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What scenarios are you preparing for? How?

Flash

Well-Known Member
Messages
195
Location
Michigan
With all this discussion and interest in this topic, it seems to me that scenario specific details should be posted and evaluated. As an example, one's preparation for social unrest and a riot might be be different that preparing for a tornado or ice storm. Although some/many items are common, some are particular to a certain event. As I posted in another thread, preparing for Natural Disasters also prepares one for manmade (NBC) disasters as well. Example - Tornado prep also covers some basic nuclear prep and could apply to a secure location in a riot - yet wouldn't make much sense in a flood.

Riot -
secure location - defensible
arms - (12 ga., .223 rifle, handguns)
communication - CB, HAM, cell phone, police scanner

Flood -
high ground (perhaps a second story)
watercraft/life preservers
watertight containers/gear bags (think of canoe camping)

Snow/Ice storm -
warm cloathing
power - generator

Tornado -
low ground - ie basement
power - generator

One can only prepare for so many things and for a certain duration. The more versatile and multipurpose your equipment, the more applications you are prepared for.
 

Flash

Well-Known Member
Messages
195
Location
Michigan
A couple more...

Gas shortage
Motorcycle at 50 mpg
Bicycle

Fire
200' of garden hose
Smoke alarms in each room
Fire extinguishers in each bathroom (3)
3 extinguishers in Kitchen/basement stairs
3 extinguishers in Hummer
 

3Hummers

Super Moderator
Staff member
Messages
10,398
Location
Central Texas
In California I am mainly prepped for an earthquake. I have a big bin filled with canned goods, MRE's and emergency rations, 4-5 cases of water, 30 gallons worth of water containers, batteries, flashlights, Coleman stove, small generator, case and ahalf of propane bottles plus two propane tanks, all the usual camping gear and then my self/home defense items( Benelli M4, P220, AR and plenty of bang bang stuff ) etc. I always keep my vehicles pretty full on fuel, bug out bag at the ready and my HAM radio ready to go with multiple fully charged batteries and car charger.
Using the same supplies and equipment I think my second most likely scenario is another Rodney King like riot or social unrest even though last time it didn't get anywhere near my location.
 

LagunaH1

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,703
Location
Lake Forest, CA
I'm prepping for a severe earthquake with loss of utilities and possible general scarce resources. Should such an event occur, my plan is to stay home and lay low until things improve.

Food, water, etc for me and the dog. I have plenty of radios and batteries and whenever I'm not on a run I always leave the aux fuel tank in the truck full. I have basic camping gear that would come in handy (gas stove and fuel for it).

I'm debating whether I want to include self defense in my prep. I know there are many points of view on that particular topic so I'm going to see what folks here are prepping for and use that to try and make up my mind.

I don't think the "official" guidance of 3 days is accurate. In the event of an event that affects where I live, I'd expect utilities of the unavailable for much longer.

...that is, of course, if I'm home when the vent occurs
 

cgalpha08

"Like Nothing Else"
Messages
3,584
Location
Indianapolis, IN
We are prepping for a multitude of things. One being a terrorist attack on nyc, due to our close proximity to it. Another would be some sort of societal break down. And of course zombies.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
 

3Hummers

Super Moderator
Staff member
Messages
10,398
Location
Central Texas
My plan is to be self sufficient for 30 days and have the ability to bug out at any time up to and including the 30 day mark for California. In the event of a major earthquake bugging out immediately after the event might not even be possible.
In the event of any type of event in Texas I am self sufficient for a much longer period of time.
 

LagunaH1

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,703
Location
Lake Forest, CA
Ah, yes, zombies. I should add that to my list of possible scenarios.

30 days sounds like a good goal. If basic safety and utilities aren't restored at that point, at least in parts, then maybe at that point I'd want to bug out.
 

M22KLARS

Unsafe At Any Speed
Messages
2,315
Location
Minnesota
Honestly... I'm not really preparing for any one catastrophe. I'm just trying to be prepared in general. For me, it makes the most sense. If I'm prepping for one thing and another happens then I feel that some of what I was preparing for will be in vein. Surely I can use most/all supplies for whatever happens but I just like to think of it was being prepared.
 

