Winter of '05 - '06 to be a killer - literally

Serves me right for trying to type whilst not fully caffeinated....

Sri, I read that as "one-armed bandits", and wondered if these were a problem in your immediate locale

I suppose in these climes (midwest winters. Yay.) we're more or less used to the inevitable "better make sure you've got enough for a week or two" scenarios.

Though I could use some more water filtration tablets.

Well if I'm correct, I'm pretty sure many parts of the US (at least my area) run off of nuclear power. And if I'm not mistaken, a nuclear plant can stay open and operational for extended amounts of time without resupply. So I figure at least my area would have electricity so long as the power lines hold.

As for the oil shortage, probably not going to happen overnight. Simply put, if they decide to just cut us off overnight, they're screwed. The reason? The United States is populated by human beings, human beings who do desperate things in desperate times. Combine that with the world's most powerful military and some very bad things can happen. So in other words, if things get bad enough we might just invade a country. And trust me, we've got more than enough in the oil reserves for an invasion. Maybe not enough reserves for the economy, but just enough to invade an oil rich nation.

Originally posted by Amethyst


Thanks but no thanks. I hate hot weather and the South is too hot. In fact I actually like cold weather...I just hate driving on untreated roads.

I grew up in Michigan.

Trust me, the weather ain't that 'hot' in the winter.....some of the roads will be treated, but remember, there are no snow plows!

We in the south, usually get more ice and sleet, rather than nice fluffy snow....(that's what usually breaks the trees and power lines, and makes driving impossible.)

But in '93, I believe it was, we awoke to about 24 inches in N Ga. It was incredibly beautiful for about 15 minutes! But it didn't take us long to realize how much trouble we were in, and how long it would last......

We were without power for nearly two weeks in our slightly remote area (4 mi from town). The snow had been wet enough to cling to the trees, especilally pines, and you could hear them popping as they broke all around us. They fell across the road, making it impassable to even the heavy duty trucks. My husband spent the first day cutting those of ours that had fallen across the road, as did most of our neighbors.(you could hear the sounds of chain saws all around, echoing off the hills.....when one would stop, another would start.) Our power line comes across pasture land, so we also cut the trees that had fallen on the lines through there.....(while it was all safely dead).

Fortunatly, we were stocked up on fire wood, feed and hay, and had food in the freezer and pantry. We melted snow for water, and buried our food in buckets of it on the back deck, when the fridge and freezer began to thaw. Since so many of the phone lines had already been converted to underground cable, they worked perfectly, and we managed to keep in touch with neighbors and family.

We had a battery operated radio, and the local station managed to stay on the air relaying tales of need and asking for people to help their neighbors. People who needed oxygen tanks and those who needed generators to run respirators and such, were high on the list, as well as those who were trapped without any form of heat.

It was quite an experience, quite deadly for some, and one I do not look forward to repeating......but I do try to stay prepared.

[edit on 12-9-2005 by frayed1]

At Strangecraft manor we've been celebrating the "Summer of Brisket," and I've used up all my firewood in cookouts!

So I'll have to resupply.

Also trying to build myself a still for purefying my own water (and sourmash?)

I love cold weather. So naturally, I' live in Texas.

All of the rest of my supplies are in tho. From ammo (anti personell as well as anti-pheasant and anti-deer) to toilet paper, I'm ready to roll.

So bring it on, as soon as I can talk my brother in law into letting me use his wood-splitter before Halloween.

So my question is this? How much food is available in a city of 1 million if supply is cut-off (for whatever reasons) 3 days, 5 days? I'm not talking about a few survivalists or an armed gated community- I'm talking 1 million people. Most of whom live week to week paychecks, but some day to day. The top 1% are in the armed gated communities with supplies for perhaps 3 months. (oops forgot the Mormons) add to the 1% the various religions who advise their constituents to keep a years' supply of food rotating.

ahhhh, my favorite subject- eschatology!

well crap, Now you've got me to thinking i'm going to have to go out and spend about 10 bucks for four cases of ramen noodles to get me thru a month or two of deadly winter.

oh wait, I forgot, I live in paradise. We get maybe one or two snows a year and by the next day they have melted away. Last year we really didn't even have a winter.

