Mods, if you want to sticky, I can reply to all incoming requests for preparedness as they come in, time allowing.
You can prepare for a few weeks easily, you don't have to go crazy.
Water:
- If you will be on the move, "Bugging Out", you might have time to get lifestraws lifestraw.com -You may still have time to order a water bob. Great if you have an extra bathtub and are not in control of your water situation(as opposed to those with a private well), otherwise just fill your tub without and boil the water if you are concerned -https://waterbob.com/
- You can sanitize questionable water with bleach, https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cphl/Practice/water.htm
- Remember, you will need quite a bit of water for drinking, cleaning, batheing
- Get some paper cups and papers, cuts down on water use cleaning dishes
- Do all your laundry ASAP so you have a full closet of clean clothes
Food
- Don't go crazy on LTS(long term storage food), if you aren't eating it now, don't go get it. You can start looking into it, but not necessary. Too expensive per calorie at this point.
- Double and Triple up on the canned goods you already buy on a regular basis, adding canned meats to replace fresh/frozen meats.
- If you can, get a small generator to run your fridge or freezer. Worst case scenario, the outside temps in many places are good for freezing or cooling food. Hurricane hit folks get the need for this
- Buy larger bags of rice from costco if you can, filling and keeps well
Meds
- Vitamins, bandaids, stock up what you use on a daily basis, toothpaste, new tooth brushes, pain killers, contact your doctor to see if you can get a month ahead on Rx meds(important!)
Electronics
- LED lights and batteries are a must, candles can't hurt either, you can cook a can of beans with a candle
- Consider getting an emergency radio with crank recharging.
- Get those cell phone batteries and charge them up, have them at the ready
Heating
- Kerosene heater if you don't have a fireplace
- If you have a fireplace you don't use, get some wood and clean out the fireplace, you might need it, hopefully not
Please ask questions here, I've been a prepper since 2008, I'm sure there are more here.
I suggest survivalblog.com for much more in depth info.
Prepper terms you might come across in your reading:
- BOB is a Bug out bag, basically, if you think your current location is dangerous, it is a bag packed with the things you would need to grab and go. If this is ready ahead of time, you get on the road before everyone else even thinks to flee
- BOL bug out location, a planned place to flee to
- LTS long term strorage, mostly for food
Yes I didn't think they just shoved the submersible pump down in a dirt hole without any well casing.
Sorry, daddy was a well driller, I used to help him install pumps when I was a teenager
Nothing but respect dude.
What I was wondering is if I have a submersible pump down 80 feet, and the water level in the well is 60 feet, in other words my submersible is 20 ft below the water level, would I have 20 feet of water on top of the pump, or does the pump keep the water from filling up behind it.
So your static water level is 60 foot? Yes, your pump isn't water tight, so it goes into the water. Ideally you have a large enough water source that your static water level won't fluctuate from that 60 foot level when you are drawing water. But for smaller sources, you can run out, or at least not replenish fast, which is probably why you would want your pump farther under the water source. You can reasonably pump your well until the static water level gets down to the pump. Sorry, its been over twenty five years since I was close to the process. And I'm a dudette :P
Thanks. I know I got plenty of water. Like I said I was there when the guy replaced the pump about one or two years ago, and I ask him where my water level was at, and how deep the well went. He I think told me the water level was 50 feet, the old pump was a 60, and the well was like 90. So I ask him to put the well as deep as possible while staying far enough off the bottom. So he set the depth at around 80.
The pump is a two wire, but a very high quality pump. It was expensive, I think from Germany. Also it's the kind that starts up slowly.
I have pumped my pool way down by accident once, and filled it backup with no losing water, probably pumped around 3 thousand gallons.