100 year freeze VS Bugging out

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03Lightningrocks
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I started thinking about how crippled everyone got from a few days of no electricity. Makes me wonder just how prepared most of us really are for a serious society collapse, bug out situation. The first thing to go when any country experiences civil unrest is infrastructure like water, power and gas. Three or four days and you would have thought the end of the world was upon us.
srothstein
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I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed just how precarious our food supplies are. Even in my rural area, people went crazy stocking up. Several of the stores were still basically empty on Monday because they could not get enough truckloads in to make up for the delay.

So, when the society collapses, or the truckers go on strike, how long until we see food riots in places like NYC? I think three days.
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srothstein wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:16 pm I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed just how precarious our food supplies are. Even in my rural area, people went crazy stocking up. Several of the stores were still basically empty on Monday because they could not get enough truckloads in to make up for the delay.

So, when the society collapses, or the truckers go on strike, how long until we see food riots in places like NYC? I think three days.
Three days, is usually the watermark. Especially in areas, where the general populace relies exclusively on commercial suppliers for daily sustenance.

A lot of people, in large cities, only keep enough food on hand for that day, due to smaller living spaces. When that supply is suddenly cut, they have no fall back position. My family stocks enough food to sustain us for at least a couple of months. We have water for a couple of weeks.

While supplies on some items were low, bread and milk especially, The stores in my area, still had some food. The main issues they had was keeping power on.

I too live in a rural area, and I found out just how unprepared some of my neighbors were. Most are recent city transplants.
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bblhd672
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srothstein wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:16 pm I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed just how precarious our food supplies are. Even in my rural area, people went crazy stocking up. Several of the stores were still basically empty on Monday because they could not get enough truckloads in to make up for the delay.

So, when the society collapses, or the truckers go on strike, how long until we see food riots in places like NYC? I think three days.
We went into WalMart in Mansfield on Saturday before the major part of storm hit....a lot of shelves already were bare.

Three day "on time" inventory is a disaster waiting for a disaster to happen.
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The Annoyed Man
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srothstein wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:16 pm I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed just how precarious our food supplies are. Even in my rural area, people went crazy stocking up. Several of the stores were still basically empty on Monday because they could not get enough truckloads in to make up for the delay.

So, when the society collapses, or the truckers go on strike, how long until we see food riots in places like NYC? I think three days.
I think that most of us probably live in homes that are far better insulated and sealed from the weather than the homes that most people lived in 150 years ago. Given enough firewood and available layers of clothing, most of us might be no worse than temporarily a little uncomfortable for a time without power during an extended harsh winter. So shelter probably isn’t the primary problem for most of us.

The BIG issue is water. In my area (NRH), the store shelves are still not yet back to fully stocked. But I have a fair amount of food stored, and you can go a lot longer without food than you can without water, and the threats to the water supply in our area were far more serious than the diminished food supply.....and that was the biggest gap in my preps that I discovered during this recent storm. We have some bottled water stored up at home, and I do keep a case of bottled water in the back of my SUV. I also keep a high quality water filter in my go-bag that will treat 1000s of gallons, and another one like it at home. But realistically, in my state of health I’m not going to be trekking anywhere if it doesn’t involve 4 wheels and an internal combustion engine, so I’m not going anywhere until I can ultimately move to my place of refuge.

At my home, we are 100% dependent on city water. And our city water comes from a nearby water tower. If the city of Fort Worth can’t guarantee the safety of the water supply, then I can filter our water for only a finite amount of time, and then we’re bingo on water. If there’s no power for an extended period of time, then the city of NRH can’t pump water up into that water tower, and within days, we’re bingo on water even if my filters are good to go.

I can extend my access to water by installing some of our own private after storage, and collecting rainwater. But even then, I do not have water independence. The only way I can guarantee a water supply for my home, is to have my own well, drilled deeply enough that water table fluctuations won’t affect us. The problem is in how to get the city of NRH to allow us to do it. (That, and having the money to do it.)

So, as long as I’m going to live in close proximity to other people, I can prepare all I want; but I’ll never be truly prepared until I can make my family water independent.
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The Annoyed Man wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 2:28 pm
srothstein wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:16 pm I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed just how precarious our food supplies are. Even in my rural area, people went crazy stocking up. Several of the stores were still basically empty on Monday because they could not get enough truckloads in to make up for the delay.