Flash

Well-Known Member
Messages
195
Location
Michigan
Using the same supplies and equipment I think my second most likely scenario is another Rodney King like riot or social unrest even though last time it didn't get anywhere near my location.

Having personally witnessed and lived through the Flint/Pontiac/Detroit riots of the late 60's and the associated fallout (my Junior High School was ranked #1 in the nation for civil unrest at the time with uniformed officers in the halls), I readily concur that this is one scenario that could happen anytime and anywhere. With mobs, one needs to either be evasive or have enough force to turn them back (or join them). A couple of guns won't do it. When facing large numbers, it is best to have your own "band of brothers". One reason why neighbors (family members) need to be on somewhat of a similar page. If law enforcement can't help you (think Katrina), then having your own group is pretty important.

Of course, you might be one of the looters yourself given the right set of circumstances.

Imagine your local outlaw MC and how you would thwart their takeover of your residence/neighborhood. Unless you had a good number of well armed neighbors/family, you might better have a plan of evasion. In my neighborhood, there are way too many pacifists or those who think social unrest is the sole responsibility of the Local/State/Federal government. Thus my preparation plans are limited to just a very small group (immediate family), with some of those 30 minutes to an hour away by car. Makes awareness/communication crucially important in my planning contingincies.

edit to add: last night we had 6" of rain. Hail covered the mulch beds by 11Pm it nearly looked like christmas. Many basements have collapsed and I-75 has been closed for nearly 12 hours trying to rescue a semi driver stranded on his roof. One just never knows when and where an emergency might come up.
 
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3Hummers

Super Moderator
Staff member
Messages
10,398
Location
Central Texas
Fortunately 2 of my 4 neighbors are very like minded people, which is rare for SoCal. One has a business that supplies weapons, real and fake, to the entertainment industry. He has far more firepower than I do.
 

skeptic

Well-Known Member
Messages
737
Location
Orygun
Nothing specific, the most likely things would be natural disasters. We've talked about putting together enough stuff for at least 1 month, maybe up to 6 months. Severe storms in the winter that could knock out utilities and close stores for a few weeks, earthquakes, that sort of thing. It's low on my list of things to do, we will be converting an area in the basement into a wine cellar, and part of that will be set aside for emergency food/water, and perhaps some other emergency supplies. It's low on the list, but at least it's on the list. :)
 

abearden

Well-Known Member
Messages
609
Location
N. Idaho
LagunaH1, self-defense is a MUST. Particularly where we live. Cities will get violent when people run out of food. I don't know how much experience you have, but if you want to go plinking at the range some time let me know.

Because LagunaH1's the only one who can show up, and I'd gladly group-up with him, I can safely post this. :) Sounds like he's got the same idea anyway.

I prep for generalities. I've got a couple of disaster scenarios mapped out, but I know plans go to hell the moment you start. Top of my list for scenarios includes earthquakes, severe storms, riot, extended power outages, and general complete havoc. Not a whole lot of floods when you live on the hilltop, and weather is pretty mild in CA. In most major scenarios, the idea is to bug-in for at least 30 days, then if things are still sideways the situation can be evaluated for either bug-out or continued bug-in. For the minor stuff (less than a week), I'll be working with our local version of CERT and straightening things out. If I end up needing to bug out, I eventually want enough fuel in the truck to get 700+ miles w/o fuel stops; if it's local I'm going over the hills via trails.

At the moment I'm setup for 2 people: 2 weeks of water on-site (storage for 8 weeks total, but empty), water filters, about 3 months of food @ 2k calories a day, battery bank w/ inverter for power (still working on the solar), lots of various tools and gear, a few radios of various bands, 2 primary calibers of firearms w/ appropriate ammo supply, and currently working on my truck as a bug-out-vehicle (aim is 2-4 weeks self-sufficient in the wilderness so I can take vacation!). Still working on cooking fuel, power, vehicle, and training. I'd like 6 months to a year of food and cash on hand in case of unemployment with 12 weeks of water, but I'm not there yet.
 

