Flashlights for emergency storage

Other Types of Lights LED Headlamps
21

Good job. Of course flashlights not in a Faraday cage will be fried. You should research it walkintothelight as you have a bad misconception of what an EMP or CME will do. A blast of a single Nuc high over Kansas will turn out all the lights in Florida, New York, Seattle and LA. The only hint of it you’ll see if the total loss of power.

Did I miss seeing a radio or 2 in your Farady protected list buck91? To add to the list of things you might consider:

Radios - I have a Tecsun 880 (uses 18650), the Kaito 500 POS and a Midlands er200? (guessing at the model numbers). Some ham HT’s as well might be a good idea, the Baofeng 5ra are cheap and some Yeasu’s and I got my Extra ticket so I can work any frequency. Hard to say what will be operational afterwards though.

Multimeters: I have 3 Fluke 27/FM’s (bought 9 non-working “sold for parts only” dirt cheap and I got all but 1 of them working deads nuts on per a DMMcheck at this point in time. I have other multimeters for use, so these got wrapped in foil and slam dunked into the Faraday garbage can for long term storage (no batteries in them)

Battery Chargers: I have multiples - HJK has noted which ones play well with solar panels, the simple USB magnetic Olights are inexpensive. I also have a rechargeable 9 volt charger with 9V rechargeable lithiums.

Food - when the spam hits the expiration date and you have to eat it all, you’ll be longing for Mountain House Freeze dryed foods. Mountain House has a 30 year shelf live (keep it in stable but cool temps and it should last longer. I was doing that with Wild Alaska smoked salmon but the years overtook my desire to eat a lot of it. Keeps for 4 years though. Mt House is good stuff long term.

22

“……what flashlight make/model(s) would be the best choice?”

lots of cheap ones.
cheap enough to give away.
it is harder to make it on your own.

23

I am unable and unwilling to spend significant resources prepping for a low probability event. That said I figure even a little prepping will be my family ahead of the masses. I do have SW and 2-way radios, though nothing particularly nice as well as some other odds and ends. The two things I really need to add are a decent multimeter (I have one, but its not stored in the faraday can) as well as a non-electric soldering iron, probably butane.

24

Guys, I’m sorry to hijack this thread, but aren’t aluminum flashlight bodies sort of faraday cages themselves and if so is the problem the openings for switch and glass?

On topic: KISS!
An incan light will still work in a century, batteries are going to be the bigger problem for very long term (>20-30 years) storage.

25

My understanding is that an EMP like that will knock out the lights because of a current induced in the long wires of the electrical grid. Kind of like how a solar mass ejection can knock out the grid, but it won’t affect anything where electrical paths are short (such as flashlight electronics). There’s just not enough voltage difference over small distances to induce a current to fry components.

Perhaps that is different if the EMP is extremely close, thereby having a greater differential at shorter distances. But if someone is targeting you with an EMP grenade, I really doubt keeping your flashlights safe is going to help you.

26

Try this experiment, take a loose 5 volt LED, and connect it to a 9 Volt battery. What just happened to the LED? Died. Dead. Gone. Buh-by. It’s not a sure thing that a High Altitude EMP pulse would fry all flashlights, but it seems like a good bet. You are suggesting that a 200 kilovolts per meter EMP which would likely still have 50,000-100,000 volts per meter at it’s furthest reaches in the US hitting everything in it’s path in a nanosecond will be attracted to the powerwires and not bother sensitive electronic components? If that is your statement, I disagree. Brother, it’s all gonna all get killed. You won’t have a single electronic thing in your house operational unless it’s shielded by at least 3 layers of heavy duty foil and an insulation layer, and perhaps not even then. Read the links below for some additional info:

Reads to anyone interested, the first one is a simple summation but there are some good links below the article, the Federation of American Scientists one is linked:

https://www.doh.wa.gov/portals/1/Documents/Pubs/320-090_elecpuls_fs.pdf

http://www.empcommission.org/docs/A2473-EMP_Commission-7MB.pdf

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32544.pdf

Buck, I forgot this one, might toss some fuses in there as well, they’re cheap now. Unfortunately, there are so many types that you won’t be able to cover everything, but at least put an extra multimeter fuse or 2 in there.

27

Okay, you guys prepare for the nuclear holocaust. I’ll just enjoy my lights until it happens. :person_facepalming:

28

It seems to me that it would be easy to include a few preps into our everyday lives that would make survival during a Coronal Mass Ejection or EMP more probable. The 1st is figure out some additional water sources (w/filters). 2nd) work some extra food into your rotation, or add freeze dryed food to storage if you have the space and the money.

My wife and I have gone 2 steps further - far down that rabbit hole. We have most preps anyone would think of, including too many firearms of course, but then we built a 2nd structure that was designed and engineered to survive the worst earthquake California would ever see as a second structure so that we would have an emergency location. The new one is under 500 sq feet and it’s rented out on a month to month basis for $1300 a month. We leave it empty on occasion as the unit shares our backyard. We have an antiquated house, if an earthquake, fire or windstorm took the old one out, we’d crowd into the little one in an emergency if it was rented out at the time and they could live rent free and we’d share our extensive preps with them.