Northwest Arkansas is the fastest growing area of the USA with the one exception of Las Vegas, and we'll pass them when they run out of water. There is a reason for that of course. The weather is perfect, The people are fantastic, prices are still reasonable and..umm...well....

Wal-mart is demanding that all its suppliers build here.

I suppose the only down side is the lack of variety of human beings. Northwest Arkansas is 98% lily white. I hear thats changing though. I hope so. We deserve the cultural diversity.

Aw well, off to get those Ramen noodles.

Love and light,

Wupy

The one food supply you can never go short of in the UK and US are the obese...like cattle on two legs instead of four...invite them to your shack on the promise of food and fire..offer a brandy or three to warm them up from the cold and *bam*..if you aint squeamish, you have enough to feed yourself for a fair while.

As long as you are careful in selecting your 'prey' and take only what you need...then you should be able to live with your consience...in a matter of survival, you have to be prepared to think with the animal primal instincts we all possess

Originally posted by timski
The one food supply you can never go short of in the UK and US are the obese...like cattle on two legs instead of four...invite them to your shack on the promise of food and fire..offer a brandy or three to warm them up from the cold and *bam*..if you aint squeamish, you have enough to feed yourself for a fair while.

As long as you are careful in selecting your 'prey' and take only what you need...then you should be able to live with your consience...in a matter of survival, you have to be prepared to think with the animal primal instincts we all possess

HIV. haemophilia. clymidia. Mononucleosis. Hepatitis A,B and C. Tuberculosis. Gonoreah. Syphiliis. Kreutzfeld-Jacob syndrome. Mad Cow disease.


Just a few of the reasons cannibalism is rather out of fashion nowadays. Add to that the hormones, antibiotics and aluminum silicate your "cattle" ingest, and it's a pretty disgusting thought.

On many different levels.

Have you seen the movie "HUNGER" ?

Hollow-points and deer slugs. Either one can be quite effective in eliminating bandits. We live in the country in northern central NY so everyone around us pretty much knows how to survive if necessary. The ones who don't -- well, some of them shouldn't survive anyway. We've got a family down the road who probably have more junk in their front yard than in their house -- they taught their kids how to mow by mowing around all the toys. Thanks for the bump in property value, neighbor...

Call me a jerk but some people just shouldn't breed and consume my property taxes via subsidies.

Originally posted by dr_strangecraft
HIV. haemophilia. clymidia. Mononucleosis. Hepatitis A,B and C. Tuberculosis. Gonoreah. Syphiliis. Kreutzfeld-Jacob syndrome. Mad Cow disease...Add to that the hormones, antibiotics and aluminum silicate your "cattle" ingest.

The advantage of cannabalism that I can see in a catastrophe scenario, is that it's going to be easier to tempt a human into your house than a wild animal...a creature living in the wilds has to survive and thrive on pure instinct, whereas most humans have not bothered to excercise those innate abilities due to the convenience and comforts that life in our society offers, and when deprived of those comforts, I'm sure they'd be willing to be invited in 'for dinner'

Also, you can talk to a human, just tell them that you'll have to vet them for 'health reasons' before you let them in, and find out if they have anything nasty...you wouldn't hunt and consume a diseased deer, you go for a fit and healthy specimen

As for the hormones/antibiotics/etc...think of urban folk as 'battery-raised' and rural folk as 'free-range'...

it's a pretty disgusting thought. On many different levels.

The idea of cannabalism is abhorrent to most, but then again, i guess most who would have that view would shy away from having to hunt, kill, gut, skin, and prepare any animal for food.
If my survival demanded that it was my only option, then I would eat well, and live to see another day

Originally posted by timski


The advantage of cannabalism that I can see in a catastrophe scenario, is that it's going to be easier to tempt a human into your house than a wild animal...a creature living in the wilds has to survive and thrive on pure instinct, whereas most humans have not bothered to excercise those innate abilities due to the convenience and comforts that life in our society offers, and when deprived of those comforts, I'm sure they'd be willing to be invited in 'for dinner'

The advantage of cannabalism is your will probably become psychotic and/or develop a nueral disease. Then the townsfolk will hunt you down like a rabid wolf and put you out of your misery.

