These pages are meant for those in the UK. Some of these videos refer to the US and the ownership of weapons such as hand guns, Rifles, ammunition, crossbows, hunting / rescue Knives / Hatchets.
ALL OF WHICH ARE ILLEGAL TO OWN AND CARRY IN PUBLIC IN THE UK.
'Prepping' or Preparing for disaster has always been more an 'American Thing!', many people in the United States plan ahead to protect themselves and their families, yet this has never been a thing in the UK. But should we be doing the same ?
Disaster does not mean a Nuclear War, it could be something natural such as an Earthquake, Flooding or a Fire, it could be an outbreak of disease. But yes there is always a risk of another war and we would be crazy not to believe that it could one day happen again.
For the case of fire in the home, this has already been covered in our other safety section called 'Simple Ways to Protect your Family', which has details of our 'Fire Bag & Bugout Kit'.
Our American colleagues and other countries are way ahead of us here in the UK when it comes to disaster planning, although it is made a little easier when their houses are much larger and more suitably built with survival in mind.
For instance all houses in Switzerland are built with compulsory survival bunkers, sometimes these are shared between two adjacently built homes, but apart from a rare few, most modern UK housing stock was built without a basement.
Now I'm not suggesting we all start ripping up our floorboards and start digging out the earth below to make a nuclear shelter, but there are other preparations we can make.
Here in the UK we are not going to run for the mountains, deserts or jungles, our main problems in the UK in the event of a disaster is the lack of power, inability to purchase food and obtaining drinking water, and communication.
Below I shall give some more simple ideas that you could possibly use to make a survival plan with your family that more suit the UK lifestyle.
'Prepping' is creating a 'Toolkit' that will enable you to survive and carry on with life even after a catastrophic event. This toolkit could be in the form of a bunker or strengthened basement, but for those without such a building it maybe created off-site and away from the home. Many Americans have built hidden 'Off-site' camps in the wilderness away from town areas. These camps or bunkers are then stocked with all the items you would need to last the many weeks after such an event until help from governmental sources arrive. Bottled water, Tinned or foil packet food, torches, medications, radio, batteries, toilet roll etc. Some go further by creating hunting equipment and animal traps, in US weapons and ammunition.
Imagine it as a very long camping holiday, its wise to be well prepared !
There are other aspects to consider, and I try to explain these below.
This article maybe written for the US, dealing with Tornado's, Hurricane's and the varied other disasters they encounter, but much still applies to those that live in the UK, especially those who live in rural areas in times of heavy snow fall, flooding, or fires.
Over the last 20 or so years we have grown to be overly dependent on our digital devices, our telephones, computers, televisions, everything we now use seems to have a computer chip inside from washing machines to toasters, and there is hardly one vehicle on the road now that does not rely on electronic computer controlled chip.
If there is ever another war, or even just a terrorist attack, then we may find ourselves suddenly without all these devices. One of the first 'bombs' used will be an EMP bomb, an Electro Magnetic Pulse, an explosion of high intensity radio waves that will literally burn out and fry all electronics and make them forever useless. Our modern day cars will just come to a halt as it fries the engine management computers, all our commuinication systems would cease to exist, in fact there would hardly be any service remaining that was not brought to its knees due to our reliance on electronic technology, this includes ATM machines so always ensure you have a supply of cash on hand.
There is a way to protect our devices, so that they would again be in a usable condition after the waves emissions had faded, We could make ourselves a faraday cage that will protect our phones, radios and digital devices from an EMP, however it would still rely on the rebuilding of the mobile phone network as that can not be protected by placing in a cage.
If you have a microwave oven you can see a Faraday cage in operation, the thin mesh that covers the glass door panel prevents microwave energy from coming out of the machine through the glass when it is in use.
Faraday cages are becomming more popular of late, traditionally they were used by scientists or big electronics industries, but recently the principle is being applied as an anti-theft system to stop our credit cards from being hacked by scamming thieves weilding hidden card readers.
You can easily buy thin flexible metal mesh or even 'Faraday tape', come to that even the standard Tin-foil found in most kitchens can be used to create a basic Faraday cage. The size you need would depend on the size of devices you need to protect, ranging from the size of a wallet or biscuit tin to something the size of a room. How to make them can easily be found online.
If you do have the luxury of a fallout shelter or even just basement, then it maybe worth considering lining that with wire mesh and creating a Faraday Room, something that will protect the whole family and not just your small digital devices.
If you have an external car garage then possibly think of doing the same to that area too, at least it would protect the engine management system of your car enabling you to have working transport after such an EMP event, and enable any power generator to function.
Everybody has their own levels when it comes to self protection, some will just ignore it and hope it never happens, others will go to extremes in the hope they will be safe.
Radiation of any form is harmful to humans if in enough quantity, you only need to look into the current 5G conspiracy information to make you question your safety.
Some are going to the level of creating 'Faraday Beds' to protect them against the growing 5G emissions.
Credit to: echquickie
Credit to: HowIPrepare
The Citizens Band (CB) Radio was a very popular communication device of the 80's and early 90's, but as the development and use of the mobile telephone grew it slowly faded away to being used by just the hardened few. However many of us still have their old 'Rig' in the shed, and they are now very cheap to buy and easily obtainable, and these stored in such a faraday cage might be a useful answer.
If pre-setup with a matching aerial, then disconnected from it and stored within a faraday cage until needed for use, the CB radio can be run from any 12v battery source and would be the only working communication still available. A few of these spread amongst the family would at least keep you in touch, and could possibly be used to summon assistance from the military or emergency services.
Handheld 'walkie-talkie' style radios are now cheap to purchase, have a range of a few miles and no longer need to be licenced.
Save your old car batteries when you replace them, setup your old CB with a matched antennae then disconnect it from the aerial and store it in a faraday cage ready for emergency use.
Credit to: Living Survival
Credit to: Tech Guru
Credit to: Clough Reviews
Two way radio's are great for communication but in the event of an emergency situation you also need to be able to hear government emergency broadcast information, this will normally be broadcast over a wide range of frequencies both AM and FM.
Where power is an issue, a radio that has a wind up facility is the best choice.
Credit to: todderbert
Credit to: Minute Daily
Credit to: Guildbrook Farm - Off Grid Living.
Credit to: Iridium242
Credit to: Simply Starry Sustainable Living With God
REMEMBER: It is illegal in the UK to carry Guns of any type, and also that Knives with a blade over 3 inches even when folded are also illegal. Carrying other weapons such as Crossbows & Catapults or Hatchets in a public area is also deemed illegal.
Credit to: gideontactical
Credit to: Survival Dispatch
Credit to: City Prepping
Credit to: DW News
Credit to: Giesbert Nijhuis