2nd) We bought a 2nd remote location a 4-5 day walk away (if cars are not operational) with few people around where game is plentiful and it’s a stunning locale. It’s a great vacation spot as is, it’s appreciated in value $X3 what we paid for it so it wasn’t a financial drag. We’ll rent it to friends and family on occasion and we often do weekends there to relax and occasionally pick and pluck strange wild local food for dinners that others do not even know is edible. Sometimes we’ll feed it to friends so they try and guess what they are eating. I figure the deer that literally bed down next to us won’t be there 15 min before you need to kill one of them, but the little strange stuff will be. We would likely have to soon abandon the city we live in if the lights go out due to an EMP or CME, there is no way the city location could carry the population.

Should nothing bad arise (cross your fingers and knock on wood), we’ve got a great vacation spot and extra income from the 2nd tiny home. To anyone who thinks that they will not do a damned thing now and simply crowd in with us when the crisis comes, that won’t happen. I would refer you to the classic “Ant and the Grasshopper” Disney film, and recall that we’re armed. I don’t understand why folks don’t choose to take a few simple steps to being prepared so that our society can become more resilient in a crisis. Everyone is making choices. Yours are yours and ours are ours. We can all enjoy our flashlights until that unhappy event occurs, and should that horror show arrive, as unlikely as it seems to some: some of us will have our flashlights to enjoy afterwards as well.

Best to all

29

That’s pretty much what it’d be like.

I’d love to get one of those shipping containers that’s converted into a home. Rugged, self-contained, transportable if need be. :laughing:

30

For emergency storage I suggest candle and flint.
Will last forever.
Mike

31

This irritates me to no end, people who don’t prepare at all and assume that they will be provided for by those who do. Some of my neighbors have told me that their plan is to share my supplies in the event of a catastrophic earthquake. I told them my family comes first and that if there is anything I feel comfortable in sharing I would, but that they should plan on as if nothing is coming their way. Yet they still assume that it will be share and share alike.

I know people will think poorly of me but I haven’t spent thousands of dollars buying supplies and maintaining them to give to those who won’t even do minimum planning. Honestly how much does it cost to store some water, food, and other essentials to have when needed?

32

“I’d love to get one of those shipping containers…”

so would lots of people.
quote:

“Industry watchers said desperate companies wait weeks for containers and pay premium rates to get them, causing shipping costs to skyrocket.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/shipping-container-shortage-is-causing-shipping-costs-to-rise.html#:~:text=Industry%20watchers%20said%20desperate%20companies,causing%20shipping%20costs%20to%20skyrocket.&text=He%20said%20spot%20rates%20are,the%20usual%20price%20of%20%241%2C200.

33

I wouldn’t care what they’d think of me, but I’d tell ’em up-front to not count on me “sharing” anything, that they better start preparing themselves.

I wouldn’t be nasty about it, but just saying flat out, “yeah, sorry, but that’s not gonna happen, as I’m taking care of me and mine, and that’s it”. “You’ve been warned” should be put a period on it.

Same ilk as those who do nothing to prepare for anything, not even their retirement, thinking that Society™ or worse The Government™ will take care of them.

In that TZ ep I pointed to above, they (neighbors) were all actively mocking the guy for building his shelter, but then were willing to destroy it to get inside once the panic started, even though destroying the door would kill their own chances of staying safe inside it.

That’s hyu-mons for ya…

34

I saw that episode when I was a kid and it made a bit of an impression on me :confounded: . It’s human nature I guess to not want to worry about the future and hoping that somehow things will work out for them.

35

Part of living in a community is looking after one-another. All you’re doing by telling them up-front to go f* themselves, is that you’re not part of the community. You should hope that you never need them for something, because they may not be too inclined to help.

Instead, you should either lie to them up-front, and screw them if bad things ever do happen. Or, (better), set aside a few extra supplies for people that might be in need. It doesn’t cost anything extra, as long as you cycle through the food and supplies to keep it fresh.

I get that some people can just be parasites. I’ve had neighbors like that. But, they’re parasites all the time, so eventually I just stopped helping them, and they started leaching off someone else. I think it’s a bit different in a disaster scenario. If you fail to help your neighbors then, your next plan should be to move, because you won’t be welcome there after it’s over.

36

Well, you can take it a step further and keep some gold or silver , small amounts worth $50-$100 each to barter with. Your neighbor may and up having something you need.

37

Living in disaster prone Australia, we have government guidelines for emergency kits.

Although my strategy is to run away, we are well prepared and I keep extra torches, BLF edition SA-22s, Eneloop AAs and chargers to suit and have solar panels on my 4WD.

