The Government advice re emergency packs

Delene100

Oreo

We all have food cupboards and tins and packets and a freezer which you could use food from.We have a gas camping stove as we have regular power outages every Winter and two battery charged lamps for the same reason.Nobody needs anything else.It’s the most ridiculous nanny State scaremongering.

If the power is cut, the food in freezers will perish.

You can eat it before it perishes, or at least the things you can cook on your camping gas cooker.😃

greyfur16

I would share anything with anybody who needed it.

I would. I did during Covid. I made sure my family were ok for everything.

Floradora9

To-day I have charged everything that needs charging including our power banks . We have found an old radio that uses batteries so that is done . I have also started filling large empty milk containers with water to store that could be used for flushing toilet . We have bought lots of tins of food and bottles of water and I ordered some dried potato packets ( not smash ) lovely flavoured ones. We have a camping stove and lots of canisters to use and I also ordered new hot water bottles from Amazon plus a camping kettle . Wondered how I could fill a hot water bottle from a saucepan as that is the answer. Some day in the distant future someone might find my hidden tins and wonder what we needed them for .

If you dont have a proper funnel that you could use to fill a hot water bottle, perhaps you could make one from a plastic bottle or something similar if it has a neck that will fit into the top of the hot water bottle. Just cut the bottom off it - or cut nearer the neck, depending on the length of the bottle - and carefully use that as a funnel. Just find a safe way to do it so that you dont scald yourself.

To-day I have charged everything that needs charging including our power banks . We have found an old radio that uses batteries so that is done . I have also started filling large empty milk containers with water to store that could be used for flushing toilet . We have bought lots of tins of food and bottles of water and I ordered some dried potato packets ( not smash ) lovely flavoured ones. We have a camping stove and lots of canisters to use and I also ordered new hot water bottles from Amazon plus a camping kettle . Wondered how I could fill a hot water bottle from a saucepan as that is the answer. Some day in the distant future someone might find my hidden tins and wonder what we needed them for .

Delene100

4allweknow

What am I missing with all the USB rechargeable items. Don't the USBs need to be plugged in to electricity to charge up. Yes, there are storage packs but they have to be charged up too.

You can also charge power banks beforehand.

My wind-up torch has a slot to recharge a phone or small item on. That will use up some of the wound-up charge, of course, and lead to more winding up. I suppose turning the handle is one way to spend the time if the power is off and the TV screen is dark.

No, a couple of surplus tins will hardly buy us more than a few days.

And to those who have replied to me that "it doesn't mean we're going to have a war!" I can only say: watch the drama 'Threads' on YouTube.

Then tell me war cannot happen in Europe. Again.

4allweknow

What am I missing with all the USB rechargeable items. Don't the USBs need to be plugged in to electricity to charge up. Yes, there are storage packs but they have to be charged up too.

You can also charge power banks beforehand.

Oreo

We all have food cupboards and tins and packets and a freezer which you could use food from.We have a gas camping stove as we have regular power outages every Winter and two battery charged lamps for the same reason.Nobody needs anything else.It’s the most ridiculous nanny State scaremongering.

If the power is cut, the food in freezers will perish.

One thing worth adding for anyone on regular medication: keep a few days' spare if your pharmacy allows, plus a written list of your medicines and doses with your important papers. And if your hearing or sight isn't great, a battery radio with big clear buttons is worth having, as it'll be the main source of news if the power and phones are off.

Bazza

I have bought a couple of packs of bottled water, but I heats Jeremy Vine today saying that they have a sell by date as after a while the plastic will make the water unsafe become unsafe by discharging chemicals, who knew? Not me.

As for women panic buying, I fear most men will just expect an emergency pack will have been sorted by the lady of the house.

There is a date on all the bottles.
Keep in a cool dark place and replace regularly to keep in date.

petra

Unless your someone who relies on a pump to keep you alive an 8hr power cut isn’t a tragedy.

