Ok, see how people act towards others... what causes this...? GREED...
a lose of control, a person has such a high opinion of his\her self that they will sell out their own mother for some really stupid stuff.
money - food - fuel, these are essentials and all it takes is one leg of that stool to faulter and all hell breaks loose... not on their end... they are in control... its our side not being in control that triggers the dog kill dog mentality.
History teaches this over and over and it also works for media staged events as well... the LA news was already on station when the LA Riots kicked off... as the Top Executives were all on hand from every major network all of them were in downtown Manhatten that morning... the morning of 911... go back and view the news reports they are all suits... top level Media folk no body ever heard of... vp of programming, general station managers and the like all took control of the TV's the morning of 911...
and this event caused us to embrace each other as victims...
oh,,, my.... and Hitler had this moment too, the named it the night of the long knives... where hitler shed his SA allegances by killing them and most were killed announcing their allegance to hitler...
the problem I see confronting the American People... will be a simular moment but this moment will be one of decapitation... a night of American Retribution... the question after which of these nightmare anti-free measures will spark the night of decapitation ... I dont know. but i fear the good people will also suffer the wrath caused by others. and there is no avoiding it... the movie has been casted and filming has begun, we need to stay till the movie is over to see how it all turns out...
You know the white hat is gonna take out the bad guys..,. that what we do... now it appears the bad guys are in charge of the white hats... humm., were americans we will figure it out and fix it or die trying.

This is what happens when people keep barely 2 weeks worth of food in their homes, even minor hiccups in the distribution system makes them freak out and panic because they were not prepared.

I wonder how many of those folks who flipped out would consider stockpiling necessities beyond the normal 2 week amount now that they have seen first hand what it does to people when they can't get their groceries? Excellent example of a personal/local level incident(the most likely on the threat-probability-matrix) and how it changes people, now I can only hope they learned from the experience!

Originally posted by desertdreamer
Previously you stated that the power was knocked out......how were they using the ATM in the store if there was no power?

Almost every single ATM has a small UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) in the base of the machine. It is commonly only 450 Watts, so it can normally only power the ATM for about 10 minutes.

Of course, this is still dependent upon the phones still working, however since phone lines are low-voltage, the Switching Office would have to be down for the phones not to work.

Believe it or not, all ATMs use 9600bps to conduct their transactions!

Originally posted by Helig
I wonder how many of those folks who flipped out would consider stockpiling necessities beyond the normal 2 week amount now that they have seen first hand what it does to people when they can't get their groceries? Excellent example of a personal/local level incident(the most likely on the threat-probability-matrix) and how it changes people, now I can only hope they learned from the experience!

Learned what? Most people live from paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to stockpile anything.

With out jobs a huge percentage of the population is only 2 weeks from being homeless.

It's a brave new world, welcome to the monkey house!!

I was at a World Market this past Christmas season, when the computer system completely shut down because there were so many Credit/Debit Card purchases going on. After about ten minutes, they were able to take cash purchases, but couldn't do anything else. I was lucky to have cash, so I didn't have to wait for more than a few minutes after it was up and running, but I could tell that a lot of people in line were becoming testy. After figuring out that it would be a while, some just put their items to the side and said they would come back later. Before they were able to take cash some just tore off Bar codes and gave the manager cash and said "Keep the change." Everyone seemed to have some patience with them, but it was something that could have been very bad in a short amount of time (and there was no ATM there either).

Personally, I don't like to use anything but cash. Maybe it's because I was with my parents several times when I was younger and their Checks or Credit/Debit Card didn't work because of a lack of funds or a bank mistake. The concept of swiping a card and hoping all of your money is still there is just the oddest concept to me. It's incredibly convenient when it works, but still too risky for me to put all of my faith in it.

Needless to say, I really don't want to be in a public area when the SHTF.

I agree that one needs a few months of food and water on hand.

I am about to restock as I went through about a month and change of doing nothing and eating from my storehouse.

Now that i see what i eat i will restock according to that.

