Les Jones

You're in pretty good shape so far. A few suggestions:

Lose the candles and replace them with a few hurricane lanterns. They run nicely on liquid paraffin, and they can use vegetable oil in a pinch. Candles are dangerous.

LED flashlights last much longer than regular ones. Amazon sells an LED replacement bulb for maglights (I have one on order now, I'll tell you if it works).

Talk-about radios are cheap and don't need a fancy license.

Don't underestimate the supplies you will need to keep a child safe and happy. These needs will change as the child grows.

Consider a small kit for your car, with enough gear to get you (and child) home safely.

"They run nicely on liquid paraffin, and they can use vegetable oil in a pinch."

I didn't know that until just the other day when I was reading about disaster preparedness. That's pretty cool, since we buy cooking oil in big quantities, and it's less flammable than other lighting oils. We've got a decorative lantern like that, but I'll pick up some metal ones. I've seen them for $8 or so.

I've thought about the talkabouts, but I like the idea of being able to use the hams for backpacking. As I understand it, ham radios can even make calls to telephone lines, though I don't know all the details.

Keep the candles. :) They don't break, unlike the lanterns - get them, too, but also have the candles, is my take. I've got lots of candles, some lamps (non-hurricane, for now).

Girlfriend and I sat down and wrote down the SHTF bag lists, she organized totally differently from I. She also is a nurse, and had a laundry list of medical items. :)

Intially, I break it down 3 ways. 1) Hiking 2) driving away, 3) stationary. If 2 or 3, well, pretty much the sky is the limit. I'm seriously considering a popup camper as a minimum for 2, as well. Or building something like that on a cheap $300 trailer.

In the worst case, you're walking out. So I'm working on what's the minimum I can haul in a backpack, and tow on a cart of some sort. So, no worries with food, but water, purification, that sort of thing. I haven't gone and gotten an MSR yet, that might be better than my plan - have a Brita filter, put water in gallon jug, toss in the purification tabs, let the brita strain out the other stuff.

How could you forget duct tape? Also, women's hygene products, combined with duct tape, don't make bad emergency first aid in case of bleeding.

If I'm mobile, then I need gas most of all. I've got the current capacity for 30 gallons in cans. Right now, that's plastic containers, and 2 boat tanks. I think I'm going to upgrade those to metal, for more durability, not having to worry about gas fumes pushing them out... If I'm stationary, then I've got lots more canned goods, water, worrying about generators, etc.

The Inverter: make sure you understand what kind of a pull you'll need, and the inverter (and whatever you're hooking it to) can handle it. Also, plan on putting it straight to the battery (that lighter fuse is probably only 5A, my inverters are minimum of 30), and not getting a lot of runtime. If you've got a baby, you might want to consider a 12v fridge for the vehicle - most trucking places will have a number of 12v items.

I've got 2 aviation handheld radios that are in the bag - lot easier to talk to rescue choppers/planes if you can get on freq with them. :) But then again, I'm a pilot, so they're usually in my flight bag. http://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/pages/transceiver.cfm?trackingId=731
I also have 12v chargers for all those, or the cell phones.

And I see you've forgotten the MOST important thing - buckets. You *really* want at LEAST 1 5 gallon bucket. I've got one, I drilled a hole, and put a spigot on it, sealed with marine caulk - and with a small hose, it's a usable shower, or water dispenser - or scoop for water, put a trashbag in it, with a 2x4, and it's a usable toilet, invert it, it's a seat. Most of my supplies are either planned to be in that, or a icechest.

"Tools and gardening tools"

How many of your tools run off of electricy. Like drills.

"Computer backups & important documents offsite in bank safe deposit box (cheap at $38/year)"

What if the bank and your house are destroyed (most likely will happen in a natural disaster). I would store important info in a thrid (way off site)

Also food - the length of the disturbance. I did not see food.

Do you have a fireplace, some wood and firestarting materails might be in order?

Also do you have a pet, if you do you will have to plan food for that?

The list looks good, and you should surive most disurbances, excepct for the NCB ones.

List sounds good. As my wife and I are into camping and hiking, I have found that rather than pack everything up from scratch every time, consuming time that could be spent outdoors, we made a list of all the "must have's" and packed all of that into one big rubbermaid box that fits in the trunk. I did the same for my daypack, filling pockets with the minimal survival stuff I want in the event that I am stuck out for a few days unplanned.
*** Now for the interesting part ***
After 9/11, when reviewing needed kit items for house, 95% of the items were either in the daypack or the camping box already. Pretty easy to put the other 5% in a smaller box in a closet somewhere. For me, the other 5% is stuff that I use daily anyway. . . Ham radio HT, for example.
Regards,
Kent

I think of my MSR water filter as my most indispensible survival tool. Definitely get you one.

