What to Do?

[The Reaper]

Okay, disaster planning check here.

Obviously, we need to have a plan for disaster preparation so that we can make the right moves to maximize our likelihood of survival.

BTW, it isn't hoarding if you are buying and storing in times of plenty.

You have whatever is on your possession already. Events unfold over the evening that shock you when you turn on the TV tomorrow morning. Your trigger events are occurring/have occurred. You are in Condition Orange. It would appear that a political/economic/societal collapse or natural disaster is imminent. For planning purposes, assume that you are soon going to have to get by without public utilities or reliable resupply for an unknown period. The situation is permissive, in that you can take whatever lawful action you choose, at least for the next few hours. It is a weekday. There is no immediate threat to your life, stores are still stocked, cash (or credit cards) are still being accepted, but people are increasingly aware that there is a problem and are getting more and more anxious.

You have a little time and whatever resources you have or can gather.

What do you do? What do you do first?

Place your actions in priority order, most important to least important, just as you would in planning.

Anyone care to share?

TR

[Pete]

Interesting Question

The key would be that only a couple of hours warning can make a big difference.

Those who live in the southeast coastal areas see that when a Hurricane approaches their area. Get yours in the morning and watch the crowd fight over the last loaf of bread in the afternoon.

I'd take the pickup to Sams and get about 24 big bags of dog food, similar rice, lots of cooking oil and assorted cases of canned meat and veggies. Fill all vehicles and gas containers. Test generator. Check news and then buy freezer foods and general staples from local store. Get cash. On the way back from the bank swing by Lowe's and pick up a shit pot load of various seed packs for next year.

I would consider all of the above just "Topping Off" and except for the rice would be used up anyway.

People - You can practice on a small garden. You will have the experience to prepare more of your back yard over the winter and expand the garden the following spring.

[LarryW]

Concur with Pete's plan. Want to make sure I can pack all that stuff in my Jeep/truck. Would assemble the Grab Bag (fanny pack) (which in my plan is a beginning element of the Back Pack which is the beginning element of the BOB (Box) which is a pair of 100qt coolers) and make a drive along the most suitable evacuation route. The goal is to get to an area where I can wait safely for a time to re-group and better assess the situation. Purpose of the drive is to ID most recent landmarks and road conditions, detours, etc and validate the map, considering alternative routes, etc. The route should follow less traveled passes, avoiding potential high congestion choke-points along Interstates, major river crossing structures, etc. There's a trade off between the quickest route and the route that would offer the lower profile. As is mentioned elswhere on this topic, what you have may be of value to others.

(Still making notes re: this thought...good thread.)

[LarryW]

FWIW, attached is the BOB plan I'm working on. The idea is to have critical items spread out over more than one method of carry. Notion is that if one method is compromised then there is some form of back-up. Given the scenario, the objective at this early stage would be to locate all the required contents so that a Bug Out (if necessary) could be accomplished in the minimum amount of time, and review/validate an evacuation route.

This is a work in progress and admittedly not good enough right now to consider final.

FWIW only.

DRAFT BOB Plan.pdf

[Pete]

A cooking fire is something that takes practice and cooking over it.

Bags of Charcoal and standard propane bottles will run out pretty quick.

One, repeat one, piece of regular seasoned wood will provide enough fire to fry a pan of Spam, cook a small pot of rice and heat some water for clean up.

Trick is to take an ax to it and split it into finger size pieces. Use about half to get the fire going, start frying and boiling water, adding pieces as needed and then finish any slow cooking with the coals. Kinda' flash fire cooking.

Cooking large meals for many people will require lots of fire wood and bigger fires.

This can be practiced now. Get one of those $3 grills at the local food store. Pick up dead sticks in your yard or get one of those $5 bundles of wood when you get the grill. Get everything ready, build a wood fire in it and cook the meal. Kids will love helping - its an "adventure".

[The Reaper]

Good, solid thinking.

Pete hit the nail on the head. Any prediction of snow around here and the stores are immediately stripped of mik, bread, and eggs, or as someone called it earlier, French Toast buying. Hurricane coming and all of the above, plus batteries, flashlights, generators, plywood, bottled water, etc., get cleaned out.

Anyone considered putting any water away before the municipal water supply fails?

Sometimes, I wish I had a well on my property.

With an uncertain situation, might be a good time to check your carry weapon and consider adding extra ammo, a vest, and a long gun to the vehicle loadout.

Do you take everyone in the house with you, or leave someone at home to hold down the fort and make preparations there?

TR

[Ret10Echo]

I have been contemplating looking for a handpump or other solution for the well pending a power outage pump failure. Well depth has a lot to do with it and it may turn out that the solution is adptation of a stationary bike to operate the pump. Had a surface pump out in AZ, so a 35' depth would be easier. Not that shallow back East so that is problematic.

Route selection is key for evac, specifically in certain situations where an understanding of historical storm tracks and prevailing winds are taken into consideration. Avoidance of dense population centers, movement to alternate site will require an extended route avoiding lines of drift followed by the average population. Currently planning on a multi-day movement to cover what is normally about 3 - 4 hours.

[LarryW]

Ret10:

This is an option, although limited to depth, might be a good addition to the "plan".

http://www.lehmans.com/store/Water__..._H426355?Args=

Water table in my neck of the woods is about 35' max. One would have to learn how to "read" the geology in vic of the campsite.

Currently planning on a multi-day movement to cover what is normally about 3 - 4 hours.

