WELCOME TO OUR WEEKLY EDITION FOR FRIDAY JULY 24th, 2020

            There is an old saying: THE THING SPEAKS FOR ITSELF

            It’s simple. If you need us to tell you it’s time to prep up in case your grid gets affected and you are left to make it with whatever you have, then you are already in trouble. We will be here to help those just getting started or who want to take their prepping a little deeper

            We have tried desperately to avoid getting any way mixed up in political arguments. But now it seems calling a “protester” that burns down a store a rioter is taking some kind of political side and makes you a bad person for saying it.

            I’m going to refer to something we wrote for one of our earliest editions some 5 plus years ago.

            The general rule here is, “Don’t be where the event happens’. In other words move away from as many other potential danger zones. This is one of the hardest decisions one can make in regards to their personal survival plan, made even harder by this economy.  Do you leave a danger zone and move to a safer area, and give up a good paying job?  Several years ago I was working in a major US city and living in the suburbs. I knew our odds of surviving most situations there was somewhat slim. Then an option came open for me to have this place and land here at the foot of the mountain. We took the risk and came here. I didn’t find anything in my field, or any steady work, or anywhere near the pay I was making. But it has been worth it for us. In turn we are in a spot with no earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, or tornadoes, and reasonably away from major urban areas and in an area where gun ownership and hunting is still respected.

            Translate that to today and it comes out this way:

GET THE HELL OUT OF ANY MAJOR CITY!!!!!

            If the Coronavirus didn’t convince you, then maybe these “protests” will.  We know we are NOT going to argue you into the idea.

            If you are in a small town or country area, support good local leaders, especially if they have to resist Governors such as we have here in Pa. and do all you can to by the ballot and other legal means, remove those who would fail to protect the citizens they took an oath to serve.

            Get your gardens going, stock up as best you can, keep lines of communication open with neighbors, talk to others at church as soon as they reopen.

To use the words from an old 60’s song,” There’s battle lines being drawn, nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong….” (For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield)

We no more want to see this situation get worse than we wanted to see the virus turn into a pandemic, but we would be doing our readers a disservice if, once more we did not state clearly that they should be at least thinking of being ready in case of any effect that could hit them.

There are those who feel “it can’t happen here” and they may be right. But with how grids are inter connected, when it happens there, it can hit you here. The virus should have made that clear. One whack job of any group that can get a computer virus into a system could shut down ATM’s banks, electrical grids and cell phone systems, just to name a few.

 

 

 

     YOU’RE DEAD

            Something just happened to your little world. Maybe you were home, maybe you were at work, or maybe you were out shopping. It doesn’t matter. The day has come, the event is here. Call it a “come as you are” disruption of your normal life and your grid. Maybe there were warnings about possible rising river levels or possible tornados; maybe it was just a “bolt out of the blue”, an earthquake, a riot, a power failure.

            The point is, you never thought about prepping, let alone getting an emergency bag together. So now you are dead, and this is why and how you could have avoided this fate.

            BASIC: There have been heavy storms for three days but not in your area. They have been to the north of you but have dumped their water into the river that flows through your town. You don’t get concerned about anything because the news, if you listen at all, tells you the dam will hold, or the flood gates will be closed and all will be OK as it has been in the past. But this time the dam gives, the floodgates stick open due to some computer glitch or mechanical failure. And the water is on the way to you.

            You are at work and you are told to evacuate but the boss tells you to stay where you are because it won’t be a problem. Ten minutes later the water floods in and YOU”RE DEAD. You forgot the first rule. You can get another job, you can’t get another life.

            You got out of work, but your car is already underwater and you have to dash to the higher ground. Home is twenty miles away, you don’t know any route besides the freeway to get there and you have nothing on you, not even much cash. You stumble into the bad side of town just are the looters are starting to come out. End result, YOU’RE DEAD.

You could have known a number of alternate walking routes that would have got you out of the area quickly and away from the bad side of town. You could have collected up what water you could in what containers you could find. You could have had a stash of energy bars, gum, mini flashlight and other items in a desk or locker. You could have had an actual “kit” in your lunch bag. (You can find descriptions of these in other articles.)  And you could have had a full “bounce back bag” in the trunk of your car. Maye it still could be gotten to, maybe not, but it would be at least worth having that possibility.

