Are you even marginally prepared?

[RexGig0]

I must dodge this question. My user name is not nearly sufficiently anonymous.

[kobold]

Adapted from another site.

I present a simple year round scenario that could happen: Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall.

Imagine that for 90 days EVERYTHING shuts down. 3 months with no natural gas, no electricity, no Internet, no cellphones. No FEMA. No retail stores of any kind are able to open. No hospitals, no dentists, no service calls of any kind.

No municipal water or garbage pickup, and no municipal services such as police and ambulance.

You can't buy gasoline to run your auto or the tiller in the garden. No new medications or refills for any family members are available.

Event starts tomorrow at 3am.

No long answers. 20 words or less.

Think and answer honestly. Can YOU and YOUR's make it for 90 days?

Yes. I have all kinds of fuels. Two wells. Push bike and a trailer. I can fish, raise poultry and garden.

My NiMH batteries:

[Airlsee]

Doesn't matter what supplies you have if you and your family are ambushed by outlaws in the middle of the night. Wilderness survival skills are important but criminal skills will get a lot of people by when there are no laws. In this scenario there will be no where to hide... Roving gangs and militia types will take what they want when they want.

This.

I live in 800 sq.ft. in the middle of 7,000,000 people.

I couldn't make it without taking it from someone else.

I am surprised how little talk of the real chaos and anarchy that would go down in this scenario.

[Airlsee]

Duplicate

[ladybug93]

I am surprised how little talk of the real chaos and anarchy that would go down in this scenario.

that's how you know people are really ready.

i've been trying to avoid this thread because the big talk is so laughable. i get it though. there was a time i thought i'd be bugging out to the mountains with my wife and many kids in tow with nothing but a handgun and some youtube survival skills. it's kind of grim to think about what all this really means though, so we just tell ourselves some fantasy version where we get to play the hero. the reality is that people (including ourselves) are a lot worse than we give them credit for and it doesn't take as much as people think to bring the worst out of us. think about it... probably the majority of us are perfectly sane and have still fantasized about running someone off the road just for being where we want to be. the reality of this kind of scenario is very dark. our best bet is banding together and pooling resources to survive, but most people think their best option is to hoard and hide, even when they have all the time in the world to think about it and prepare.

[Kevinim82]

Fresh water would be the daily challenge. Pantry is full and would have to effectively count and ration calories with my wife. Winter temps below 20 degrees and we might not make it in the suburbs.

[Kevinim82]

The outlaws and criminals: Chaos is rolling the dice on this scenario where you have absolutely no control.

So in this fun thought experiment, where do you have control?

[MacLaren]

I am surprised how little talk of the real chaos and anarchy that would go down in this scenario.

that's how you know people are really ready.

i've been trying to avoid this thread because the big talk is so laughable. i get it though. there was a time i thought i'd be bugging out to the mountains with my wife and many kids in tow with nothing but a handgun and some youtube survival skills. it's kind of grim to think about what all this really means though, so we just tell ourselves some fantasy version where we get to play the hero. the reality is that people (including ourselves) are a lot worse than we give them credit for and it doesn't take as much as people think to bring the worst out of us. think about it... probably the majority of us are perfectly sane and have still fantasized about running someone off the road just for being where we want to be. the reality of this kind of scenario is very dark. our best bet is banding together and pooling resources to survive, but most people think their best option is to hoard and hide, even when they have all the time in the world to think about it and prepare.

Ok, I'll bite....
What "big talk" are you referring too?
I thought that a lot of what we were talking about, me anyways, is what type place would be your best bet to survive off of the land?
I haven't read about anyone fantasizing about being a hero.....
Did I miss something?
Please donr get me wrong, I'm too lazy to re-read the thread lol....

[The Mastiff]

Yeah, I don't really see a lot of big talk or mall ninja stuff here. It's pretty down to earth IMO.

[MacLaren]

Yeah, I don't really see a lot of big talk or mall ninja stuff here. It's pretty down to earth IMO.

Absolutely Joe. I just dont see it either man.

[JD Spydo]

I live here in Missouri close to Kansas City. If things start to come un-glued and we were to have a societal and/or economic breakdown it would depend on whether I could get down to the Ozarks Mountain/Lake region of the state. But if I got stuck here in the suburbs of Kansas City I might be in a desperate situation. I try to stay prepared and alert to be able to bail out on short notice.

But the troubles we've had here in the USA are kind of complicated. But if I could make it down to the Ozarks or Mark Twain National Forest region I would probably survive for a lot longer down there.

[JD Spydo]

Fresh water would be the daily challenge. Pantry is full and would have to effectively count and ration calories with my wife. Winter temps below 20 degrees and we might not make it in the suburbs.