Concur with your est re: travel time to a place where one could sustain security and survival.

[akv]

I too agree with Pete's basic plan, with a few specific geographic additions.

Living in a city, my basic plan is to make my way 30 miles south to family in the hills. I have a few close friends I would tell to meet me at my place in an hour, while I load up the SUV with my BOB bag, and other guns, ammo, dry food and warm clothing. I think the most important thing in my case is to first clear the city before the panic hits. If the roads south aren't gridlocked yet my preference is to just leave together and wait to hit the stores/bank in the suburbs instead of the city.

I have a friend with a boat, ( thanks for the suggestion TR) if the panic has hit the roads, we drive/walk to the boat. He is teaching me how to operate the boat. He travels a lot for work, our agreement is in exchange for a spot on the boat, if something hits will he is away I will help his wife and kids get to the boat.

I would also try and call family across the country and tell them where I am headed, and to take step for themselves. I wouldn't leave anyone behind in the city.

[Paslode]

Since it is in the evening and everyone is home.

If it is natural disaster related Tornado's and Ice Storms

Have the wife head to the gas station to fill up and then to the store to pick up some food goods and some more batteries. I would run by the bank do an ATM withdrawal, then hit the gas station to fill up the truck, the gas cans and a propane tank or two if needed. Listen to the radio while I am out.


If it is political unrest related.

Call my cousins to see what is going on down in their rural area and determine if we are better off staying put or heading to the hills. If we leave town, we load up the go gear, hit the ATM, the Gas Station and then hit the road. If we stay put we follow the above plan.

[echoes]

Peeking in here slowly TR, Sir. Am sure there are things missing from my Plan of Action below...just hope it is okay to add to the thread Sir...

Around here, "April Showers bring May Flowers." In short, my AO rests in the center of Tornado Alley. My plan is:

Announcement:Tornado emminent:

1. Secure handheld communication devices; Cell phone, Phone, Battery operated radio.

2. Check in Safe room for Back-Ups of; Proper safety equipment, communication equiptment, evacuation equiment, sustainable supplies...Dried/canned food and bottled water, required meds, personal hygene products, changes of essential clothing and footware, and an envelope of cash, all in place, check.

3. Evacuate to safe room; All persons in house. If power is not available, have manual lifting/transporting devices at the ready.

Holly

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by akv

I wouldn't leave anyone behind in the city.

You missed the point.

If you were going to shelter in place, or come back to the house after making the buying run, the question was would you leave anyone there to secure the house while you were out, to make preparations, fill water containers, make a quick pass through for potentially useful items, secure the house, nail up plywood for shutters, put all battery operated devices on their chargers, make phone calls or contact attempts, monitor the situation, etc.

It would be a shame to have your own house and supplies looted while you were out making preparations.

I would probably get the kids home, and then have at least one of them stay there while the wife and I made our collection run. Assuming that the shelves were still stocked, I need to make about six or seven stops for purchases, etc. If the wife and one of the kids (extra hands and security) gassed up and hit the Wally World, I could visit the bank, top off the truck and gas cans, head for the hardware or farm supply store, hit a grocery for as much as I could find, and stop by the gun store on the way home to finish picking up ammo.

If the event did not occur, I could return a lot of the items we picked up but didn't need, or as Pete suggested, just use it up.

If a natural disaster struck, and did not destroy the house, we would be GTG for at least a month without any outside support. Probably several months with some more water and gas. If it were some sort of civil disturbance or breakdown of law and order, I think we are relatively well prepared for that contingency also.

TR

[Pete]

Stay or Go?

Caused by man or caused by nature?

Total with no end in sight or temp of a few weeks maybe a couple of months?

For those hitting the road and heading for the back country there has to be a tigger point of "go - no go".

Go too soon and as things calm down you return to a looted home. Wait too long and you're easy pickings in a road ambush.

Stay, and stay loo long, and you're stuck in place.

Stay and in a suburban area you become stuck with your neighbors.

Comms, Comms, more comms and back up comms. Power? Solar panels with a converter to keep cell phones, etc charged.

Bikes? A good town/country bike with mid size tires and cargo racks. If gas and food becomes rationed or scarce local in and about transport might be better on a bike and in groups using security.

The key - as TR stated - is that all of the parts of your plan should be in place. You spot something that may happen and you have a couple of hours jump on the sheeple.

Thats why for me it would be dog food. The Curb Setters eat about a bag a week but in return are early warning.

Practice parts of your plan to make sure they all work.

[akv]

Originally Posted by TR

If you were going to shelter in place, or come back to the house after making the buying run, the question was would you leave anyone there to secure the house while you were out, or to make preps, pack, fill water containers, make a quick pass through for potentially useful items, secure the house, nail up plywood for shutters, put all battery operated devices on their chargers, make phone calls or contact attempts, monitor the situation, etc.

It would be a shame to have your own house and supplies looted while you were out making preparations.

That makes sense, I hope to avoid that decision by having my place be the meeting point. I would pack stuff on hand for an hour into the SUV while the friends showed up. We wouldn't go for supplies until we had cleared the city and were in the suburbs. I also feel it is best for the group not to separate while in the city.

[CommoNCO]

This thread is the one that finally has me saving some of these documents, and budgeting to make some intelligent purchases NOW, as not to be an early casualty in the event a catastrophe like this happens - I also think that at a time like that, a hardcopy of the Ranger handbook is going to prove a life saver.