Basic Lesson Number 168 What is Required to BUG-IN at Your Home

[Sourdough]

Great thread........Thanks, "Applejack" for bumping it.

[Morgan101]

I too plan on bugging in if the situation allows. I have access to at least three sources of water outside of municipal services, and what I can do with my own storage. I feel pretty good about having all the bases covered that RICHFL mentioned in the original post.

Part of my plan is to use interior doors, i.e. closets, bedrooms etc. to barricade windows and sliding glass doors. It is almost embarrassing to admit, but we have enough furniture to supply a small apartment complex. Moving furniture to fortify windows would be quite easy. Sheltering in place would be our best option. The basement is a good refuge depending on the type of disaster. The garage door is easily secured.

Human waste, and gray water is always a question. BIG QUESTION?? Would the storm sewers still work? I know it may depend of the disaster, but could storm sewers be used to dispose of human waste and gray water?

[Applejack]

Grizzly, that is some great info on hardening your doors and windows. Seems there is more I can do to mine that I never thought about.

[RICHFL]

Well new development and tech changes every day. Home Depot has an assortment of devices to protect you front/back doors. Some are metal and reinforce the locks others reinforce the whole door. I love the whole door approach.

They now make doors with the same approach as a safe with additional locking bolts on all three sides. I saw a door built like you find in a jail cell block. looks easy like most front doors, until you try to open that 400 lbs door without the proper key!!!!!

[Sourdough]

When I built my Alaska hunting lodge/cabin on Lake Clark in the mid 80's I ordered a 48 inch steel "Double" door with an adjustable steel (Telescoping) door frame. I requested that both doors have a deadbolt 6" from the top, another 6" from the bottom, and another mid door. Three deadbolts on each door. These steel doors had were filled with concrete at the factory.

They did NOT have a doorknob. Just a steel handle (4 were needed).

This type double door is for super fire stoppage at large commercial buildings with boilers and furnace rooms. I wanted them to keep humans and large bears out, also to be able to run all the ATV 4-wheelers and 3-wheelers and snow-machines inside. These double steel doors were the only doorway into the building. Thank god there are no building codes in wilderness Alaska.

[CountryGuy]

Human waste, and gray water is always a question. BIG QUESTION?? Would the storm sewers still work? I know it may depend of the disaster, but could storm sewers be used to dispose of human waste and gray water?

Morgan your municipal sewer should work for awhile until the pipes are full. How long that is depends on a few things. Obviously how many times people are flushing but also where are you in the system as far as elevation? Are you on top of a hill or at the bottom? are you located near a lift station that pumps regularly? might be worth checking with your sewer authority or whoever manages it to understand.

One big thing if you do not have one currently is to seriously consider having a backflow preventer (basically a one way valve) installed on your sewer line going to the street. Without one as the sewer backs up your drains become a new path for flow and your floor drains or toilets will become the path or least resistance. Even more so if your on the low elevation side of the system. This can also happen in flood events. Now if you have one and in a grid down situation and sewers overfill you should be ok in the house though once the level gets so high as to hold the preventer shut you will not be able to flush or run water.

An option on the gray water would be to install a diverter line, basically secondary drain line from say your sink, shower, tub, washing machine, etc that would have a seperate flow out that you could redirect to with some valves. In the event the sewer backs up you could set up to where you close a valve on the normal drain path and open another to all it to divert to an external gray water drain. Where that drain empties you may want to make a sort of dry sump area with gravel, sands and things like reeds and cat tails to help clean the water as it goes back in the ground. You can find info on this on Youtube on how to set up a greay water return area.

[CountryGuy]

Now if you have one and in a grid down situation and sewers overfill you should be ok in the house though once the level gets so high as to hold the preventer shut you will not be able to flush or run water.

Oh, almost forgot, if you have a sewer man hole near you watch it as it could overflow there and contaminate things with raw sewage. if you think this is going to occur you might want to dig sort of a circular ditch around it and direct it away from your property if possible.

[CountryGuy]

Well I've got a 25,000 gal pool and 2 small decorative ponds with about 500-1000 gal each so plenty of water for flushing toilets into my very functional septic system so I don't need to worry about an outhouse or something. We have a Berky to filter the water in quantity for drinking and if need to go beyond that large pots to boil and lots of pool shock to sterilize too

[CountryGuy]

that pool is going to draw thousands of people if shtf.

Not really, not 1000's of people even around here. Not to mention lots of farm ponds, small lakes, springs, streams and rivers

[Morgan101]

Morgan your municipal sewer should work for awhile until the pipes are full. How long that is depends on a few things. Obviously how many times people are flushing but also where are you in the system as far as elevation? Are you on top of a hill or at the bottom? are you located near a lift station that pumps regularly? might be worth checking with your sewer authority or whoever manages it to understand.

One big thing if you do not have one currently is to seriously consider having a backflow preventer (basically a one way valve) installed on your sewer line going to the street. Without one as the sewer backs up your drains become a new path for flow and your floor drains or toilets will become the path or least resistance. Even more so if your on the low elevation side of the system. This can also happen in flood events. Now if you have one and in a grid down situation and sewers overfill you should be ok in the house though once the level gets so high as to hold the preventer shut you will not be able to flush or run water.

An option on the gray water would be to install a diverter line, basically secondary drain line from say your sink, shower, tub, washing machine, etc that would have a seperate flow out that you could redirect to with some valves. In the event the sewer backs up you could set up to where you close a valve on the normal drain path and open another to all it to divert to an external gray water drain. Where that drain empties you may want to make a sort of dry sump area with gravel, sands and things like reeds and cat tails to help clean the water as it goes back in the ground. You can find info on this on Youtube on how to set up a greay water return area.

Yes we have one (backflow preventer), and yes we found out the hard way just what can happen. We were not alone. We didn't get flood water, but we did get raw sewage as the storm drains were overwhelmed. Not a pretty site. Now nothing will come through the basement floor drain.

[sunring]

Do not use a wet bandana to reduce smoke particulate intake if you are near any heat source. Wet clothing that is exposed to heat produces steam. Steam burns will result at lower temperatures and can cause more damage than a normal burn. The steam from a wet bandana will burn your lungs which can and will cause death. Put simply: Steam kills. If you are actively fighting a fire the best place for any water is inside of you (hydrate!) and on the fuel that's on fire. Remember the flames aren't on fire the fuel is-aim for the fuel not the top of the flames.
Now if you're miles from the fire and just dealing with drift smoke, a wet bandana would work just fine, but a N95 mask works better and is affordable.