If necessary I can rustle up some old incan bulbs and some stiff wire to loop over a battery, like we did when we were kids.

Cyclones and bushfires are the most common disasters here, they are localised and in my experience there are rapid, massive community efforts to help those affected.

If there is a zombie apocalypse odds are high that I’ll be zombie.

38

I’m not lying to anyone and I’m not moving anywhere. They can get the hell out if they don’t like it. I feel that dishonesty would do them, and my community, a disservice. When they look at me and say “Hahaha if it ever gets bad I’m coming over to your house”, my direct: “like hell you are, you’ll be outside dying” gives them the opportunity to truly access their lazy selfish ways and clues them in that if they so choose to be a burden, it will not be tolerated by me. By the way, no one has ever said that to me.

In my town, there is a government sponsored community preparation effort for the next big earthquake. It’s a great thing with regular meetings and training and you don’t need everyone involved in the preps for the small group who are prepared to go door to door doing triage, communicating via walkie-talkies to the second responders and turning off gas mains. However, the group only needs to get it fired up and help for a few weeks or less, as government assistance will arrive from outside of the disaster area at some point and we will be a community working together. Peoples lazy stupidity of not preparing will likely not endanger those who are prepared.

But an earthwide disaster like an EMP and CME would be a radically different situation. Some folks couldn’t be bothered reading the links upthread and if you tell them the issues they’ll deny it or change the subject. Those folks are planning in advance that SOMEONE will take care of them. The Federal gov. will be of no assistance, zero, to them. They will look to folks like SigShooter, Buck and I to help them out. I’m telling you that will not happen, we will be lucky enough to survive and keep a few family members safe. As a burden on me in that circumstance, they would not be part of my “community” and they’ll be on their own. If I can help I will, but mine will be mine if the way I’ll play it.

The odds of “the balloon going up” are difficult to assess but hopefully low. But how low? Hard to say. I can say that congressional testimony indicates that if it happens, 70-90 percent of all Americans will die. Which means that up to an astounding 300 million US citizens could die. There will not be radiation deaths, not one, they will mostly be dieing due to lack of food and water. Those who prepare will have both, and are more likely to be the 10 percenters who survive such a bleak scenario. In advance of the need we’ll have guns, food, water, on and on and on and systems in place to mitigate the issues that having no power will bring.

For myself, to answer the OP, I have some Convoy S2’s, various assorted headlamps, and those cheap little Sofirn AAA Twistys that take Eneloops in my faraday cages. Along with solar panels and chargers to keep them going. In addition, my wife loves the solar garden lights, so we have those plentifully distributed around the house, but as they’ll fry I put a couple of the solar powered LED ropes I bought on sale cheap in the cage so help with night time security. I’d like to note that I have a bag with things which need periodic charging but the Nitecore NU10’s I bought over 2 years back got wrapped in foil and put away in a cookie tin and forgotten for 2 years. I tripped over them, pulled them out and I figured they’d be dead, likely forever, they turned right on. They have USB charging and a proprietary fixed battery, the fixed battery had held a good part of its charge. Big respect to Nitecore.

39

To be honest precious metals as a hedge against a calamity holds zero appeal to me. They only have value in some sort of functional society and I strongly suspect that food/water/medicine/ammo would be much more valuable for bartering in a disaster.

40

I was gonna chime in before, but thankfully others beat me to it. :laughing:

The problem with professional leeches hoping to latch onto you, counting on your willingness to help those in your “community”, is that you can and likely will do you and yours irreparable harm.

People on the Titanic found out the hard way that lifeboats meant to hold 10 were absolutely unable to hold 20. Boat sank, everyone in the boat drowned.

If you set yourself up so that you have N days worth of supplies for you and yours, you’d better hope N days is enough and the Bad Stuff won’t last 2N days instead. “Sharing” brings down N lower and lower.

Sorry, but if you really care for those close to you, you won’t waste supplies on strangers. And you’d better get that point across before it’s needed.

Seriously, watch that TZ ep, “The Shelter”. If people know you’re “prepared”, you’re the one they’ll all head to for “help” should it be needed. And what you won’t give them, they’ll try to take, even if it means hurting or killing you. Think they’ll be polite about it, if you’re snuggled up in Der Bunker, while they’re cold and starving and dehydrated? They’ll cut you open like a Tauntaun for heat then later butcher you for food.

Then, if you can help (rescue efforts, etc.), great. At least you’ll be in a position to do so.

Hell, even on a plane, they tell parents to take the mask in case of depressurisation. You give it to the kids, you’ll pass out, and then you and the kids might die. No, you take the mask, you stay conscious, and you do what you have to to save both yourself and them.

(Of course, best solution of all is to pretend to be a leech, “Prepare?? Nah, Someone will come and take care of us…”, while all the time stocking Der Bunker on the sneak. At least then, hopefully no one will head your way with torches and pitchforks demanding your stash.)