Disaster planning...again??

[Faery-Wings]

I am curious, is anyone else doing disaster planning? Stockpiling food? Have an emergency plan, duct tape and plastic sheeting?

I was reading on abcnews.com and I was kind of surprised all of the advice they are posting on what we should be doing. But I dunno, I'm not doing anything. I typically have enough food/water/juice for several days on hand. Other than that, nothing is going on here.

Am I the only one not preparing? Am I being naive?

If you are preparing, what are you doing?

[Phoenix Blue]

Funny you should ask. . . I was just reading an article in my hometown paper, the St. Petersburg Times (http://www.sptimes.com/2003/02/13/TampaBay/Tape__tarp___Whose_id.shtml), that such things as tarp and duct tape would be useless. I think the government's "emergency plans" are a lot like its airport security measures: something that gives people a (perhaps false) sense of security without accomplishing anything meaningful.

[Blueowl]

Yes, to a point...b/c basically if your in the immediate area that bio chemical stuff is released, your going to get nabbed within the first 2 minutes...basically before you know anything happened...I tend to agree with you PB...I don't get why they are doing it at all....I would be more "secure" if we got gas masks and such..something that would really work!

[Phoenix Blue]

**Wry smile** I wouldn't even put stock in gas masks. I recall reading, a couple years ago, that a lot of 250,000 masks issued to the Army were defective--and that the company producing the masks knew about the defect.

[Ahautenites]

**is confused** Tarp and duct tape....? Are they expecting us to be bombed by enemy hurricanes?

[Skye]

Originally posted by NeferSesemet

**is confused** Tarp and duct tape....? Are they expecting us to be bombed by enemy hurricanes?

LOL

I think they intend for ppl to make thier homes airtight....so I am doing nothing...my old farmhouse would need a glass dome to ever be any where near airtight.

[WitchJezebel]

Tarp & duct tape? My windows are so drafty, the tape wouldn't stick! I'm not actually going out of my way to prepare but I have enough food & water to actually last me a week at all times (from my time living in earthquake city, Los Angeles for so many years).

[MammaStar]

My two co-workers & I were discussing this subject this morning. One of them doesn't want to go to our Mall tommorrow nite because "the mall is a target & something is supposed to happen tommorrow". The other is ready to run to the hills with her family and never be heard from again.

Me? Well, we have duct tape in the house. We have lots of stuff at my house, but that's because I'm the child of a pack rat & since we share the house with my Dad (the pack rat) we have lots of things at my house.

My co-workers think I'm not "taking this seriously" enough and that I'll be sorry about it...whatever. My attitude is that I'm NOT going to cancel my plans tomorrow nite (dinner & then going to see DAREDEVIL wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!) and yes, I'm going to the BIG MALL. ooooooooooooo.....i'm more scared of a gang fight at the place then a terrorist bombing, releasing gas, (heck i'm more scared of regular people passing gas in the theater!!!!!) than all of this. Makes me naive, stupid? dunno.

I just know, my way of fighting terror is NOT letting them get to me mentally. I REFUSE to live my life by "what ifs". NOt anymore. If there's one thing I learned from that nightmare of a day is that...live life as best & as fully as you can.

[Radocs]

Nope, I'm not.

[Old Witch]

I'm not at all convinced that plastic and duct tape are going to save me from chemical, biological, and nuclear attacks (I'm talking "dirty" bombs here)........

To be perfectly frank, thats the stupidest idea I've ever heard!! It would take me a half a day to do my windows......I have an old drafty house anyway........We'll just die I guess, along with the people with the plastic and duct tape...........

[SerenityMoon]

you should see the gas lines in my small town. it's ridiculous. you sit in line for about 20 minutes just to get gas..*shakes head*

[SnowStar]

I just can't believe that the government is feeding the public this bullcrap, and the majority of people actually think it's worthwhile! Honestly, if I can catch a blip on the news about this thing and just start cracking up knowing immediately that the measures are totally futile and I'm just a "naive little girl" as I believe someone called me, then it frightens me how stupid people are. If I didn't have to go down along with them, I'd say bring it on...we need a little chlorine in the gene pool. But alas, plastic sheeting or no we're all pretty screwed. Then again, it would have to be one hell of an attack to do a whole lot of damage...

[Ahautenites]

Actually, Chlorine in the air would be more effective.... It was one of my dad's nightmares that someone would sabotage the chlorine gas storage section of the water treatment facility around the corner from my parents' house.

