Are you really a survivor?

[Hangtime]

Originally posted by StarOfAfrica2
Best "end of the world" book I ever read was "Lucifer's Hammer" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.  The original planet-killer-comet story.  IMO a fairly realistic look at what could happen.



Best thing about the disaster in the book, Europe was totally gone.  USSR (hey it was written in the 80s lol) and the US, although crippled, combined what was left of their nuclear arsenal and pounded the heck out of China.  They formed raiding parties to clear grocery stores and libraries (I remember one scene where a guy saved a copy of "The Way Things Work" in a plastic ziploc bag).  I'm going to have to dig that out again.

I have everything those two ever wrote. My kids first SF Book was 'Mote', second was Lucifers Hammer. She's working her way thru my Heinlein collection now.

Also, check out Heinlein's 'Farnhams Freehold' and his 'If This Goes On' outta 'Expanded Universe'. Old.. oh, so very very old, but entertaining.

[kevykev56]

Mustaine I like your ideas but there are many flaws with them. To understand what I mean you need  to come to Florida after a major hurricane. We are talking just days of normal life stopping. When this happens, there is no water or food to be found on the shelves. The gasoline stocks run out within hours of the storm approaching. There would be no trucks on the road to drive. Your Humvee would be sitting where its first tank of gasoline ran out. Cars and trucks will litter the roadways. You will need a bulldozer to get around.

Also you would probably be dead after your first trip to the gun store. The owner knows your coming and he is armed, and I will bet he is armed much better than you.


I have played this scenario out many times in my head. My belief is what I would consider somewhat safe. Always keep your canned goods well stocked at home. Plywood for the windows and doors (Hurricanes prepair you). Have a contingency to store and capture water.  There will be no way to cook or boil water unless you have a good stock of wood or lumber of some type. So living in the country sure does help.

The biggest factor for staying alive In my opinion is GUNS . I have a safe with over 30 long guns and over 40k rounds of ammo to feed them. This will be your new currency. You want food, you want medicine, you want water. Well better have something useful to trade. All the cash you have might as well be used to boil water because thats all the good it will be.  

And if your going to go somewhere to steal something, goto the library, grab medical books, and anything on survival you can find. Maybe throw some good reads in the bag for entertainment. Just remember stay away from gun stores this will get you dead.

My mindset is that a great majority of people will be dead within days. And if you can survive for a month I think you are ahead of the game. After 6-12 months or so It may be safe enough to move your family to a different community, but just remember it will more than likely be on foot and you wont be traveling any major highways.

Another way I feel I am fully prepaired is in size. I figure at 285lbs I can outlast most without eating very much if at all...


BTW for a very interesting look into what this thread is about, read THE STAND, by Stephen King. Minus all the supernatural stuff I think its a very realistic stab to what would happen with the temporary end of modern technologies.

[Hangtime]

Rgr that Rhino. I have a light/travel setup; about 70 pounds total. Will keep two alive for about 10 days if I can find water. Since I'm on Long Island and gettin off this Island means one of 5 bridges (all thru NYC) gettin off the island won't happen by vehicle. Hope to swipe a light plane or a boat.. can handle either. If by plane, north to the Hudson river valley, if by sailboat, south to the Carolinas or North to the Canadian Maritimes... depends on disaster type, local conditions, season, prevailing winds, etc.

The trick is to stay flexible and set up a 'get outta town NOW pack' so it's a grab 'n go deal. Once you decide, no lookin back.. just get moving.

Either way.. expect to have to fight my way out; I won't be the only one bailing from this messed up island.

[Chairboy]

Within a couple minutes of seeing the second plane hit the WTC, I walked to the bathroom and filled my tub, just in case something happened to infrastructure/water.  Just in case.

My neighbor and I did a quick inventory of weapons and ammo, just in case, and my wife verified our foodstuff and figured out how long it would last.

I went to work, of course, but my wife was at home with a rifle in easy reach and I had a shotgun in my trunk.  

Again, all 'just in case'.  We didn't know how bad things might get, and in hindsight it might 'seem' silly, but we figured there were a few things we could do to reduce risk without running around like chickens with their heads cut off, so we did 'em.

We've got a book that details how to make soap, skin food, grow stuff, and basically how to fill in the gaps in a public education about how to survive off the grid.  Just in case.

Are we nuts?  No.  Do we live in a compound?  Nope.  Do we pray for the armageddon so we can go and slay Satan's army for Jesus with our Mossbergs? (Only effective gun against zombies is a shotgun, you know).  Nope.

Are we a family that does little things to survive?  Sure.

[Hangtime]

Same day.. when the second tower got hit I bolted from work for the bank.. cleaned out my accounts. cell phone calls to the Ex and the kid, told 'em both to get to my place and start fillin water jugs. Next stop was the gas station.. fueled; topped off the jerry cans. Next stop was the boat, topped off the water tanks, quick MRE inventory (all spare food materials and the 'go pack' was on the boat).

Cell phones went out during this.. stopped by a friends (he's got guns & ammo), touched base, picked up a carry piece, set rondevous for midnight at the boat pending no futher contact and a deterioration of situation.

by 3:00 pm all was a ready as it could be, Ex mentioned a family friend who's a firefighter. Stopped by his station, walked into mayhem.. food, water, boots, socks, coats, everything in the med cabniets and all that they could aquire from the med supply house was going onto any kand of vehicle to be driven into the city. Started loading.. took a break at 10:00pm cancled the midnight meet and rodero'd the first loads into the city. Worked out drop point and route and established a shortwave radio link for supply coordination.