LagunaH1

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,703
Location
Lake Forest, CA
You bring up good points Arthur. I guess part of my hesitation about self defense is based in my (naive?) belief in the good in people. It makes complete sense to me that if resources (food, water, fuel) get scarce enough there can easily be looting and violence but I don't *want* to believe that i might have to defend myself against people who wants to steal my food and water etc.

Previous posts about the need for an evasion plan really hit home with me. I don't think I'd know how to defend my home against gangs of looters.

Having said that, going to the range to have fun is *always* well, fun :D
 

Paladine71

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
Messages
1,483
Location
Tallmansville, WV
I am preparing for anything and everything, and hoping that none of it ever happens. Some people will call me paranoid, but my view is, if I'm ready for anything, what is there to be paranoid about? I've been in well over 30 countries, many of them in complete, or near complete, collapse. I was part of the cleanup of Hurricanes Hugo, Andrew and Bertha. I've even seen a barn ripped to pieces by a tornado right in front of me. I've seen people butcher each other for petty stuff, that makes me a realist. Society wears a very thin veil of civility. If people will fight and kill each other over shoes, or other stupid things, they will be completely out of control if they, or their children, are starving literally to death. I've thought seriously about this for years and don't want to see my family suffer because I was negligent, or too confident in the "just in time" supply system that we have in this country. LagunaH1, get some guns and learn to use them. The other guys will. Don't have too much confidence in the goodness of others, you will be disappointed.

The most likely scenarios that I see are currency collapse and social unrest. I don't underestimate natural disasters (see above) but those things have always happened. I believe that there is a very deliberate plan to form a one-world government, and the only way to get Americans, and most Europeans, to cooperate is to make them so desperate that they ask for it to save them. The massive spending that we've been doing is, I believe, intentional, to overload our system. If the dollar collapses, our whole world will change, in a bad way. Supply lines will stop, making food, medicine, fuel and nearly everything else scarce. This is not some unrealistic scenario, it's happened in other countries before (Germany, Argentina and Zimbabwe come to mind). Only our dollar will be much worse. We are not an agricultural society anymore, we are reliant on the power grid and supermarkets, and gas stations. The dollar is the world's reserve currency, we are a nation that lives off of debt. If all of those nations stop trading in our dollars, they will lose value and our purchasing power may fall to nothing. That's basic supply and demand.

I'm putting away everything that I think will make my family more survivable in a complete collapse scenario. Our ultimate goal is to become self-reliant. I want to develop a closed-loop aquaponics system.
 

deserth3

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,069
Location
Conroe, TX
Mostly I'm preparing for what can happen locally. Earthquake and a sunami. Though I believe I'm far enough from the lake to avoid the wave. I'm more likely to have problems from liquefaction.


Don't laugh at Zombies. There is a posibility of some yahoo qenetics nutbag designing a bactreia that can cause zombie like symptoms. I've also read there are some diseases that can cause Zombie like symptoms. Just like the plague, you never know when something will pop up and cause an epidemic.
 

3Hummers

Super Moderator
Staff member
Messages
10,398
Location
Central Texas
Never want to be an alarmist but always want to be a realist. People do bad **** when they are desperate. You have to be able to convince them to try the bad **** on someone else. That is where self defense comes in. I am extremely capable of self defense without weapons but in reacting to any of the scenarios where disaster has struck it likely won't be one on one or two on one and the chance of the other group being armed is great. That is why weapons proficiency is critical. That is why I am a Diamond level member at FrontSite. Mikkel I have some courses I bought before I became a Diamond member for tactical pistol, rifle and shotgun. If you decide you want to go let me know and I can gift one of the courses to you. Plan on an ammo budget of about $500.00 for one course.
 

