lets discuss preps for disasters

[Garycw]

Ps.. Maybe they'll start doing some Fracking around Yellowstone next??

 

[Garandman]

Awesome thread ... thanks for starting it!!! My wife and i are old school, we know alot about alot and have been for years storing things ... we often laugh about it ... when we are gone the kids are gonna find things and say "WTF was mom and dad expecting the world to end?"

Alot of good things have been brought up ... I personally have alot of weapons and ammo ... I will only trust close family. If the shlt hits the fan the big city folks will take out 50% of themselves before they realize a problem ... then 50% of them will flea to the hills only to have 50% of them not survive the remaining 50% will be cut in half trying to steal ... the numbers will come down ... maybe a good thing? I know I'm weird.

I've never understood this. You think people in the city are going to leave all their resources and community behind to walk 20 miles into the suburbs to catch a squirrel?

It's your ill-prepared neighbors that will be the problem, for you or me or anyone else. Cities are a lot more robust and have a lot more resources than rural romantics realize. It's a conceit.

 

[Soundguy]

??? Inner cities get food deliveries every 1-3 days, in a disaster, that's the max amount of time till shelves will be bare, add 36 hours past the no food mark and there will be panic and chaos.

 

[Garandman]

??? Inner cities get food deliveries every 1-3 days, in a disaster, that's the max amount of time till shelves will be bare, add 36 hours past the no food mark and there will be panic and chaos.

Repeating something doesn't make it true. Less than 2% of the population are farmers. How many people do you know who have the resources to grow all the food they need? I've stopped in grocery stores in NNE and their shelves are just as empty as the ones in Boston when a storm is forecast.

The difference is that a city like Boston has food distribution warehouses for the entire region, a deep water port, an airport, and a highway network. If trucks aren't moving it won't be Boston that's screwed, it will be the rest of the region.

People seem to think that every person in a city must live in a high-rise apartment building, and have no common sense. The fistfights in grocery stores and generator thefts that I've heard of didn't happen in the city, they happened in the 'burbs.

 

[Soundguy]

Repeating something doesn't make it true. Less than 2% of the population are farmers. How many people do you know who have the resources to grow all the food they need? I've stopped in grocery stores in NNE and their shelves are just as empty as the ones in Boston when a storm is forecast.

The difference is that a city like Boston has food distribution warehouses for the entire region, a deep water port, an airport, and a highway network. If trucks aren't moving it won't be Boston that's screwed, it will be the rest of the region.

People seem to think that every person in a city must live in a high-rise apartment building, and have no common sense. The fistfights in grocery stores and generator thefts that I've heard of didn't happen in the city, they happened in the 'burbs.

I hope you don't honestly believe that every large / inner city concrete jungle in existance has a stocked food distrubition hub capable of supporting a huge region, just setting there. Some yes. all? no.

Those of us that live rural are used to going to the store.. buying 2 months worth of dry goods, etc. My friends that live in big cities are used to going to the store on the walk /subway/taxi home every day or 2.

I have no idea where your farmer comment came from.. I never brought it up, and as far as repeating making it true.. I'm taking that as you just called me a liar...

Anyone who doesn't think that living in a high density, especially vertically populated area won't have ANY negative impacts during a mass evacuation, biological pandemic ( high population density = more transmission possibility ), or other similar disaster issue at least needs to take a look at nine meals from anarchy.. ( just in time delivery and electronic stock monitoring and ordering plus limited shelf and on site storage space is partly the reason for this.. though on the other hand, in non emergency situations, it usually runs fairly efficiently )

Having lived thru many, many devastating storms, including florida where some places were without power approaching a MONTH, and even medium cities being bereft of fuel or the ability to pump fuel for weeks, or seeing flattened landscapes that took YEARS to rebuild... yeah... ( andrew ) no reason to think that right after 63,000 houses are leveled that the corner jiffy won't have everything I need all day, every day... that's wishfull thinking! ( ps, another 110,000 homes were damaged, not including the 63000 leveled )

 

[SirReal63]

Books I love books!! I have the whole foxfire series, gardening when it counts, a lot of homesteading books, cook books from the 20's/camping books. Butchering books, leather tanning, basket weaving, bow making, etc. I just dropped an ash tree hand pounded it and make a pack basket from it. Working on tooling the straps now. I love learning new things and books are a big part of that.

I also have the entire Foxfire series, as well as a few on ancient construction, survival books, medical books, emergency surgery, edible plants and I found a link to a massive Armed Services field manuals, in .pdf format and have been downloading them as time permits.

We bought a fully stocked emergency medical backpack and will get the full surgical one as well before long. We have enough literature stockpiled to handle most situations but I am always looking for more. As far as peanut butter, I have opened some that was a couple years past its "best by date" and it was perfectly fine. We do have plenty of heirloom seeds but hope to collect some more.