[Psyche Ague]

I'm definitely concerned, but I'm pretty sure there's nothing I can do about it. I live in a college dorm so there's no way I can protect myself like that. My college is situated in a town where we're at pretty damn high risk of being attacked because of a Navy Depot and a War College. Yay. [/sarcasm]

If it's going to happen, I'd rather die right away than have to watch everyone around me die. It'll only be 30 seconds of excrutiating pain and then eternal sleep. *sighs* I think I'm more nervous about this than I want to let on even to myself...

Gods, I wish I could stockpile food...lol, oh, to have money! ;)

[Sequoia]

Here's a thought-

Stockpiling food, water, etc. . .

If a nuclear bomb hits- yay! our crater will really need the food and water! Or perhaps we can find a shelter and store enough food to last the X days (months? years?) it would take for the radiation to die down.

If a chemical attack happens- Yay! Our windows will be sealed, assuming we aren't poisoned before we get the tarps up. Meanwhile the chemicals will leak through the floorboards and under-house ventalation (for those of us in non-tornado/east-coast places) or through drafty rooves or vents. . . *nods* And we can stockpile enough food to last the X days (months? years?) that the chemicals would take to dissapate. I sure hope the air lasts that long.

If a biological attack happens- YAY! double yay! We can hope that they don't sneak in, the way the chemicals did. . . we can cut off all contact with other people. . . we can stockpile enough food and water to watch everyone around us die, and hopefully to last the X days (months? years?) it will take for the germs to dissapear. And again. . . I hope everyone loves carbon dioxide! :D

If it is a dirty bomb. . . just combine the three above :)

This has been your sarcastic information source for the day :)

(quite personally, if this stuff happens, either I'm gonna survive or I'm not. I seriously doubt tarps and cans of creamed corn are gonna help me. Give me a good sharp spear and a few martial arts lessons. I'm gonna have to fight off the other "survivors", and if it really is that bad, one might almost consider those who died to be in the better position.)

[Wyrdsister]

Who was it who actually recommended getting duck tape (or duct tape) and tarps? It wasn't Colin Powell, was it? I heard him mention that stocking up on a few days worth of food is a good idea, but when isn't that a good idea?

I'm a bit boggled by the tape and tarp thing too. My first thought was, "DUH!" The fact that people think that could actually work is very frightening to me. Does that mean people are stupid/uninformed in general, or do they just blindly trust their government? Or both?

This reminds me of the South Park episode with the valcano. They show the kids in the school a filmstrip about volcanoes and tell them if they see a lava flow coming to "duck and cover". The filmstrip shows children ducking and covering and the lava flows right over them! LOL! It was supposed to be a parody of the 1950's cold war "take shelter under your desks" movies, but it's suprisingly relevant satire now. *shiver*

Wyrdsister
who thinks it's too cold to attack Canada right now. ;)

[Old Witch]

Sean (17 yrs.) said " Nothing like that will happen here, right Mom?".....I thought about his age and how I should answer......so I told him.....With SRS (the "Bomb Plant") 17 miles away on one side...and the Army's entire Signal School on the other side of us...I told him nope, we were entirely safe!........( He got the sarcasm).:(

[Blueowl]

I have all the canned food, water and such needed...as well as a bag packed in case we need to get out of here...I am 20 miles from DC and in more danger than most....so, no matter how ridiculous it seems, there is nothing wrong with being prepared..hell I even have a little extra for someone who did not stock up...they are the ones in more danger if all hell breaks loose...also some sites of intrest with info on what works and what doesn't...as well as info on Bio terror and how to deal with it, and radiation..
www.cia.gov/terrorism
www.terrorism.com

I hope that it never comes to this, but I would rather be prepared somewhat than not at all...:D

[WandererInGray]

My plan for the duct tape and tarp in the event of a serious emergency.

1. wrap tarp around your head
2. wrap duct tape around your head
3. suffocate in a faster and more painless manner than whatever it is that's going to kill you outside.

[Phoenix Blue]

The problem is, by the time you know enough to get out the duct tape and tarp, it's already too late to bother.

[Stacy]

I would start prepearing if I knew for what.. I can't prepare for something that I have no clue what it is.. What if it's connected with Uranium (chemical weapons).. How do we protect from the radiation?

