How to defend your self, on a budget., page 1

What you REALLY need to worry about in the event of _X_:

Fresh Water - You will die in 3 days without water. Water is everything. You use it for drinking, cooking, cleaning, bathing, growing crops, watering livestock. When the plumbing shuts off, you damn well better know where your water is going to come from or you have already surrendered your life to whomever controls it. I personally recommend an absolute minimum of 2 gallons per family member. That should get you through about 3 days, which is normally how long any crisis will last. For longer stretches, use the same formula. 2 gallons per 3 days per person. This is just for drinking, merest survival. Eventually the human body needs more, and you'll want more for cooking and such. If you own land, you may want to consider drilling a well, or planting a very large cistern to catch rainwater and store it for long periods of time. In cases of "standing" or "found" water, you will want to keep a supply of iodine tablets and/or be certain to boil water thoroughly before drinking it, as parasites in the water can make you wish you'd died in the cataclysm and the illnesses that result will further dehydrate your body.

Food - With a steady supply of water you can live 30-60 days without food, though miserably. Just as with water, storing food takes a lot of space. For the short run (a week or so) you can subsist off of starches like oatmeal and crackers and potatoes. these provide the most fuel and energy for their cost in terms of weight and space. For prolongued stretches you will need to ensure a steady supply of Protein, Vitamins, Starches, and Fiber. Limes keep for a very long period of time, pack a lot of Vitamin C (avoid scurvy), and go well with nearly any food or drink. For landowners, depending on your climate, I'd recommend planting some sort of fruit-bearing tree (like an apple tree), and a vegetable garden that focused on quick-growing year-round vegetables (like asparagus).

Shelter - You need a defensable area to keep your water and food protected. Ideally, again, a landowner will come out on top. There's only so much you can fit in an apartment, and apartments become deathtraps during crises because you will inevitably have a high concentration of people with very few resources between them. If you really want to have any chance at all of surviving a long-term crisis, you must get a house. The only other option is to go on the road as a looter or join the occupying forces (if they'll let you). Provided you have land, I would recommend building the occasional spider-hole, each with their own individual cache of food, water, supplies, weapons, etc, to last for 3 days. That way if the tanks come rolling through, you've got a handy place to hole up and hide till they declare your area "clear"...which should take about 3 days or less.

Waste Disposal - You will need a place not only to void yourself, but to throw away trash and such. Again, landowners have the advantage. A compost heap can take care of your non-acidic biodegrables and provide you with nutrient-rich topsoil for your garden. However, the rest of your trash will either need to be burned (giving others a clear signal of where you are), or buried (potentially ruining the water table), or dumped (creating a health-hazard nearby unless you have a way to haul it long distances). The only bright side to a civilization without waste disposal is that if society has broken down that far, it's doubtful you'll be able to easily renew your sources of non-biodegradable trash after the first couple of weeks.

Fight or Flight - Choose your battles. If an occupying force comes rolling down your street with a stream of tanks, only a fool runs out and challenges them head-on. If an occupying force questions you, act respectful, answer their questions, and don't draw any more attention to yourself than possible. Rambo only exists in the movies. If you want to live through an occupation, then around the enemy keep your head down, shut up, and observe. No one defeats an occupying force by taking on the grunts. Keep an eye out for the officers. Make a note of who they are, what they typically wear as a uniform, and when they are least protected. They are your primary targets. If you consistantly take down only the officers, then the grunts will have no leadership amongst them, morale for the occupiers will drop, and no one will want to take charge to fill the gap because they know they'll be next to go home "on their shield" as it were. Thus, for offence against an occupying force, you really can't beat "snipe and move" tactics. [/li]

Communications - Finally, the next most pressing community concern in the event of Catastrophe X is communication. HAM Radios are ideal in that they can be powered with a car-battery if neccesary (or even an hand-crank in some of the benighted field models) and have incredibly good range with a decent number of operators still in existence around the Earth, and require a proximity jammer or extreme atmospheric distortion to disrupt (unlike cell phones which can be shut down with a keystroke, remotely). Alternately CB Radios are useful for a limited radius (perhaps up to 15-30 miles depending on how good of one you have). For more precise and silent communications, there are devices utilizing lasers to transmit messages, but keep in mind that these will show up like a giant red flare on any military spectroscopic equipment if it's in use.

In Summary...

If you're serious about surving X, buy a house in a residential area (less likely to be carpet-bombed). Plant some fruit trees, a garden, a cistern with a pump, and invest in some well-made tools. While it won't guarentee survival, it will offer you the absolute best chance of it, with the most opportunities to thrive.

(edit: formatting)

[edit on 5/11/2006 by thelibra]