Then what? You sit in your tape-and-plastic cocoon, surrounded by contaminants, until somebody gets around to cleaning up your corner of the environment? You’d better take a book as well.
Right. That’s why today was dedicated to the purchase of camping supplies. West is a good direction to go. NC mountains. Beautiful country that. As for duct tape, well, hell. You can fix anything with duct tape, and I had none. I mean, a man with no duct tape is , well, a man with no duct tape. I can’t see putting it around my windows to mess up the paint and screw myself out of my deposit, though.
No, I’m not that paranoid. But I will confess to replenishing our bottled water supply, and getting some small bags of cat and dog food plus a travel litterbox. I should have these things anyway, and I didn’t really think of it until the present hysteria made me check out the FEMA website.
There are several reasons we might need to leave the house without a lot of warning, taking the animals. Might as well be a little prepared so I don’t blow time dicking around with trying to cram some ziplocks with food from the 40-lb bags of pet chow we usually have on hand.
I live in Stillwater. We’re always on an “Orange Alert” (Orange and Black being OSU’s colors. They slap orange every-freaking-where on game weekends) The only thing I worry about are what version of Joe’s will Stan Clark open next, whether or not I dare leave my apartment on the day of a home game and if we’re going to have another one of those summers when I either find red dust has blown in under the door all over the entryway or the sun baked rolly polys have.
I’m forever buying duct tape and plastic sheeting for a variety of reasons, all of which have to do with shoddy, temporary home and car repair, not terrorist attacks.
Hell, if there was a chemical attack and I decided to seal things up, I’d probably be out in the garage wrestling the plastic out from behind the Christmas tree and the roll of window screen when the cloud blew over. And we’d be out of duct tape, anyway, because the kids would have taken it to make yet another mystifying art project.
I was watching them show on TV how to tape up your house. It was pretty ludicrous to imagining applying those strategies in the dump I live in. I guess you’d have to see the place to understand. For starters, there are quarter inch cracks between my floorboards. Mice come in and out via two inch cracks under the molding. Odds are I wouldn’t be home anyway. If you have to do all this crap to protect yourself, then most of us in Manhattan are going to be screwed.
I read one of those articles, and my first thought is, “Do you pick a room with or without a toilet?” and if so, do you seal off the toilet? No, I’m not ducting either. It seems silly and ineffective. I don’t even have a single room it would be effective in. I was trying to imagine my husband and I and our two cats spending three days holed up in our master bedroom. I think all four of us would go nuts.
There was a teaser on the TV news this morning showing a man hanging plastic sheeting all around his house. I can just imagine how my HOA would react to me wrapping and taping my house!
To answer the question - no. I equate it with “duck and cover” and I figure even if I was able to seal my house against all possible toxins, we’d die of oxygen deprivation. If I’m gonna die, I’m not dying in a zip-locked house.
I put plastic on my windows every winter. Not for terrorists, but to keep out the cold and wind.
I’m really sure plastic and duct tape would have helped on 9-11 :rolleyes:
I always thought it was a good idea to have a decent supply of fresh water, food, and other “preparedness supplies”. Trouble is that while the US has a wide choice of suppliers, the UK is SOL. If anyone kows where I can but “Ready Reserve” long-term storage-type foods in the UK, please let me know.
I heard somewhere that the plastic and duct tape is for good for wrapping the dead bodies.
G’mornin’ everyone!!!
On my way home from work yesterday I heard a commercial. It was the voice of Old Man Winter sarcastically remarking about how all those homeowners were buying plastic sheeting and tape to put up over their windows and keep out the wind. “Like that’s gonna work!” was the message. I’m sure it will work just as well at keeping out microparticles of plutonium, anthrax spores, and the like.
The whole thing reminds me of the “With Enough Shovels…” fiasco of the Reagan Administration. Yep – with enough shovels everyone can build a mini-shelter out of his door and the side of his house and survive a nuclear blast.
I bought emergency supplies of Legos, comic books, and Apples in Stereo CDs, so I’m good.
With the introduction of the duct tape solution, I have now raised the government employee nabob warning to high.
Ever look at one of those government lists on what you should have? It would take a pickup truck to carry everything.
And take the following actions:
Keep your important papers in a water tight container.(Mason jar). Make arrangements for your pets.(Local concrete reinforced animal center?). Close your curtains(to prevent the blast from nuclear explosion?).
Personally, I’m stocking up on baking soda. It absorbs things, can be used as tooth paste and relief for indigestion. And lots and lots of toilet paper, because if something happens I know the first thing I’ll do.
If duct tape could save you, then rednecks are going to have a huge Darwinian advantage.
I can’t imagine anyone not already having enought duct tape for any emergency that might come along. What is the matter with you people?
They’re going to set these things off while we’re all at work, so what good will it do us to have duct tape and plastic at home? Should we carry it with us and seal ourselves up in personal condoms when the alarm goes off?
It reminds me of the millenium hype. When my husband and I decided to go on a backpacking trip one January (must’ve been 1999) for my birthday, a coworker sincerely asked if we were “training” so we could survive when the world was plunged into chaos. This guy was one who bought all the recommended emergency supplies. I have no doubt that he ran out and bought plastic sheeting and duct tape yesterday.
Already have all that stuff, out of daily use… it’s duct tape. How can you not have duct tape? And I like my water cooler. Fairly cheap, too, for the demand. Seasonal use… Plastic sheeting? Yeah, tarps for the boat. Honda generator, yep, got to do work in the yard sometimes, or down on the docks. Or general libertarian paranoia. Gas mask? Yep, had one for years. Same for the fully stocked medicine cabinet. Sometimes, handy. Only needed a splint kit once, though, and I didn’t have it at the time, so I improvised.
What sucks is we’re almost out of bottled water. Now if we go get more, it’s going to look like we’re the paranoid types. Assuming any bottled water is even available.
Eve, not to mention that any serious damage is likely to be done in areas with a high concentration of people (sadly, that doesn’t help your situation). The average suburbanite isn’t likely to be at ground zero for anything but a nuclear blast. Most rural people would have nothing to fear. In other words, downtown during working hours would be more dangerous than at home on the weekend.
I do worry slightly about my husband being downtown, but Fort Worth isn’t exactly the “stronghold of the infidels”.