But they soon stop when the s*** hits the fan

Ive noticed a lot of people call survivalist "paranoid" and/or "crazy" but when there is a major incident who will have the last laugh??

I have always had an interest in survival in all its forms... i have basic kit for most situations but i do not walk the streets with a twitch in my eye and shaking hands hehe

I just think that there is so many things that can knock us back to the stone age we owe it to our familys to be prepared.

There is a whole list of life changing events that are possible...

Nuclear exchange
Terrorist attacks
Floods
earthquakes
Huricains
political upheaval
etc...

I work in London and was often mocked by my colleagues for having an "emergancy" bag in my locker. This bag consists of full NBC protection and various other short term survival kit. I was often called paronoid and labelled a nutter (although this was not malicious but good hearted ribbing which i laughed off)

Then on the 7th of July 2005, while sitting at my desk, i see the first reports of a terrorist attack coming in to the BBC website. I walked calmly to my locker and removed my bag, walked back to my desk, picked up the phone (landline cos most of the mobile networks had shut down) and called two friends who work at a central London hospital. I asked for a list of injurys that were coming in... was it all impact/blast/burn injurys or were there any strange symptons... High levels of vomiting/strange blisters/nervious system problems etc...

The first friend said he had not heard of anything suspicious and the second said she would check it out and call back... When i got off the phone everyone was looking at me... but they were not laughing... they were visably sh**ing themselves. I felt sorry for them but what could i do? My priority was survival so i could get back to my family and get a plan into action. Then i was bombarded with questions... "you think its chemical? should we go to the basement? can i use the lifts?? I just said to be calm and wait... I removed my S10 and unwrapped a filter which i screwed on (i done this under my desk so as not to creat a panic) I also unwrapped a Chemical detection paper and stuck it to my desk. About 20 minutes went buy and my phone rang... the tension was so high in those few second of the phone call... My friend said that so far all injuries seemed be normal burns/blast etc... There was massive relief all round... But i still kept my bag close to me for the rest of the day. It was caos in London and seeing as the NBC threat was minimum i decided to stay put until things calmed down.

Now no one laughs at me... in fact i have ordered kit for about 5 people in work who do not want to get caught out in the future.

7/7 was a terrible day for Londons but it illistrated to me just how unpreparred and reliant on the government the average Londoner is.

I agree there is no harm in having the structure set in place and the tools that could proably save your life because if the sh** hits the fan you wont be the one caught short. Never rely soley on the government to save you
i watched JFK again last night and a bit that i never noticed before was during the Cuban Missle Crisis Bobby goes we'll hand the families ID cards and evac them by Helicopter if missle warnings go off then he said 'That's just for morale you know' it's like Governments around the world may have plans in place but when the sh** hits the fan it's you thats got to look out for yourself.

I always remember when the first fuel strikes happened a couple of years ago in the UK everyone went crazy to get fuel and food and it just caused chaos but my mum was quite smart cause she had like a stockpile of food set out anyway and torches and stuff cause the media was blowing it out of proportion like how electricity would be short and stuff looking back it was like WTF i can't believe we were spun that BS. Although nothing much came of the fuel strikes it was good to know that we wouldn't starve.

So yeah i voted for you to be way above cause it's a very interesting topic:

You have voted undercoverchef for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have two more votes this month.

[edit on 20-12-2006 by SR]

[edit on 20-12-2006 by SR]

I have moved about the U.S. on an average of every two years. My husband (and I before my accident) works in aviation and we often end up having to relocate. I've lived in hurricane, flood, eathquake and tornado prone areas of the country. I'm still amazed at the number of people who've lived in these areas most of their lives, yet are unprepared for the event of a natural disaster emergency.

If they can't find the time or justification to prepare for a likely natural event, then they most likely will not see any reason to prepare for any other type of emergency. Most people are just too comfortable in their ignorance. Trying to get these folks to face any possibility or probability of needing to be prepared for an emergency disturbs their world view. It may make them question their own beliefs or ideals and most are not willing to do this.

