Urban Survival - Food Stockpiling

Every serious Urban Survival prepper knows about preparing dry foods in Mylar bags, with oxygen absorbers. Some even go so far as to then store the vacuum packed Mylar bags in buckets with Gamma Lids. All good. You can get a long storage live out of this method. I certainly recommend this method for long term storage and cache emplacement.

Another method for preparing and stocking emergency food is by using a Food Saver vacuum packing and heat sealing device. The company advises a two year storage life with dry goods using their vacuum packing device and their FoodSaver bags. I think you can get more life than that if you take reasonable care to store your food in a controlled conditions, at least until the SHTF. I don't know,...I could be wrong, but what I do know is that if a bag is two months of out date, I'm not throwing it away until I check it,...check it like you would any foods. You'll notice I wrote the food item name and packaging date (month and year) on each package in the picture below.

In order to supplement my 8 and 10 gallon cans of Mylar bag sealed dry foods, I bought a Sport Model Food Saver so I could prepare smaller packages of foods for Bug Out Bags and to prepare meals faster during movements like a Bug Out from my Urban Location to my planned Safe Location.

Today I prepared some foods for use during a vehicle Bug Out movement. I'll place the below described packaged foods in a bucket for immediate use.

$1.44 on 2 lbs of Split Pea Soup, packaged in 1 lb bags
$3.98 on 2 lbs of 16 Bean Ham flavored soup, packaged in 1 lb bags
$1.04 on Salt, packaged in 1 lb 10 ounce cans
$1.44 for 2 lbs Brown Sugar, packaged in one bag
$3.55 for 8 lbs of Pinto Beans, which I packaged into two 4 lb bags
$4.35 for 6 lbs of Enriched White Rice, packaged into one bag
$2.00 for 2 lbs of Long Grain Brown Rice, packaged into two 1 lb bags
$3.64 for a 10 ounce pack of Coffee already vacuumed packed
$4.04 for one 8 ounce bottle of Adobo Seasoning for the rice and beans

I figure I can easily get two weeks of meals out of the above ingredients. Each day having two small meals. All for a total cost of $25.48 for the food items.

I have some extra heavy duty one gallon zip lock bags from which I'll place the ingredients for my meal into, add water and let soak, if possible in the sunlight, then transferring to a pot to cook in later on. This shortens the cooking time and if you can't cook it, well you can eat it like it is.

I packed the Brown Sugar, not just as an after thought, but to use on any game like fish or rabbits or even snakes I catch. Plus I plan on adding some Steel Cut Oats to this bucket for which Brown Sugar is a necessity.

All of the above fits into a bucket I'll place in my truck, in a ready location, if and when I Bug Out. Smaller versions of the above dry foods, and other foods like peanuts and granola, are in vacuum packed smaller packages and sitting in my Bug Out Bags. I have several Bug Out bags, anticipating people to come to my location in the event of TEOTWAWKI. Who I keep and integrate into my Urban Survival Group, who I turn away maybe giving them a Bug Out Bag (no use creating enemies if you can help it) and who I just turn away cold (sometimes you can't help but create enemies) is another story, once of which I have addressed in different posts such as "Absorbing People into Your Survival Group".

Good luck -prepare well.

Urban Survival - Water Storage in Your Home

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received an Anonymous reader comment concerning potable water storage to support a “Bug In” rather than a “Bug Out”.

”We are urbanites (NYC), and our primary contingency plan is to bug-in rather than bug-out. In addition to a few cases of bottled water, I also purchased two water storage kits designed to hold 65 gallons of water in the bathtub. The kit is called the Aquapod. It is a dry bladder designed to fit inside a bathtub, which you would pull down and fill with potable water if TSHTF. If we were able to fill both of them, we would have a large supply of clean water. (We live in a high rise building, so our water supply is entirely dependent on electricity to pump water into a holding tank on the roof).”
”The only negative to the Aquapod that I see is that we would lose the use of the bathtub for hygiene. I have thought this out, though, and would probably take large pots of water into the emergency stairwell for bathing, in a long-term bug-in situation.”
For more information on AquaPod, click here: http://www.aquapodkit.com/

UrbanMan comments:

These NYC Urbanites are planning in somewhat the right direction, that is considering their water needs which is a high priority need. However even 130 gallons of water, given a planning factor or 1.5 gallons per person per day, would last 2 people about a month and a half, actually 43 days.

We thank the readers to alerting us on the AquaPod system. We plan on buying at least one, which is reasonable priced at $40 for a pump kit and tub liner.

