Which led to a disturbing thought. Would it be beyond the realm of possibility that the Feds/Black Rock/ lithium corps are sending in tactical teams to finish off the holdouts trapped in the mountains? It would be easier for them if there are no property owners left.
AFAIK..... they seem to be taking up positions to guard against looting and other unsavory characters.
Out in the sticks in places like this there are LOADS of tweakers and scammy scum, plus all of those usually found in urban/town areas are going to be filtering out there to get their loot while chaos reigns supreme.
Out here in CA near one of my jobs I recently went to a [now shuttered] aggregate base (crushed and graded recycled base rock for roads and building pads) plant where ~7 tweaker scum had been stripping the plant of copper wire. They were caught multiple times and released, caught once even in the midst of buring the insulation off the wire in a campfire.
The scum was living along the Russian river. The plant is now permanently shuttered (~20-30 well-paying jobs gone) because it would have taken 5+ million dollars to rewire/rebuild it. The authorities took the scum and placed them in low income/subsidized apartments...