the only thing that bothers me about this story is your statement about the customers blaming the clerks for the power going out once they start to get frustrated. I have been in a store before when the power goes down and I have never seen anyone make an irrational statement like that.

ok i've been reading this thread for the past couple hours. a lot of great things have been said. sadly the things you guys seem to be addressing are a lot of luxuries.

bottled water? canned goods? candles? cash? stock piles of food? gas (all this talk about dependency)?

first off, when the grid goes down. money is worthless. cash useless, and so are all of these gold coins and silver you speak of. barter system works much better....i have 3 chickens, you give me this and that.

second of all if you have a car with gas. instant target for murder.

yes stocking up is good but in reality if this is a prolonged outage for months years or even forever....one thing you guys have seem to forgotten. how did societies before us do it?

fish, hunt, create fire, cook, live by a river, and forage. not to be rude here but even you guys seems to be out of touch with what you really have to do to survive.

i'm sure this will create some problems with people on here but let's face reality of the matter if it gets as bad as everyone here thinks it will and i'm right there will you, it's only a mount of time. Here's my take on it

my idea of essentials?

take your butt to the most secluded area by a river you can find until things calm down with these things.....

fishing pole with a reusable lure

iodine tablets (a lot considering how polluted the water is)

a gun - used sparingly (for survival as well as hunting until a bow and arrow can be made)

reusable water bottle (nalgene - 10 bucks at any sporting goods store)

20 pack lighters or matches until flint can be found

Tent

other than that, seriously what do you need?

My earlier post in this thread made light of the whole societal collapse concept.
I own a fairly large amount of land in the mountains, I go into town less than once per month.
Long keeper foods do not cost much to put up.
A few 50lb bags of beans.
A few 50lb bags of rice.
50 lb bags of lentils.
Smoked hams(require no refrigeration).
Sides of bacon.
Stock you'r pantry with canned goods, include canned and dried fruits.
Put back sugar, salt, pepper baking soda, flour, cornmeal,and cooking oil.
Stock amunition for every caliber you shoot, and other popular calibers as trade goods.
Unless you have tracking dogs don't even think anbout taking large game with primative weapons such as the bow and arrow.
Even a direct hit in the heart lung area is NOT going to drop you'r quarry instantly, and no matter how high you rank you'r tracking skills you won't find the deer you injured.
My son hunts bow season, and uses tracking dogs to recover deer he hits, he also uses a compound bow, and arrows manufactured for supreme accuracy. Don't think you can buld a bow of a bent limb and shoot homemade arrows and bring down anything larger than a rabbit, and you'll do better with a snare as far as rabbits are concerned too.
A slingshot is a good tool to take rabbit and squirrels.
Kerosene should be put back for lamps, white gas for camp stoves.
Medical suppies should be stocked, bandages, pain reliever, anti-biotics, and triple antibiotic salves should be in every medicine chest.
We recently had a weather event in which two area towns were destroyed.
We pulled together and helped those less fortunate than ourselves.
At night we patroled for looters.
It does not cost very much to put back a months supplies.
We keep livestock including cattle, goats, chickens, and geese, we have a well stocked fish pond.
We save open polinated seeds.
We have been of a survivalist mindset since the 1980's.
It is not that hard to prepare.
I urge you to do so, and if possible to remove yourself from urban settings.



[edit on 14-8-2009 by Luminaught]