Be prepared

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by Jeeves, Mar 7, 2020.

  1. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    Have you made any preparations for extreme events?
    Blizzard, earthquake, tornado, hurricane, flood, fire, sinkhole, oil-spill... other?
    If so, what?
     
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  3. wegs Matter and Pixie Dust Valued Senior Member

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    I live in an area where hurricane season causes everyone to panic and I’m just like...meh. I don’t live near the coastal waterways, but this isn’t to say that something catastrophic couldn’t happen. Honestly, my “plan” would be to evacuate if I felt my life were in danger instead of “hunkering down” with a life time supply of batteries, canned goods and water. I just can’t imagine staying home without electricity for weeks, with no running water. A generator sounds like a good investment.

    What is your plan, Jeeves?
     
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  5. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    For us, hunkering down is the most practical option.
     
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  7. wegs Matter and Pixie Dust Valued Senior Member

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    I think in such moments, I'm struck by how a natural disaster can take away my freedom (and maybe my life, etc) But, hunkering down feels like I have no say in what happens next...and even if that's true, it unsettles me.
     
  8. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    Solar power, 2 week supply of food/water, some cash on hand, emergency meeting places, emergency radios.
     
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  9. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    Not bad! Way back, we got a couple of those little wind-up radios and linear induction flashlights.
    In LA, we were advised to have a go-bag in the garage. But, um, what if the power's out and the garage door won't open?
    Anyway, the day after the earthquake (1994), we packed up our dogs, cat and portable possessions and came back to Canada. (The earthquake was just an excuse - Anaheim Hills sustained very little damage - we'd been fed up with the contract already.)
     
  10. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    Standard stuff, candles, matches, firewood, extra batteries, flour, cooking oil, cheese, ham, etc., etc, ...'and, oh yes
    3 bottles of bourbon, 2 of rye whiskey, 2 of scotch, 3 of canadian whiskey, 4 of ouzo, and a gallon of rum.

    sitting in front of the fire in the bunker with some ham and cheese and home-made bread and a glass of whiskey
    and wondering, from time to time, if I should get up and see how the blizzard(or flood) is doing
     
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  11. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    Mass cache of weapons so I can go around stealing everyone else emergency supplies.
     
  12. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    I have enough food in the house for today.
     
  13. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    We'll pry them from your cold, dead hands when the snow melts.
     
  14. geordief Valued Senior Member

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  15. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    "I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands" is a slogan popularized by the National Rifle Association (NRA) on a series of bumper stickers.

    Well, I mean if Q is slogging through a blizzard to take Sculptor's ham-and-whiskey breakfast, it serves him right to have his larcenous fingers freeze to his butt.
     
  16. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    When I was in Italy there was a lot of right wing and left wing armed groups (it was just after Aldo Moro) .

    I met one of the latter (that I knew of). To give a flavour of their mind set,they had diving gear and aqualungs in their houses and the idea (as they told me and which I have not verified) was to steal or loot from houses submerged under water as a consequence of the fairly regular earthquakes in the South of the country.


    It was fairly well known that the Mafia siphoned off large amounts of grants afforded to affected regions.I don't know if that had any input into their mindset.

    It was quite a rough time with a lot of German politicians and Judges being killed or kidnapped ** -and also in Italy. (I think it was also around the time of Patti Hearst in USA and all that)

    ** the Baader-Meinhof gangs.
     
  17. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    Did I forget to mention the parkas and snowmobiles?
     
  18. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    Doesn't matter. The snowmobilers generally bob to the surface in early April. Their guns do not.
     
  19. davewhite04 Valued Senior Member

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    You operate on a daily basis with the above actually existing in case of a blizzard? You've got a bunker?
     
  20. davewhite04 Valued Senior Member

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    I can visualise you doing it

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  21. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    ok
    confession
    Most of the above was posted as humor.......................

    That being said, we are rural, and I grew up rural. so when you know that you might be stuck where you are due to flood or blizzard or ice storm, you make sure to be well provisioned, and able to survive without electricity.

    bunker
    The fool who started building the main part of the house was a survivalist, and he did make a bunker under the garage. He made a video of the place in an attempt to sell it and in his video, he said..."and when you are down here, you are surrounded by a minimum of 10 inches of concrete on all six sides. ..... he ran out of money before he finished the house and could not sell it for what he had in to it-----so, I bought it from the bank for less than they had in it.
    The fool thought "bunker", and I thought "thermal mass"-----so with a rented saw, $200.00 of diamond sawblades and hammers and chisels, I somewhat debunkerized it, and put a wood burning stove down there which warms the thermal mass. Heat rises---so, when that thermal mass is warm, it heats the house as it gives up it's heat all night long. And then, I built a solar heat collector atop the garage, and with a channel and blower, blow 80-120 degree air down to that onetime bunker which also warms that thermal mass. When the sun is shining(no clouds) that supplies most of the heatload for the shop and house for the electricity used by the blower.

    That being said: It seems(to me) that most survivalists invest too heavily in preparations for events which will most likely, never happen.
     
  22. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    Does the notion of preparedness strike you as bizarre? Many people feel that way.
    That's why, when they're overtaken - quite literally on a daily basis, somewhere in the world, for some weather event, geological activity, accident, sabotage or madness - they run around flapping like headless chickens and the people who had more foresight have to go rescue them.
    Bunkers have limited application and require a disproportionate investment of resources: they're not cost-effective.

    OTH, what does it cost to lay in some water, canned goods, a few candles and a Coleman stove? What's odd about familiarizing yourself with the fastest route to safety and having your vital documents and essentials ready to hand? Or learning what particular hazards are most likely in your locality and what measures minimize your risk?
    Optimism, trust in the infrastructures of civilization, faith in a deity are all comforting, but I still keep my powdered milk dry.
     
  23. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    One time when the power went out at work and we were sitting around waiting for it to come back on, I suggested we should decide who to eat first. Not me, of course - too old and stringy. The cashier was young and tender but she wasn't very big, wouldn't last long.
     
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