Crisis spurs spike in 'suburban survivalists'

AP/Breitbart.com ^ | 5/25/09 | GILLIAN FLACCUS

[Kartographer]

Now, the 54-year-old businessman and father of five has a backup generator, a water filter, a grain mill and a 4-foot-tall pile of emergency food tucked in his home in the expensive San Diego suburb of La Jolla.

Wiseman isn't alone. Emergency supply retailers and military surplus stores nationwide have seen business boom in the past few months as an increasing number of Americans spooked by the economy rush to stock up on gear that was once the domain of hardcore survivalists.

[Kartographer]

I guess it's the Boy Scout in me to be prepared

[vladimir998]

I can’t blame people for wanting to stock up on things. With Obama as our “Dear Leader” who knows what might happen!

[atomicweeder]

The most important thing to do is to organize a neighborhood defense plan with your neighbors.

When the gangs come looking to loot, the best deterrent is a large armed presence in your neighborhood.

[Daffynition]

But do you have Cheeseburger in a Can?

From Switzerland - Cheeseburger in a Can! A Swiss company has created this easy eating solution. It's an all-beef patty, lettuce, tomato and cheese on a sesame seed bun - sold in a can that retails for about 5 bucks and can stay fresh for up to a year!

[omega4179]

already posted

[Cheetahcat]

We are on our own in the age of Zero so be prepared!

[GonzoGOP]

Having some canned goods, a few gallons of water, a generator, and a supply of batteries on hand does not make you a survivalist. It just makes you prepared for a big storm or a riot. Now a years supply of food, fuel and ammo, that's a different story. A happy story, likely to have a good ending, but a different story.

[goodnesswins]

We’ve started by having monthly “happy hours” at our house, and now with a Neighborhood Watch group.....ours is a very new group of houses (@26) and we’re trying to figure out WHO is on OUR side.....although, IF the SHTF....I think they’d ALL be on our side. But, good advice....get to KNOW your neighbors!!! Plus, find other freepers in your area!

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Please Help Keep The Lights On

[blam]

There was no mention of guns and ammo in this article. Now that everyone knows who he is and who’s got the food, guns will be required to hold onto his stash.

[Red6]

No it's smart.

The police is reactive and deals with crime AFTER it happens. Likewise, FEMA the Red Cross etc. deal with a disaster AFTER it happens and what you get, when, how much etc. is all questionable.

The wise man accepts the fact that he does not own nature. Volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, avalanches, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes/typhoons, massive fires, epidemics, war, technological/infrastructural failures, civil unrest happens and preparing accordingly is the prudent thing to do. The ones laughing and calling those preparing names, claiming they are silly idiots who cling to their guns and God, they are the ones who like after Katrina seldom look back and ask why they didn't make basic preparations. Their abdication of all personal responsibility to prepare is the same reason why these folk beg Obama for social health care or breathing more life into the dead social security. They are the ones who see no need in owning a gun and in fact see it antiquated and silly. Ultimately as humans we are responsible for ourselves first and foremost and no government can substitute for this.

[waterhill]

How does one arm a cow? Bovine have no fingers: I am alone...

[2Jedismom]

Ping!

[BobL]

The way I see it, at best we’re heading for huge inflation, with the printing of all this money, due to the inability to pay interest on the national debt. So just about any product, be it soap or motor oil is as cheap as we’ll likely see in our lifetimes.

That’s best case. A worse case will be shortages, as the government tries to placate people screaming about inflation by trying to control prices. With shortages, you wait in line to buy rationed quantities of goods...life is miserable. So why not buy your soap and motor oil now...when you can still buy unlimited quantities (I have about 300 bars of soap stockpiled).

That is a worse case...just a miserable life. The worst case is civil breakdown. Then have guns ready and hope you can fight off the barbarians. I don’t expect to do well in that case...heck, I cannot even find ammo.

[John123]

From Switzerland - Cheeseburger in a Can!

Is it any good?

[org.whodat]

Does it taste like chicken are spam??

LOL!!

[familyop]

"How does one arm a cow? Bovine have no fingers: I am alone..."