I once talked to a man who told me that in an emergency situation, he would simply take what he needed to survive. Unfortunately, there are just too many people like this. I no longer tell others what I have or try to convince them that they need to prepare. If there are those who will simply take what they want, I don't want them trying to take it from me.

I dont think they mock genuine preparedness. I think they mock the trend of most "survivalist" thought processes to devolve into stockpiling ammo and assuming they will have to charge through the streets in some post-apocolytic world of the future fighting a never ending war with aliens, communists, zombies or the U.N. rather than fleeing into the wilderness, clearing some land, gathering some livestock and caring for a garden, to maintain a stable and viable life away from the noise of the world. Whether that noise be zombies or the U.N..

Not that I dont love guns. Becasuse I oh so do. Im just not planning on living/dying in the middle of some action movie from the 80's. Id rather just disappear.

The Survivalist scenario always seems to equate to running to the wilderness and living like Grizley Adams. For the vast majority that's not likely to happen. By the time a situation escalates to the point where people are ready to abandon their homes, all their belongings, their jobs and just about every other piece of their life that has provided them with sustenance and security it will be largely too late to make it to the wilderness --- or anywhere else for that matter. Some will, of course. But the vast majority will not.

Most people live in high-population mostly urban areas (duh). For these people, a Sit-X event is going to lead to the rapid exhaustion of essential services and supplies. Looting will start and the security situation will deteriorate. Law enforcemant and/or military will start to evacuate people en-masse in order to restore order. Think Katrina. Bad scene. Remaining 'Survivalists' in these settings will be fortunate if they can get out of the cities into even the suburbs. Motorized transport will be iffy at best. They may need to hump (with what they can carry). People will set-up camps in whatever areas they can reach --- they won't be streaming to the Ozarks.

For those of us not living in the cities we'll be sheltering in-place. My very best chances for survival are staying put. Only if that is made impossible will I cut-and-run. I established a written plan for my household quite some time ago and it is updated regularly. If the SHTF I don't want to trust memory --- there's way too many pieces to consider to attempt to manage it from a mental list while under stress. The very first part of that plan is essentially a decision tree to determine if we shelter-in-place or cut-and-run. The checklists boil down to this: we cut-and-run only if it is determined that the probability (based upon all the current intelligence we can gather) of our reaching a more stable and secure situation/location is greater than the probability that our current location will remain stable/secure. In other words, our current location must have a high probability of becoming uninhabitable and there must be a high probability of our reaching a better location before we cut-and-run.


[edit on 20-12-2006 by jtma508]

Well said jtma508,

I live just East of Seattle and that big windstorm we had knocked out my power for a week! It was amazing to see how quickly people will devolve into total freaks in the face of a shortage of any kind. Gas lines formed immediately and stations ran out almost as fast.

I just fired up my wood stove and hunkered down. Gave me plenty of heat, cooked my food, and boiled my bath water. But I was interested to see how most people just shut themselves into their homes and shut down mentally. I guess it's the technology overload most people are under. Once you pull that plug, they just kinda give up. At least around the more urban areas. I fear lack of food is what would eventually cause their demise. They just have no concept of where food comes from, or how to hunt, or garden, or defend what they do have.

Of course my situation is a bit better than theirs. I live in a rural setting close to the mountains. I can't imagine living in a city if North Korea managed to hit us with an EMP. People were losing it over a week with spotty outages. Imagine what they'd do if they found out the grid was down indefinetly!

A lot of people mock the things they are afraid of.

Sometimes, when we see people who are different, it can feel like an indictment of our own worldview. And most people, from all walks of life, are not self-reflective enough to see this within themselves.

Did people mock Noah, wasting all that wood in the middle of his back yard?

The point is, keep your superiority, and your contigency plans, to yourself. Or at least limit your discussions to relatively anonymous forums like this one.

.