I've been to two survival seminars in the past few years. And I've subscribed to two major survival magazines for many years now. I'm not in the dark about survival at all.

You bring up a great point and it goes without saying that the two most important skills you can learn is:
(1) How to make water potable ( safely drinkable)
( 2) and how to make a fire using a wide array of fire starting methods. You can't always depend on matches and Bic Lighters in the long haul.

I do believe those are the two biggest hurdles for anyone to be able to survive a horrible scenario. I hope to GOD above we don't have to put all of this to the test anytime soon.

[Ankerson]

Yeah, I don't really see a lot of big talk or mall ninja stuff here. It's pretty down to earth IMO.

The biggest issue/problem/danger would really be other people in the end. The higher the population in the area the worse it would be.

My thoughts are to get away from other people as quickly as possible if something happened and stay away until things stabilized again.

[TomAiello]

In a real social disorder scenario, the most important survival tool you can have is a good relationship with your neighbors.

[Granoo Fink]

In a real social disorder scenario, the most important survival tool you can have is a good relationship with your neighbors.

True. If you leave your social support to get out into the woods, alone or only with your family, you better hide well.

[James Y]

In a real social disorder scenario, the most important survival tool you can have is a good relationship with your neighbors.

True. If you leave your social support to get out into the woods, alone or only with your family, you better hide well.

I agree. In such a scenario, if you’ve ever planned or even contemplated escaping the cities and getting out into the wilderness to get away from everyone, MANY other people, especially outdoorsmen or survivalist types, have the same plans too, and I’m betting that even the middle of the wilderness will become full of survivalist groups (and some individuals) establishing their own territories and living off the land, as well as transgressing on others’. And even a cabin or house that’s off the grid ‘in the middle of nowhere’ will be discovered sooner or later.

I am not saying not to do anything; I’m only saying that a lot of other people have already thought about the same things.

Jim

[Ankerson]

In a real social disorder scenario, the most important survival tool you can have is a good relationship with your neighbors.

True. If you leave your social support to get out into the woods, alone or only with your family, you better hide well.

I agree. In such a scenario, if you’ve ever planned or even contemplated escaping the cities and getting out into the wilderness to get away from everyone, MANY other people, especially outdoorsmen or survivalist types, have the same plans too, and I’m betting that even the middle of the wilderness will become full of survivalist groups (and some individuals) establishing their own territories and living off the land, as well as transgressing on others’. And even a cabin or house that’s off the grid ‘in the middle of nowhere’ will be discovered sooner or later.

I am not saying not to do anything; I’m only saying that a lot of other people have already thought about the same things.

Jim

What I was talking about is if one lives in say a larger town or city.

That is not the place to be, that would be even worse than putting up with the survivalist types out in the woods.

Being around too many people would not be good, just saying.

[JD Spydo]

In a real social disorder scenario, the most important survival tool you can have is a good relationship with your neighbors.

Great point!! Because the hardest part for me has been to find people of "like mind". There is so much disparity in our society at this time it's extremely difficult to find people you can trust if things were to get bad. And in this environment things could go bad very fast.

But going back to what Spydergirl said earlier. There are going to be roving bands of thugs and looters in any bad time. And you can't be a gentleman in those situations.

[James Y]

In a real social disorder scenario, the most important survival tool you can have is a good relationship with your neighbors.

True. If you leave your social support to get out into the woods, alone or only with your family, you better hide well.

I agree. In such a scenario, if you’ve ever planned or even contemplated escaping the cities and getting out into the wilderness to get away from everyone, MANY other people, especially outdoorsmen or survivalist types, have the same plans too, and I’m betting that even the middle of the wilderness will become full of survivalist groups (and some individuals) establishing their own territories and living off the land, as well as transgressing on others’. And even a cabin or house that’s off the grid ‘in the middle of nowhere’ will be discovered sooner or later.

I am not saying not to do anything; I’m only saying that a lot of other people have already thought about the same things.

Jim

What I was talking about is if one lives in say a larger town or city.

That is not the place to be, that would be even worse than putting up with the survivalist types out in the woods.

Being around too many people would not be good, just saying.

Jim

I'm not even sure where I would fit into that, because I live in a city but don't live in an urban area, nor a small town out in the country. It's more a suburb area.

I do get along well with my neighbors, and I'm sure that at least some would probably band together. But you don't really know until or unless something like that really happens.

Inner city or areas like that, forget it. Those will look like The Purge the quickest.

Jim

[cabfrank]

I believe the vast majority of the people in the world are good. We just don't hear about them. I might be naive, I admit, but I truly believe it.