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Reality?

7K views 43 replies 19 participants last post by  John Joseph 
#1 ·
Hello I have a few questions....


Most prepping fantasies seem to be set in spring or summer. Everything is nice. The bomb/plague hits, and the hardy prepper sets out into the wilderness to live off of berries and animals and what he or she can look from abandoned homes.

The issue is,,,, that since Y2K, the concept has been "flee the city, go to the suburbs and rural areas. The farmers have lots of food to feed you"

That's what was published in many Michigan papers before Y2K hit. They wanted the non city folk to house and feed the city folk for the rest of their livs.

If the power grid goes down, everything goes down. Look at the last big winter storm that hit the east coast in winter.... at least a week without electricity and heating....

How long do you think new York city would last if they lost power, heat from natural gas, and WATER....
 
#2 ·
Reality? Here you go----
https://www.foxnews.com/world/drone-attack-saudi-oil-facility-iran-rebels

If a drone strike could take out a major petroleum hub over there
It could take out a major petroleum hub anywhere
And a bunch of other infrastructure
If the city folk you're so afraid of need to head for the hills, they'll be riding bicycles and they'll be riding uphill

I wonder if the city folk who came to the relief of the hill folk who were burned out of their homes in last year's monster fires stay awake worried about them hill folk comin' into town to steal everyone's Tontino's Pizza rolls the next time?:hrm:
 
#3 ·
Exactly what I was going to point out.



If the pizza guy will no longer make deliveries to your house. Then you really need to go to plan B. Just sayin.
 
#5 ·
If they lost power, gas and water unexpectedly, I’d guess there would be a slow drift beginning about 2-3 days after any event happened of people who could afford to stay in hotels, etc. About a week in it would be steady flow, with active looting occurring as people left. By about 3 weeks in, there would be a a significant increase in movement with security dropping significantly and about 5 weeks in the locust movement would start.
 
#6 ·
The true reality of it is.

That we are about nine meals away from anarchy at any given time.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Inner cities are death traps. Totally dependent upon services provided. In 2-3 days, suburbs will see people camping in private yards, drinking pool water. In a week, elevated deaths.

There's a couple books by author William R. Forstchen called One Second After (A John Matherson Novel), and One Year After: A John Matherson Novel detailing the effects of an EMP smuggled in to the Gulf of Mexico and detonated over the US. Non-hardened electronics are knocked out. If you haven't considered how dependent all of us are on the internet, mass transport and supply chain for things like heart and blood pressure medication, or maybe insulin, you'll realize that the inner cities will only be the first to perish. 60% of us who weren't meant to live will die as the country reverts back to an 18th-19th century infrastructure. Science and technology allows us to have the population that we do.

Ain't nothin but a fact of life.
 
#12 ·
How long do you think new York city would last if they lost power, heat from natural gas, and WATER....

With ANY luck, the end of the world will hit mere minutes before the next polar vortex (THANK YOU global climate WARMING change! :biglaugh:). That'll mean 10,000,000 less Yankees for the farmers to hafta shoo-... I mean, "feed." :rolleyes:
 
#13 ·
Authentic farmers grow food
Authentic cooks, cook food
Authentic Doctors and nurses heal the sick and injured
Authentic peace officers keep the peace
Authentic families take care of each other
That much survives. It is well documented in places like Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime, the Ukraine during Stalin, and Mexico during the Calles dictatorship.
It ain't pretty, but it's not the picture some of you are painting.
If you're world is so un-Authentic, what are you going to do when you run out of ammo and can't shoot anymore people?
 
#14 ·
So judging from what you have to say.



You are the only one that has figured out all of the angles. Please feel free to educate us Luddites further.
 
#20 ·
No seriously, everyone has this purile fantasy that everything will keep running. You know, public utilities like natural gas, water, and even electricity.

No way to get coal to electric plants, ie no gas, means no power is made. If the operators were still alive in time to do a complete shutdown of nuclear reactors, you will NEVER get those reactors online and running again unless you can hook them up to a completely functional national power grid.

SO all your left with is hydro electric.... and If something happens to lines, say a simple storm, you wont get replacement parts once everything in inventory is used up. Wait, no gas for line trucks so no replacement parts are going to be needed.

No natural gas so your in home natural gas powered generator will be useless.
 
#21 ·
I have no fantasy at all. if the grid goes down in a big way we all screwed. Those in the big cities will die first. Us country folks will last longer. Once the fragments of civilization band together they will prey on the small home steads.

Not to be a Debbie downer but if shtf like in the movies would anyone really want to live in that world?? If it was going to be that bad then let me die in the initial blast. I say this due to having a bad heart not because I'm a *****.
 
#22 ·
I think you all ignore a couple of realities.

First off, disasters will happen.

2nd off, even if the very worst thing imaginable happens, there is an indomitable spirit in mankind that has been personified in America with a will to adapt, adopt, and overcome.

Sooner or later, what is will be rebuilt.

Who knows, we might even be able to do it better and more efficient when forced to do so by circumstances we cannot control.

