Feel free to drop and debate your best prepping advice for a single family of 4. What you believe should be prioritized over mistakes youve made in your preps.
PLEASE, for the love of god, do not go out and buy 30 1 gallon water jugs, or 20 cases of bottled water. The plastic will degrade before you ever use it all, its terrible for the body, and its likely to leak out all over the floor..
Sardines are the most protein and nutrient dense canned food you can buy... Taste like shit, but make it work.
Do not build fires or use generators in your home, I feel like this is common sense, but after the last ice storm, im not so sure.
Brush up on any skills you can right now... Welding, carpentry, fencing, fortifying, weapons management, botany.
Have enough medical supplies for your family. 3 packs of great value bandaids will not suffice. You need guaze, anti parasites, anti inflammitory, ibeprofin, asprin. More advanced items like tourniquettes, quick klot, splints will do nothing but increase your preparedness. Be familiar with how each item works.
Some people recommend HAM radios, its great to have but will likely be useless if there aren't major communicators there to bounce comms off of.
Alcohol is a commodity, Weed is a commodity, illicit drugs can have medicinal purposes. Some people can use raw opium for pain and wound management.
Appearance is 98% of someones perception as per AR 670-1. In the event of a catastophic event, knowing FEMA paint symbols, and how to board up your shelter/home is absolutely imparative. Keep plywood on hand specifically for these purposes. People will often find the easiest targets first. Adding barriers that take an immense amount of time to remove will only help your fortification. Think Hurricane Katrina....
NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER QUIT. 10 more feet, 10 more seconds... always keep putting distance and time between you, and whatever it is you're escaping from. Your body can give our and rest when youre dead, not a second sooner...
Many of you will be pushed farther than you've ever been pushed before, welcome to your awakening..
Some of you may not experience anything at all, you will be the spared, but it is likely almost everyone will face some sort of tribulation during this transition.
I wish each and every single one of you the very best of luck. Hopefully this is a mild transition, but plan for the worst.
If nothing happens and the world keeps spinning then great, at least your prepared if it doesnt.....
I suggest you look at the "rule of 3s" to prioritize your preps - you can survive 3 minutes without air, 3 hours in harsh conditions without shelter, 3 days without water and three weeks without food. Wrap in hygiene and medical care and whatever you believe you require for defense. Keep some cash on hand for when the cards don't work.
Start with 3 days of preps then build slowly with standard boxed and canned food to 30 days. This is the stuff that you make supper out of every night. Rotate thru your holdings and replace weekly. Then add longer shelf life food (most canned goods now are good for a lot longer than is printed due to upgraded manufacturing processes). When you get to 3 months you will be good for a short to intermediate incident.
A word about comms - HAM requires an FCC license - not hard to get must requires time to study. Equipment is pretty expensive. UHF and vhf comms are pretty much line of site and rely on repeaters that are dependent on electricity. HF provides long haul communications, depending on atmospheric conditions. For a short term incident, all you need is a commercial "emergency" radio that includes NOAA and a relatively inexpensive hand held capability in either FRS or GMRS for family and neighborhood comms.
Last point - skills are paramount. All the gear in the world will be of no use if you don't have the right mental prep and skills that you have practiced to the point of rote.