Critical infrastructure failure

[festus]

Ok...here is the scenario...No Power, Limited Water and no Gas service or any other major utility for that matter. No internet, No phone...
You get the picture. What if this and take stock of your ability to survive for two weeks let alone long term. This ain't doomsday, this is post disaster recovery on the standard govt schedule.

 

[NDS]

Ok...here is the scenario...No Power, Limited Water and no Gas service or any other major utility for that matter. No internet, No phone...
You get the picture. What if this and take stock of your ability to survive for two weeks let alone long term. This ain't doomsday, this is post disaster recovery on the standard govt schedule.

Interesting set of stipulations. Most folks worry about TEOTWAWKI, but your scenario is more like what I consider realistic. Two weeks is my target number for a 'bug in' scenario like this. So, I'll assume we're not leaving for some valid reason (city quarantined, roads blocked by police/military, etc)

No power or gas--not an insurmountable problem, I can deal. Limited water can be a problem; I live in a desert and would immediately begin to be very cautious of water use.

NO PHONE--my prayers have been answered!!!

No internet, oh well, I'm down to the radio for news I guess--withdrawals but I'll probably be better for it, I spend too much time on the internet.

I have a gas barbeque and I've got SKILLZ (I can barbeque a pizza, can you?) Cook up the frozen, refridgerator food before it spoils. I've got plenty of canned goods, ramen, etc etc for well over 2 weeks as stated above.

My wife and I can take turns on watch when needed, and our ammo stocks are more than sufficient for our needs.

What many don't think about is: What about the neighbors & strangers around you if you're stuck in place? I'd have a hard time watching the neighborhood children do without water/food/protection if things got nasty...

 

[mom of 3 angels]

Assuming nothing happens to my home or family members, we're good to hang out for quite a while with the supplies we have here. Our main issue is heat if something were to happen in the winter--gets nasty cold here. We've got a coal/wood stove in the yard waiting to be installed in the home, so once that's in it will take care of the heat issue. We have real good neighbors who I would hope would share shelter if ours was destroyed and theirs wasn't. I'd definitely welcome a neighbor in if our home was left standing and they needed a safe place to stay.

We were just recently discussing the neighbors/children. Now assuming basic structures/homes were left intact which probably wouldn't be the case if all other services were out. It would be real hard not to share with the kids--not their fault their parents didn't do anything to prepare. For now I'm just trying to encourage those around me to stock food/supplies of their own while it's available in hopes that there will be fewer of my friends and neighbors especially little ones going hungry in a disaster situation. I know there are others in our area making preparations, but most aren't/wont. My obligation is to provide for my family, trying to have as much as possible here for them. I'm not sure what I'll actually do in a disaster situation, we cannot and will not feed the entire town, but like NDS said, it would be real hard to watch neighbors and children suffer. Lots of variables play in here. We could share quite a bit if we knew the whole thing would be over in 2 weeks, but how can you know how long before things get back to normal? Tough situation.

 

[HK4U]

Survive or thrive? Of course there can be a big difference. A few summers back we had several times that the elect. went down in our part of the city. Once for about two days. I am telling you in the middle of summer in Texas going without air is not fun. We have become so used to being comfortable that when this happens it is ruff. As far as surviving there are a lot of things we can do without if we had to. We shoul all ae enough of the eccentials on hand to last at least 2 weeks. Longer would be a lot better. Although I am not a Mormon one thing that they believe in that I agree with is having a long term supply of food. Now that we no longer have the food reserves in this country that we used to and a majoriy of it comes from out side the USA it is even more critical to stock pile.

 

[Cooter]

All I would need is a few cases of Mountain Dew, enough ammo, and a deck of cards to ride out the apocolypse. Oh yeah, can't forget the hand grenade as a last option. (Ever see I Am Legend?)

 

[festus]

Time to revisit this one as well

Take a look at the economy we are headed here faster than you think if we don't act.

 

[gun runner]

OK
This could be good. No utilities OK I have no need to go to work. I get in my camper and go on vacation. Two weeks shouldn't be to much of a problem for any one.
My big concern would be the stuff I have in the refrigerator. I have a pond for water and generators. We have had the power go out here in the mountains in Oregon before for a week. That wasn't bad. A permanent power outage would be a major problem. Military survival training would kick in.

 

[boyzoi]

In like Flint......35 gals of gas stored, generator, plenty of goodies for self-defense and hunting, spring fed water supply etc. only thing I am changing this year is that I usually freeze the veggies from the yearly garden and this would take a lot of gas to run the genny to keep. So this year I will do a lot of canning.
If the SHTF in winter there will be a lot of deaths early on, if in the summer the violence will start sooner, imho.
forgot...momof3....get that stove up and running, I got mine in this past Feb and now that the freeze has set in here, man is it nice!!!!

 

[HK4U]

We could be looking at months. Even longer in a worse case scenario. To the best of our ability we should prepare for worst case scenario. Think of it as insurance. Better to have more than needed than not enough.

 

[boris]

better to have it and not need it .......