It is problematic that these NYC Urbanites plan on “Bugging In” rather than “Bugging Out” to a safe location. UrbanSurvivalSkills.com believes that in a large scale economic collapse, pandemic, nuclear attack or whatever your flavor of scenario, the cities will be giant death traps. Certainly there will be survivors, but the density of people to the available food and water stores, bandit and gang security risks and restrictive firearms regulations in New York City making only the criminals well armed, all make it highly unlikely for a successful long term “Bug In” plan.

If I lived in New York City I would plan likewise to store sufficient water for as long of a stay as I could, but only in order to affect a “Bug Out” to a safe location at my time of choosing. I would look possibly to Up State New York or the New England area.

I build Urban Survival Bug Out Bags and would plan on several routes to various short range temporary safe locations as traveling in the city may be very difficult. Consider the refugee problem and movement flow to better plan safe routes.

I don’t know how possible it is for you to have firearms in NYC. But even a hunting shotgun and .22 pistol would be better than going un-armed.

Maybe there is other people like you in your high rise that you can count on to band together in a Urban Survival group to leverage your resources and skills. We have long said that Urban Survival is a team sport.

Good luck to you New Yorkers. Regards – Urban Man

Making the Case for a Coming Economic Collapse

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com does not represent itself as knowing much of any thing regarding how economies work or anything, however given the dire economic situation not only in the United States but all of Europe, combined with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a very probable large scale Arab/Muslim attack on Israel or even open war against Israel (because of the Flotilla incident) and what all those events will do to the economies, we believe we are facing are facing a coming large scale economic collapse.

Add in the economic blow from the oil spill in the Gulf; the North Koreans sinking South Korean ships; the Chinese emboldened to act against Taiwan (since the U.S. appears to abandoning allies); and, Iran building Nuclear weapons - all paint a black picture which holds minimal promise that we can get out of it unscathed.

The blow video, tongue in cheek as it is, illustrate the ludicrous nature of deficit spending and failing Country economic system and will take us into a collapse.

Prepare for Urban Survival, Prepare Now and Prepare well.

Urban Survival Planning – Storing Fuel

I have a lot of friends and other people visiting this site that are preparing for Urban Survival and have been in communication with me who have bought or are planning on buying gas or diesel powered generators for power after the collapse.

I urge caution here. A small generator, man portable (maybe even a 5,000 KW version) may make sense for your particular circumstances and Urban Survival Plan, however you are dependent upon fuel of course. I don’t know how long we could count on finding fuel after a collapse and any large amounts of fuel you store, even at a safe location, will have a fairly short shelf life.

Civilian fuels are not treated as military fuels are. Gas and Diesel will go bad. Even under exceptionally controlled storage, I would not expect non-treated fuel to last more than 12-18 months.

Gas breaks down, oxidizes and the lighter components will evaporate leaving a lower octane mix. There were be some particles that may clog up your engine or fuel filters. Diesel is sensitive to breakdown as well producing what people call algae or mold which is really a acidic type sludge residue.

If your gas is a blend of alcohol (gasohol) I have been informed by reliable sources that it will deteriorate even faster than standard gas.

This points to some problems you would have to solve to make a generator viable – gas storage, gas stock rotation and treatment.

There are some off the shelf fuel stabilizers that would come in handy, chief among them are:

Gold Eagle Gas Stabilizer, useable in 2 and 4 cycle engines. Eight fluid ounces treats 20 gallons of gas. Approximate cost is around $10 per 8 ounces.

Sta-bil Marine Formula, Ethanol compliant Gas Treatment, useable in 2 and 4 cycle engines and engines using ethanol. Advertised to keep fuel fresh for 12 months. Can be found in a 32 ounce bottle which would treat 320 gallons of gas. Can be used for two years after opening the bottle, which you may do as you probably have storage containers less than 320 gallons, therefore treat using one ounce per gallon of fuel. Approximate cost of $35 per 32 ounce bottle.


Star Tron SFF Diesel Additive would be a good bet for diesel fuel in storage which can be get “moldy”. Star Tron advertises that this additive can stabilize Diesel for up to two years, with one ounce treating 16 gallons. Reasonable costs at $10 a bottle.

A combination of routine replacement of fuel storage stocks and a treatment plan can make alot of difference. However, I would highly advise Urban Survivalists not to put all their eggs in one basket. I would consider fuel storage first to run vehicles, not generators, and work to use other, renewable forms of energy meaning solar and wind, for bigger static power needs. Look at portable systems that can be disassembled and re-located as needed.

A good site to visit for alternate power sources and solutions would be: http://www.solarpowerharness.com