I won’t last long anyway, just too worn out and used up. I will do my best to make things unpleasant for anyone who rattles my cage.
I imagine countries like China will move in and attempt to occupy, and how that ends would depend on how much of the US government stays functional.
I see the serious preppers and I have the same questions that you do.
I think that I might be fearful if I lived in a big city... but I don’t.
I wonder what kinds of plans are in place, but I know that EMS has trained for a disaster on the New Madrid fault. These buildings just aren’t going to stand.
Hopefully most people will keep level heads and hopefully, in places where panic might rule, law enforcement can contain it.
It’s all very hard to anticipate or know.
I am a prepper of sorts. Realistically, I am only prepping for a shtf scenario that would last up to 2 months. I don’t have the resources right now to do any better. So, in addition to my respectable armory, I have canned food, water, medical items, and other barterable items to suit my family for up to 2 months. I am attempting to increase these supplies all the time. So, hopefully we will better prepared beyond a 2 months disruption.
I don’t expect the total collapse of civilization only a lot of economic stress or temporary disorder following a bad natural disaster or social upheaval. If we get so bad, that is, Mad Max bad, I will deal with that if that ever comes.
If I had the money, I would buy some land far outside the city, preferably near a small town which would offer the possibility of mutual self-defense and barter. As it stands now, I am outside the main beltway of the closest major city. It’s good to be outside of the city, I just wish it was further out.
Anyhow, I think it’s wise for people to stockpile supplies and prepare to take care of themselves, if such a disruption of law and order or basic services should ever happen. It’s completely logical.
The SHTF for me Oct 2008 during the market crash. That was economic. I mostly managed that (no running water), and hit the road to repo technical equipment for a leasing company. Glad I had the pistol along, and called the local constabulary before I went door-to-door with my piece of paper and a locksmith.
Dec 2009, SHTF in a more personal way with a serious injury that left me in ICU for 2 weeks and cripple for most of a year. After I got out of the hospital, I lived on stored rations with forage. No running water for half of that year.
Things got somewhat better after that, but another downturn and I went back on stored rations and forage. I had running water for most of that time.
I have store bought food today, and running water (still no running hot water, since 2008), but you can bet I restocked stored rations first.
/johnny
Well, OK, maybe not. "Prepping for what?" is actually a very good question. There are several categories of potential threats that require some preparation, some very likely, some less so. Fortunately the really bad ones come under the latter category, but it doesn't mean they won't happen anyway.
1. Natural disaster requiring evacuation. Can you gather the requirements to keep yourself and family alive and comfortable if you have to leave your home for a safe area? Do you have an evacuation plan? Have you looked into routes? Have you considered probable destinations? You cannot depend on government for this but you'd be silly not to recognize that they really do have plans, however imperfect, and that you'd be better off knowing them than not.
2. Infrastructure breakdown, i.e. power, water, transportation, etc. Here you are not planning to move anywhere right away, at least. Can you provide clean water for yourself and your family for a week or so? Food? Commonly-needed medicines? Home defense?
3. Economic/societal breakdown. Do you have enough petty cash on hand to tide you over if the ATMs aren't resupplied for weeks and the banks don't allow you to withdraw more than a small, stipulated amount? This actually happened in Argentina not too long ago. Do you have a plan for obtaining food on a regular basis, i.e. barter, growing it yourself, deep storage? Will the lack of these things force you to move? Some areas will, after all, be simply insupportable, i.e. downtown Manhattan. If so, do you have a plan and a destination? These will not be the same as item 1 necessarily.
4. Zombie apocalypse. It's code for the real end of the world after which you will, if you survive, have to begin rebuilding in the most survivable of all human units, the small community. Here the questions tend to be nebulous - where could you go, close by? Are you already there? If the latter, what can you do to make your community survivable? Do you have a network of friends who have similar concerns? Do you know where you might get things you can't store? Do you have an idea how to build a human Ark and how you might contribute to its defense and its prosperity?
Different disasters, different scenarios, different needs. You can't be perfectly ready for all of them unless you're independently wealthy and healthily paranoid - if so, you are hardly likely to be needing my advice. If you're just starting, start small and expand outward in concentric circles from readiness for the likely to readiness for the extremely unlikely. Food, water, clothing, shelter, defense - could you do a day with you and yours? Three days? A week? Could you do it in your current house without power or water? Somewhere else in your neighborhood? Your town? Your region?