LOL, and agreed! I have a place out in the middle of nowhere and off of the grid. There's only one road from the nearest big city (which is very far away). ...not to hide from any disasters but just to live in peace and away from the rat race.

...tried to find a simple, manual, outdoor switch for a generator to fill the cistern from the well and charge batteries, until we get the solar systems built. I'll have to buy it locally, because the search engines were clogged with hits from online stores with transfer switches for suburban grid tie systems.

I can't relate to the subtle panic going on in the cities, and neither can my ruminant neighbors (including cattle, yaks, buffalo, antelope, goats, elk, deer, etc.).

[waterhill]

You have a cistern? What are you, a Hick? lol...

I don’t have one, yet... I am jealous... you ROCK!

[ladyjane]

It’s okay to get to know your neighbors but be careful about your neighbors learning about you.

If you do all the work to prepare for an emergency and they don’t, it could mean trouble. Yes, they are nice people but if they get hungry...

[goodnesswins]

OH, yeah....we KNOW that......our neighbors know NOTHING about OUR plans/storage/ammo, etc. and we keep it that way...but, we want to know ALL we CAN about our neighbors, just in case.

[ladyjane]

Good idea. One can’t be too careful these days. Unfortunately.

[familyop]

"But, good advice....get to KNOW your neighbors!!!"

...very much agreed! That will prevent misunderstandings in advance, if things get ugly and confusing. A lot of people plan for bad circumstances only to the extent of imagining shooting someone. They don't consider or learn about the terrible legal mess and other problems that can come after shooting someone, if they don't have the right kind of plans. Knowing your neighbors in advance might well help you and your neighbors to avoid being attacked to begin with or at least to avoid a terrible tragedy brought by a misunderstanding.

[familyop]

"You have a cistern? What are you, a Hick? lol...

I don’t have one, yet... I am jealous... you ROCK!"

LOL! Well, yes. Being miles from the power grid, we need to either pump occasionally and store water in the cistern or pump frequently while storing electricity in batteries. ...cistern wins, with the cost being far lower. After building the house, we'll build a solar power plant for getting water from the deep well to the cistern (expensive).

[Travis McGee]

In that entire article, not one mention of gold, guns or ammo.

[familyop]

"It’s okay to get to know your neighbors but be careful about your neighbors learning about you.

If you do all the work to prepare for an emergency and they don’t, it could mean trouble. Yes, they are nice people but if they get hungry..."

IMO, just stock up with a few cases of brains.

[Covenantor]

It was an AP reporter. Circumstances demand a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude especially in San Diego. I recall some fellow losing a few semi-auto rifles over the side while sailing near the west coast of Mexico. Rough seas and all that.

;>)

[waterhill]

That is cool!

I want to build one exclusively for rainwater harvesting from the house and barn ( metal roofs )... I am researching tanks at the moment ( concrete or fiberglass or polyethelyne ).... What are you using? Pm me if you like, I hate to hijack a thread...

[Rebelbase]

I’ll end up having to defend my pacifist, peacenik neighbors whose cars are filled with hippie political stickers. It’s not that I’m friends with them, but they are my neighbors and that’s what neighbors do.

[Kozak]

Saiga 12 gauge with 20 round drum magazine. The perfect Zombi defense weapon...

[Travis McGee]

That was no sea story.

[Travis McGee]

I’m sure it looks JUST like that picture when you open the can.

[Bean Counter]

The danger to you all is if something happens, the first thing the City people do is “head for the hills”...

Beans, Bullets, Bandages, Blankets, Bibles....

[odin2008]

[Covenantor]

That was no sea story

Of course not, but I sure as hell wouldn’t mention any such details to a reporter, AP or otherwise. Then again I would have suddenly lost my English comprehension at any questions at all from a MSM stenographer.

[Travis McGee]

Yep, he was just keeping good opsec, not showing the libtard reporter his arms locker.

[familyop]

"The danger to you all is if something happens, the first thing the City people do is “head for the hills”..."

There's no such danger here. ...only one road from the big City that's 1 1/2 hours away and about 5,000 feet below--no side routes. And that road would be closed in such an event. Beyond that, we're country folks (beyond rural) on good ground surrounded by hundreds of miles of private roads and very few entrances to those.