We could be looking at months. Even longer in a worse case scenario. To the best of our ability we should prepare for worst case scenario. Think of it as insurance. Better to have more than needed than not enough.

+1!! bought some food yesterday, may buy some more this PM. or some medical/health supplies.

 

[boyzoi]

one thing I dont think Ive seen mentioned in any of these threads, is do you have a gas mask, do you have potassium iodide,?
especially for those urban dwellers, where I beleive the most likely use of both would come into play????

 

[Dave]

Why pick a time limit ?

Why choose a time limit. Unless its for short term goal of getting started.
Do a little at a time ALL THE TIME. I grew up doing this and have continued. Now 65 and consider
we are pretty much done. Just maintain now.

3 large gardens, 13 fruit trees. Berries and grapes
Stored,caned seed (heirloom) enough for 6 acres of veggies.
Greenhouse and all the seed starting and saving stuff.
200+acre lake FULL of fish.
500 gallons diesel,still burning diesel from 1999 works fine.
Large amount of gas.
10.5 kw diesel gen set. burns 3/4 gal hr full load.
Small 4X4 diesel tractor with 4ft tiller.
always at least 2 years of canned,stored food.
Firearms Enough, Ammo Enough.
2 alarms systems, 24 cameras, Solar battery backed up, 2 large dogs.
WATER, Get filters (Aqua Rain) and figure out how and where you can get water.
You would be surprised how much water is around people can't/won't use.

The list could go on almost forever. The point is start now. A little at a time ALL THE TIME,
You can/will get there if you just keep going. If you don't have much land learn to garden like
they do in Japan (there are books on it). If you have no land plan on getting it or find another way
too make up for it.

Quick start: Store water, 50 lbs rice, 50 lbs beans store in large metal garbage can. Cheap and quick.
Most city treated water will store at least 3 months. Pour it out, rinse and refill.
Biggest mistake I see made. People don't start because they think it takes a lot of money.
Reduce your thinking to what it takes to sustain life. Water first, food next and THEN all the rest.

Make use of the county/state resources for info. Land grant colleges usually have great local info.

Missouri, Link Removed

HOODS WOODS is a great resource. Read the archives.

 

[Dave]

Screwed up one URL opppppsss

Survival info site.

SurvivalBlog.com

 

[[email protected]]

we have wood cook stove and heater, and would basically move to the basement, where they are, We have a LARGE pantry, and lorts of canned goods, but water would be a problem. Have to work on that one

 

[HK4U]

one thing I dont think Ive seen mentioned in any of these threads, is do you have a gas mask, do you have potassium iodide,?
especially for those urban dwellers, where I beleive the most likely use of both would come into play????

Yes and yes.

 

[boris]

i have a gas mask,

but unless you have a NBC suit and gear, the truth is that the gas mask ain't gonna help ya.

 

[Boomboy007]

Congratulations, Doc. That one is the easiest of all!

we have wood cook stove and heater, and would basically move to the basement, where they are, We have a LARGE pantry, and lorts of canned goods, but water would be a problem. Have to work on that one

Hey Doc, Just fill up one of these bad boys in the basement and I think that two weeks will be no problem:

leasantry:

 

[toreskha]

Hey Doc, Just fill up one of these bad boys in the basement and I think that two weeks will be no problem:


leasantry:

Long term water storage might be an issue though. If you can't drink it when needed, then it kind of defeats the purpose.

I don't have a basement because I live in FL, but IMO you'd run into a major problem when changing the water. Unless there's a convenient drain nearby, you'll have to carry it out.

I know there's rainwater collection contraptions that are easy to build out of those drums...or you could just make a pass-through system where you always maintain a reservoir that can be tapped if the water suddenly stops running.

 

[tattedupboy]

My disaster preparedness kit is a work in progress, but by the time it's done, it'll include a crapload of MREs, Ramen noodles, canned goods, ammo, a Bible, and canned goods.

 

[mom of 3 angels]

Still don't have the stove in, now we have a second BIG stove for the shop that's also minus the triple wall pipe to get it installed. Santa's bringing a kerosene heater and some kerosene this year . . . should help while we're working out the stove issue. No reason not to have a backup backup heat source . . . I really don't like being cold.

I'm with the little at a time all the time approach. Every time I do my big shopping trip for the month I add something to it that I just stick into the storage. Along with a few other things, I got an extra manual can opener last time I went (a nice one--don't go cheap here).

Mark the date on the stuff you buy (Sharpies are my friend) and use the oldest stuff first. Also mark the date on things like shampoo, cooking oil, etc when you open them to see how long they last (remember you'll probably use less shampoo and more cooking oil in a disaster situation than you normally do, so adjust). Then you can calculate how many bottles of shampoo or whatever you need to last you however long you want your storage to last. I know it takes our family about 1 1/2 days to go through a full large roll of TP, so can calculate how many rolls I need to last 3 months or 6 months or a year, you get the idea.

A little side note here, MRE"s are disgusting. If you have them stored (and I do), seriously consider storing other foods as well so you'll have something you can actually eat. :yes4: