Here’s another one to think about. You’re at work when you get a call from the school that there is an outbreak of some fast spreading, highly contagious, nasty virus and it’s possible one of your kids has it (they are showing symptoms). You need to get all your kids out of school and take them home right away so as not to infect anyone else. After getting your kids home, the Health Department calls and informs you that none of your family are to leave your home for the next two weeks. That is, assuming nobody else in the house comes down with the virus. If anyone else in the family gets sick, you could be quarantined for a month or more. No going to work, school, store, etc. No physical contact with anyone outside your family for the duration of the quarantine.
What preparations have you made or could you make for an extended quarantine situation? What are some trouble spots in preparing for a long term, at home, no outside contact survival time?
Keep preparing! Angela
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You are oh, so right about having food so that your family does not need much for a couple of weeks or a month. But, when I have been so ill that I could not get to the car, much less shop, I have had a friend drop off milk and cokes at the door. I either left the money or a check outside or paid them later. Even before I decided being prepared was prudent, I could survive for weeks with my normal supplies. I ever understood friends who could not feed children until a trip to the grocery store. They had bare shelves, freezer–just nothing. It is great you bring such scenarios to the attention of people not prepared for the next two days, much less two weeks.
We would be just fine – save any special medication which might be necessary. Someone would have to deliver it and leave it on the doorstep. Other than that, the only thing we wouldn’t have the whole time would be fresh produce.
Of course, if it happened the day before a run to the store we might not have a lot of eggs for the whole month.
Food and water along with prescription meds are no problem for up to 6 maybe 8 months here at my house. The big question is “what type meds are necessary for the unknown virus?” Presumably the health dept. which ordered the quarentine will leave them at the front door
{or front gate}.
Hmmm, this sounds familiar…food was not a problem, but medicine was and I was thankful for friends and neighbors who fetched and dropped it off on the doorstep. Luckily, after 3 days on meds we were all cleared to leave the house. However, without the meds we could easily have been off limits for a couple weeks or more and that could have posed a problem without friends and neighbors. This scenario could easily be a reverse quarantine to keep your family healthy while some nastiness ran it’s course.
I remember the schoolwork being dropped off in the milk box on the front porch as well, but that’s about it. It wasn’t traumatic, we didn’t run out of food, I don’t even remember being bored. I guess 3 days isn’t really all that long to be at your house. 3 weeks would be much more trying.
And yes, a reverse quarantine would work, although it may last even longer–3+ months while the disease ran its course through the rest of the community. You’d need a good source for milk and eggs unless you’re using powdered, “fresh” foods could be had by sprouting alfalfa/wheat/beans/etc. You’d also want a good reliable news source so you’d know when it was safe to rejoin society. Another thing that I had overlooked was basic toiletries and cleaning supplies. Don’t want to be running out of toothpaste if you can help it, and being able to clean up/sanitize during and after any illness is a good thing.
I don’t remember being quarantined. But based on family events, I was around 3, maybe 4, which meant my aunt had me and her 4 children in quarantine! My mother couldn’t help, since she was pregnant with my brother, so my aunt called her sister to help her – who wasn’t far enough along to realize she too was pregnant. My aunt’s sister’s child was born deaf.
Since I was too young to remember, I’m assuming my aunt’s sister did more than just drop off supplies at her porch.
So if you find yourself in quarantine and call on family to help, make certain that women of child-bearing years are 110% certain that they’re NOT pregnant. I guess this would apply to men with wives in their child-bearing years.
Remember that there are many substututes for conventional meds. Creeping Charlie, plantain, oregano, blood root, and the list goes on. What needs to be remembered here is that many things are possible. If we give in to to defeat, then defeat is what we will have.
Please remember that there are many things that our predessesors used to survive, and they are available to us.
The list is nearly endless, but it takes research. Get busy and learn what to do. We can win, but only if we try.