HURRICANE Florence, the powerful storm that rampaged across the east coast of the United States.Meteorologists have warned the storm may return as Hurricane Kirk if it materializes into another topical storm.
However, it is unlikely that a further storm will become as powerful as Hurricane Florence.I learned very quickly how fast things can fly off the shelf. This was pre-preparedness for us.
So even though many experienced the empty shelves during Rita, many Houstonians were still unprepared for Ike.
Many of us still remember the pictures of those on the East Coast dumpster diving because they were looking for food. They had very advanced warnings that Hurricane Sandy was going to hit. But they still were unprepared!
Lets say the public was given a 24 hours notice before the start of a major global conflict. Rarely does that kind of advance knowledge leak out to the public. For the sake of discussion lets say for once the public knows what is going to happen a 24 hours ahead of time.
One of the incidents I am referring to is the leak that Koreea may attack U.S .
I have been hearing various rumors for over 2 decades, so I take them with a grain of salt and keep living life.
Here’s my point – Just because preppers live in an understanding and climate of preparedness, doesn’t mean the rest of the nation is going to instantly become preppers when an “event” happens. Many will be stunned, shocked, waiting on the government, not realizing the severity of the situation. In those hours and maybe even days of an approaching event, it will be a good time to top off or get those items that you still might need.
I believe that the “event” will play a big part in how quickly people react and respond. For example, let’s look at a stock market crash. The general population (meaning non-preppers) will not really know what to think if there was a full blown stock market crash. We haven’t experienced one in our day and age. The fact is many will not even know anything has really happened until they read about it on Facebook or their parents call them to talk to them about what is on the news. Many people think that the stock market is for rich people and that they are probably getting their due. Many don’t realize that the stock market is tied to many other facets of our economy and will signal some serious issues.
People will be depending on the government and take a “wait and see” approach. Since the government has ALWAYS been there and most people believe that the government is their sugar daddy, people might take a wait and see approach before they start to panic. This will give the prepper a few hours and maybe even days.
The word has leaked out, you do a review of your survival gear stockpile, now what?
What does your water stockpile look like?
What does your ammunition stockpile look like?
What does your fuel stockpile look like?
What about seeds for your long term survival garden, communications, livestock, livestock feed, firearms, propane,,, and other preps.
Firearms
If you do not have your firearm and ammunition stockpile ready before SHTF, do not count on accumulating supplies after SHTF.
Lets say you had a 24 hours notice, what would you buy? Would you buy ammunition, and sacrifice resources to buy food, water, livestock feed, fuel,,,?
Even if you have money to buy ammunition, what makes you think there is going to be anything on the shelves?
Would you rather buy ammunition, food, water, food for the livestock?
My 13 chickens (hens, no roosters) go through a 50 dollars bag of laying mash every two weeks. For the price of 200 dollars of laying mash (4 – 50 dollars bags), which would last around 2 months, I could buy 100 rounds of Federal 223 Remington.
Would you rather have 2 months of eggs, or would you rather have 100 rounds of 223 Remington?
Then there is the waiting period and permits that some sates have setup. Even if you wanted to buy a firearm, would you have enough time to go through the waiting period, background check, and permit application period?
Food
Food and water will some of the first items to disappear off the shelf. Under normal levels of purchasing, grocery stores have about 2 – 3 days worth if food. Most grocery stores get shipments in everyday. When panic buying kicks in, the grocery stores will be cleaned out in a matter of hours. A good example of this panic buying is when a hurricane is approaching the Continental United States. People will go into a panic buying frenzy.
The first food items to disappear are the popular types of food that most people eat – milk, bread, dairy, dried pasta, canned pasta, rice, beans, chili, canned meats, tuna fish,,,,. (here are a few recipes to get you inspired)
The last things to disappear are the less popular types of food, such as sardines, canned olives, canned fish (besides tuna),,, stuff that the majority of the people do not eat.
Water
Bottled water is a popular food item that will disappear quickly. With that in mind, what are your water solutions for a long term SHTF / TEOTWAWKI situation?
My long term water solution is a water well with a pitcher pump on top of it. A one week notice is not very much time to drill the well. Its not that a well takes “that” long to drill, its a matter of getting the supplies, such as a screened drive-point, getting people together to help drive the well,,, and so on.
Without access to safe drinking water, live as we know it can not exist. As water goes, so goes society. The quality of society will be no greater then the water the society has access to.
There are two things that facilitate modern society, one is electricity, the other is safe drinking water.
Fuel
If you had one week notice, how much fuel would you buy? Surely you would gas up your truck, car or SUV. But what about fuels like kerosene and propane?
Would you buy a bunch of 1 dollar propane bottles, or a couple of 20 dollars propane bottles? Would you sacrifice money that could be used for food to buy propane and kerosene?
Generators are a short term solution to a long term problem. With that in mind, would you buy a lot of fuel for the generator?
The question I have to ask myself, is kerosene and propane more important then food and water? Every dollar spent on fuel leaves less money for food.
I have around a dozen one pound bottles of propane, and two 20 dollars bottles of propane that are used for craw-fish boils. Then I have an adapter that connects a 20 dollars bottle of propane to a coleman stove.
What about liquid stove fuel? Why stockpile liquid fuel for your stove instead of propane?