And if you don't think that "The End Of The World As We Know It" hasn't already happened multiple times throughout history, you've been ignoring history.
 
#25 ·
What will happen is, NOTHING. Most of the world population will be wiped out. The Spanish flu outbreak will be considered a mild case of the sniffles in terms of shear numbers that are dead outright.

People like to assume that everything will instantly revert to an episode of the old Daniel Boone tv series starring Fess Parker. When if we were lucky, it would be more like Waterworld.

Look at the last big winter system that hit new England, things got shut down for days. Now imagine if they had lost electricity and gas for heating for say 3 weeks straight. Doubt more then 10% of the population would have had a chance at surviving. Now imagine if NOTHING came back on.

Total starvation, the only survivors would have been the ones out of town for vacation
 
#26 ·
Frankly, a drone strike on a refinery is the least of my worries. I believe that a drone strike, or two, on a major electrical hub, and we're toast.
I live in what is essentially a desert. My town is known for the riverbed that runs through it. All the water is diverted to farmland. Most of the city gets its water from wells.
No electricity, no water. With temperatures usually over 95° here in the summer months, as was stated, 2-3 days and it will be time to move.
Massive earthquake in the Los Angeles area? Every road into and out of the area crosses a major fault. Nobody's getting out of town. Plus no water due to broken pipes and downed electrical.
This country's Achilles heel is not petroleum products. it's electricity. Without that, absolutely nothing is going to work.
 
#32 ·
Im in a part of the world we prep for cyclones( hurricanes) and floods yearly. Not real disaster stuff but gets you thinking.

My thoughts are in major collapse cities will be problematic to survive very long. Supermarkets will empty in a day, they aren't designed to hold much food, they are designed to sell it quickly.

If you are coastal or have a major waterway with some kind of watercraft( even an inflatable one in a backpack) it will be a lot easier to bug out on that than on roads.

My main aim in major SHTF is just to be able to survive in my region for 3 months without dealing with anyone. Its about how long it will take most folks to die off. After all ,the average guy has been training on Mcdonalds burgers and smartphone games his whole life to die a pointless death, I'm not going to get in his way. Once he has achieved his aims, you come out of hiding and deal with the real people, the survivors.
 
#33 ·
Supermarkets can't sell anything if the power is out, No cash registers or card readers.
Supermarkets can't keep frozen food frozen or refrigerated foods refrigerated without power.
Gas stations can't pump gas without power
Sewer farms can't process waste without power
Banks can't conduct business without power
Mass transit can't move without power
Wells can't pump water without power
Emergency services can't function without power
 
#40 · (Edited)
Need to specify the disaster to have a rational discussion...No matter how much one prep's there could always be a disaster which outlives your preparation's.

Natural disaster's happen all the time and are dealt with reasonably well for the well prepared (and with a little luck). If living on the continent and survived the initial "shock" you will likely be rescued - at least eventually.

But if the mega natural disaster's happen, like a huge comment striking earth, that huge volcano under Yellowstone blowing, all bets are off. These are extremely low probability events and worrying about them a waste of time.

Probably the biggest event, which is much more likely than the above, and which would be long-lasting and devastating and hard to recover from, I would say is a nuclear explosion on continent US. It could be from a mistake (could be a mega-bomb), a terrorist (might get lucky and be a smaller bomb), or a nation - rouge or not (also could be a mega bomb or even many of them). Depending on your proximity, it would kill you right away, kill you years latter, or be survivable. If you survive, one thing to be sure of, our way of life will not be the same in our lifetimes (just think how 911 has impacted society and compared to a nuclear event it was "tiny").

We have food and water for 2 month's and a natural gas generator (G&A of course too), which will cover most med-small disasters in continent USA. Life isn't forever and I'm not going to spend it worrying about disasters by doing any more prepping than we have. Stay in God's grace now and you will be all right when it is time to "go".
 
#41 ·
If you are really looking for some inspiration?

To put you on the road towards having some measure of resilience. Then one might be well advised towards reading the works of Mr. Bill McKibben.

I am currently reading his latest work "Falter". It is a real eye opener.
 
#42 ·
The reality is that TEOTWAWKI is deeply personal.
Survival is temporary---join a gym, get a flu shot, have that cardiac bypass, pack the latest Glock---it's all temporary.

Kenny Rogers sung The best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep

Perhaps you can resist an attacker today, or even take an attacker "with you" tomorrow(remember the closing lines in the movie Beckett(1964) when Thomas speaks of the monk who brought along a sword when a gang of the King's henchmen attack, something to the effect of Oh Lord, if he could have just gotten one of them it would have made him so happy!)
But eventually it's going to end with your own personal TEOTWAWKI. Never mind that you've got a better chance of being run down by a sow Buick in a Walmart parking lot than riding an A-bomb into Siberia like Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove.


Protecting your loved ones from harm is noble and I say a sacred duty which all able bodied red blooded men inherit, but that seems to be a very different thing from TEOTWAWKI scenarios I read about here :scratch:
 
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