So, today, are you ready for this?

12240 Views 58 Replies 37 Participants Last post by gypsysue, Jul 30, 2010

endurance

Discussion Starter · Dec 14, 2008

I know there's some perverse joy that's gained by thinking about the end of the world as we know it, when what weapons you've cached will make all the difference, but what if something less dramatic happened? What if something like this happened at your home right now?

Here's the scenario: There's a severe winter storm that has shut down all the roads, brought down powerlines, and temperatures have plummeted to the single digits. You have no electricity, which, more than likely, means you have no furnace or boiler because they take electricity to run fans and pumps. So, how ready are you for this? What steps have you taken to ensure heat, light, and food for your family for 72 hours and beyond? How long could you hold out before you'd have to secure something beyond what you have at home (fuel, food, water, entertainment)? Just what are you going to do if there's no internet or TV to entertain you? What are the next steps you need to make to prepare if you aren't already prepared?

Personally, I see this as one of the most likely events for most Americans at any given time. If you really want to throw a wrench in it, what would you do if the storm came in while you were at work? In your car?

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JeepHammer

· #2 · Dec 14, 2008 (Edited)

NOT A PROBLEM!
Down at the river house, we aren't on the 'Grid' anyway.

AND...
That's what I've been saying all along!

Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Snow/Ice Storms, Floods SHOULD be what this forum is all about!

The paranoids want to turn it into the 'End Of The World', and that's just not going to happen...
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Around here, it was a flood this spring that did in the local utilities.
I ran my generator, passed around extension cords to the neighbors to allow them to run refrigerators/freezers every couple or three hours,
and we kept medicine & baby formula for the neighbors we couldn't reach.

Housed and fed several of the 'refugees' that wanted to stay close to their homes and not stay in a 'Shelter'...

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If you are on 'Natural Gas' or city supplied gas, then all you would really need is a medium sized power inverter to run the furnace from your car battery...
(and be smart enough to get it hooked up!)

If you are 'All Electric', you put all your eggs in one basket, then backed over it with a truck! You are simply screwed!

Also, free standing kerosene or propane heaters and stored fuel would keep you and the house from freezing up,
But I can guarantee you now that if you don't already have the heaters/fuel, you won't be able to buy any after the big freeze!
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As for the news article you linked to...
Well, I have always lived in a 'Rural' or 'Secondary Market', so anything that happens, Snow, Ice, Flooding, ect. we have always been on our own!

In the last big ice storm, I chained up the Wagoneer tires, loaded up the chain saws, bolt cutters and tow straps, and started cutting our way out...
(and carting the cut wood home!

If I'm doing the work, I'm getting the wood!)

The last big snow storm, I chained up the Wagoneer tires,
Mounted the snow plow, tow straps and chain saws, and went out to plow snow and pull people out of their drive ways.

It's just what we do around here. The state will take somewhere between 5 days and two weeks to get to us, and I simply don't want to wait for that, so we do it our selves!

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JeepHammer

· #10 · Dec 14, 2008 (Edited)

Tim said:
Jeep Hammer,
With all due respect, I think you are leaving a few things off the list of things to worry about. What about war, terrorist attacks, societal collapse?

You didn't read the orignal post, he was asking about what you would do in an ice/snow storm...
And in that case, I'd light the wood burner out at the river,
Or start the generator in town,
Chain up the old Wagoneer, dig out, and saw up the limbs/trees/poles in the streets & driveways, and help out my neighbors!.

Problem solved.

I know it's not complicated enough for city people, but it's effective and it works without discussion committees, board meetings, feasibility studies, million dollar social/environmental impact studies, and 10 years of analysis...
But it's been working for us 'Country Folk' for the last 100,000 years!
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As for all the other paranoid crap, you don't sweat what you can't fix...

No war on US shores since 1812,

There is no way for an individual to prepare for a concentrated Nuclear, Chemical or Biological strike.
It takes BILLIONS OF DOLLARS and Years of specialized preparation to even consider surviving a deliberate and concentrated strike,
And it's not much BUT survival since the effort to purify food/water is massive and grossly cost INEFFECTIVE...

THERE IS N-O-T-H-I-N-G You as an individual can do about it!
SO WHY BOTHER WORRYING ABOUT IT?
(and if you think plastic and duct tape on the windows is going to work like the 'Department of Homeland Scare Tactics' said you should do is going to do anything, you are a bigger idiot than even I can comprehend!)

I just live where there is very little likely hood of NBC (Nuclear, Chemical, Biological) Strike so I'm pretty well covered...
Not by design, it just happened that way, happy coincidence!

AND,
All this ranks right up there with Asteroids hitting the planet,
Gamma Bursts from decaying stars,
Volcanics,
Tsunamis,
And all the other crap you simply can't do anything about!

