Suffer in Comfort

Ben and I attended a fireside last night that was very interesting. It was about preparing for "disaster type situations".
Here are 'some' of the notes I took, there was so much information that was given it is hard to type it all out.
He first talked about water, and that obviously you need 14 gallons of water per person per day.
He are some of the general rules for water.
1. Clean barrels only. (you can still use ones that may have other things in them for other things than drinking)
2. Don't put anything in the water and you must rotate water yearly. Water gains the taste of where-ever it is stored.  (he gave an example of storing water in his trunk and getting a bottle out one day and it tasted like a spare tire)
3. Store powder form chlorine (you can buy up to 90% pure chlorine). He talked a lot about purifying your water and what to look for and once putting chlorine in your water it takes 24 hours for the chlorine to evaporate and then have you have purified drinking water. (that it stores for a long time)
(*talked about Clorox is not good enough for many reasons and boiling water takes up too much fuel.)

*In your food storage make sure you have "heat and eat" meals. He commented on how lots of LDS people have lbs and lbs of wheat. That for your short term food storage you need to have heat and eat food. Stuff that your family loves he emphasized.

*To buy rolls of 6mm plastic in the event of an earthquake many windows shatter and you need something to help keep the heat out. He did make a point of hanging the plastic and it will rip, don't tear it down just keep re-applying over then top of the ripped he said. He did say you could buy more than 6mm but it is more expensive, he said if you can afford it buy it.

*Kerosene heater, not propane. (propane emits carbon monoxide and kerosene emits carbon dioxide)
-The Kerosene heater must be at least 24,000 btu's, must have a lock off valve, you can cook on top of a heater like this.
-You can buy Kerosene for about 4$ a gallon and it can be stored outside. He said that (2) 55 gallon drums will get you through a Utah winter.

*Other ideas-
Solar Generator, they are portable (do not get the 1500w crystalline panels?)
Hand cranked items are good to buy he said but it is better to buy your self a power source and use your own stuff.

*It was very interesting to make a point how darkness in an emergency situation was very hard on people's spirits, he talked about examples of situations he had been in and how it affected people.
*POINT BEING get yourself some kind of power source.
-One thing he said a must have a solar battery charger, they range from 20$-500$.
-Another really great investment is a Sun Oven.

*He talked a lot about having your 1 yr food storage- guidelines from the LDS church. Mentioning later that it may seem like a lot of food but it really isn't. (gave a really touching story about the concentration camps and the food stored there.)

*He mentioned about freeze dried foods compared to dehydrated foods, that freeze dried is MUCH better, that it has 100% of the flavor and 100% of the food value.

*72 hour kits are important do not go overboard, he made note that this is not directed from the LDS church but the government.

*Make sure you have toilet items, toilet paper, paper towels, a portable toilet is a very good option.

*He also showed us that you can buy a shower at a Cabela's type store and 22 green propane cans will give every person in your family a 5min hot shower once a day for a year.

*"Pressure cooker for clothes" will clean clothes will a manual crank. (very interesting)

*Radiation pills, to buy them and they actually never expire.

Earth Quake Kit
Plastic rolls
Staple gun/nails/hammer
Crowbar (one of the most requested items in disaster situations)
Flashlight
Gloves
Duct tape
Two way radios (he mentioned how important these are)
**KEEP ALL ITEMS IN THE SAME PLACE, so they will be easy to find, there will be situations that you will need to find these items fast and looking for them one at a time is to time consuming.