Hello - London light-weight prepper

[Londonpreppy]

Hi Everyone,

Quick intro - I'm a female, living in rented accommodation in London, Zone 3. I work in central London. Yup, I'm in just about the worse possible position for being prepared if a disaster of any kind struck.

My biggest concerns are: power failures, terrorist attacks, extreme weather - essentially the types of disaster that are temporary - the ones where society will eventually be restored.

I don't want to be a person taking cover in a refugee camp, dependent on authorities for food, shelter and medicine, or taking to the streets to loot shops in a bid to find bottled water/tins of food.

I'm not too far along in my 'prepping' but I've made a start.

My other half thinks I'm daft - he's definitely one of those that think 'it will never happen and if it did it would be fine' so he humors me a fair bit with it all, he likes to say, 'I will go about as normal knowing you've got it covered' - he means it affectionately.

Nice to meet you all!

[unsure]

hello and welcome , sounds like you a ruff idea as to were you want to be with your prepping and more importantly why .

[preparedsurrey]

Welcome to the forum, you may be in just about the worst place to be should SHTF but on the bright side it would probably be the place that the authorities try to get up and running as normal again first

Loads of good sensible information on here, there are quite a few other people (from memory) in a similar location to yourself who have posted.

[Londonpreppy]

Thanks

I think it's being in London that makes me think more about this. I'm from the North. My parents both have proper skills. They know how to grow vegetables, make jams, and make a dinner out of thin air, ie when all I see is empty cupboards....

They were both born right at the end of the 2nd world war, endured rationing through their childhood and came from a very humble start where my Grandparents had a lot of mouths to feed. They were young parents during the winter of discontent and remember times when the nearest phone was a couple of miles away and neither had a car.

A completely different world to the one which I grew up in.....

But of course, I'm here and they are 200 miles away and it's that, that's got me motivated!

[Alloneword]

Hi Londonpreppy like you i am in central London to some degree, my biggest worry if i was you is your work location, if anything kicks off you are going to be miles from home and poss no way of getting home if the buses/tubes/trains are screwed, i presume you get to work on public transport and as i say your screwed so i'd look at how you could get out of zone 1 and get closer to home, the river bus MAY be an option just to get you out but lets hope you don't live somewhere like Sydenham, my best advice would be at getting some kind of foldaway pushbike (scooter would be better but way more money) and hopefully work would allow you to store it somewhere at work and maybe once every 3 months take it out check it over, maybe ride it home every now and then, I'm south of the river (Zone 1) and travel into the west end (WC1 & WC2) and the city maybe once a week, and i know it would become a nightmare damm fast, that's my advice for getting out so to speak.
However if you have no option other then stay put is to maybe get some sort of Every Day Carry (EDC) bag or if you have room at work maybe in the desk or locker, keep a small simple torch like this http://tinyurl.com/gusheos, an older mobile where battery will last more then 20 minutes but bear in mind O2 & Vodafone will be shut down damm fast as well as other networks to follow, basic first aid kit (FAK), some kind of face make to protect from dust if a building comes down or a bomb, maybe keep comfy trainers at work in case you have to walk home, not to sure if you would need food at work but water is always handy to have in your bag.

As for home stuff candles, wind up radio, wind up torch maybe look at getting a 4g dongle for table or laptop in case power is gone and no router, decect selecton of AAA & AA batteries, if you have the room maybe some 5 litre bottles of water, medications if you or partner take regular meds, also look at home security to some degree and my best advice is don't tell anyone what you have as if they know you have food and water and they want it they will stop at nothing to get it so tell other half to keep gob shut even if he/she thinks your a mad woman, one day you may just be proved right.

I'm sure others will give other advice as well.

All1

[Londonpreppy]

Thanks All1 that's always been my biggest concern getting home. I'm walking distance to my home around 6 miles. I work in WC2

My other half and I have got a meet up plan to get home with a few different scenarios, such as if I couldn't get across the river. I'm first aid trained and have a portable kit on my desk Always have comfy shoes on me and I carry a rucksack to work - keeping my 'bug out bag items' essentially on me. I'm scared of being stuck on the tube in a disaster. I have a torch on my keyring, along with a safety whistle (incase I'm trapped) and a few first aid items - along with lucazade sweets and a protein bar and a drink, oh and a map! And a portable phone charger.

Good shout about the windup gadgets! Any you can recommend?

[tigs]

Welcome to the forum

[Arzosah]

Welcome, Londonpreppy - great advice there from Alloneword.

The thing I'd add is really good curtains, so that if you have candles or lanterns they can't be seen from outside. My ordinary curtains are lined with blackout material - helps keep the heat in too. Do you have a camping stove, to cook if the power goes off? If you have a gas hob, it may not work when the electricity's off - mine does, because its so old I tried it to see. Definitely store some water - 2 litre or 5 litre bottles from any supermarket. I'm in the middle of replacing mine - they were next to the sunward wall, and they deformed, I'm lucky they didn't split and flood the place. I was wondering about reactions to a terrorist bomb too, and dust masks - I experimented with cheap poundland swimming goggles, they're lightweight, and could really protect your eyes from nasty amounts of dust and maybe carcinogens and other problematic things that might be in the air.

What about the skills your parents have ... maybe you can practice them, even if you can't employ them regularly? Being central as you are, even a few preps will make a vast difference to the surviveability of different events.

HTH

[Briggs 2.0]

This has been said many times on the forum but with regards to home preps the best place to start is to turn off the electrics and water and simulate you only have 10% battery left in your mobile then work out what it is that is important for you to get through the next 24, 48 and 72 hours. This may also get your partner on board.

I live in the back of beyond which is polar opposite to the challenges you face in London so I'm really interested to hear what plans you come up with about how to get home and what to do when you get home and the utilities are off.

For me, getting home is a key factor in my preps and I have to plan for a 60 plus mile cross country journey whereas I guess you've got three to four miles of potential dangers that I just can't imagine. We should swap notes!

I'd check out Yorkshire Andy's battery box set up and for my two pence worth, I'd say add a mini-sawyer filter to your EDC/get home kit as a priority and perhaps a ceramic filter on the mains supply to solve the water issue. I'm sure loads of other will come up with other suggestions. As for being on the tube - I can't imagine what that's like in rush hour, I get heart palpitations just thinking about that. I'd be a little calmer if I knew I had some means of protecting my eyes and breathing and perhaps with a tool capable of breaking toughened glass and prying things open.

Good luck!

[Captain Darling]

If I lived or worked in London, terror attacks or (more) riots would be looming on my horizon.

Trainers, walking shoes or boots. Safety goggles, dust mask and decent work gloves. Proper Swiss Army Knife (SAK)/multi tool, possibly some sort of pry bar/small rescue tool. Glowsticks rock my world, you can drop them to form a trail or leave them on casualties and equipment to save you trying to find them again. Bit of food and drink, First Aid Kit (FAK), torch. Jobs a done one.

That's essentially all your HAVE to have go get home for six miles. You can carry more which will help make things more comfortable but then your going to have to carry it.

Speaking of carrying it, make sure you can. Six miles isn't the end of the world, but if you've not done it before it can take it out of you. Try the route a few times, then try the route with your kit a few times. Try at different times of day and night, different weathers, different times of year.

You'll find holes in your plans, problems with your route and that sharp corner of your first kit just jabbibg in the small of your back.

Then you'll really learn. And then you'll get better.