One outage of one utility for a short time isn't a tragedy, though there are more people and organisations who DO depend on the power, or the water supply, or contact via a phone line, than you would think.

Repeated and/or sustained outages of multiple utilities in multiple locations can strain repair attempts beyond their abilities. That can cause tragedies.

Storm damage is a "natural" disaster (if you ignore the effects of human activity on the climate) but currently there are also several situations where deliberate aggressive human action could be suspected.

Here is a theoretical question for you to ponder - If you wished to stress a community to the maximum, with a view perhaps to stepping in and controlling them without or even with open warfare, in what order would you disable the utilities? (No need to post your reply to that, just base how you prepare for the coming winter of discontent on it)

Tinygranma

Should we not ensure we have an extra month's worth of our prescription meds as well? That is at the top of my list

How, though? Our GP practice won’t do this.

alisonsmith4

Definitely scaremongering - we are so gullible!

No, just common sense. We’ve become so complacent. A major cyber attack, digital lines cut under the ocean or tampering with the water supply and things would become very difficult very quickly.

You don’t need me to point out that power is not always restored after 8 hours, and the more widespread storms are, the longer it is off for many people. Not everybody’s power is back on yet following Storm Austen.

Unless your someone who relies on a pump to keep you alive an 8hr power cut isn’t a tragedy.

Margs

Oh well, if the government is advising us "explicitly" then it must be real.

We can always trust the government, can't we? Like we did during the Covid years........

But what's "real" Margs? It seems to be a mish mash of The Russians, storms and goodness knows what else.

I don't think an extra tin of salmon will help tbh.

Wyllow3

(I really recommend you watch the catch up on Question Time fancythat becuase the first question was on defence and again, all the parties agreed on the necessary strategy and the vital importance of action and what kind of action and defence, given matters like the Russians currently attacking undersea cables. Wes Streeting was very good but see for yourself.

It is action that is required.
Not words.

We shall see.

It does to me Margs, yes. Governments all over Europe are advising their populations to be prepared for emergencies, not because they want to, but because there is very significant risk. Stop burying your heads in the sand, naive people. I would say wake up and smell the coffee, but you won’t be if you’re not prepared, as you’ll have no means of making it.

I just feel I'm making sensible decisions. As someone has said above, it could be an El Niño situation - my sister living on Exmoor had an 8 hour power cut yesterday, weather related.

If the government is being over cautious, fine by me. As for Covid, well, the unpreparedness took many loved one lives away in care homes early on due to "the government", so if this government is saying, look, "Be prepared"

Then that's wise - not controlling or panicking.

Somehow, the description 'Naive' springs to mind......

Oh well, if the government is advising us "explicitly" then it must be real.

We can always trust the government, can't we? Like we did during the Covid years........

fancythat

AB is now on Gogglebox.

Is he playing with politics?

If it turns out that we have to get prepared, instead of him getting the country prepared with defence, it will feel like it quite soon.

While whoever/whatever he has organised for defence is getting on with defending us, someone or something could still be wrecking the software that manages our utilities. They could heat up the freezers in our supermarkets, pollute our water, block our petrol supplies, switch off our electricity, scramble our phones and email communications, and confuse our railways and airports. Some of these inconveniences we just have to control ourselves.

It might not be a human-led invasion. El Nino or some other natural event could interrupt our taken-for-granted utilities and leave us with no more piped-in light, heat, water, or contact than a medieval peasant in a mud hut thatched with reeds, with an open fire in the centre of it but no chimney, a stream half a mile away and a privy at the end of the garden.

The supply of clean water from the taps depends on the supply of electricity

I order monthly, they phone me to do the order as it varies and they will do it early for me if I ask as I'm "trusted". No apps.

But surely it's wise to ask for a few days in hand? Often as simple as the chemist not having them and having to order?

Unfortunately Tinygranma, you can’t order more than one months supply - at least not on my NHS app you can’t - it won’t let you.

I have two months worth of meds delivered. It was suggested by the pharmacist at my annual review two years ago.