Spent the next 10 days workin 20 hour shifts at the station with the resta the neighborhood. Mountains of food and water was piling up.. coming in a bit quicker than we could get it out.. organized drop area and sorting.. kinda a parking lot based warehouse.. boots, clothing over here, canned food over there, water, drinks, there; medical supplies over there.. got ahead of the logistics pretty quick. Man we moved a LOT of stuff in for the rescue crews.

Was humbly impressed with the community here. Most did what I did, took care of personal busniess and then turned their attention to the emergency services people.. literally hundreds of folks brought stuff, stayed for hours or days to provide arms, legs and backs to get stuff onto rigs; others drove that run to the city half a dozen times a day. Local business opened their inventories, 'just take it. whatever you need.' Awsome.

Whoda thunk it. Folks just came together and got it done. Amazing and impressive. After it was over I remarked to a friend "I pity the SOB's that think Americans are soft panzie pushovers.. we rock."

And we do.

[Skydancer]

Blimey you pessimistic buggers!

[superpug1]

If anything happened, we would load up in my truck and the caprice (both carborated, no electronics aside from distributer n blinkers n stuff) hitch up the trailers, and convoy on down to mississippi. my aunt has sum properta. then we could live off the land until someone (i feel sorry for whoever that may be) takes us off the land.
BUT thats not likely to happen so ha!:aok  geeze yall dont be so negative.

[Maverick]

Short answer is yes. We already are fully mobile and can be totally self contained for days as is. Moving is no problems but the last place I figure to get close to is any major city. Those places will be a death trap for the residents who have no clue about how to live without a store, electricity and prepared foods. Best to be away and in a place where you can take care of yourself. That means water first then food supplies.

[stantond]

I have a 1917 Cold Steel US Navy replica cutlass.  I never do much more than take it out of its sheath on occasion.  I really am quite proud of it, although I don't really understand why?  My other weapons all cost more, but don't have the same basic functionality.  Being made of 1050 carbon steel, other than rusting, it is the pinnacle of sword materials and is a very effective short range weapon combined with a revolver.

Oh, wait, this is not the "are you really a pirate" thread.  My bad.


Regards,

Malta

[Jackal1]

Originally posted by Skydancer
Blimey you pessimistic buggers!

  I`d say more realistic.
It`s not being pessimistic to be prepared for what there is a high possibility of something happening such as this.
Not to be prepared or have any plan what so ever for an event such as this is...............well...just plain stupid.
  Considering events in the last few years I would say that the odds of something such as this happening have drasticaly increased. To ignore and not have a plan for such events as this is sticking your head in the sand and trying to wish it away.
 After having been around through the cold war and events such as the Cuban missile crisis it sort of wakes you up to reality. It didn`t come down then and we all hope it never does, but there have been recent events that should open the eyes of the general population to the fact that there are people out there that , if given the opportunity, will stop at nothing to do exactly what is being discussed here.
  I have seen what even something such as a major power outage for a relatively short time can do to people. It`s really amazing.
  The will and human instinct to survive, at any costs, is a very strong force. People just don`t roll over and die of their own free will for the most part. Animal instincts kick in when threatened to a certain degree.
  The people who say they had just as soon die if something like a nuclear attack occurs are smoochin the pooch and BS`n themselves and everyone else.
  You see, in a situation like this, there would be no incense and peppermint trucks rolling. It would be dog eat dog in it`s most primitive state.

[vorticon]

you people are over elaborating the end of the world type stuff...if anything that big happened, we'd all be to dead to care within the first few hours, anything smaller and more localized would  cause people to go visit relatives in the country four a couple weeks...

if your ridiculous scenario did manage to find a way to play out, this is the most likely result

there would be at least 3-5 days of everyone sitting around assessing the situation, when they realize its not getting better, they start orginizing with  there friends and families, and move off to live with whoever happens to own a few acres... until midwinter when food starts running thin, then things might get a little bad. the people who cant do this, if there smart, find a mennonite/amish community and work with them, if there lazy they quickly find themselves starved or shot.

[Mustaine]

Originally posted by kevykev56
Mustaine I like your ideas but there are many flaws with them....

you have to understand though, my original post was about a "similar" situation but not the specific example.

the original thread i replied to was about waking up one day and everyone else just "vanished" and you were the only person alive.

[FiLtH]

Wow if that was the case, Id make 3 stops. One to Johnson&Johnson, one to Hustler Inc., and one to the beer store.

[FalconSix]

I'd raid a library for all the survival/tool crafting/metallurgy/how to deliver babies/etc. books.

[kevykev56]

Originally posted by Mustaine
the original thread i replied to was about waking up one day and everyone else just "vanished" and you were the only person alive.

Well if your the only person around I guess you have a point, no problems or flaws with your ideas. People in the mix are what would throw things out of control. Death by starvation or thirst will make people do krazy stuff. If your gona die anyway why not try to take your neighbors food/water/guns. Ambush in the night, trick him. Thats what I would be trying to prevent.

To all those who think the prepaired bunch are pessimistic...

Im pretty sure that if the lights went out, without a realistic timeframe on returing. The world would be in a serious mess. Not the end of the world type stuff but certainly the end of the world as it is now. No fuel, no way to repair the lines, no repairmen to repair them after a few months. This isnt paranoia this is realism.

Be prepaired or at least have a plan. Its just stupid not to, unless you think you could just sit in your house and die of thirst and starvation without going outside and trying to acquire the goods you need to survive. Not likely you will sit and wait.

The option of driving anywhere unless you have fuel stocks today are just about Nil. If you live in a big city and want to live. Get out ASAP, take a walk/hike/swim/climb to the country.

I will survive, or die trying