For example I quickly grew tired of canned goods so I want to somehow build an small indoor garden to supplement my stored foods.

One thing that I really enjoyed was some dry goods. ie...Red River Cereal...almost like Cream of Wheat but full kernel and takes a little longer too cook. I forgot how much I enjoyed some of the foods i was raised on as a kid in the middle of nowhere.

I planned on posting about the similarities between this event and that Twilight Zone episode, but WEEDWHACKER beat me to it. It truly is scary how fast a situation can escalate, and one can only imagine the embarrassment one should feel after the temporary inconvenience is over.

I am one who is happily prepared and continue to be so. It really is a good idea for everyone to know the potential disasters in your regions and how to ride them out. I dare say it is irresponsible to do otherwise if you have a family to care for.

Why could these shoppers simply leave and drive an hour away and buy there?
Laziness?

Interesting. That's why I think it's important to consider what we'd do if such a thing were to happen on larger scale and on a more permanent basis. The majority of people today are walking around in a daze, SO dependent on the grocery store and teller machine that if they are taken away, they don't know what to do and could become violent in a short time. It's kinda scary.

Human emotion lead to a lack of control. The human ego is definitely something that is a dangerous thing that is not understood at all with other entities.

I once read that most people are just one hot meal and 24hrs with no power away from total social unrest.

Now what if the power was off for one week? Can’t buy food at the store. Food in the fridge would go bad. Can’t buy any gas.or get cash out of the ATM machine.

Most people don’t have even 3-4 days worth of food at home, nor do they have any cash on hand either. In this case people will turn into animals to steal what little is left. Just basic human nature I guess.

Well I for one can wait it out, and the others that are still alive they will be fighting there way onto the next train going to the FEMA camp I guess.

Originally posted by Pluto64Now what if the power was off for one week? Can’t buy food at the store. Food in the fridge would go bad. Can’t buy any gas.or get cash out of the ATM machine.

Most people don’t have even 3-4 days worth of food at home, nor do they have any cash on hand either. In this case people will turn into animals to steal what little is left. Just basic human nature I guess.

This isn't always the case.

My city had power, water and sewer knocked out from a "Flood of the Century" for over two weeks in the dead of winter. We had no civil unrest, no riots, no looting, and no fighting in the only food store that was open for 3 hours every day (because we had backup generators). No one froze to death or starved to death either.

Bottled water flew off the shelves and often people would bicker over the last case on the shelves, but other than that everyone was more than civil.

The National Guard came in about day 4 or 5 and rationed out Potable Water. Every family was given 2 Gallons of Drinkable Water a day.

Other than that, people lived by candlelight for that 2 weeks, read books, cooked food on backpacking stoves, had neighborhood campouts and sing-alongs, and made it through without much difficulty. We stunk and looked like Hippies by the time power, water and sewer were restored, but as a community our city grew closer together and neighborhoods became stronger and tighter knit.

Of course, the weak just bugged out and jumped in their cars and stayed at relatives houses out of town the moment they found out the outage would last 2 weeks. However, the poor, the college students, and those without cars or relatives stayed behind and did just fine.

However, I suppose it helps when we have one of the model Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) in the country.

I think there is a quote that says "We are all just 3 square meals and a week without heat away from barbarism in the west".

Unfortunately, in an event like this. My life is very computer dependent as well. Without the electronics I can't do much of anything. Maybe I will heed these as warning signs and start preparing for the day that my computers go offline.

What's funny about this story is how it proves most folk who think humans are quite capable of making their own rules, running things themselves, are just wrong. I've said before in the posts that claim that we should "overthrow" our government because we can do it so well, that when the SHTF, people have one concern and one concern only: themselves and their loved ones. They could care less about even their neighbors.

The laughable premise that "all these Americans have guns!" means we are in control makes me shake my head sadly. Once things go south, the only sure thing will be chaos and violence.

Government may not always be what people want, but acting as if we could do better without any laws or government is laughable. We are not mature enough to handle it, as a people.