So, when the society collapses, or the truckers go on strike, how long until we see food riots in places like NYC? I think three days.
I think that most of us probably live in homes that are far better insulated and sealed from the weather than the homes that most people lived in 150 years ago. Given enough firewood and available layers of clothing, most of us might be no worse than temporarily a little uncomfortable for a time without power during an extended harsh winter. So shelter probably isn’t the primary problem for most of us.

The BIG issue is water. In my area (NRH), the store shelves are still not yet back to fully stocked. But I have a fair amount of food stored, and you can go a lot longer without food than you can without water, and the threats to the water supply in our area were far more serious than the diminished food supply.....and that was the biggest gap in my preps that I discovered during this recent storm. We have some bottled water stored up at home, and I do keep a case of bottled water in the back of my SUV. I also keep a high quality water filter in my go-bag that will treat 1000s of gallons, and another one like it at home. But realistically, in my state of health I’m not going to be trekking anywhere if it doesn’t involve 4 wheels and an internal combustion engine, so I’m not going anywhere until I can ultimately move to my place of refuge.

At my home, we are 100% dependent on city water. And our city water comes from a nearby water tower. If the city of Fort Worth can’t guarantee the safety of the water supply, then I can filter our water for only a finite amount of time, and then we’re bingo on water. If there’s no power for an extended period of time, then the city of NRH can’t pump water up into that water tower, and within days, we’re bingo on water even if my filters are good to go.

I can extend my access to water by installing some of our own private after storage, and collecting rainwater. But even then, I do not have water independence. The only way I can guarantee a water supply for my home, is to have my own well, drilled deeply enough that water table fluctuations won’t affect us. The problem is in how to get the city of NRH to allow us to do it. (That, and having the money to do it.)

So, as long as I’m going to live in close proximity to other people, I can prepare all I want; but I’ll never be truly prepared until I can make my family water independent.
The whole water scare is nuts. I'm glad I have a ton of water stowed away in case of emergency. I'm definitely in no way water independent, though. I never needed to use my emergency water this storm, but I have enough for weeks in the event the water infrastructure breaks down entirely. Maybe I'll stock up some more just in case.
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The Annoyed Man wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 2:28 pm
srothstein wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:16 pm I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed just how precarious our food supplies are. Even in my rural area, people went crazy stocking up. Several of the stores were still basically empty on Monday because they could not get enough truckloads in to make up for the delay.

So, when the society collapses, or the truckers go on strike, how long until we see food riots in places like NYC? I think three days.
I think that most of us probably live in homes that are far better insulated and sealed from the weather than the homes that most people lived in 150 years ago. Given enough firewood and available layers of clothing, most of us might be no worse than temporarily a little uncomfortable for a time without power during an extended harsh winter. So shelter probably isn’t the primary problem for most of us.

The BIG issue is water. In my area (NRH), the store shelves are still not yet back to fully stocked. But I have a fair amount of food stored, and you can go a lot longer without food than you can without water, and the threats to the water supply in our area were far more serious than the diminished food supply.....and that was the biggest gap in my preps that I discovered during this recent storm. We have some bottled water stored up at home, and I do keep a case of bottled water in the back of my SUV. I also keep a high quality water filter in my go-bag that will treat 1000s of gallons, and another one like it at home. But realistically, in my state of health I’m not going to be trekking anywhere if it doesn’t involve 4 wheels and an internal combustion engine, so I’m not going anywhere until I can ultimately move to my place of refuge.

At my home, we are 100% dependent on city water. And our city water comes from a nearby water tower. If the city of Fort Worth can’t guarantee the safety of the water supply, then I can filter our water for only a finite amount of time, and then we’re bingo on water. If there’s no power for an extended period of time, then the city of NRH can’t pump water up into that water tower, and within days, we’re bingo on water even if my filters are good to go.

I can extend my access to water by installing some of our own private after storage, and collecting rainwater. But even then, I do not have water independence. The only way I can guarantee a water supply for my home, is to have my own well, drilled deeply enough that water table fluctuations won’t affect us. The problem is in how to get the city of NRH to allow us to do it. (That, and having the money to do it.)

