Apr 26 2009
Swine Flu Epidemic Planning
Being prepared for a flu epidemic like the potential 2009 swine flu means having supplies at home for an extended period of time.
According to the US government pandemic flu website;
Store a two week supply of water and food. During a pandemic, if you cannot get to a store, or if stores are out of supplies, it will be important for you to have extra supplies on hand. This can be useful in other types of emergencies, such as power outages and disasters.
I recommend one month to 3 months worth of supplies. Based on previous epidemics there are several “waves” of infection outbreaks. Your ability to be prepared to stay home for extended periods of time at different phases of the pandemic may be vital to you and your families’ survival.
You should be immediately prepared and have at least two weeks supply at home of food, medicine (prescription and non-prescription), and other essentials. Anything that would force you to leave your home to try to find. It will also be harder to find these items due to supply chain breakdowns during a long pandemic outbreak scenario.
Three very important points for food;
- Buy foods that are the same or similar to what you family can eat. Radical changes in diet can cause much more complications than you need in a crisis.
- Store shelves will empty within hours once it is clear that the crisis is severe, real, and imminent, to most of us.
- Try to get as “ready to eat” type foods as possible - you may be sick and not able to prepare foods
Fill any prescriptions you have for as long as possible. Purchase the regular medical supplies that you would consume over a 6 month period including cold and flu remedies as regular illness don’t go on holiday during a pandemic.
What foods to buy
As mentioned try not to stray far from foods your family is used to and that you know they will eat.
- Rice - most people like rice and preparation is easy as long as you have a stove. Bulk 40-50 lb bags are cheap so if you don’t need to use it the waste will not cost much
- Dry Cereals - try to stay with what your family normally eats, but healthier brands with less sugar are a better choice
- Canned meats and fish - Sardines are great and cheap if you like them.
- Canned Vegetables - Cooked is better for preparedness so they are ready to eat.
- Peanut butter - if there are no allergies.
- Water containers - I won’t spend money on bottled water, the water from you tap is good enough and you should have time to fill containers if a threat to the water supply comes into play.
- Protein and fruit bars - read the labels, make sure they are not empty calorie bars that provide no nutrition
As I mentioned above once the perceived risk level is high in the minds of a critical mass of people the store shelves will empty quickly, due to the nature of our just-in-time food supply chain. Then there will a period of time before shelves will be partially and then fully replenished.
If you want to avoid this I would suggest you shop now.
Panic could set in within a matter of hours if the situation worsens.
For proper longer term preparedness of one to six months, I recommend freeze dried food.
The main reasons are
- It lasts a long time so food will be there for a future crisis if this one, hopefully, does not materialize
- You don’t need to panic buy when a crisis hits to be prepared, you are ‘always prepared’ for 25 years
- Food reserves are ready to eat, only needing water to prepare
I just checked Nitro-Pak’s (emergency preparedness) website and they say that as of today “most orders will SHIP in approx. 1-3 business days. Food orders may take slightly longer.”
Published under Freeze Dried Food, Pandemic Preparedness, nitro-pak, swine flu
Having a storage of at least 3 months of food is an absolute must. If possible a years’ worth is even better. With the uncertain weather, economic problems, etc. you never know when something will hit you out of the blue that will cause a need for your storage. We experienced this when we suffered a job loss with a 5 months stint of no income. Our food storage was a life-saver.
Dear Mike,
I believe that we can help all the people and the animals with swine flu. Please email me back as I am working on this with Scientists and Doctors at Anu water.
I truly believe we can help people and Animals with this Scourge. We can feed and ariel spray the animals and people.
Sincerely,
Trisha Springstead RN
I have a Question Here in california they tell us to be ready for anything here is my question. I am low income family I should start now? with cheaper foods[ like the dollar store]. Also I have another question how do you keep your family calm? thru this flu. For the children what would say? I have many question I’ll leave it at that.
Enjoy your website. I totally agree that having a year supply of food and water is a great idea. Right now I’m totally broke and can’t buy anything right now, but I will when I get on my feet. Right now I have a month’s supply but I want a year’s supply for sure. I wish we could get antibiotics for a year, too, so we don’t have to be to dependent on the health care system. Any ideas on that? Great website. I’ll be back.
Hi Michele,
Rice, beans, carrots, are a good low cost way to store a three or four weeks worth food. Try to buy food that you normally eat or are at least likely to eat.
If you can use the food regularly then you can buy a week’s worth and replenish until there is trouble.
I don’t think using antibiotics is a good idea unless you really need to take them. Anyway antibiotics won’t help against virus’.
Tamiflu is an antiviral drug. However if people take it regularly the chances drug resistant strains of the virus emerging go up so it will only create bigger problems eventually.
Patricia, As mentioned to Michele getting 3-4 weeks worth of rice, beans, and carrots is good way to have low cost food storage. As far as keeping your family calm I would talk about it giving straightforward, honest answers. Get reputable information from CDC’s website rather than news channels. Watch less TV, as they can’t stop themselves from fear mongering in order to sell a good story. News channels will even talk about themselves being more responsible then five minutes later have some scary story title in big letters on your screen. So get news when you want it and avoid TV as much as possible.
Good advice on avoiding TV. Our 24-hour, 7-day-a-week news culture is forced to repackage the trivial into the sensational, and then peddle it off as news. The swine flu coverage has been disproportionate to the hazard, however it is still best to remain prepared. I discuss this on my blog, have a look http://www.survivaloutpost.blogspot.com.
Having a storage of at least 3 months of food is an absolute must. If possible a years’ worth is even better. With the uncertain weather, economic problems, etc. you never know when something will hit you out of the blue that will cause a need for your storage. We experienced this when we suffered a job loss with a 5 months stint of no income. Our food storage was a life-saver.
We buy freeze dried foods “on sale” and store under beds etc…
Some family members have put beans, rice, dried potates, etc away..the beans and rice they take out of the bags and put in double zip locks. The everyday foods are bought in case and they date them and use and replace as they use….
Although we have some water…we have clean containers to store water at a moments notice.
On a budget, we all started small and shop “on sale”…
And of course, that 72 hour kit in the closet by the door…ready to grab and run!!!
We made our own, cheap, out of used back packs from the “used stuff” store…