I haven't exactly read everything stated above, due to being a lazy *******
I just want to give my 2 cents on the original topic question, as first posted. I have thought about these questions a lot and I've read and heard a lot of replies of people on these questions.
Firstly, I do practice preparedness for any infrastructural inconvenience that lasts for a short period of time. let's say, a week. I'm talking about things as power failure, sudden stop of water supply, no gas, etc. For these situations I have a few candles, a wind up radio, a wind up flashlight, about 25 liters of water, a bunch of cans of food, first aid kit, etc, etc; the things you would normally think about when trying to prepare for such an event.
Now, all of these things are focussed on a short term event that is merely an inconvenience for a lot of people or maybe an exciting event for some. If we start talking about long term problems: natural disasters, logistic failure regarding food supply to stores (did you know there is only 5 days worth of food in your supermarket), war, chemical disasters , etc, then the game suddenly changes completely. Because then you'll have two problems: Short term: where do I get my food and water from this week?
But Long termproblems arise too: where do I get my food and water from this week and the next? And also: how are my parents, girlfriend, boyfriend, cats, dogs, grandma's, friends, etc doing? Is there still law enforcement? Or are we now in a state of lawlessness, and if so: how do I protect myself against looting? In case of evacuation: where do I go, what do I take, is it safe there? Are there friendlies?
All these last questions are the one's that, in my opinion, are the most important ones to think about. Every single person can get food in a large town; if they are the only one in that town. Now if every single person in that town wants food and there is no supply then say welcome to scarcity. scarcity leads to an explosive situation and lawlessness. And that's what I dread the most.
If you ask most people the: "what would you do?" question. Most would say: I'd go to the forest huntin', hell yeah, I'd live off the land, I'd move to the countryside, and more of these tough one-liners. If everyody would do this then the countryside would be empty in one week and then you're back to square one. To quote Caribou:
Originally Posted by cariboo View Post
The closest town to us of 25,000 lost 2,000 jobs in the last couple of weeks.
Every year we see more men with guns tramping through the bush looking for something to put in thier freezer. Blazing away. Bullets flying all around us. 3 times in the last 2 seasons I've had to head out into the bush with my dogs to track them down and ask them to stop.
I do feel for city dwellers. I lived in cities for 35 years. Cramped space, morgages to keep up, children to feed.... so really no offence
I think the best thing to prepare for such an event is to talk about it on forums like these. To think about what would you do and be critical about what solutions you come up with. You can draw up a plan what you would do, where you would go, who you would call and what you would take.
For everybody who likes to think about what STUFF to have in the house I'd say for short term: the candles, radio, etc. For long term? Invest in food, but also in cigarettes (if you don't smoke) and booze, because these are the only methods of paying if all ATM's are out and YES they will triple in value. Furthermore a map of your country would be helpfull. A crowbar for getting in and out of buildings in an emergency, something to signal with to rescue teams or other people, Last, but certainly not least: a picture of a loved one. and furthermore: everything you think will come in handy.
my 2 cents.
