Posted on 11/03/2012 6:29:36 AM PDT by Kartographer
The power restoration came as gasoline supplies headed to coastal zones devastated by the record storm surge and to motorists whose patience has been tested by gasoline rationing during the painstaking effort to rebuild.
With the U.S. presidential election just three days away, about 3 million homes and business remained without power in a region choked with storm debris and long gas lines reminiscent of the 1970s-era U.S. fuel shortage. Angry storm victims wondered when their lives would return to normal.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Another bonus: no registration requirements with bow and arrows, hatchets, axes, machetes, etc. They would seem like a good backup in case the gun grabbers manage to grab your guns.
Heck, a stout pole with a fire hardened point could do a ton of damage in the right hands.
>>I’m not prepping for earthquakes, I’m prepping for tornados, but if the New Madrid goes off (unlikely, in my lifetime), the tornado preps cover me.
It’s also a mindset, which I am (frankly) still working on. Looking at resources all around me that I can use in a SHTF scenario, but which would be helpful in a typical short-term (weeks to month) power outage/natural disaster situation.
For example, some helpful FReeper mentioned a “rocket stove” on a thread yesterday. Not being more than ankle deep in prep’ing, I hadn’t heard of it before. Now I’m thinking of building a small one and using it for cooking on weekends—because all the prep in the world is worthless if you don’t do it with some first-hand experience.
The minimum that a rational person should be prepared for is two weeks. It's not uncommon for me to be out of power for several days at a time due to weather (mostly snowstorms/ice-storms), with the roads being ugly. I maintain enough food in the pantry to keep us fed for a month, and rotate it so that it all gets used before it gets near expiration date.
Stuff comes and goes. I've been weathy and I've been broke. Sometimes I've had the supplies I needed, sometimes I had to figure out something else.
Prepping is much more than laying in stores that never get used.
And face it, what we are prepping for is life. Our grandparents always went into fall with a room full of preserved food to cover the winter and spring month. It's just being prepared for life, as it comes, not specific events.
/johnny
It's cool that doing that helps keep me alive if something breaks or bends in my world and I can't get to a store for a few months.
/johnny
You carry on like this all the time. The above is YOUR opinion. You decide what WE are thinking and that is impossible for you to do. Plus, your opinion is worth dirt.
Do you carry life insurance? Home-owners insurance in case a fire burns down your house? Flood insurance? Long-term disability insurance?
We insure all the time for low-probability events which might be disastrous or life-threatening if encountered unprepared. Think of prepping as an insurance purchase.
Rocket Stove I think I’ve heard of those ;-)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2914240/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2850938/posts
I couldn't help but notice all the downed trees in the wake of the hurricane. I just did a google search on firewood here in Michigan and the going rate for a cord of unsplit wood is around $70...........For split and seasoned hardwood, it's selling between $140 and $200......
There's money to be made there if someone had the right equipment........a big truck for hauling the wood, chainsaw to cut the stuff and a wood chipper for the scrap and a log splitter.
As a side note, two years ago a tornado came thru my area taking off roofs and knocking down trees. I had a pin oak in my front yard that took off part of my front roof but my insurance company paid for it and the removal of the tree. A tree removal company came in with their chainsaws and shredder and within 20 minutes that oak tree was gone and so was the crew.
Other people around the area were luckier and just had downed trees. Everybody that took care of their own trees just stacked the wood up by their front curbs and within two days it was picked up by wood "scavengers".......
“Think of prepping as an insurance purchase.”
Exactly, I have said that over and over. I have lots of insurance for a disaster.
I created my own personal world to function with reasonable comfort for a year or more if the world outside my door collapses for any reason. This insurance gives me peace of mind.
Your analysis over looks the salient point....... they don’t allow wood burning stoves in the cities where the trees are down
Lots of 'problems' in life can become opportunities, with the right attitude. What you posted represents the very best in American exceptionalism.
/johnny
It's not horsecrap. You're in denial.
It isn't exactly hard to see why a prepper, especially a hardcore prepping-as-lifestyle type, might see some upside in a disaster. It's just human nature to want that I told you so moment. Stir in some preppers' preoccupation with "mockers and doubters" and you have the perfect conditions for wanting it to happen -- on some level and despite the better judgement of their conscience. It's kind of like liberals wanting us to lose in Iraq. They'd deny it to the hilt but we all knew they wanted it.
Wood burning stoves and cities that don't allow them never entered my mind. There's a demand for firewood wherever it gets cold by people who use their fireplaces........
We had a few big oaks ‘topped’ when we got a freak snowstorm last October (2011). Had the tree company remove the trees as they were a hazard, but also had them cut them into 18-21 inch long blanks. Been hand splitting that every weekend since.
Won’t have to buy firewood this year or next. Had plenty stacked and seasoned for this storm.
Lots of wood scavengers here last year. I haven’t really been driving around much after this storm, but I’m sure they are out there again this year.
Having lived through very hard times, I can guarantee you that I don't like having to do it. I can do it, and have, but you are full of crap that anyone wants it to happen.
It's like saying someone that has a lifestyle of buying house insurance is secretly hoping their house burns down. Horsecrap.
/johnny
Wood burning stoves and cities that don't allow them never entered my mind. There's a demand for firewood wherever it gets cold by people who use their fireplaces........It doesn't have to be Manhattan
The problem with the insurance analogy is that full-on prepping is too big a cost for too unlikely an event. To prepare for the full SHTF scenario requires committing to a lifestyle and certain expenses that I don’t want to commit to. I have other things I’d rather put my time and resources toward. I might feel otherwise if the odds of TSHTF weren’t so low. As it is, I can see keeping preps on hand for something like Sandy, but not TSHTF.
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