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"Societal Collapse" is a figment of uneducated/undereducated and paranoid minds,
AND, the hucksters trying to get you to CONSUME!!!.

(Y2K, Bird Flu, Terrorists hiding under your bed, Economic 'Collapse', 12-Dec-2012, Jesus is coming....
It's all designed to keep you CONSUMING for the next big 'Threat'...)

There will always be a 'Society' here as long as there is 'Life',
It just won't be the one you are used to,...

And it may be ants or microbes instead of humans,
But there will always be 'Societies' & 'Relationships' as long as there is life of any kind.

It's like saying 'Save The Planet'...
The planet will always be here, it's not going anywhere for the next 4 or 5 billion years until our yellow dwarf sun supernovas and consumes it...

It might just have returned to the primordial rock in space, or it might have reverted to primordial ooze, but it will still be here after humans!
Pretty arrogant to think you can 'Plan For' or 'Prepare For' events that could extinct a planet!
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Now, *IF* there are any people here that aren't completely paranoid,
And can look forward,
Make preparations for 'After Oil' now, before the rush...
It's not going to be the 'Emergency' everyone thinks it is, it's just going to get more expensive to retro fit as oil gets more expensive...
The 'Rush' on solar panels and wind generators is going to drive prices up, and make for a shortage of experienced installers...
(If you were 'Smart', you would start now, educate yourself, and BOOM when the 'Rush' happens!)

At the turn of the 20th Century, most of America (and the rest of the world) was Water, Wind, Sun powered.

Windmills pumped water, sawed lumber, turned tools,
And now they can EASILY make electricity every day, all day long!

Water powered mills made everything from Paper to cook Pans, Cloths to Clocks, Medicine to Machinery.
If we weren't all IDIOTS, we would all have WINDMILLS in our yards!

Personally, I have one small wind generator that is just about perfect for topping off batteries after the solar panels have 'Quick Charged' them.
I have plans for a larger model, and have acquired the tower, but haven't got it up yet...

I'm looking for a mechanical wind mill to pump from my well at the river house. I'm using electrical pump right now, but I'm afraid when we move there full time I'll need that extra current for the household, so I'm looking to go completely mechanical.
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Vertical axis wind generators and solar panels are viable for even the most sardine boxed suburb shack, so don't tell me it can't be done...
I live in a Suburb with lots of trees, and my solar panels here have already paid for themselves!

SO! As you forecast 'Gloom and DOOM' while you are sitting on your comfy chair, picking away at a computer key borad, with medicine at your fingertips and a national infrastructure there to support you in a day or two if anything happens...

I think of what my grandpa that lived through...
Two world wars,
The Cold War,
Korea, Viet-Nam, the first Gulf war,
The great depression,
The 1918 'Spanish' flu epidemic,
3 Polio Epidemics,
Two Encephalitis Epidemics,
No Antibiotics for the first 40+ years of his life, when measles and mumps, croup or flu could KILL YOU,
Having his farm ground & lively hood taken by the state not once, but twice for 'Imminent Domain' projects,

And I think I have it pretty good! Things are DEFINITELY looking up!
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There will ALWAYS BE PEOPLE THAT WHINE & CRY ABOUT WHAT THEY DON'T HAVE...

And there will ALWAYS BE PEOPLE THAT WHINE & CRY ABOUT WHAT 'MIGHT' or 'COULD' GO WRONG...

I do wish they would quit standing in the way of, and distracting the people that are actually getting something done and moving forward!
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Want to help?

STOP BUYING 'CHINA MART' STUFF!
Buy American from your friends and neighbors, even if it costs a little more!

WEAN YOURSELF OFF OF PETROLEUM!
Buy Metal instead of plastic when you can,
Drive fuel efficient vehicles, lean towards electric, CNG, hybrids,
Insulate & Seal Up Your Homes,
Compost & Recycle instead of buying petroleum based fertilizers in petroleum based plastic containers using petroleum powered vehicles to deliver it...

POWER YOURSELF FROM RENEWABLES!
If you live in town, Grid Tied (batteryless) Solar.
USE THAT EMPTY, OPEN ROOF SPACE FOR SOME GOOD!
No reason that empty house shouldn't be helping with it's own upkeep all day long! You work, why shouldn't your house!?

If you live in RURAL areas, Wind (mechanical/electric), Solar Electric, Solar Thermal, Micro Hydro (water), ect.
Those big old barn and shed roofs are BEGGING for solar panels!
You have PLENTY of room for windmills!

It's just a matter if getting your big, fat, bloated, pimple covered white ass off the couch and/or computer and DOING IT!

Grandpa used to say about people that complain and don't do anything,

"Don't just DO SOMETHING, Stand There and Complain!"

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JeepHammer

· #14 · Dec 15, 2008

wd4nyl said:
Not entirely true. Not counting the Alamo.