            You are home, but are now cut off as your block is literally an island, a hill surrounded by floodwaters. All aspects of your grid is gone, no power, light, water, sanitation, police, medical or fire. And you have little at your place. You get dinner delivered, or eat out. Everything else is mostly microwave items from the freezer which are now becoming mush. There may be a few energy drinks, or sodas, but that’s about it. There will be no heat or light come nightfall.  It takes three days for the waters to go down and a few more days for the National Guard to clear the streets to get to you. It’s about two days too late. Driven by thirst you tried to get out to find something to drink and got snagged by some debris and pulled down into the polluted flood waters so now YOU’RE DEAD! 

            You could have stocked up on drinking water in any of a number of ways starting with cleaning and refilling 2 liter soda bottles. You could have had basic non-perishable foods that didn’t require cooking on hand along with a basic first aid kit, flashlights. hand sanitizer, thermal blankets and a number of small , inexpensive odds and ends that would have seen you through, for less cost than your latest now useless electronic toy.

 

            ADVANCED: It has been two weeks now since the grid crashed and everything went crazy. You still don’t know what happened, whether it was some terrorist cyberattack or some other thing. All you know was you were at work when the power went out and you were told to head home. You barely got home in your car before the city burst into rioting and looting. You looked for stores to pick up some things but the power outage shut them all down. You couldn’t even get any cash from an ATM.

            The first week wasn’t horrible. You put trash bags in the toilet bowl after the water was gone, so that somewhat worked. You lucked out and had a case of soda left over from the holiday along with some snack foods and canned things. Luckily you kept that old manual can opener of your mom’s

            But now everything is gone, the water and MRE distribution by the National Guard is hit or miss, and you have to walk miles with your jugs. Roving gangs are now attacking people and houses, taking food, water and anything of value. You have been sick for days and getting weaker. It may have been some of your food went bad, it may have been the water you tried to purify when you got desperate. You can’t get to the food and MRE points, and there is no one to help you, so YOU’RE DEAD.

            Each prepper must decide for themselves how much stocking is enough. But with a little smart shopping and reasonable storage space, you will find you can keep enough non-perishable food on hand for 28 days or more, along with that much water for drinking. Again, once you have stocked up on flashlights, batteries, first aid items and such, you’ll probably be good for 28 days or so.

            WHY 28 DAYS???    

            Generally speaking, 28 days is the tipping point. If some kind of reasonable order has not been restored, even locally, and some kind of food creation, collection and distribution has not been established, the odds are you are looking at chaos and anarchy. In short: YOU’RE DEAD.

            AFTERMATH: You were at work on the seventh floor when there was a blinding light of a nuke, or at lunch in mid-town when the dirty bomb went off, or were upwind of the nerve gas, bio toxin or chemical cloud. YOU’RE DEAD.

            You were in a major city when the riots broke out, the solar flare/EMP took down the grid totally, the government collapsed as the markets crumbled, the massive earthquakes came, or a massive cyberattack brought on martial law. Odds are YOU”RE DEAD

            In the AFTERMATH of a Level III apocalyptic event survival is going to be heavily influenced by where you were when it hit. If you choose to work and play in a major city, accept the fact you may the first to die if anything goes wrong. True, a small number may survive from the cities, and a fair number of other will die even in the smallest town for lack of any prepping.

            After that it becomes a roll of the dice depending on any number of factors, but the deeper you skill sets, knowledge, and supplies and the better your location helps to put the odds more on your side to survive the initial event. After you have passed the tipping point the next challenge will come.

            REMEMBER:

            LEVEL I      BASIC: 72 HOURS TO 2 WEEKS 

            LEVEL II     ADVANCED: 2 TO 8 WEEKS

            In both of these cases you are prepping to keep things normal until normal returns

            LEVEL III   AFTERMATH (APOCALYPSE)

            Here you are prepping to keep things normal until you can help rebuild the normal again.