I've been noticing more discussions about emergency preparedness, with some countries encouraging people to stock up on food, water, medicine, and other essential supplies.

One thing that caught my attention is the recommendation to prepare for 7 days of self-sufficiency.

I understand that emergency preparedness is important, especially with natural disasters, power outages, conflicts, and other unexpected situations.

But I'm curious:

• Why are we hearing more about emergency preparedness lately?
• Why do some authorities recommend 7 days instead of the usual 72 hours?
• Is this simply better disaster preparedness, or are governments responding to growing global risks?
• Are you personally preparing an emergency supply kit?

I'm not trying to spread fear or conspiracy theories. I'm genuinely interested in understanding whether this is a coordinated shift in emergency preparedness policies or simply different countries responding to similar risks.

What do you think? Have you noticed similar recommendations in your country?

I had a conversation with someone yesterday that really gave me some pause. They suggested that all this talk about prepping among communities, friends, and neighbors is a form of fearmongering that encourages consumers to spend money and prop up our lackluster U.S. economy.

I’ve stocked enough food, water, and paper products to last our household three to four weeks, and my husband has been doing some serious prepping in other ways, including solar power, tents, and other supplies.

What are your thoughts? Do you think prepping is driven by practical concerns, fear-based marketing, or a bit of both? I’m truly curious and want to understand your reasoning.

New preppers are told to acquire things slowly and strategically. With all things happening right now, do you think it’ll be hard to get water or food at stores soon? When?

You guys whenever a snow storm would hit or when Covid happened, there was very little toilet paper, bread or eggs at most stores within the first 3 days of the initial announcement. This is not a crazy question.

I'm new to prepping and not sure if others are taking all the warning signs seriously. I honestly don't even know where to start. I need help...

Starting with water, these will find their home on the concrete since this shelf will not hold them when full. I have a variety of treatment types. I also keep a lifestraw, 30-49mg aqua tabs, and a 32 oz water bottle in my work bag. My goal is to have a some rainwater collection, a large drum/container, and reverse osmosis. I’m in Alaska so snow would be my emergency source most of the year. How do you guys in the arctic plan around that?

I have no clue what I’m doing but would like to start up a supply of necessities. I don’t have much money to put towards this but I’m worried about all the news and whatnot so I feel like I need something. What items would last 90 days, if something were to happen

My husband works almost 60 miles from home. We have talked about what we would do if there was an EMP type situation or just a general power grid issue. Obviously at 60 miles away it would not be easy for him to get home. But - is there some kind of handheld device that does not rely on cell towers that he and I could keep in our vehicles so we could communicate in an emergency situation like that? Something that would cover that distance but still work without cell service ?

Thanks for any advice!

I see it at Amazon for $899. Have a generator but want a power bank like those for the convenience and such. I see I missed a Costco deal here recently.

https://a.co/d/0eKTkORb

If there was an extended outage my only source of water would be my neighborhood retention pond.

God only knows how many chemicals end up in that retention pond. Are there any water filters that would clean the water adequately enough for drinking? I’m assuming my backpacking filters probably won’t suffice.

my boyfriend and i are driving from vancouver BC to LA, we will adventure and be about 10 days. we are trying to figure out what we need to get to prepare for it all, best foods to bring, what things are easy to forget but much needed. any ideas are appreciated!

I’m new here. With the recent stuff going on I have been buying food and getting water. But I need recommendations on companies or models, that you would recommend for a small generator, a house one,walkie-talkies for two or more people, first aid kits that are actually good. To be honest I’m kinda lost on what to get or how to prep. If anyone has a list or anything I’ll appreciate it. I’m 19 and have no idea how to prep. Any advice or tips will be greatly appreciated. Thank you

The UK government has just put out guidance that we should have three days worth of food at home that doesn’t need cooking. I’m really stumped by that. Of course I know some of the things I could buy (tinned spaghetti, baked beans) but they sound disgusting to me and I don’t fancy buying 3 days worth of tins that I will (hopefully) never need, only to throw them out in 3 years. So what I’m looking for is food I’d eat anyway but can just keep more of at home. I also have no additional storage space other than a few drawers in the kitchen where I keep my food now. For what it’s worth, I have a wood stove that might just work for cooking. Maybe I should just aim to have enough dry goods like rice and pasta and bank on cooking in a basic way? How do you more experienced folks handle this?