Ditch the propane stove and switch to a multi-fuel. Propane bottles are hard to find in a pinch as everyone will scarf them up, and they run out of fuel fast, extraordinarily fast if you're purifying gallons of water, and you will be purifying gallons of water. Don't forget that, unless you can find a totally isolated place to wait it out, you will probably be in some kind of group situation for mutual support, comfort, convenience and defense. An MSR or Coleman multi-fuel stove can run like a blast furnace for hours on a quart of fuel, and more fuel can be found in your friendly neighborhood gas can. (Unleaded is fine, no need for premium.)

I'll second the call to ditch the HAM radios, too. Motorola Talk Abouts ($20 each at Cabela's last year, don't know the price today) are good for miles. Cristal clear communications between cars, easy to use, cheap, etc. If you really want one, get a HAM as a separate item for communicating outside, but use those small, lightweight, bombproof Talk Abouts instead.

Keep a few candles, but not many. Don't use them for illumination except as a last resort. They're dangerous as all get out, more so in a strange environment with babies running around, etc. They make great fire-starters though.

Formerflyer: these are the big propane tanks, not the little ones for camping. I'm using them because I have to have them anyway for the gas grill, and they're a good solution for heating, which is one of my biggest concerns.

Addison: thanks for the tip on the inverters. Sounds like I need to do some more research.

Cube: I don't have a food plan, and you're right, I need one. Tools are hand tools. Need to pack nails and screws, too. The important docs are mostly one-offs like deeds and titles, so I can't keep them in two places. Since we're not in a flood zone, I'm not too worried about the house and the bank both being destroyed. Thanks for reminding me about the pets.

Sounds like my next step after collecting some of this stuff is to make a checklist for it like the one I use for backpacking so I'll remember all this stuff. I also need to organize the emergency supplies into one place, and preferably in containers or packs.

Thanks for the advice, all!

"Need to pack nails and screws, too. The important docs are mostly one-offs like deeds and titles, so I can't keep them in two places."

So. Make copies, when your house and your bank are both destoryed the copies will have to suffice.

Secondly, i find it hard to belive that you cannot get certifed copies of even important documetns (i know you can of you birth certificates, though I did not own a house or land, so you could be right). I would check around and see what you can do. Ask a public notary, they might know.

Great resource, thanks for the post--and the comments are useful as well.

Here's a post on my blog on items for the emergency medical kit:

The Doctor Is In » Emergency Medical Kit

Hello:

I am a poor Eastern European
and me and mine wife are looking for some
corporate sponsorship.
In about 8-10 weeks we are taking a
Conservancy trip from Los Angeles to Denali National Park in Alaska.
Our mission is to promote National Park Conservancy.
We will visit: Mohabe Desert. Death Valley, The Great Salt Lake, Yellowstone, Bryce, Arches National Park, a few park near Alberta Canada (the Yukon territory), and of course the Glacier National Park ... in Alaska (Denali National Park)we will spend time watching grizzly bears.

Would you like to sponsor US? The trip will take about five weeks .... and anything like T-shirts with your company LOGO is OK, or Magnetic signs for cat doors, or GAS card, or food card or whatever you can contribute (sponsor) is fine with us.
JACK ZAJAC
PS Please forward this e-mail top an appropriate department and e-mail me back for telephone number.Thanks and Bless you and all you do.
jwzajac@adelphia.net

Mr_Zajac
14 Deerpath Place
Pomona, CA 91766

Found your post via Instapundit. Great list.

Keep the ham radios and get your Technician's class license. See www.arrl.org for info. It's not hard or expensive, will help you learn proper radio procedure, and gives you much better communications capabilities than FRS, GMRS, or CB radios. E.g., a typical handheld ham radio can transmit at 5W, while the others are much less. Further, the ham radios will allow you to connect to a repeater (essentially a very powerful radio that retransmits your signal), allowing you to communicate long distances. Some repeaters have what's called a "phone patch," which allows you to connect and make a telephone call.

How great this every comments is very embllishing for me wish he all the best.

How great this every comments is very embllishing for me wish he all the best.