Posted on 08/24/2012 6:29:05 PM PDT by Kartographer
We should consider ourselves lucky that large-scale disaster events are few and far between. Most survival situations run for a short duration with many lasting less than ten days, and are what I refer to as ‘green’ events (a disaster lasting 1-10 days). Most green events can be handled by hunkering down at home with an ample supply of survival food and water and some alternative cooking means such as a camp-stove or even your back yard gas grill.
Throw in some other basic survival gear that can be easily found at any outdoor camping store, some common sense thinking regarding prepping, and you will be set to face a green event. However, larger disaster threats are out there, and such events that fall into the ‘yellow’ and ‘red’ event category (yellow event 10-90 days, red event 90+ days into years) typically spell bad news for entire regions and sometimes entire countries.
You can pretty much count on a yellow or red event having a complete breakdown of society at some point. Water service might not be operating, electrical power may not be available, stores will not be getting resupplied from distribution centers, people will start to starve and panic, looting and rioting will take place, people will die, people will get sick from poor hygiene, some will contract otherwise controlled diseases, the government will not be able to keep control… it will be basically everybody fending for themselves. And the worse place you will want to be is anywhere near a city or large town.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesurvivalistblog.net ...
Just a note to people not used to anything larger than a 20 pound tank on the BBQ: if you lease/rent these large tanks you are generally tied in to one company for refills. If you own the tank you can negotiate with multiple suppliers and buy at your convenience.
[Speaking of 20 pound tanks, the ones that come out of the giant vending machine at convenience stores and supermarkets only have 15 pounds of propane. They are, however, a good resource to recycle your old, rusted or expired beat up tanks.]
On Drudge today is a headline about Iran’s space port becoming operational next spring. They say they will be launching satellites for themselves and the Arab world.
Read: Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP). A detonation 250 miles above Chicago and the entire USA grid goes down. Dr. Graham, Chair of the 2008 EMP Commission report to Congress estimates a 90% die off. Yes, read that again 90% of our population will die. The Arab world salivates at the thought of it.
Under those brutal conditions staying out of sight for as much as a year might be the only solution for most. You will need food, unlimited water, a means of handling waste and cooking fuel. If starving bands of thieves do not know you are there, you will never have to fight them.
How: Undetectable basement below a fireproof house. An earthbag “cave” built into a side hill, covered with dirt and planted with grass with a secret entrance is another way to go.
If you “Bug Out” from the city with your gear with or without a car and no long term place to go, you will die. You will be a refugee. All refugee’s in these conditions with no help coming from anywhere, will die. Even if you can’t afford it, get a place where you can hide within 50 miles of your city. Do it with a group if you have to. Get guns of course in case your are found but staying out of sight is the way to go.
Hunting with a gun takes time and makes noise but even deer can be taken with a snare. Stock up now on all sizes.
After that year and you start again it will not be unlike those on the Mayflower starting a life. Get a shortwave to communicate AFTER the die off.
Good luck.
I search for sales of fishing line like Spiderwire and Spectra. 100 pound breaking strength but very thin, you can braid your own snare rope with this stuff and almost nothing short of a scalpel will cut it, also fishing stainless leader wire makes an ideal snare material.
Now some people buy tents but an ice fishing hut is a bit stronger and is mostly square, has a heavier material and is designed for winter use.
And that is what a person really needs to prepare for, how to survive a winter in the bush. Most important is fuel for heat and cooking, a cave would be nice but a person can build their own igloo out of foam panels, all you need is something like a drywall saw and some cans of expanding foam as an adhesive.
Now in my neck of the woods in Alaska I actually have a cache of Styrofoam blocks (quadlocks) that are put together like Legos and then you pump cement grout in them, but these are an obsolete design and I have them at work, I have enough to construck at least an 8x8 room, for a roof some 12 foot 2x6 studs and 2” 4x8 panels will hold up a moderate snow load, and snow can be your friend as it shield you from wind and eyes in the sky.
Even just having a stack of Styrofoam panels you can make a decent lean to, camo painted is even better.
The defense against this likelihood is for preppers to choose their location wisely. In the many times I deployed, there were always places we (the Army) didn't bother going, as they had no strategic, tactical or intelligence value. If a prepper's location is an hour travel time from any apparent resources, the prepper at least has a chance of never encountering a superior force - and if aerial surveillance reveals nothing interesting, such a force would have no reason to send anyone there. Of course, the conundrum is that a prepper should avoid those resources they need most, i.e. a body of fresh water, fields of corn or a town.
I have had to use my preps after hurricanes took out power, so I don’t need to practice, however, I’ll be aware of what is happening if Hussein loses the election that week.
Never in my long life have I had to worry about major civil unrest after a presidential election.
Sorry but thats not the army thats just a bunch of marauders. In our neck of the woods they will be taken out by the locals and the 440th Bonnie Blue GA militia. You will not get an even break from any of them. You and your “military” buddies will last about 48 hours.
Read the first sentence and wondered what hurricane they were from. Apparently they get traded at about 10 cents on the dollar after the desperate refugees get ahold of them.
It was actually a trade, not a cash transaction. For some reason I can’t recall what I traded but do remember it was something I thought was worth about $40.
I stacked them up and originally had planned on saving them for emergencies but ended up eating them. I still run across matches and plastic eating utensils. Also I never used the heaters and run across some of them some times.
I do remember I thought they were pretty tasty except for one or two which I didn’t like at all.
If it were a shtf case or Obama Deux then it's likely one and the same.
As per the article:
It should be 350+ miles from major cities. And, It should be located 50+ miles from major interstate freeways and other channelized areas.
Has the guy bothered to even look at a map? There isn't such a place except between CA and TX and up to WY. If 10% took his advice and bought retreats out there, it'd soon be as crowded as the rest of the country and most would die of dehydration because there's little access to water. Then there's the question of being able to get there. If you can somehow manage to get past the zombies along the route, have the gas, food, water, ammo and the days/weeks/months it might take to get to your retreat, then so can the bands of looters and marauders. Don't kid yourselves that the established neighbors wouldn't already have helped themselves to your supplies long before you got there. Those precious heirloom seeds packs that feed a small village aren't going to magically turn into baked potatoes, garden fresh salads and corn souffles the minute you open the packet. Short of a localized Armageddon in your vicinity, odds are if you're not already living in your "retreat" then you're up a creek.
I agree with you. I'm in South Carolina. There's no where in the entire state like that. Kansas, Utah, Montana, maybe. But not around here.
What good is the property if you can't get to it? And, when TSHTF are there really property lines - or just property? If we were to stock a bug out property, there is no guarantee that we'd be able to use it.
which leads me to something I have not seen discussed. How about a fully stocked motor home? Of course, there are things you can't stock in it because temperatures can not be maintained at all times, but the basics can be stored.
If kept fully gassed and watered, survival gear and dry goods in place, wouldn't that get you out of the city if need be?
What do ya’lll think?
If the exodus was not a mad scramble with everyone wanting out at the same time and the roads to your retreat are all properly maintained paved and no detours then yes, it'd work. But look at every hurricane evacuation where there are stalled cars along the roads and traffic is at a standstill. Can't think of the name of TEOTWAWKI movie but the parents send the teen girl and the baby off with boyfriend and his motorcycle because there's now way to move on the highway. If cars can't move, then an RV is totally out of the question. An RV towing a jeep that got out before the masses would be better. It's all in the timing.
2012
Ah, there ya go.
Same situation with the well. How deep is yours? Mines at 150 and I’m trying to decide on the real feasibility of those manual back up pumps I’ve seen advertised.
http://www.simplepump.com/Contact/Thanks.html
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