Hi! Basically with the government warnings happening internationally and with it being a bad time of year for my country (Australia) I’m wanting to make sure we have things covered. I’ve always been into prep and always bought things in bulk; I’ve never had the storage or money to do it ‘properly’ until now.

This is a mix of a full doomsday prep and a Tuesday prep, I guess? A mix of isolation due to bushfires, cyber attacks, supply chain issues, power outages, war/conflict. So far we’ve been warned about internet outages being a possible issue.

I live in a pretty small town in a regional area, so isolation to essential goods and services is a real concern no matter what. We have decent supply of basic survival materials as my family is a big fan of camping, fishing etc. We live near water and have a large history of fishing/marine harvesting as a career and have a large yard with many fruit trees and crops. We’ll also be getting chickens soon (Bird flu + small independent grocer = expensive eggs).

I’m not wanting to collect large food storage’s quite yet, I like to think we will get some warning from the government beforehand if that is necessary. I don’t live rural enough for things like guns either. So I’m basically looking for suggestions outside of those things, that will applicable in Australia on moderately self sufficient land. It’s hard because a lot of advice is for people in the US or elsewhere where advanced survival equipment, firearms and medicine is easily accessible

This is my current list;
Water jugs
Water purification
Pop up water tanks
Battery/wind up radio
Multivitamins
First aid supplies - beyond just a ‘first aid kit’, back ups of common OTC medicines etc
Firetop cooking equipment
Solar Panels - even small ones to charge basic electronics
Lighters/Matches
Sewing kit
Candles/Lanterns/Battery operated lights
Books, DVD’s, Portable DVD players

In terms of food I am looking at these so far because they’re easy to source bulk and are common staples;
Rice
Lentils
flour
vinegar
baking soda
protein powder
powered milk
TVP
beans
dehydrated and freeze dried meat

Thank you so much:)

How could you reasonably have continual drinking water in a non farm environment for 5-10 years?

AWG - uses a lot of power and what happens if the company goes out of business and you can’t buy filters? Effectively worthless

Dehumidifiers - doable and are gonna take a lot less power on a solar generator. But you’d have to filter the water? Possible

Bottled water - buy $15,000 worth of water would last someone 5 years

Warka tower - too big

Storing water - have low space so can’t store big drums.

Condensation catcher? Too little output

Local stream?

As an American living in the Philippines, what would you suggest for disaster preparedness? If we were to take three dogs with us, what sort of difficulties should I expect and what can I do to lessen that? If my parents live on a different island, do you think the local ferries would still be operating (2 hour trip from one island to the other) or would it be too risky to even try to travel in consideration of an emergency situation?

I'm concerned in being underprepared and falling victim to the locals - desperation is a dangerous motivator, and being a foreigner is not an advantage.

Two part question.

1) We have unlimited water (unless someone dams the river up) and ways to purify. We have places to hunt/fish and lots of camping gear in addition to our cabin. We lack, stockpiles of ammo (too expensive) and traditional food stores (also too expensive). I plan on grabbing some canned soups, dry beans, bone broth powder, etc, ramen, etc. What other easy/cheap things am I missing?

2) I am divorced. My ex husband and I share 50/50 custody. He lives in a town with no natural resources like the wooded cabin on a river where I live. I feel like we need to come up with a plan of somewhere to meet, or what to do if communication goes down. My current husband and I would welcome him at our property to make sure we both get to stay with our 3 kids. I couldn't imagine being separated from them in a SHTF situation. Do any other blended families have a plan in place for such?

Hi everyone!

My dad has been pretty worried about the state of the world lately and told me he thinks our family should have an emergency radio. He isn’t great with technology, so he asked me to help him find one.
His only requirements are that it can reliably receive news (presumably gov and weather(?)) and has a hand crank in case we lose power. I’m not sure if they make radios that can be powered by both a hand crank and batteries, but that would be ideal!

I’m not really into prepping myself, so I have no idea what to look for. I mostly just want to get him something reliable that’ll give him some peace of mind, and I figure y’all would know better than ChatGPT lol.

Does anyone have any recommendations or advice on what to buy?