Try again, the Alamo was in Texas (Tejas) Province, MEXICO when the Alamo battle was fought.
Crack a history book.

There was a little skirmish in the 1860's called the Civil War.

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Internal fighting, not foreign attack.
Again, crack a history book before posting.

Indian raids.

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You REALLY want to nit pick!
Actually, Europeans were the foreign invaders, and the 'Indians' (although none were from India dipstick) were simply defending their home lands.
AND,
The skirmishes were in TERRITORIES trying to become states, not states...

The Japanese shelling San Diego.

Click to expand...

And were was that 'Invasion' we were discussing?
A Jap sub cranked a few rounds into un-inhabited ground and you consider that an INVASION!?
Pretty funny!

Gemans sinking ships in the Gulf.

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And you forgot about the sabotage team landed on shores during WWII.
Still not an invasion.

Al Quaida attacking New York & DC.

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Terrorist attacks now constitute an attack my foreign powers?
You need to spend a few years in school, a few more in the military, then review your attempt at an 'Answer'...

That said us getting "nuked" doesn't overly disturb me.

Click to expand...

If we do, it will be by one of our own power plants that was being operated by big energy trying to save a buck while robbing us.

Civil disturbances such as the riots in Watts & Chicago & the breakdown in law and order Post Katrina wasn't "figments of uneducated/undereducated and paranoid minds." It did happen and given the same circumstances, it will happen again.

Click to expand...

You REALLY want to string together the thinnest of unrelated circumstances...

First off, The race riots in Watts, Chicago (and you forgot) Birmingham and Atlanta were the cumulation of 194 years of the US Government systematically repressing/Oppressing an entire race of people.
Roughly 300 years of European oppression before that.
(It really doesn't matter WHO is standing on your neck, it's just the fact that there is SOMEONE IS standing on your neck)
And there wasn't a total break down of society, it was simply a group of people that weren't going to take it any more, free and equal or die...

I wonder why you didn't further insult Native Americans by calling the uprising at Wounded Knee in 1973 a break down in 'Society' and calling the primaries 'Savages' or 'Indians'...

The New Orleans debacle wouldn't have happened if the Bush White-house would have responded in a reasonable amount of time...
Since New Orleans was a historically democratic voting block, Bush/Chaney/Haliburton simply said, "Screw 'em!"

Living in the country one wouldn't be exposed to this. Living in the city, it's a very real, very near threat.

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ENTIRELY BS!
You think we are 'Country Bumpkins' because we are bright enough to pay our bills, live within our means, try and live as close to 'Sustainable' as we can...

No threat in cities...
Cities get first crack at any FEMA aid,
The governor calls out the national guard to clear streets when it cities get big snow...
We got 6" of ice, then 4' of snow in '78,
and it was 18 days before anyone from the state even bothered to FLY over!

This spring WE had to chain farmer Hay wagons on behind my Jeep to go rescue elderly and infirmed from nursing homes because flood waters were rising at a rate of about 1' per every 15 minutes!
It was 9 days before the government reps showed up, and that was the governor landing in a helicopter, taking a photo op, and taking off again.
15 days before the RED CROSS even responded!

So, there scooter, tell me again how we have it so good and the cities have it so bad...
The worst thing you have to worry about is some sports team winning a game and the idiot, fat, drunken slobs rioting!

I live it every day.

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Spend some time in the middle east wearing a uniform,
Or some of the warring African nations, then come back and tell me how much you are in danger and how bad you have it!.....

And, if today, while law and order is in effect, people are being blown away daily for no reason, as is happening, why should one think things wouldn't quickly turn into a chaotic hell when the next "Katrina scenario" occurs?

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People being blown away daily for no reason...
That's a good one!
Where do you live, Mogadishu? Baghdad?

Murders happen, usually drunken welfare morons having 'Domestic' disputes or gangs/dopers killing each other.
There are 'Reasons', and it's mostly because people made BAD CHOICES...

Mostly because you all decided to pack on top of each other like roaches,
Because you don't raise your children- Just let them run wild on the streets,
You don't work with your hands, work with your neighbors, and learn self worth and self respect...

Sell the Sterio, Flat screen TV, get rid of the 'Penis Substitute' vehicle, and pick your self up and go do some Peace Corps work for about 4 years,
OR join the military for AT LEAST 4 years....
Then come back and find yourself a nice piece of land, plant a garden, get to know your neighbors, and try to live sustainable...

Maybe dust off the brain cells that haven't been eaten away by Jeager & Ecstasy, and learn how to invest yourself in your community...

Maybe learn a thing or two about renewable energy,
Gardening, animal husbandry, mechanics so you can keep basic dependable transportation running that DOESN'T HAVE a stero that annoys everyone for a 3 block radius...

You know, a REAL education!

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