Originally Posted by
thunderseed
Why can't you get to the store? That is a scenario you should probably think about. If you can't get to the store, then you obviously must be pretty injured which means you have bigger problems than just getting something to eat, you also won't be able to go out into your garden or the forest or go fishing, and you'll have to ration out the food you do have currently in your kitchen, or drag yourself to your neighbours house and hopefully they can spare you some bread or something (and help you with your injury). You aren't going to starve to death in 5 days... But if you can't get to the store just because you think it won't be open, you are probably wrong. Most grocery stores are going to be open because they want to get rid of all the perishables as soon as possible, and most grocery stores have generators.
IMHO the only thing you should NEVER be minimal about is first aid supplies. I might be biased since I'm a first aider, but I've made that mistake before. I like to test my survival, you see, by going on crazy wilderness expeditions with barely anything, and all it took one day was me accidentally falling on a barnacle and cutting my foot. It was a tiny cut, and within a couple of days the infection was so bad I could have died out there. I didn't have enough first aid supplies. I had to kayak many miles to get to get back to civilization just to get antibiotics because I didn't have the right tools to keep a tiny injury clean. When it comes to bare survival it is so easy to die. One tiny thing and you'll be dead so it's important to be super prepared. I have a huge first aid kit and supplies in my house.
I don't like stocking up on a bunch of canned goods for disasters, because it all goes to waste once it hits the expiration date. I don't keep more food than I need in my kitchen, otherwise it just gets wasted.
Besides I don't even eat canned foods because they aren't healthy, and I'm not going to start eating canned and processed foods just because a disaster comes.
What you have to do personally, is look at what kind of disasters could happen in your area. There are some disasters that may prevent you from obtaining food, so stocking up on food may be critical. Then think about what kinds of risks and scenarios could be presented with these disasters.
But generally in my area, the only things we really have to worry about are floods, storms, forest fires and earthquakes, in fact we are expecting a really big earthquake any time. For all of those scenarios, obtaining food isn't going to be a problem.
In most cases, you'll find that you can still get to a grocery store (if you haven't been seriously injured) and that the grocery store will have generators on if power has gone out, and they will be urgently trying to sell all the perishables. We have had big storms here that caused massive black outs for days and the local grocery stores gave us really good deals on all the frozen and perishable foods so that they could clear them out as soon as possible.
That's exactly what I do when disasters hit. I just go down to the grocery store and stock up on plenty of fresh food to last me for about a week or so.
A lot of people don't do this because they don't realize that most things don't have to be refridgerated, and even the things that do, can easily be kept outside in protected containers or somewhere that is cool.
You don't have to live on dry goods and canned foods, you can still eat healthy perishables. You don't need a freezer or a fridge! Of course you will want to eat up all the things in your freezer before anything else.
For example, even something like milk doesn't have to be refridgerated. I manged to keep a container of milk for 2 whole weeks on a solo camping trip by simply resting it in a bucket of cool water in shady place outside.
During state of emergencies, you don't want to be eating crappy food, because you'll be stressed out and your health could be affected in more than one way, it's important to get healthy, fresh food, not just dry processed stuff and canned goods.
Recently we had over hundreds of forest fires nearby, the smoke haze here was thick for a long time, people were getting really sick and I felt it in my lungs right away. I was very quick to act, I went to buy a mask as well as an air filter and stocked up on a lot of healthy food as well as a supplement for the lungs, made sure to drink lots of water and basically stayed inside the whole time in a small room that was being filtered. It was so hot that I had to cool down with a cold cloth, because there was no going outside to cool off that's for sure. Honestly, I've been prepared all of my life for disasters but this was one thing I had not thought of or prepared for and it was terrifying. Thank goodness I remembered the haze that happened in Singapore, I rememeber talking to some guy while it happened there and people were actually dying there, it got so bad, but I looked up tips on how people survived it, and that's how I learned what to do. There is nothing worse than not being able to find fresh air anywhere to breathe, it was suffocating and aweful like breathing in thick particles of ash, needless to say I also had to supplement with natural anxiety reducing chewables. I pray to god that it never happens again. I've always loved earth disasters, I'm really excited for earthquakes, tornadoes and all storms, but constant smoke inhalation is not something I would ever want to endure again.
For any disaster, it is advised to get enough supplies for about 3 days, because that is the time when emergency personell won't be available for. But I usually just stock up for a week, as soon as the disaster hits, I just get to the grocery store and get any other things I might need. In most cases, grocery stores are going to be open because they won't want to let all the food go bad and they will take the opportunity to make some sales. It was downright apocalyptic last time it happened, they had some generators on but most of the grocery store was pitch dark, there were sales people carrying around flashlights, and everyone had a lot of fun, it was pretty neat despite how much money they were losing.
Also when push comes to shove, make sure you know about the wild edibles in your area, and know how to fish, gather shellfish and hunt. I live in the perfect place, surrounded by forests and oceans, so even if grocery stores do shut down, I would never go hungry.
All you have to do to get water (if you don't have a good filtration device) is simply put it in a clear, plastic bottle and put it out in the sun, it will get disinfected... Water really isn't a big deal, especially if you have a good water filtration system. We've had floods here and had boil water advisaries, but I've never boiled the water, just put it through my awesome filter and it's good to go. And also, it's not hard to boil water either...