The Government advice re emergency packs

I'm not doing anything. I'll take my chances.

Oreo

You may well ask petra and it does seem to be only older people, especially women who are getting sucked into it.I guess it’s a sort of older age anxiety.
You would think, having been around the block a bit that our age group would be the last ones to start getting fearful.

Once you’re prepared there is no anxiety, what happens is down to fate. It’s the knowingly underprepared who worry - and the unprepared who regret it later.

It’s a bit worrying I have to say. My DH thinks it’s scaremongering. I said we need to get more bottled water in just in case. We do have a walk in larder and it’s stocked with tinned goods, but that’s normal here. We’ve got matches and candles but I may buy more. I wondered why we’d need sleeping bags? Plenty of throws and duvets. We cook on electric but our heating is gas. This will be a big issue if it all goes down. Are they preparing us for something that we don’t know about?

You may well ask petra and it does seem to be only older people, especially women who are getting sucked into it.I guess it’s a sort of older age anxiety.
You would think, having been around the block a bit that our age group would be the last ones to start getting fearful.

fancythat

I havent seen any sights of panic buying locally.
Nor even talk of it.

Same here. Most people I know are just doing what I'm doing - adding a couple of tins of tuna and a few bottles of water to their shop, in order to prevent panic buying if those things become scarce.

As people keep saying - the government can't tell people what to prepare for, as they don't know. They are simply asking us to be self-sufficient for a few days if 'something' happens to the supply chain or there are power cuts. If they knew what that 'something' was likely to be, they could prepare for it so we didn't have to.

I guess that as usual, those who haven't bothered to look after themselves will be prioritised over those who've made the effort. I agree that those who have no spare money should go to the top of the tree for food parcels etc, but hope that solvent scoffers aren't expecting to get the same treatment.

Luckygirl3

God - how depressing is all this .......

Not just depressing ( not me btw) but absolutely bonkers.
How do people of a certain age get sucked into this madness.

GrannyGravy13

We have wine, beer and snacks…

I added Pringles and chocolate to my box today. Lidl had sold out of sardines. I met a couple of other older women agreeing wine essential

I have at least a month¨s supply of tinned food, dried food: pasta, lentils, chick-peas, bottled drinks,coffee beans, cooking oil, cat-food, toilet paper, laundry and bath soap, salt and vinegar in the kitchen and pantry, as a matter of course, always have had, as in the winter or autumn it might well not be possible or advisable to go shopping.

Two calor gas heaters that can be used if needed, and gas for them, logs for the log burner, candles, lamp oil and lamps to burn it in, a small indoor gas stove (camping stove) a trangia kitchen, a manual grinder for coffee beans, hot water bottles, a water cleaner, which we used to take camping with us, so I should be all right. Batteries, torches. first aid kit, aspirin. Battery run radios.

Out in the garden shed a spade, fork and post auger, so digging a latrine should be possible, as long as there isn't a
hard frost. If there is the midden will just need to be dealt with when the thaw comes.

If the need should arise, I ought to be able to remember enough of the semaphore alphabet to send messages and I can morse, but painfully slowly from the point of view of the poor guy receiving the message.

By now, you will probably have realised that my paternal relatives were all in the services in Britain during the second world war, and my grandfather and grand uncles in Belgium and France during the first, and my maternal relatives in the Danish resistance movement during WW2, and that I was both a Brownie, a Girl Guide, and took various Red Cross first aid courses during my teaching career. I can map read and use a compass and cook on any form of fire you care to name, and I guarantee the meal will be edible.

Toilets are gravity fed, so you can manually flush by pouring a bucketful of water straight into the toilet bowl, or into the cistern. Obviously, to do that you have to have water - okay if you have a water butt in your garden.

FranA quite so re flushing lavatories. Or rather the prospect of not being able to do so for several days. Not everyone has a garden, or is capable of digging a big hole even if they do.

This is where it stops being Famous Five. What are families supposed to do? Is there any advice?

Filled up the wine rack, freezer, logs and tins in that order! Freezer is always full as I overcook so hopefully the electric won’t go off for too long. Could cook on log burners I suppose. Do have an extra store cupboard full of tins etc but living in a rural area seven miles from the shops we are used to keeping a back up stock! Have bought up a wind up radio and always keep some cash around. Think it’s probably sensible to prepare just in case. One of these days the internet will go down and we will all be stuck!

I havent seen any sights of panic buying locally.
Nor even talk of it.

alisonsmith4

Definitely scaremongering - we are so gullible!

I have begin to think, those who want to prepare, will do.

But is the government ready? I hugely think not. Sadly.

Will see what happens in the Budget.

Same for me, they know how frightening people works, we had it with Covid, they haven't said WHY they are telling people this, so many on the breadline they can't afford to 'stock up' so I imagine are now scared as to what may happen.
This government are despicable.

I do have a good stock of food, not sure how we would manage to cook/ heat it as I no longer have gas, we an emergency supply of loo rolls but I have no where to store the amount of water they are telling us we will need , between 3-6 litre per Adult for a minimum of 3 days I will try and order some bottled water with my next shop. We have a torch and an emergency camping style light , I am not ordering camping stoves or heaters just in case, we will make do with duvets and extra clothes

“A big problem for urban dwellers would be having enough water to flush domestic lavatories .“
I have thought of that one. Fortunately I have a garden so can dig a big hole.

Presumably the energy supply was down too, because people who had them were using their barbecues to cook food in their gardens

Before I saw your post Oldnproud, I said to DH that it's all very well having a barbecue if there are power cuts, but who is volunteering to go outside in this wind and rain to cook on it?

Totally bonkers

This time it feels serious. I keep lots of large containers of water but am only just starting to stock tins.
I hope the Government will help those without money to stock up for any length of time. This will be worrying a lot of people.

GrannyGravy13

We have wine, beer and snacks…

We're the same! We can have get togethers at each others house so we can save on the heating while having a nice little party every other day.

We were without power for 13 days after the hurricane that Michael Fish said wasn’t going to happen, so I keep supplies for at least a fortnight, plenty of gas canisters for the camping stove, a hang up light for each room and a box full of tinned and dry food. Two large water tanks are full of water for washing and flushing loos. I have power packs for my phone and tablets and a library of recorded books for entertainment …..it gets very boring without electricity!

Definitely scaremongering - we are so gullible!

As a country we're way behind the times here. I read several months ago about readiness of other European govts who have warehouses full of stuff kept in case of emergencies and their citizens already fully informed long ago about what should be kept in their homes.
I think there's real danger of panic buying now especially coming just before the warnings of 2 storms this wknd.
Food and drink wise I think I'm pretty OK but I do need a power pack and maybe a new wind up radio that's if theyre still available to buy.

fancythat

Trouble is, in the Uk, too cold to hide out in the woods.
And the woods could get awfully crowded!

You've got a point there!
Now I'm imagining trying to fight others for a space under the bushes. Or share - if enough of us were to share the shelter of a single (large) bush we might manage to keep warm.

I spent half my childhood either up trees or in/under bushes (how I miss those times), so bizarrely, hiding in the woods actually sounds quite appealing to me, but nowadays i doubt i could climb actree without a ladder. 😅

(Note to self: add 'ladder' to emergency box.)

I feel like I am going into farce.
Like the Labour interviews today.
AR - wine. Another Minister coffee. And him or another one, saying he wasnt going to say that he himself was following government advice.