We will never be fully prepared for everything, and certainly not as set up as well as Andy, but every month that goes by we are one step closer.

 

[4570Man]

Grandman do you really think that ships are still running into Boston when the whole country shuts down and no more trucks are running, no more power, no more water, no more natural gas, no more petroleum fuel of any kind?

 

[paulharvey]

Ok, I'll change the tone for a second, because it's something I haven't seen anything about, that affects me, at some others posting here. Kids. I've got a 9 yr old son, a 4 yr old daughter, and a 1 year old daughter. So, the 1 year old (just turned 1 like 3 weeks ago) still needs diapers, wipes, etc for the short (1 or 2 week evens) term. Sure, over the longer range I would be forced to make cloth diapers out of old work shirts, but I would prefer to avoid it for your, what I'll call 1st degree events. All 3 are in good shape and health (HALLAJUEH) but it's something that would make it hard in a more serious event to shelter with others. Helping 1 able bodied person is one thing, a family of 5; that's a much bigger ask.

My son's cub scout pack and I where camping this weekend and we got to talking about this. A good friend and fairly close neighbor has cattle, I've got chickens, another has hogs, others have arms, mechanical skills, ect. What I said was in a true SHTF, people would help each other, but you wouldn't be able to show up empty handed. Neighbor who has nothing to share, and no skills, isn't going to be able to hunker down with me and mine, and expect me to provide for them.

As heartless as it is; the elderly and sick might make it 2 weeks, if it goes on for a month, not many would.

 

[/pine]

Repeating something doesn't make it true. Less than 2% of the population are farmers. How many people do you know who have the resources to grow all the food they need? I've stopped in grocery stores in NNE and their shelves are just as empty as the ones in Boston when a storm is forecast.

The difference is that a city like Boston has food distribution warehouses for the entire region, a deep water port, an airport, and a highway network. If trucks aren't moving it won't be Boston that's screwed, it will be the rest of the region.

People seem to think that every person in a city must live in a high-rise apartment building, and have no common sense. The fistfights in grocery stores and generator thefts that I've heard of didn't happen in the city, they happened in the 'burbs.

Well, after reading your comments I know there are some...I don't believe you can fathom how fast things can go REALLY sour...and I'm not even talking about the worst case scenario...

"fistfights in grocery stores"...?...hehehe...in not even a worst case...inner city stores will be looted first...there won't be anything left for the clueless to even fight over...the denser the population the worse it will be...

In the event of something like a devastating CME...just imagine every big city (in an effected region) like N.O. was during Katrina X 10...

 

[/pine]

I also have the entire Foxfire series...

Great series...I happen to reside in the same county where it (Foxfire) all started...they have a great museum/exhibition...
We have an annual festival that happens to be this coming weekend...

The Foxfire Fund, Inc.

 

[Garandman]

Grandman do you really think that ships are still running into Boston when the whole country shuts down and no more trucks are running, no more power, no more water, no more natural gas, no more petroleum fuel of any kind?

I don't know, let me check what happened the last time an entire continent shut down, and see. Oh, wait, it's never happened. So on your list of threats from most likely to least likely is the possibility that a 2,000 mile by 3,000 mile region with 300 million inhabitants is completely immobilized? Because I start with the most likely [here, an intense winter storm with coastal flooding] and work my way down the list.

My contention is not that any particular area is better than another, it is that the people you will most have to worry about are your ill-prepared neighbors. Because they know where you live, and they can get to you. Your neighbors could be a source of community strength, or community weakness, and I don't think any of us really knows.

 

[aczlan]

Neighbor who has nothing to share, and no skills, isn't going to be able to hunker down with me and mine, and expect me to provide for them.
As heartless as it is; the elderly and sick might make it 2 weeks, if it goes on for a month, not many would.

It depends on the person, someone who is older and not physically capable could tend to children while the more physically capable people can be freed up from watching kids to working outside.

Aaron Z

 

[paulharvey]

I don't know, let me check what happened the last time an entire continent shut down, and see. Oh, wait, it's never happened. So on your list of threats from most likely to least likely is the possibility that a 2,000 mile by 3,000 mile region with 300 million inhabitants is completely immobilized? Because I start with the most likely [here, an intense winter storm with coastal flooding] and work my way down the list.

My contention is not that any particular area is better than another, it is that the people you will most have to worry about are your ill-prepared neighbors. Because they know where you live, and they can get to you. Your neighbors could be a source of community strength, or community weakness, and I don't think any of us really knows.

Ok, so, let's look in our crazy world crystal ball. Let's start with the insane premise that somewhere, suicidal zealots hated us, and had access to nuclear (least likely), chemical (easiest and least dangerous), or biological (possibly the worst, and completely possible).

