To: patton
3 days, not a few months.
They may last a lot longer than you think. No siege carried out by guerrillas could be air tight, so some supplies would get in. One Handymax size bulk freighter of grain slipping into New York would bring in 50,000 tons of grain. Distributed over the population of 8.2 million people that is 12.2 pounds of grain per person. Using wheat at 1,645 calories per pound that one freighter will feed the city for a week and some change. Use rice, with its higher calorie content, and the time gets even longer.
Then there are the dogs, cats, zoo animals, rats and such. Those will stretch the food supply for a few more days. Also it takes time for a person to starve. Even with no food at all a person can last a least a week before they can no longer function.
Leningrad is probably the best example of a modern city under siege. They got down to eating two slices of sawdust bread a day at one point. And despite the fact that over a million civilians died (in addition to over a million red army soldiers) the city did hold out until relieved 900 days later.
64 posted on
07/27/2011 11:26:20 AM PDT by
GonzoGOP
(There are millions of paranoid people in the world and they are all out to get me.)
To: GonzoGOP
Oh, I didn’t mean until everybody starves to death - I meant how long until the grocery stores are empty.
After that, it gets interesting.
65 posted on
07/27/2011 11:37:15 AM PDT by
patton
(I am sure that I have done dumber things in my life, but at the moment, I am unable to recall them.)
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