[familyop]

"What are you using?"

I'm using a food-grade plastic tank, then a 1500-gallon concrete one very soon (probably the coming fall). ...will have to save a little for it, but it will be worthwhile.

[familyop]

"Saiga 12 gauge with 20 round drum magazine. The perfect Zombi defense weapon..."

That's really slick. :-) Not being in any potentially target-rich environment, though, I don't have an excuse to buy one of those. :-( ...will have to be satisfied with the pumps (and big Brenneke slugs for the most likely bad guys out here, who haven't even been cooperative enough to be bad guys over the past decade...snobbish bruins...four-legged monsters won't even give me or livestock a second look). And the cougars refuse to be anything more than ghosts in the night. The coyotes are interesting at times, though.

And although all of the few neighbors in yurts, tepees, straw-bale houses and log houses also enjoy target practice with big bores (.44s, .45 Colts, .300 Win Mags, .338 Win Mags, 50-cals, etc. around here--windy with visibility for miles and miles), they won't be getting hungry. It would probably take them more than five years to munch down all of their goats, buffalo, yaks and greenhouse veggies. :-) You see, most of us are former techno-nerds (camera systems here and there), other former professionals (engineers, teachers, geologists, police, security consultants, lawyers, and the like). ...and open-range ranchers all around.

[Kartographer]

“If you do all the work to prepare for an emergency and they don’t, it could mean trouble. Yes, they are nice people but if they get hungry...”

I agree I have a number of seedy neighbors now that I don’t trust and then add in the commin/pinko/red diaper babies who will think I should turn over everything and share like a good liberal! Makes me pause, yes you are right it would be hard to stand on your own especially if their a mobbers and such, but to pull the asses out of the fire that they started just galls me!

[bushwon]

Question (& not rhetorical)... why would people feel they could be safe & just hunker down and somehow sit out unrest, hyperinflation, etc. in urban or suburban areas? Perhaps it depends on who is doing the maurroding...civilians or brownshirts?

Would it not be wiser to go either off the grid to some totally rural area or even to Canada or Alaska?

Thots?

[Old Professer]

I’ve never figured out why when people decide to get away from it all they somehow seem to end up in the same place with all the rest of those who had the same idea at the same time.

[clee1]

It’s not the economy, stupid.

It’s the stupid communists!

[familyop]

"I’ve never figured out why when people decide to get away from it all they somehow seem to end up in the same place with all the rest of those who had the same idea at the same time."

Heh. That's a timeless truth! ;-) The diversity of such a group can be entertaining, too. I'm enjoying the snow follies each year, as the costs are split many ways. ...not too bad. Plows weren't enough last year. This year, they have an airport snowblower! We can't wait to watch that in action and take pictures of it, when it's buried in a drift. ;-)

[familyop]

"Would it not be wiser to go either off the grid to some totally rural area or even to Canada or Alaska?

Thots?"

You might try a rural area or tiny town in, say, northwestern Kansas, or even western Nebraska. If you look patiently enough, some places in those areas are really priced low. Such a place might be good for developing or fixing up off and on, without having to move right away. Gardening is even possible in those areas without greenhouses.

The weather and other conditions in very remote, higher elevation areas in the northwest and lower elevation areas further to the northwest can be brutal to extremes. Most people don't like being here year 'round. If you don't mind the weather, the solitude and occasionally meeting people who are very different from one another in many ways, come on up. I'm one of the odd few who like all of this because of too many years of living in extremely hot, humid, extremely southern places in the past.

[Daffynition]

LOL ...don't know. There's a funny web site Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality: Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. It is an accurate representation in every case. Shiny, neon-orange, liquefied pump-cheese, and all.

I suspect it would fall into one of those categories:

[Daffynition]

See my post above..........

[2Jedismom]

Man! I wisht I had a cistern!

[familyop]

"Man! I wisht I had a cistern!"

You should have a local company that makes concrete cisterns, septic tanks, risers and the like. Plastic ones also work, but they need to be filled before backfilling (check local code on that) in order to prevent collapse.