lets discuss preps for disasters

[Soundguy]

maybe because people in the city don't know how to cook from scratch or what to do with a generator?

concrete jungle may be harder to covertly scrounge in. IE.. harder to find a junkyard to dig for parts un noticed, vs setting out on the roadside!

 

[GreenYellow]

I haven't actually tried. It is a big double oven that pulls more like 6,000 watt, but unless the power went off right before Christmas dinner we wouldn't need both ovens anyway. The 50 gallons electric water heater is probably a bigger concern. There are also lights to factor in.

Always keeping me laughing 4570man. Water heater is only 4,500 watts.
Water heater, double oven, and dryer ALL at full power is ~ 14,000 watts.

 

[Jstpssng]

concrete jungle may be harder to covertly scrounge in. IE.. harder to find a junkyard to dig for parts un noticed, vs setting out on the roadside!

Plus the author of the letter had flown in for a week and probably wasn't familiar with the area. His account shows how quickly strangers can start pulling together.

I had little sympathy for his comments on the helicopters though... it may seem easy to land one but under those conditions there were too many variables.

Plus the armed guards which he suggested = less payload for food and water...

 

[Jstpssng]

concrete jungle may be harder to covertly scrounge in. IE.. harder to find a junkyard to dig for parts un noticed, vs setting out on the roadside!

Plus the author of the letter had flown in for a week and probably wasn't familiar with the area. His account shows how quickly strangers can start pulling together.

I had little sympathy for his comments on the helicopters though... it may seem easy to land one but under those conditions there were too many variables.

Plus the armed guards which he suggested = less payload for food and water...

 

[GPintheMitten]

What I really noticed was the beginning of the letter; where he basically blames everyone else for not getting the people out. It's everyone's own responsibility to get them selves out. Just cause there's an event, he expected someone (the city I guess) to come find everyone and protect them?

If all you have are your feet, it is hard to get out, especially if you have young children or are elderly or something less than full physical capacity. The city leaders let the people down. They should have and could have used school buses and any city buses to evacuate people that had no viable option. Then again state and feds took way too long to help.

 

[dmccarty]

...

One of my favorite [fiction] books is "Lucifer's Hammer" an old comet-strike story by one of my favorite authors- Larry Niven, and in it, there are a lot of useful real world tips given by the way- one of the characters is an old relatively frail scientist, who stocks a bunch of rally useful "how-to" books and uses them to trade his way into a camp where otherwise he might not've.

There was a spate of end of the world books back in the 70's/80's. Seems like Niven and Pournelle had a couple and Stephen King had a least one. Then there is Alas, Babylon which is a classic I need to reread. All of them discuss having to deal with the hordes roaming from the cities...

I well remember the part of scientiest packing/protecting his books.

Good books to have on hand are the Fire Fox collection, the USDA canning guides, books on emergency medicine, survival, gardening, farming, etc. The wife's family has some animal husbandry books from the 60+ years ago that are outdated for today, but would be worth their weight in gold if one was out of power and not able to get modern animal medication. A TBNer recommended years ago some pocket references that I bought. They are small, and the print is smaller so you need a magnifying glass to read some of the tables but the books are great resources.

Later,
Dan

 

[paulharvey]

I've got one for the mid plus term, that no one had mentioned; Maps, good maps. You can't Google it, and after major event there may be no signs left. In a true SHTF, 3rd degree type incident, knowing that it's 2 miles thru the woods due east or 15 miles by county road would be useful. Heck, a Google Earth shot covering your 6 mile radius could be worth it's wait in gold; even if it's for finding homes to loot (if that's the path you choose to travel).

 

[Soundguy]

i think i'll grab the AAA large format usa map outta mine or the wifes truck for that. or at least a us fold map.

ont he book maps.. might just tear out the couple pages showing your state or a neighboring state maybee, unless you were planning on a road trip.

 

[dmccarty]

I've got one for the mid plus term, that no one had mentioned; Maps, good maps. You can't Google it, and after major event there may be no signs left. In a true SHTF, 3rd degree type incident, knowing that it's 2 miles thru the woods due east or 15 miles by county road would be useful. Heck, a Google Earth shot covering your 6 mile radius could be worth it's wait in gold; even if it's for finding homes to loot (if that's the path you choose to travel).

True. We always travel with an atlas that covers the area we travel to/from home. In general traffic backups, it is quicker to get out the paper map and look at alternatives than try to use the small phone display. We always travel with a fair amount of food and water. I have been stuck on the side of the road for four hours once with little water and I won't go through that again...

If the SHTF situation is away from home, one really should be traveling in the woods. Everyone else will be on the roads and that will be were the rapes, robberies and murders occur. Easy pickings.

A map for our area would be good to have but I already know the area.

I figure our neighborhood would have to join up as a group to get things done. A great deal will depend on the county sheriff. He is an elected official and has some pretty broad powers. The sheriff will really influence the mayhem that would be occurring the rural NC counties. The city counties will just be chaos and really out of control.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

i think i'll grab the AAA large format usa map outta mine or the wifes truck for that. or at least a us fold map.

ont he book maps.. might just tear out the couple pages showing your state or a neighboring state maybee, unless you were planning on a road trip.

We buy this companies state atlases because it is so detailed. Florida Atlas & Gazetteer (Delorme Atlas & Gazetteer): Delorme Publishing: 9780899333991: Amazon.com: Books We also have a big Rand McNalley atlas as well. Since most of our travel is from NC to FLA we keep the atlas from each state in the car along with the Rand McNalley.

Later,
Dan