For all the "preppers" out here

[*zap*]

The behavior we all saw at the start of the vid will be nothing compared to what will happen if the grid/internet was to go down for days with no end to that in sight.

Taking steps that will enable you to maintain your life in a crisis are not foolish at all....

 

[Drenalin]

During the great toilet paper scare after covid started, I witnessed a woman with 960 rolls of toilet paper at Costco. That was epic. I saw other things happen at the grocery stores too. I was in our local Fred Meyer one time and the store looked like it had been looted. People do crazy things in crazy times.

I was in a third world country when COVID got serious in the US. Got back one week later and literally could not buy TP and it was the one thing we didn't have on hand. Called a buddy and he gave us a few rolls.

 

[*zap*]

the great toilet paper run speaks volumes about how unprepared/unrealistic this country is...

 

[taskswap]

The thing most preppers and "survivalists" never bother to address is sustainability. 22LR and "water faucet keys" don't get far in situations where you'd actually need things like that. I think most preppers severely overestimate their ability to defend themselves against raiders while hunting and growing enough food to survive not just for a few months, but for an extended period, like 10 years. The types of disasters that require you to have a 6-month supply of food but ALSO let you buy more after 6 months are a really short list - maybe even an empty one. And just because you throw some packets of seeds or a few boxes of 22LR into your trunk "just in case" doesn't mean you're going to be able to drive into the foothills and shoot a rabbit for dinner without 300 other hungry people attacking you for doing it.

Just do the math. There are ~6 million people in Colorado alone today. There are around 300k elk. Without sustainable agriculture, you aren't going back to a hunter/gatherer lifestyle to feed that many people for more than weeks, at the most. If you can have sustainable agriculture, the farmers that live on that land aren't just going to let a bunch of people come start shooting their cows or shoveling out their own plots of vegetables and homesteading in their crop circles. And if you CAN'T have sustainable agriculture you'll be lucky if your survival supplies last a year or two. The most likely "big enough disaster that local society has broken down, but small enough that I might actually survive 10 years" almost all require you to relocate. Nuclear fallout renders a portion of the US unlivable, and suddenly South America starts looking pretty good. (Imagine the irony of them denying all our refugees...) So first priorities usually need to revolve around mobility and transportation. Get out, get away, and figure it out from there.

For anybody that actually wants to make a "might actually be useful" plan I'd highly recommend these two books:

* Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven
* Seveneaves - Neal Stephenson

Both novels focus on realistic end-of-the-world "as we know it" situations where survivalist supplies would actually be useful. The first evaluates a situation where the Western seaboard gets wiped out. The survivors from that area who manage to escape have to deal with a mix of a) how to get out of there, and b) where to go and live, in areas overrun with other refugees already and not exactly welcome to more. There's an interesting transition from the first few days and weeks of "just live" to the first few months of "supplies running out, find food and shelter while dodging petty thieves" up to a "5-10 year scenario" of "now what next?" (The big thing most prepper strategies don't cover.)

Seveneaves looks at a more dire situation - Earth itself no longer being able to support its current full population. In this, one population moves into space, one moves into submarines, and one to very remote areas of northern Alaska/Canada and so on. Each of their survival needs is very different for obvious reasons, and the book studies a few ways they might address them.

I'll leave you with this one thought. Anybody that thinks they know anything about self-defense and can see themselves as the next Mad Max is fooling themselves. You don't need to be better armed or more practiced than a petty criminal. If your plan doesn't cover what to do in the face of 300 determined attackers in a band, it's not a real survivalist strategy. Any disaster less than that probably only requires you to drive to Miami. Anything more, you probably won't make it anyway, unless you're both lucky and healthy. The single best thing you can do to survive most situations is lose 20lbs today, because mobility is king.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

the great toilet paper run speaks volumes about how unprepared/unrealistic this country is...

I was prepared.

 

[*zap*]

 

[mtwarden]

Lots of pop

 

[Weldor]

Anybody know how long the packets of survival water lasts after it runs past the posted expiation date? Best I can find is it is still good but watch out for the foil pack deterioration?