Good morning, Granny...
Interesting article - and your personal observations are, as always, priceless.... ;~)
I envy those who live in rural or small-town settings — your survival problem is somewhat simpler....
After 9/11, I started doing ‘catastrophe planning’ based on the concept of ‘shelter-in-place’ ( “Assuming that I survive the original attack/incident, what will I need to survive until order and services are restored?” ) I invested quite heavily in canned foods and enormous quantities of bottled water, and the like...
Then, Katrina happened, and my thinking went through a sea-change — I realized that I needed to base my planning around getting as far away from the city, as quickly as possible.. That meant that *portability* needs to be a primary consideration in my stockpiles — shooting for the most nutritional value per pound/cubic foot (within some pretty severe budget restraints)....
So, the canned stuff, for the most part, had to go, to be replaced by dried foods - mostly rice and beans. Bottled water was replaced by buckets and pick-’n’-shovel, on the assumption that, when/if the day comes, I would be able to find streams or, in a pinch, dig a shallow well....
I also added some blue tarps, axes, and a set of essential hand tools, on the assumtion that I would have to camp out wherever I landed from the “bug-out”....
My plans and preparations are nowhere near complete - especially since quite often I’ll become aware of new considerations which change my thinking — usually in favor of simplifying and preparing to improvise, rather than sweating the details.... But at least, if the balloon goes up today, I won’t be caught flat-footed.... ;~)
Thanks for letting me share....
I would be able to find streams or, in a pinch, dig a shallow well...<<<
Hello Uncle Ike, I am always to share my ‘opinion’, not that makes it mean anything and we all have one.
Yes to planning, that is the key, if you wait until it happens, you are not going to have a clue to the starting point.
I have not lived in the east, except for a few months in 1956.
In the late 60’s I went to Oregon and attempted to find a place to buy, as Bill was raised there and knew all about the streams full of fish [fished out] and the shallow water wells.
If I found a place, the well was contaminated, dried up, or it was too deep to the water table, which had dropped.
So much for that dream, I moved there in 68 and Bill came in 69, 2 months later he was in bed with his bad lung and could not get out of it.
We arrived in Wellton, June the 10th, 1970.
Water there is one foot above ground, on the Gila River channel and was then 300 to 500 foot deep depending on how far you were from it, so much for the 45’ the realtor quoted to sell me the land.
Here, we are in the 1,500 to 2,000 foot deep range.
So I have no faith in digging a shallow well.
most streams are not safe to drink now, wait for a disaster and the debris that will enter the water ways and add to that the fools, who will use it to bathe in and as a bathroom.
And a handy owner with a shot gun, who will chase you off.
Dr. Bill does say that you should go to the sporting goods store and buy the bottle with the attached charcoal filter, that back packers use and that it will work to clean the water.
LOL, he talks a lot of big names for how it works, but I can tell by the taste of my water in the Pur water pitcher, when its charcoal filter is full .......
Dr. Bill says that the studies he has worked on, indicate that 25 million Americans are going to jump in their cars and go like a bat out of hell, to some wonderous spot, that does not exist.
More than one liberal has taken him on, on that one and withers out of the conversation, after a few questions:
Have you ever slept on the ground?
Do you have food, water, a sleeping bag and walking shoes in your car, office and home.......?
Do you know where you are going?
Do you know how to live off the land?
Do you have a gun to protect yourself with?
Where is your next tank of gas coming from?
He says that there will be many cars hijacked, simply due to the fact that they still have gas in them.
That the fools who do not have a destination, will be parked in the middle of the freeway and all travel will halt.
That if you did find a gas station, you could not get gas, if there is no electric, nor will the ATM machine or credit card reader work......so no services.
If you think it is safe to do so, and choose to stay home, then you will need guns to protect yourself with.
I was glad to move to Wellton, then met a lady who had been on the school board there, during the high danger years and found out also just how many military were in the area, easier to say “every direction”.
Catherine said that the Military came several times and talked to them.
We were the place the San Diego people would run out of gas in, 175 miles from San Diego and they were not going to get gas or shelter in a town of 200 people.
Catherine said she told him “I have a food supply and live out of town on a farm, I am a Mormon and am ready for what comes”.
He looked at her, said “yes, you do look rather well fed, so I will expect to find a supply of food at your place and am willing to kill to get it.”
So expect them to kill you and take yours.
In 1955, my aunt and I took her son to Yuma, and left him, started back to San Diego, about dark and couldn’t get up the mountain in the snow, the cops pushed her car around and sent her back down the hill to a tiny town of Ocotillo Wells, then maybe 30 people, we went to the tiny cafe on the highway and were lucky to be some of the first to come in and they stayed open to feed us......