So, as long as I’m going to live in close proximity to other people, I can prepare all I want; but I’ll never be truly prepared until I can make my family water independent.
I had "somewhat" prepared for the water issue in that I had purchased several 5-7 gallon potable water containers....but never cleaned/disinfected with bleach and filled them up. Right now I have 4 of the 5 gallon blue water containers you can buy at WallyWorld filled up without having cleaned first. So, will have to empty and do the clean/disinfect on all of them.
We had a partial case of bottled water and have replaced that. My plan when stores restock is to purchase gallon jugs of drinking water which will be more cost effective than buying 16-20oz bottles.
My nephew who lives in Frisco has a 200+ gallon water tank in his garage for emergencies. Those tanks are fairly expensive but would probably be a good purchase for urban dwellers without a close by source of water.
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The Annoyed Man wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 2:28 pmThe BIG issue is water. In my area (NRH), the store shelves are still not yet back to fully stocked. But I have a fair amount of food stored, and you can go a lot longer without food than you can without water, and the threats to the water supply in our area were far more serious than the diminished food supply.....and that was the biggest gap in my preps that I discovered during this recent storm. We have some bottled water stored up at home, and I do keep a case of bottled water in the back of my SUV. I also keep a high quality water filter in my go-bag that will treat 1000s of gallons, and another one like it at home. But realistically, in my state of health I’m not going to be trekking anywhere if it doesn’t involve 4 wheels and an internal combustion engine, so I’m not going anywhere until I can ultimately move to my place of refuge.

At my home, we are 100% dependent on city water. And our city water comes from a nearby water tower. If the city of Fort Worth can’t guarantee the safety of the water supply, then I can filter our water for only a finite amount of time, and then we’re bingo on water. If there’s no power for an extended period of time, then the city of NRH can’t pump water up into that water tower, and within days, we’re bingo on water even if my filters are good to go.
I was not really concerned about shelter at all, nor water or food. But that is at least partially because I was prepared for some and partially because I live in a rural area.My wife was more concerned about my driving in that weather, but I had no problems (even with the other idiots driving that should not have been out).

I had plenty of food in my home, and even though the stores were pretty bare, the only thing I missed out on being able to get was eggs. I picked up milk and a few other essentials that I don't keep in stock more than I am using, but I was okay. My apartment is also totally dependent on city water, and of course that caused some problems. Our local water quality is generally lousy (you can taste the oil in it), so I had a few cases of bottled water on hand for drinking. But I grew up camping in the snow in the winter and knew I could melt it. My wife was surprised when I told her that the rule of thumb was ten inches of snow will yield one inch of water. So while we were surrounded by snow, I saw it as just a touch more work than normal to get water for the toilets and such.

I am glad I live in Texas where people are neighborly and help each other. I was not surprised (as the media appeared to be) when people took bottled water that had been left outside but then left the money to pay for it inside the store through the mail slot. I just figured that it was how Texans behave and I am proud to be included with them.

My comment was about the areas with much higher population density and less helpful neighbors though. I used NYC as an example because they fit my preconceived notion of the problem. I doubt there are may preppers there, or even people who would have food/water stores for general purposes. And i do not see them as being particularly neighborly or helpful to each other. I know NYC has been hit by worse storms than what hit us and they have survived. But suppose they had some other event which caused them the same problem getting supplies in. They have shelter in that their housing can take it, but suppose something stopped trucks from getting into that city with food supplies. No problem with shelter or any utilities, just a food shortage. How long do you think they New Yorkers would go before a riot started?

This can be instructive in two ways. First is if I were a teamster still, I would look seriously at a strike lasting a week. I doubt the people would go that long. And if CW2 does ever come to a shooting war, I am nor more confident than ever that I do not have to physically conquer any of the large cities like Philly, D.C., New York, Boston, Chicago, etc. All I would need to do is enforce a blockade and let the city tear itself apart.
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Bitter Clinger
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I wonder how much water my left wing liberal neighbors from California have in their house?🤔

I bet they have at least 3 tank water heaters full...
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Bitter Clinger wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 4:49 pm I wonder how much water my left wing liberal neighbors from California have in their house?🤔

I bet they have at least 3 tank water heaters full...
:lol: :lol: :lol:

You REALLY don’t like them, do you? :mrgreen: :lol:
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