proximity of well organised search and rescue and medical organisations uneffected by said disaster. Even well prepared individuals caught in such an event may succumb due to the lack of preparation of their fellow citizens or authorities despite their careful forward planning. :dk:
 
What you really need is equipment that is suitable to both your abilities and survival instincts: pointless having things that you cannot or will not use.

Thus survival knives should be tailor made, as exemplified by the French Army knife:

FrenchArmyKnife.jpg
 
Satch, that survival knife is missing a baguette cutting blade and a frog skinning blade :p

While on topic, I've been looking at a few bushcraft/wilderness food courses... know of any that are good? I tend to go crabbing quite often, and have recently picked up a recipe for green salt (aka salt-marsh salt, made from the leaves of the plants) but haven't tried it yet... Looking for something a bit more "inland" as all my foraging experience is either high-mountain (alps) or seaside/coastal (africa)

Satch: re zombies... plenty of them on the tube at rush hour... most haven't started biting yet though... if you get a copy of the metro, you can use it as a shield...

M.
 
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I think it's a good idea to have a few of the basics - candles, torches, batteries, blankets, water etc. Even a camping stove would be handy.

Where I live suffered some massive flooding a few years ago, and we lost power for quite a while. It was dark and freezing cold. I never had any of those things listed above - but wish I did!
 
I think it's a good idea to have a few of the basics - candles, torches, batteries, blankets, water etc. Even a camping stove would be handy.

+matches :thumb:

Matches used to be commonplace. Now it's amazing how many people don't have them in the house at all.

Problem today is that people have limited recollection of the 70s power cuts and even our regular leccy supply and phone landlines tend to be much more reliable than a couple of decades ago.
 
................if Nuclear war was imminent

The assumption through the 50s until the late 80s was that there was a risk of first strike. 'Imminent' would mean minutes.

Since the Berlin wall came down a lot of our civilian government last ditch civil defence infrastructure has been sold or is no longer maintained.
 
Just need a good supply of Jack Daniels and beer . If everyone else is gone when you wake ------- drink their booze. simples:(
 

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