[AmbivalentMirage]

My grams grew up in an orphanage during the depression and had her first child during World War II....she is the expert at stockpiling. Not that she is preparing for war, oh no! But she has bought every canned vegetable sale for the past fifty years! Should spinach and beets have the capacity to stop chemical weapons, I am exceptionally safe. And there is no way a nuclear blast could possibly be able to break through the walls of craft-supplies in the basement. No... my house is your regular compulsive-shopper's bunker. ;)

[Blueowl]

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
You crack me up AMbivalent! :D

Humor is a great thing in trying and stressful times..if you can't laugh at life sometime what is the point in living?!:D

[Ravens_Tears]

This would be the place to go to know what duct tape is good for!:D :D :D
Duct Tape Forever movie site! (http://www.ducttapeforever.com/forever.html)

I found this linked from there :) IT has several handy, practical, silly and aesthetic (sp??) applications!
:p Scotch Showcase (http://www.3m.com/intl/CA/english/centres/home_leisure/duct_tape/sc_area.html)

[AstraSkye]

Originally posted by chryssi1 Am I the only one not preparing? Am I being naive?

No, you're not the only one. ;)

On the other hand, I sit in little-Sweden-neutral-for-200-years-and-more... Terrorist attacks and such are quite alien to me... :o

[MidnightSun]

Nope, not in the slightest. Yeah, ok, preparing isn't gonna help at all. I figure if i'm going to die, I don't want to just delay it and get killed slow. So, if it happens it happens. Nothing we can do to stop it. No use in being silly about it, ya know?

[sunbear]

we're not doing anything either. I'm more worried about the -35 below zero weather they're predicting tonight - now THAT we prepare for!! I agree with all the folks who said that by the time we know anything has happened it'll be too late anyway. That being said, we're not being totally oblivious, either, it's just that I don't really think that there actually IS anything we, as "common folk" can do. I mean, we don't have underground bunkers or AirForce One to hide in, so my family is just living our normal lives. Besides, I can just picture bin Laden and all his cronies sitting around in some cave somewhere laughing their a----es off at the state of panic they've put us all in. They've done all the damage they want just by introducing the thought of another attack. I'll be damned if I give him what he wants!! Just my 2 cents.

[SerenityMoon]

i completely agree puma hime. We discussed this in our history class..my teacher thought it was ridiculous.
ya might be a redneck if ya think duct tape will save ya from a nu-cu-lar bomb. gya hyuck
(ps: I know it's Nuclear, but many many texans pronounce it nucular. -_-; )

[AmbivalentMirage]

Originally posted by AmbivalentMirage

My grams grew up in an orphanage during the depression and had her first child during World War II....she is the expert at stockpiling. Not that she is preparing for war, oh no! But she has bought every canned vegetable sale for the past fifty years! Should spinach and beets have the capacity to stop chemical weapons, I am exceptionally safe. And there is no way a nuclear blast could possibly be able to break through the walls of craft-supplies in the basement. No... my house is your regular compulsive-shopper's bunker. ;)

And the family fun continues....
Yesterday evening, my aunt called our house and asked my grams if we had anymore of our industrial plastic wrap (my grams uses it for craft projects). When asked why she wanted the plastic wrap, she answered: "Well, I've decided to protect my house incase a biological or chemical weapon is released." Her plan was that if a nearby city or town was attacked, she would run outside and wrap her house in plastic wrap... :eyebrow: I really do need to escape my family... ;)

[Psyche Ague]

Originally posted by SerenityMoon

i completely agree puma hime. We discussed this in our history class..my teacher thought it was ridiculous.
ya might be a redneck if ya think duct tape will save ya from a nu-cu-lar bomb. gya hyuck
(ps: I know it's Nuclear, but many many texans pronounce it nucular. -_-; )
I have to admit that I was horrified that Bush kept pronouncing it "nu-cu-lar." I wanted to a) crawl under a rock and b) kill myself for being in the same country.

*chuckles at Ambi* Poor Ambi. ;)

[FaeRain]

Well, I dont have any duct tape or canned foods squirreled away, but I've got some long range plans in motion. I'm not so worried about the nucular threats and such, like most ppl I'd rather die quickly. But what is frightening in a more real way to me is the economy. So me and the fam are moving back to the country, where we have a small house that my husband's disability check can pay for, in the event of my unemployment...a pond for fishing and irrigation...a woodstove for when the power's out and an outhouse!!

Plus we can have chickens and a goat, for eggs and milk. Although I've never had goat's milk, I might be able to deal with it.

[SerenityMoon]

Originally posted by Psyche Ague

I have to admit that I was horrified that Bush kept pronouncing it "nu-cu-lar." I wanted to a) crawl under a rock and b) kill myself for being in the same country.


*snicker* Indeed!! It's pretty sad when the leader of your nation can't pronounce something like "Nuclear" correctly...