Build and make your own energy source
Seeds / Garden Supplies
Do your long term survival plans include growing your own food? If so, what kind of seeds do you have stockpiled?
If you had a one week notice, what kind of seeds would you stockpile? Would you buy beans, corn, greens, melons, squash, zucchini, spinach,,,?
Surely you already have some kind of seed stockpile for SHTF? Would you review that stockpile then go from there?
What kind of plants would you focus on? Grains, corn, greens, melons,,,, or something else?
My seed stockpile focuses on beans, peas, greens, squash, zucchini, corn, melons and a few other odds and ends.
If I had a one week notice, I would head down to the local feed and fertilizer store, buy a couple 50 pound bags of 13-13-13 fertilizer, a bunch of peas, beans, squash, zucchini, onions, spinach,,, just a mixture of nutrient rich food.
My dad has a tractor at the camp. If I had a one week notice, I would probably fuel the tractor up with diesel. This would allow my family and I to plow the fields for at least 1 full year, maybe 2 years.
Why work the fields with hand tools when you have access to a tractor?
The fertilizer, seeds and tractor are all part of a long term survival plan – work the fields, fertilize, plant the seeds, harvest.
Livestock
Besides the garden, there are the livestock. Between February – March 2017 I bought 13 hens. At around 7 months old, those 13 hens are laying between 6 – 10 eggs a day. Eggs are an excellent source of fats and protein.
If I had a 24 hours warning, I would probably buy 200 dollars (4 – 50 dollars bags) of laying crumbles, a couple bags of hen scratch, 50 dollars of oats and a couple of bags of ground oyster shells. The oyster shells help strengthen the egg shells.
Besides the chicken feed, I might buy several hundred feet of 1×2 inch fence wire. This would allow my family and I to build a secure chicken pen. For fence post we would use small pine trees.
Worse comes to worse, my family and I head to the camp, setup the chicken coop along with the chicken yard, plow the fields, spread the fertilizer, plant the seeds, get a rooster from my cousin, let the chickens do their thing while the crops are growing.
I would love to have some goats, but is 24 hours notice enough time? There are always ads in the local paper from people wanting to sell goats. But if they had the same notice that you had, would they sell their goats? If I knew some kind of SHTF situation was about to happen, there is no way I would sell my chickens.
Communications
A buddy of mine and I were talking about buying some hand-held radios. These radios would be useful for short range communications, but what about long range?
If you had a one week notice, would you buy a ham-radio, cb radio, talk to your family and friends about your plans and disregard communications? Military Battery Reconditioning
FEMA recommends that people agree on someone outside the affected area to act as a communications liaison. That is fine and dandy for region disasters. This article is discussing something on a world wide level.
Unless you want to get into HAM radios, let your friends and family know your primary and backup plans. If a family member were to show up at your house, and you were not home, where would you likely be at?
In the grand scheme of things, I think smart phones have been overlooked. Smart phones are popular for texting, making calls and internet access. An overlooked feature is the the mini-HDMI port for streaming video to TVs. But to stream video from a smart phone to a TV, you will need a micro-HDMI port to standard size HDMI.
When the power grid goes down, most communication towers have propane powered backup generators. These backup generators allow cellphones to operate for an amount of time after the main power grid goes down. This means smart phones may be able to access the internet and send messages when other forms of communication go down.
What would I do if I had 1 week notice? I already have a hand powered cell phone charger, so I might look into a couple of hand-held radios, or maybe a 12 volt CB radio.
But then again, every dollar spent on a temporary communications device is less money for food, water, seeds, and feed for the livestock.
Conclusion
This article is meant to be a point of discussion. If you and some of your buddies were sitting around a camp fire talking about possible SHTF situations, hopefully yall might talk about some of the points included in this article.
Because long term survival plans are so varied, I doubt there is a perfect answer. Review your plans, or better yet, have a friend review your plans. Figure out the weak spots, areas that may need improving and go from there.
A grand encyclopedia of country Carnivore’s Bible , weather wisdom, country remedies and herbal cures, cleaning solutions, pest purges, firewood essentials, adobe making and bricklaying, leather working, plant dyes, farm foods, natural teas and tonics, granola, bread making, beer brewing and winemaking, jams and jellies, canning and preserving, sausage making and meat smoking, drying foods, down-home toys, papermaking, candle crafting, homemade soaps and shampoos, butter and cheese making, fishing and hunting secrets, and much more. Carnivore’s Bible : Traditional Skills for Simple Living
Books can be your best pre-collapse investment.
The Lost Ways (Learn the long forgotten secrets that helped our forefathers survive famines,wars,economic crisis and anything else life threw at them)
Survival MD (Best Post Collapse First Aid Survival Guide Ever)
Conquering the coming collapse (Financial advice and preparedness )
Liberty Generator (Build and make your own energy source)
Backyard Liberty (Easy and cheap DIY Aquaponic system to grow your organic and living food bank)
Bullet Proof Home (A Prepper’s Guide in Safeguarding a Home )
Family Self Defense (Best Self Defense Strategies For You And Your Family)
Survive Any Crisis (Best Items To Hoard For A Long Term Crisis)
Survive The End Days (Biggest Cover Up Of Our President)