There's tons of advice on this and the preppers' forums what to do to accomplish this. Clarifying what you want to accomplish in steps is a very good start. Best of luck.
How about a luxury bunker?
There is a TV series called “Preppers”, IIRC it is on Natl. Geo. If not there, it is on the History Channel.
Personally, I do not see the point of intensive prepping.
Most of those on the series tend to live in semi uninhabitable parts of the USA, as in Nevada.
Some of them are devoting there entire lives 24/7 just in prepping. Some have a full years of provisions.
Sad way to spend one’s life.
In an area of low population, I can see prepping for natural disasters, with a months provisions, but that is about it.
If you live in a highly populated area, there will be little you can do to fight of the hordes.
Can you imagine being in Chicago when SHTF?
My prepping took place by leaving the USA, and leaving all material goods behind.
I now live on a beach in a tropical climate.
I will not freeze or go hungry, or die of thirst.
If the SHTF, I'm going north to a family property and 100 acres far away from the nearest city. Our strength is numbers and trust. We have water sources, wood, wild game, ability to garden, weapons, brains, work ethic, and most importantly, family. We'll make it. It won't be easy, but we'll make it.
SHTF can take many forms, so contingencies have to be flexible. It’s also not gonna end by waking up one day and finding everything back to normal. Gov might come back, or societies might slowly re-evolve locally/organically.
Semi-rural here, a whole little enclave of like-minded folks on quasi-sequestered, easy-to-defend terrain. Lots of skill sets, supplies, well-thought-out and well-practiced plans. We’re ready and coordinated for whatever might occur, but not foolish enough to think we really know what’s gonna happen at any stage in this thing. Twenty hours or twenty generations, we’ve given it some reasonable thought and preparation, and are just enjoying our lives at this point.
If your neighbor breaks in to your house to steal your food for his children, will you shoot him?
I’m fully prepped. I have Jesus Christ.
The population will be in significant decline, in the coming years. Moslems will try to kill of everwho is left.
Prep to live and do not live to prep.
Read about the Holy Roman Empire.
Hint: It wasn’t Holy, wasn’t Roman, and wasn’t an Empire.
The currency was lies.
Hundreds of small fiefdoms developed over time—some good, some not so good.
The rules were—there were no rules.
and—everyone who survived lived one day at a time.
This is all under the assumption that the gov remains “our friend’. if o is relected i imagine them becoming hostile. In socialist countries people are stripped of every means we americans have today. preppers will be the only ones not at the mercy of the gov.. they will become public enemy.number 1.
bflr
I guess it all depends on what scenario you’re preparing for. And I think it’s sort of a spectrum.
Personally, I don’t see the zombie/mad max on steroids scenario as being survivable, particularly for those of us in the cities, so why prep for it? It also seems like a depressing way to spend your life.
I think a more modest scenario of short to medium term unrest and privation is more realistic as well as survivable. I think the mormons do a pretty good job of preparing for this level of unpleasantries. And it doesn’t become an all-consuming task. So, why re-invent the wheel? They’ve already given it a great deal of thought.
FReepers won't have to worry about the damned socialists as much and can focus on more dire threats such as spelling Nazis and Blog Pimps?
How effective will any government be when LAWKI ends? A government is made up of individual people. Each one of these people will act in their own best interest before they ever think about correcting the effects of some disastrous event. Would you go to work when the heat and water go out in your home filled with your spouse and children? How many of the New Orleans cops went AWOL before, during and after Katrina? What is the probability that any government will do the right thing? I happen to think whatever they do will only make it worse. Preppers are prepping for Back Swan events, i.e. things people never thought could occur. Preppers are preparing for one purpose, to be self-reliant because they know the shocks will be so disruptive and long lasting it will inevitably lead to chaos and mayhem. They know everyone will be in trouble including themselves. They just want to be less in trouble than most others. There are many instances in history when civilization has broken down: the Weimar Republic after WWI; Argentina several times; Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. The next event might happen in Greece, Spain, Portugal OR someplace totally off the wall (Black Swan). I'm less afraid of a quick death than I am of surviving only to face a long, drawn out one because I didn't take a few easy precautions. Eventually the survivors will band together in tribes (gangs) for self interest purposes and maybe the Black Swan will emerge as a Phoenix. Between the event and the rebirth, I want to live as comfortably as possible.