bro of bro of 3 & 3hummer

Well-Known Member
Messages
197
Location
South Padre Island, Texas
Hanging out on the Texas Coast near the border my main concerns are a hurricane and possible border violence. I try to stay semi prepared for both. My plans are somwhat easier than most people since my wife and I live in our bus. My evacuation plan for the hurricane is to get into my motorhome that always has 300 gallons of diesel, a 125 gallons of fresh water, a 15 KW generator, and enough food, bottled water, and clothing for us to last a long time and go to Dave's place in the country. The border violence is real but mostly away from us. Carry either my 45 or 380 anytime I go to an area of concern, more firepower at home. Always carry weapons when fishing offshore or in the bay since it is usally just my wife and I. Large presence of both Coast Guard and Homeland Security on the water. In the event of civil unrest I'm still going to Dave' place in the country and hang out.
 

Tractordoll

Well-Known Member
Messages
130
Location
Western massachusetts
Last year I lived through a tornado, microburst storm, Hurricane Irene and the early Halloween Nor 'easter storm. I got taught a really good lesson in all of those storms. By far from what I learned and the biggest takeaway is what it's like to live in a world with no power. Simple things like hot water to take a shower are things I could only dream of. Gasoline and/or diesel can only be obtained when the gas stations themselves have power but when they don't one better have back up gas cans at home ready to go :)

Cooking a meal. I am lucky in that I have 2 wood stoves in my house so I was able to start a fire and at least I could eat a nice hot meal by cooking on the stove top. I am also extremely glad that I bought the ARB fridge for the H2 last year. When I bought it I thought of it as being a way over the top portable cooler, but it turned out to be a true food saver because I ended up using it to keep the food in my freezer/fridge fresh. I just had to remember to start the truck every few hours and let it run, but that alone saved me at least a few hundred dollars worth of groceries from going bad.

Food. For water I buy these bottles of Poland Springs, 1.5 gallon bottles when they are on sale at the local grocery store. Every now and then they have a 10 for $10 special, so I will buy 10. I will put some in the downstairs fridge to keep it cool and the rest I keep in a storage room. Then once the warm weather hits I will start drinking the water and replace it with the next batch when they go on sale. This way I sort of "rotate the stock" and keep the bottled water relatively fresh. I also like to shop at our local Costco/BJ's, i.e. wholesale club, and mostly if you buy food there you have to buy industrial sized food portions. So I keep my storage room stocked up with food by buying from a whole sale club. But like the water I will use up the food in storage and replace with a new batch when possible.

Entertainment in a world with no power. Lets face it, movies, tv etc are a good way to kill the last 2 hours of the day and that's pretty hard to do with no power. That is why I am so glad I have the Ipad. It was my personal entertainment. Last year I went on a kick and ripped all of my DVD's at home onto a NAS drive. Then I could transfer and watch any movie I wanted to my Ipad or Iphone. And with the really good battery life of the Ipad I could watch a good 2 maybe 3 movies before needing a recharge and if I used the recharger in my H3T it could be recharged in about 1/2 hour. At least I am thankful I enabled the wifi hot spot on my iphone and this way I was able to get an internet connection using my wireless account.

By far the most valuable vehicle after all of those storms wasn't any of the Hummers, it was my tractor. It was the only machine that had instant value in the immediate aftermath of the storms. In fact that tractor and 1 of my chainsaws was worth their weight in gold right after a couple of those storms. The tractor also has something that makes it pretty unique; it can dig itself out of it's own trouble. The onboard hydraulics can easily lift the machine off the ground and can be used to actually move it if needed. Second after the tractor was my H2. There was some serious flooding and it was the only machine I could trust to drive through the flood waters and downed trees. After Irene last year a lot of roads in the berkshires are literally wiped out (probably good for 4 wheeling now lol).

I did manage to find a company that sells a kit that enables the wood stove to function as either the primary or standby hot water heater. I prefer this to a standby generator because the generator itself will run out of juice at some point but as long as there are trees, I will have a home with hot water. So that will be one of my next projects for the house. I still feel that a generator is a nice to have, but with what I have (short of not having hot water) I would be able to survive for quite some time if I needed to be holed up in the house.
 
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