Apologies if this is incoherent, but wondering if people have given thought to "halfway" prepping. What I mean by this is preparing not for a total blackout but instead for less of critical things, like no internet, reduced food, expensive energy, etc. Basically not a black and white situation for everyone (though likely for many) but just general decline for most.

I’m getting lots of straw filter ads. PureFlow has a great ad. Is there anywhere that has tested all the options and given reviews on them based in versatility, longevity and filter speed/capacity? Back in scouting world, one of our scouts had a filter we’d use on long trips that would filter anything. I’d like something like that for home use but don’t know where to start. And it doesn’t have to be a straw filter, but those seem prevalent and easy to handle.

For emergency purposes only, I’ve had a dozen 5 gallon water jugs stored in a cool dark area of my basement for the past 5 years. I know it’s time to switch them out but the thought of pouring 60 gallons down the sink or on the lawn and then having to go out and buy more is stressing me out. I did buy a couple of new ones this past weekend and was stunned at the price ($17+ each)
Can I refill them with tap water and treat with some drops of bleach? I’d be ok tossing and refilling them every 3 months, 6 months if necessary. Any better options you can suggest?

I understand I am probably a bit late to the prepping thing. With all the countries telling us to get ready - I want to be somewhat ready. It seems what I am mainly missing is power.

I am looking for a nice generator under 1k (does it exist). It'd be for powering phones, accessories, and maybe a fridge.

Thanks!

I have the rare opportunity to buy in bulk around 60-80 #10 cans and some pouch cases of mountain house food. The guy is asking for about $20 a can.

My only issue/concern is that its "old" mountain house. It was made in 2008-2009.

Flavors are standard, some good some bad.

Do you think its worth the roughly $1200ish?

I do already have a substantial food storage supply, this is just one of those opportunities that is happening suddenly.

Thanks!

This is in case the power goes out...what alternatives do people have??

Hey everyone, wanted to share my recent DIY mobile solar power station build! My goal was to build a heavy-duty, high-capacity mobile rig on wheels that could easily power high-draw appliances like a portable AC and electric kettle, all for a fraction of the cost of commercial "solar generator" setups like Jackery, Ecoflow or Goal Zero.

​Here is the full component breakdown and specs:

​Core System Specs:

​Battery Bank: 5,120Wh total energy (4x Kunlun Mini 100Ah 12V LiFePO4 batteries in parallel).

​Inverter: Giandel 2200W Continuous Pure Sine Wave Inverter (with solar controller input).

​Charge Controller: Renogy Rover 40A MPPT Charge Controller (mounted on side, configured for Lithium).

​Monitoring: TR16 Battery Monitor with QWORK Shunt (coulomb counting programmed to 400Ah).

​Safety & Fusing: 2 AWG pure copper main feeds, 250A ANL main fuse, 50A inline fuse on the charge controller battery line, and a 275A main disconnect kill switch.

​Enclosure: Craftsman rolling system box with telescoping handle for total mobility.

​Build Highlights:

​Mobility: Everything is mounted directly to the rolling Craftsman box, keeping 5kWh of battery capacity mobile without needing to haul heavy separate components around.

​Proper Shunt Integration: Routed all negative loads and charger grounds through the QWORK shunt's P- stud so the TR16 monitor accurately tracks net charge/discharge current.

​Safety First: Isolated the positive line with a 275A rotary kill switch and an inline 250A ANL fuse block before reaching the inverter terminals. Included a dedicated 50A inline fuse on the positive run between the battery and the Renogy Rover controller.

​Testing & Performance:

​Kettle Stress Test: Stress tested with a ~1,470W electric kettle (~135A DC draw). Voltage held rock solid without excessive sag, and cables stayed well within thermal limits.

​AC Unit: Planned usage is running a Hisense portable AC (~700W–800W continuous). Based on initial draws, expecting around 5.5 to 7 hours of continuous runtime on a single charge.

​Total Cost: Built for roughly ~$1,200 total—giving me over 5.1kWh of stored energy compared to commercial units that charge $3,500+ for less capacity.

​Happy to answer any questions on the wiring layout, components, or testing! Let me know what you think!

What are your go to ways to heat or cook without power assuming you need to be inside?