I have posted this several times on these SHTF articles, but I can tell you from personal experience that you have 3 days. When Sandy hit, the grid went down and there was no gas to be found in northern Jersey. Things got out of hand quickly. Christie was smart and made sure Newark and the surrounding areas got power right away. That kept the zombies at bay. Where I am is solid conservative country and people were going nuts. They were pulling guns at gas station and there were huge lines at a pizza and bagel store that had owners smart enough to run their business on a generator. We were okay because of two things. 1- a wood burning stove. Hot water, cook top, and kept the house warm. 2- I happened to read a post by a Florida FReeper that suggested getting gas the night before the storm hit. I said what the heck and took ten minutes to fill up both cars. I almost didn’t. A day later there were 3 hour lines to get 5 dollars worth of gas. Because I had a full tank I could make it to Pa. and get supplies and top off the tank. I have been in deep prep mode since then.
Sandy was very instructive for many people. Fortunately, my relatives all followed my advice. They loaded up on canned food and water. They also quickly discovered something I did not think much about during the two weeks they had no power — cash is king. They each went to the ATM and withdrew a couple of grand each and topped off their cars and filled gas cans. When the power went off, some stores and restaurants restored power within a few days. These stores took only cash because the ATMs were down. My parents were able to buy some items because of this. My uncle and dad had portable generators. They would host parties with their neighbors. They providing the power, the neighbors providing the food. A short time barter arrangement. Some neighbors had “connections” and were able to get gas where none could be obtained normally.
All in all, my relatives were doing better than most during Sandy. Sandy was a short term inconvenience for them, but it was a deathly/near deathly experience for many.
Thanks for that.
Many people will die because they will hang on to the believe that people are civilized and sooner or latter the ‘authorities’ will come along and set things right. Well yeah, but nowhere near as fast as they think how quickly the forget look at Katrina, look at your own experience.
Anyone who believes that we live in a time that a major modern city with educated advanced western civilization can not be brought to its knees and turned into a dog eat dog world take a look at this:
Pictures of Sarajevo 15 years ago and today show how the city has changed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kuCAOlQSEA
Sarajevo: A Street Under Siege