And more came and more.....so we went out to the car to sleep.
The next morning, when the sun came up, there were hundreds of cars parked in the desert, it was a sea of cars.
There was not a bite of food or coffee for sale in the town.
We had to go east 30 miles to el Centro, to find a cup of coffee.
And that was just a little snow storm at the top of the mountain, not in the desert, no rush, no problems.
In the fire threads of the California fires of about 2005, in the Big Bear area of Calif. There are photos of the evacuation of Big Bear.
Every lane of the freeway, going both ways, is bumper to bumper cars, all fleeing the fires.....for miles.
Imagine the added panic of a bomb.
Now imagine the added fact that there have been 5 bombs in 5 U.S. cities.
That is the al-qaeda plan.
Kingman is the evuacation point for Phoenix [175 miles] and for Tucson [235 miles], add Las vegas [110 miles] and you have a town with deep water wells, all food is trucked in and none grown here, I doubt you could find a vegetable growing in the area, not out here for sure.
I am not up on size, but would expect there to be 3 to 5 million people headed here, to find nothing......our electric comes from Hoover Dam and the Dam at Laughlin.....not hard to take it out.
I will stay put, as I can’t survive without the oxygen machine, unless I sit very quietly and do not get excited. I already see the end of my road, so I will sit here and try to protect what is here, for those that need it, brother, step-son and nephews and nieces and their kids, also a friend and her daughter from Las Vegas and a pen pal of 10 years, who knows that he and his wife can ride his motorcycle here from calif. They are well stocked, so won’t come unless it is the right thing to do.
There are springs, within 15 miles of me, in an old mining area, the water has high mineral, lead and maybe arsenic. And wildlife.
My truck has not been started in 3 years.....so no going for me.
Where I am, is lower than the water storage tank for the area, so if I am lucky, I can fill containers, before it is dry.
That is how I see it, not a lot of help to you, but still it may give you a hint or two.
You are allowed to share your thoughts here any time, as you are right, if you have what it takes to survive, someone is going to hit you in the head and take it.
I will see if I can find the group that i joined by accident, they turned out to be re-enactors and one of the things we did was put our ideas to gather for a survival kit that fits in one of those mint candy containers, that is about 3 x 4 inches.
They let me set in and I don’t know if I dropped the group or not, after 9-11.
LOL, they even had classes to make the arrows and lots of info on how to chip the arrows from stone.
Not as easy as one thinks, we had a weekend place in an old area, that had once had indians in it and found many arrows that were half chipped and you could see where the flaw in the stone, caused it to break, when half done.
Stay safe and get out of the city.
I realized that I needed to base my planning around getting as far away from the city, as quickly as possible.. That meant that *portability* needs to be a primary consideration in my stockpiles — shooting for the most nutritional value per pound/cubic foot (within some pretty severe budget restraints)....<<<
On the Threat Matrix thread, several years ago, we looked at how you would escape the big cities.
We found that the main escape routes could be closed, easy, with a big truck.
Some of us still follow the “suspicious incidents”, as it was clear by 2002, that they were happening.....buses that hit the bridge in Texas, I restudied those photos a few months ago, it went down a grassy area, on the outside of the guard rail to hit the bridge abutment, killing many of the church group youths, and yes he was one with an arab name.
You will find many trucks hit bridges.
There was even a barge that closed the truckers main route in Oklahoma, about 2003 or 2004, most people stopped reading after a day or so, but we did not.
Barge had hit another bridge, down the river, and lots of odd info, as the details came out.
Freeway was closed for months.
It was a muslim truck driver who cased the Brooklyn bridge with the plan to destroy it, by cutting the cables, this from memory, named Faris as I recall, could be wrong, he is in jail.
There is a long bridge in Florida, goes to the Keys or an island, beautiful miles long over the bay.
About 3 years ago, a black suv attacked a gas tanker, causing him to crash and burn, the suv escaped.
As we followed the story, we found that the utilities to the island were built into the bridge.
The bridge had to be closed, but the utilities were ok, this time.
The bridge about a year ago in northern California, on the truck route, several trucks and cars, horrible accident, most did not stick with that story to the end, of some drivers were not American and there is still one or two that have never been found, one left and went home......that is where they found him.
It is things like that, that have me staying put.
I won’t be bombed and it would be a waste to spray us, as we are on 1 acre or larger lots, with many still vacant.
Milford421 has a Yahoo Group called “Under Investigation”, we send him news and he posts them to the group.