Then you can explain your murdering psychosis on the next level, that is if you get one.

Ho Hum. Winter does not scare me at all.

Why? I think ive seen the extremes it can toss out at me.

Ive walked around in -50 Celcius (yes really) with the windchill weather.
Ive seen snowbanks higher than trucks.

And ive seen them for many years ! Because i am Canadian !

We have a wood burning stove. It works wonders. Not a scary scenario for me.

Originally posted by Dulcimer
Ho Hum. Winter does not scare me at all.

The avatar is most fitting for this thread (I like it), beats that big D.

You can have the frozen tundra though, I had my fill in Wyoming with -40F temps.

Say hi to the McKenzie brothers and John Candy's ghost, kidding ehhh...groan

Oh the big D will be making a return some day.

I should note though, frost bite sucks. And kills !

Hopefully it will be a mild winter. One thing I have noticed about our winters lately, is that we havnt gotten as much snow as in past years. Its been very cold, but the snow falls have not been the same.

This year we have gotten a ton of rain. Ive been thinking that maybe this year, will be one of those years with the massive snow falls.

The winters with less snow seem to be far colder. You can imagine how cold it gets when you live on a barren prairie with no wind break.

Originally posted by Dynamic Reality

Originally posted by Alias Jones
Look - I realize the scenario sounds like the next big disater movie , but hear me out.

It is not the snow per se that will be the cause of loss of life . It will be the lack of food and the lack of heat. I suppose though in a way the cause will be the snow and ice but the effect will be the resulting lack of transportation of fuel and food.

Sure, ice can get salt and sand, but as far as driving goes it's considerably more dangerous. Hell, a proper ice storm could potentially freeze your door shut, requiring some brute strength to bust through.

I thought this was interesting enough - I used to drive commercial semi's. I live in Ohio and we had one big storm last winter that crippled us in a region for 2 days. When I say "crippled", I mean locally. Things that weren't plowed caused people to be cut off. If you lived on a side street in the city (Dayton), you were cut off. It didn't effect interstate transportation or cause disruptions in service of energy of gas or electric.

When driving commercially, most winter storms are regional. If you are going from Detroit to Alabama, it doesn' matter that you hit a storm that covers a state for a day. You simply sit it out for 24 hours and the highways are most likely to be cleared by then. I never hauled food or essentials - just stuff that no one thinks about - nevertheless, winter weather doesn't fret a truck driver that much. The only thing that could stop interstate commercial frieght would be a large scale storm of astronomical proportions covering the entire upper states en masse all at once. This would be un heard of.

I don't see anything you have said that makes me believe that energy delivery would be crippled a lot because of storm. Natural gas will still flow, coal plants will have a residual supply of fuel, and Nuclears will be unaffected. Prices may be a bit higher, but I don't anticipate a storm this large to occur.

thought I would resurrect this thread , as it is now winter - I think it will be safe to bet on a record snowfall this winter in the US due to the increased precipitation in the atmosphere .


Is it starting?

Plains white out / Power out:

www.cnn.com...

Here in the Uk we've just experienced a sharp cold snap. There's snow on the ground, and in some regoins the snowfall yesterday caught many motorists by suprise, leaving them in impossible driving conditions and with no other option but to abandon their cars. Today there are reports of hundreds of cars left abandoned last night on major roads in the South West.

We don't usually get this kind of weather in November; we get the odd frost and thats normally about it.

There is uncharacteristic snow falling all over Europe too. My in-laws live in Provence in southern France, which normally enjoys a mediterranean climate, and they have have had snow this week, as well an in the Basque regoin. Northern Itally too has had its share of snow, and the subsequent melt water has left the river Tiber at dangerously high levels.

The MET office has predicted a very cold winter, looks like this could be the start of it?

Originally posted by GrndLkNatv
With those you can always take from those who have food and shelter and the strong will survive.

smart. predator vs. producer. and when you've shot the last producer and stolen all his/her stuff, then what?
oh well, at least you're not trying to hide the fact that you're an evil monster.