Let's say, hmm, a dozen zealots decided to go to let's say, hmmm, Nigeria and find some Ebola. They then get on air planes (although, we all know that wouldn't happen) and intentional spread Ebola, even in the 100s or low 1,000s of cases. No way that could cause panic?

Just ponder; 9-11; I know it will offend people, but it was a small event compared to what could happen. It didn't even work for the most part. They wanted to take out both builds right away, but most people where able to evac. The Pentagon plan and the 4th one did very little. What might New York look like if the 2 planes had hit closer to the base, the 3rd plane targeted a major bridge and the 4th plane got another major target in the city... something tells me it wouldn't have gone as smoothly

 

[Mace Canute]

Quite some time ago this was posted on the web, might even have been on TBN. It's the story of a man who experienced Argentina's economic collapse in 2001 or as he put it...WTSHTF.

The Silver Bear Cafe

 

[PhysAssist]

Yes, I think you are correct.. I think I remember the yellow logo now. memory was fuzzy, thanks.

de Nada- we laughed our butts off watching those jokers- If brains were C-4, not a one of them would have enough brains to blow their noses.

Even funnier [although a little scary too] are some of the more "hardcore" prep fanatics on Y-tube, that say that they were approached by NatGeo but said that they didn't want to be on the show because they didn't want to give away their secrets or location lest they be robbed or the govment come and comfiscate their stuff.

I kid you not!

If they are that secret, why are they on the Y-tube?

PS: At one time on TWC, NatGeo had some "Prepper Tips and Tricks" on-demand, usually something so basic [or otherwise so esoteric] that it would never prove to be helpful for any kind of survival situation.

 

[PhysAssist]

Wow peeked at this thread out of curiosity and read all 22 pages. The one thing I didn't see mentioned was books, You can't remember everything, at least I can't and books like "Back to basics" and "How to make it off the land" would be invaluable, everything from edible plants to cold rooms to home made smokers for preserving meat. Oh yea and fishing gear if you're near water! Cool thread!

Some of the FoxFire books detailing skills and information from the hill people of Appalachia are really goo too, as are the old Mother Earth News magazines[many of which are stacked no the top shelf of my closet].

My "little" brother moved to a small farmstead in OH where he raises goats, turkeys, chickens, and rabbits as well as a pretty decent garden, but we just have lots and lots of fish- yeah, they're technically Koi [otherwise known as Japanese Garden Carp] but given what we've spent on feeding them over the years, and the east lives they have lived, they owe us at least a few decent fish frys!

 

[crashz]

I live in Northeast MA and there is no way I could prep for a major catastrophe, but I am working on the basics for an extended storm or other typical emergencies:

- We have some canned food and water, about a weeks worth at any given moment. This is tough because my Sister-in-Law & her daughter live with us and they eat everything that is easy to cook, namely the canned and dry foods. And if its in the house, they will eat it.
- Smoke alarms, CO detectors and fire extinguishers on all levels and in key areas. That is a new thing along with teaching everyone PASS.
- Simply organizing tools and supplies to have them hand in case of emergency.
- Plenty of flashlights placed all around the house.
- Gas grill has a working tanks and full spare.
- Back-up charcoal grill.
- Sleeping bags rated to 20 degrees for everyone in the house. Those winter storms can knock out power and therefore heat for days. The house is well insulated and will maintain low 50's with four adults and two dogs, but you still need to stay warm.

I never considered myself prepared for tough events, but this thread is a big help and reminder that I'm way under prepared.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

As others have noted, it is impossible to be prepared for "everything." Having a box of band-aids and a bottle of water is better than nothing

Some have pooh-poohed the idea of a MASSIVE absence of resources - I'd say, with far too casual consideration. CME is real and, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, has come very very close to testing the speculation on a modern day Carrington event. EMP is real and, the delivery of these weapons is within the reach of a number of entities and has been actively practiced by N Korea and others. Terrorism/Islam is real and, they have plans for you.

L. TODD WOOD: ISIS planning 'nuclear tsunami' - Washington Times

 

[Soundguy]

It depends on the person, someone who is older and not physically capable could tend to children while the more physically capable people can be freed up from watching kids to working outside.

Aaron Z

Agreed, labor can be a commodity. No supplies when you show up, but you have skills or muscle, or endless patience and a watch full eye, cooking or canning skills, etc

Hopefully whatever the disaster is passes, etc

 

[Soundguy]

It depends on the person, someone who is older and not physically capable could tend to children while the more physically capable people can be freed up from watching kids to working outside.

Aaron Z

Agreed, labor can be a commodity. No supplies when you show up, but you have skills or muscle, or endless patience and a watch full eye, cooking or canning skills, etc

Hopefully whatever the disaster is passes, etc