lets discuss preps for disasters

[riptides]

And there is a hurricane heading for the east coast right now . Time to get ready

Yep. ETA for a possible direct hit on the Nations Capital is Sunday, Monday. Heavy rains have already moved through much of the area, and heavier rains, some approaching 10 inches are due to start Saturday. VA is in a state of emergency right now.

Today is a good day to prep.
Tomorrow will be a tad, busy.
Saturday will be too late.

Guess when most of the region will prepare for the event?

 

[Soundguy]

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:

Agreed. My 4 city area I frequent I could get around fine, back roads and all, expand that out past 30 miles in any direction, and if it was a basic address I'd have to at least hit some sort of a map.

A source of maps after TEOTWAWKI might still be a jiffy story. while they might not have food, water or gas.. they probably will still have those maps up at the counter.

 

[Soundguy]

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.

When we had a hurricane here a bit back I remember being in a walmart. power was up.. but some communication was down. florida is in a benefit card as well. I remember the crowd being angry because they could not use ebt cards there. ( credit , check , cash fine ).

I got my stuff and got out of their fast as it looked like it was getting nasty!

 

[Soundguy]

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.

the city i live in does not even have it's own police.. it relies on the county for service.. and we are at the southern end of the county. the next city up has a couple police.. ticket writers mostly.. in a civil unrest event i think the pd would burn.. it's a small building like an office trailer... I think the people in 2 blocks around it could overwhelm it with pitchforks and torches, let alone the sourounding total city area... heck.. same with the next city north... sure.. it has a larger force.. but the county is large... in a real 'event' you wouldn't have enough deputies to even put one at each interstate interchange and bank entrance...

 

[Soundguy]

I think he basically lives in the city and Boston is his reference.

Correct.. however.. just saying.. sure no problem.. just run down to your local dock/port/container storage yard and get stuff.

that doesn't work for the guy in tenessee... Also as was pointed out .. due to population density.. you might have a few thousand people helping you loot.. and they may want to wait a bit.. let you do the heavy lifting.. then just take your stuff. Thus my point of an out of the way place to find stuff. out of site / out of mind.. again.. thus my point of a rural area maybee being safer.

There are areas and times I can walk for 30 minutes and not even see another soul.. and that's not even trying to go into odd areas. that's me taking my exercise walk walking down a PAVED ROAD. If I was trying I could just duck into the scrub and then really get lost. Again.. rural = less people to deal with... NYC and boston? no thanks... then I could be miserable and hungry with 4 million of my not so closest friends while the sewers were backing up... again.. no thanks...

And while food distro will go out everywhere.. just looking at population density.. the least dense areas could have supplies longer ( ok.. maybee hours or a day or so.. but longer. ). For instance. from where I am at, there are 2 walmarts and 2 sams within 5 miles of my house. 1 of the walmarts is about a mile and one sams is 2. I can ride my bike to the walmart, 3/4's of it thru a grassy field.. and if going that way, it's about a half mile.

since i live in a slightly rural area.. those 4 stores plus, lets see.. 4 winn dixie, 6 publix, a fresh market and a couple more aldi, plus 3 each family dollar, dollar tree, and 5 dollar general... given the realitively low population density.. there is more food or supplies per person in my area.. than in say.. NYC... thus I'd rather be in that better distro ratio area.

 

[Soundguy]

I don't think anyone has addressed prescriptions for medical issues (if they have any). It looks to me that they way they're set up right now, about the most anyone would have on hand would be a 30 or 90 day supply. If someone gets refills on a 30 day basis and are near the end of their supply when things go down, things could get bad. No cash to get a refill, if refills were available, ATMs/credit cards won't work.

think about people on fixed medical schedules. insulin dependent, ALS, heart meds, anti clotting meds, etc. after their 90? day supply ( if lucky ).. that's it.. especially on the insulin... the other stuff that is shelf stable.. a scrounge in a rural area might be able to score a bulk bottle with a years supply of something.. but perishable meds that need reefers.... that will go down first.

 

[GaryLock]

If you see it coming, you can fill all the bath tubs, for emergency water, that should last at least a week. Doesn't help much with tornados, terrorism, and only if your not caught by the First wave of zombies.

I haven't gotten to the end of the thread yet to see if this is already mentioned, but seriously consider looking at an Aqua Bob. It is a 100 gallon plastic bag you put in your tub and fill with the tap. it has a hand pump. You can use it for anything from filling a bucket for flushing, to drinking. You CAN NOT drink water that is being held in a tub. Soap scum and bacteria will make you extremely sick. Aqua bob uses the tub as a support frame, and keeps the water isolated and clean. $20....a great investment.

 

[GPintheMitten]

After some searching, it's actually WaterBob.

https://www.waterbob.com/Welcome.do;jsessionid=A5E6860C2BA269F32792FB35BF3B9192

 

[s219]

Yep. ETA for a possible direct hit on the Nations Capital is Sunday, Monday. Heavy rains have already moved through much of the area, and heavier rains, some approaching 10 inches are due to start Saturday. VA is in a state of emergency right now.

Today is a good day to prep.
Tomorrow will be a tad, busy.
Saturday will be too late.

Guess when most of the region will prepare for the event?

Overnight weather model runs seem to be pushing it away from the mid-atlantic, though not yet totally out to sea as one lone outlier model has been suggesting for a couple days. But I am hoping the models are moving towards agreement with that outlier (which is actually a better more reliable model, and more trustworthy in my opinion). But the funny thing is that the news cycle hasn't yet caught up with this info that I can see, so there will probably still be a delayed panic until the data catches up with the public. I feel like I am about 24 hours ahead of schedule -- I started worrying and prepping earlier, and I will probably call off the alarms sooner. Still some uncertainty though, so I am proceeding with plans to prep until I get more data....

 

[TomSeller]

. Again.. rural = less people to deal with... NYC and boston? no thanks... then I could be miserable and hungry with 4 million of my not so closest friends while the sewers were backing up... again.. no thanks...

And while food distro will go out everywhere.. just looking at population density.. the least dense areas could have supplies longer ( ok.. maybee hours or a day or so.. but longer.
.

I agree, city folk like Garandman will realize that someday.