lets discuss preps for disasters

MossRoad · Sep 30, 2015

Soundguy said:
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.

Its really, really hard to get lost in this part of Indiana. Pretty much all the roads are straight N/S or E/W and always some sort of logical naming or numbering system . I don't think I could get lost in a 9 county square area as I know every main road in the counties and towns. However, once I get past the familiarity area, it would be handy to have some paper maps. Road atlases are great for highways and main roads. Some have decent city maps of the larger cities. But finding detailed secondary road maps on the fly without a computer/smart phone is pretty darn hard nowadays. Loot a library for its maps? :confused3:

MossRoad · Sep 30, 2015

dmccarty said:
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

I doubt there are enough police in our city or county to quell any mass violence. I predict massive shootings, lootings and fires in that situation.

MossRoad · Sep 30, 2015

Garandman said:
:laughing: Do you even city? Cities have their problems, but they also have a lot of resources, like hospitals. Every person wounded in the Boston Marathon bombing was in a hospital within 25 minutes.

But you go scrounge in a junkyard, and I'll take Conley Container Terminal. Roughly 1,200 containers at any given time. Surely in 600 tractor trailer loads of goods I can find something useful.

This is a small portion of some of the warehouse district, which happens to be nearby where we live. I've stocked up on booze as trade bait.

All that said, I still worry most about water and medical supplies, first.

With Boston being the 4th most populated area in the U.S., I'm guessing the 12,900 people per square mile will be helping you go through those containers in a timely fashion.

MossRoad · Sep 30, 2015

riptides said:
On maps and roads,

I tended to avoid major roads during bad times, and if GPS isn't working, well your going to need a compass, or some other point of reference like the North Star or the Sun.

I recall leaving Washington in a hurry one time, I travelled down one-way streets the wrong way just to GTFO.

Oh geez. First time my wife and I were in DC sightseeing (probably 30 years ago), we tried to leave and there was construction. On our third trip across the Roosevelt bridge I finally ended up backing down a ramp to get to 66! :confused2:

MossRoad · Sep 30, 2015

RSKY said:
I may have missed it but nobody seems to have mentioned the one thing you must have in a one month emergency. That is CASH. We pay for everything with credit cards. Never use cash. During the Ice Storm of 2009 there was no power to anything for a week or so. If you could find something to buy you had to have cash. I ended up borrowing five gallons of gas from a neighbor to drive sixty miles to fill all our gas cans. Also found a bank to get cash. Even though there was a station or two running on generators they didn't have ability to take cards. We now keep a stash in a lockbox in our house sufficient to provide basics for a couple months. RSKY

Heck, I walked into the grocery store last week and 2/3 of the lights were out and the sliding glass door was propped open. The manager said they were having a power problem and were still open. First thing I asked was "Are the credit card machines working?". He said no, we can only do cash. I had cash, but more than half the people coming in turned around and left when they heard that. No credit, debit, or EBT (food stamp) cards. All Indiana government assistance is on EBT (electronic benefits transfer) cards. If that system goes down, OUCH! I'll bet 1/3 of the population in this town is using EBT in some form or another.

k0ua · Sep 30, 2015

MossRoad said:
I doubt there are enough police in our city or county to quell any mass violence. I predict massive shootings, lootings and fires in that situation.

I guarantee you in my county there are not enough. When I was a deputy in Greene county we were supposed to have 110 sworn officers, but in some of the rural counties surrounding us, it was not unusual to have the Sheriff and one deputy on duty at any one time. Yes there were reserves, but they had other jobs, and only worked occasionally if at all. It is some better now than those old days, but still in our rural counties, I doubt there are many more than 4 or 5 guys. for maybe 500 or more square miles.

MossRoad · Sep 30, 2015

Jstpssng said:
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...

One thing a lot of people don't know about helicopters and crowds... people will run right up to them. You get just a few people hanging on one side and its easy to tip them. Also, crowds don't understand the dangers of the tail rotor. One person walking into that could bring the whole machine down. Then you have whirling blades of death slashing through a crowd. I can see why a pilot wouldn't want to attempt landing a helicopter loaded with emergency supplies anywhere near a crowd.

KiotiKowboy · Sep 30, 2015

Law enforcement is able to conduct its job primarily because people respect/fear the power behind the badge. A given officer could easily be overcome by any number of those with whom s/he may encounter in the line of duty. In a bad enough situation, the officers will lose the protection afforded by the restraints of civil order.

MossRoad · Sep 30, 2015

k0ua said:
I guarantee you in my county there are not enough. When I was a deputy in Greene county we were supposed to have 110 sworn officers, but in some of the rural counties surrounding us, it was not unusual to have the Sheriff and one deputy on duty at any one time. Yes there were reserves, but they had other jobs, and only worked occasionally if at all. It is some better now than those old days, but still in our rural counties, I doubt there are many more than 4 or 5 guys. for maybe 500 or more square miles.

We've got several hundred in our town, probably a hundred in the county, another hundred in the next town over, so maybe 450-500. But we have 100,000 in town, and 250,000 in the surrounding area. I'd imagine looting of convenience stores would happen pretty quick. Then the grocery stores and fast-food places. There are about ZERO retail stores, Walmarts, etc... in any of the poorer neighborhoods here. They are all on the outskirts of town, as are most of the grocery stores. So, once the food runs out in town (about 3 days), the people would have to look for food going towards the edges of town. Once those ran out, it would probably be home-to-home. Yikes! Hard to think about something that large of a scale.

Here we have tornadoes, which are generally localized and the damage, although it can be severe, is in a straight path and is over in half an hour. I can't fathom a hurricane where stuff gets wiped across two-three states over the course of a couple days.