Purpose
There are a lot of shows out there about survival and Prepping which vary from SurvivorMan, Dual Survival, Mountain Men, Doomsday Preppers, Apocalypse 101 as well as some other I’m sure I’m forgetting to mention. If you’ve seen any of them they vary in theme and style a great deal – some may put you off because they are pretty doom and gloom while another person may say they don’t even go far enough to address threats enough. Whether you feel you need to have a 72 Hour Bag in the trunk of your car because you live in an earthquake prone area, one which may get hit by a blizzard trapping you for days, you feel there may be an impending economic collapse of the world economy, or you think the next Zombie Apocalypse is right around the corner is not some thing I really care about.
You may want to call me a Prepper and that’s fine, I have my own reasons why I assemble items in my Earthquake kit and 72 Hour Bag and I feel it’s something I owe the community I live in to help others get their 72 Hour Bags and kits ready to go. However, you need to define what it is you are trying to prepare for. It will help you focus your efforts and resources appropriately. I saw this handy pyramid from a website and blog I have been following for years. I won a contest they offered a few years ago and their on line store is a very good resource. They are the guys behind the show Apocalypse 101. The website is http://survivalcache.com. Here is the graphic which addresses food needs according to the level which you may think things could go South.
What’s interesting to me most is how shocked people are when I tell them how much food and water you will need for your family in the event of an emergency. From the top going down if you look at the second tier… Which is completely possible. We’ve seen it happen: Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, The Blizzard of ’78, the Northridge Earthquake, the Tsunami which hit Phuket. Being without services for three weeks is something which could happen in the blink of an eye.
Most people, with the exception of several bachelors I know have enough food deep in their cabinets to last at least a week if you can stomach eating those canned lima beans you thought were a good idea to buy back in 2002. With this in mind it’s not too hard to figure out how to get two solid weeks of rations for the people in your household. Using this pyramid to gauge what length of time you feel is necessary to be prepared for will help you design your own personal grocery list.
The biggest problem is water. Knowing you need 1 gallon of water per person per day is a good guide to go by in a survival situation. This amount of water will be an EXTREME shock to the average American. Why? Well the average American uses 55 gallons of water per day while the average African uses three. So budgeting 1 gallon per person per day is going to be tough seeing how it will be a smaller quantity of water than the people use where it’s tough to even get clean water. At some point you’re just going to have to figure out where you’re going to get and purify water. And it’s better to think about it now.
72 Hour Bag • • • - - - • • • 
While we totally need more water in our personal storage area, for personal hygiene I feel that baby wipes and “sponge baths” can suffice. Hell, I do “whore showers” now when I can’t take a full blown shower and it has never bothered me. (TMI sorry LOL) People need to have a good supply of rags and even castille soap which is incredibly versatile. Of course the average American would have a break down at the thought of not being able to take a shower or wash their hair, but in a crisis, who cares?