This is a test

first off what i would do is fill up both bathtubs incase theres no water and also any containers. after that nkowing i only have so much canned food any meat product i have im going to immediately start putting in the dehydrator so the meat will last longer and it will be good for protein. as far as the rest i guess it completely depends on the situation when it happens and then to asess and work from there

Fill the bath tub and unplug and ground all the electronics in my house.
My computer and other electronics will be safe from a solar EMP event if there is no antenna of power lines.
This does not hold true for nuke events.

Fill my car with fuel and start getting ready to set up my solar panels.

reply to post by 12voltz


Time to go shopping....with checks...

water? - no problem. old stone-lined, hand-dug auxiliary well in the backyard

food? - plenty of non-perishables in the pantry and wildlife/fish abound in the pond and surrounding woods

light/heat/electric? - plenty of candles, batteries, kerosene, portable generator and firewood.

it'd be a strain, but we'd be good to go for a few months or so.

It's all good to have food and water stores, especially for a short term incident, but I look at it 2 ways.. short term and long term. Having the means to purify water is every bit as important as having water on hand, what if you have to bug out, are you gonna carry 5 gallons of water or a 2 pound purifier? Some purifiers will remove viruses and clean the most disgusting water.

Same goes for food, I keep plenty on hand, but dang those cans can get heavy. Keep bags of dried food also. Buy a small survival book that list edible plants in your area, knowing what to eat is just as crucial as having stores. Also take the time to walk some trails and identify some of the items listed in the book, don't wanna eat the wrong plant or berry.

Fishing and hunting will also be an asset, heck everyone can cast a line. I know not everyone has or can get a gun, but a slingshot can go along way, we have alot of wild quail and grouse around here not to mention pigeons and squirrels.

If you need to bug out to avoid looting, do you have maps of your area. Plan where you would go ahead of time.

Would your neighbors group with you or turn on you, being solo will not get you far unless your well trained. Being friends with your neighbors and grouping together can also go a long way.

The toughest thing about long term is going to be gangs, they will not hesitate to put you down, abuse your wife, clean out all that food and water you so carefully stored up. Will you be able to protect yourself and family.

A friend and I used to take small trips into the bush with nothing but a small waist pack with the basics, knife, fishing line with a few hooks, snare wire, small pot, basically just a small survival pack. We made a shelter, snared gopher(tastes like chicken :roll ate fireweed, made pine needle tea, found birds nests with eggs, identified mushrooms, had a plant identification book on hand to learn more, etc. One day of hiking and building a shelter can be very exhausting. I tell you one night and most people will be heading for a motel.

In my opinion if you had one hour to prepare, many wont survive long. If you have prior knowledge and experience with fishing, hunting and gathering, and the means to do so, you will be much better off.

I dont live in a largely populated area, so alot of what I mentioned is easy for me to do, but if you live in an apartment in the middle of New York, id make sure I was friendly with that whacky aunt who lives in the middle of nowhere, load up my car and use that hour to get out of dodge and make an uninvited visit

Better to know what to do and not have to, than have to and not know how.

The following video is what happened during a boil water advisory due to a main break. Hardly an emergency, but do you really want be involed in this type of senario.
www.youtube.com...

Water purifier.
www.homehealth-uk.com...

Sas survival handbook pdf download.
rapiddigger.com...

Think about this for a second…..
If the news that a solar flare large enough that they knew it was going to take down (do damage to) the power grid was heading for earth was broadcasting from the news outlets…..

Don’t you think the people running the power grid would know it too?

Do you think they are just going to sit around and watch their stuff go up in flames?

They would most likely be alerted to the fact before anyone else is.

What do you think their primary priority would be once they become aware of that situation?

Their first priority would be protecting critical infrastructure.

They would send anyone that they can get a hold of to go out and isolate the equipment that can be damaged.

Within 20 minutes of the one hour warning, the people in the outer reaches would lose power as the linemen on call arrive at the outlying substations and start pulling the switches to physically disconnect and lockout the substation transformers.

They would then turn to the more populated areas and start opening all the line break switches they can find to isolate the main lines into smaller sections. (That is those switches you see on the top of a pole that is operated by a rod that runs down the side of the pole to a hand lever at the bottom.)

Around 40 minutes after the warning, the big distribution grids will probably be completing the processes severing themselves from each other. And idling down their generation plants.

50 minutes after warning, there would probably be no one left with power, and nothing left on line that could be damaged.

And if they didn’t know if it was going to be large enough to damage things, but they was still worried, they would station people at the control points to disconnect things at the moment anything got screwy. So the lights would be going out before anything was actually damaged.

Originally posted by PurpleDog UK

Where is everyone else on this thread from.?? UK or USA ??

Regards

PurpleDOG UK

PurpleDog I'm in West Yorkshire near the boundary with Lancashire.

reply to post by quest4info


Interesting post and some good ideas there.... especially the survival book... I've got a little pocket SAS book, packed with information. Would be very useful i think........ It's funny that society 'occupies' itself with the trivialities of celebrity and pop culture etc etc and then complains that there is not enough time to do things...!! like learn 'essential' skills like were discussing...

Your trips to the woods with the bare essentials sounds like good training..... do you run courses ??

Regards

PurpleDOG UK

reply to post by starchild10


Starchild10

Good to see your in the UK and even better that you could 'bug out' to the Lake District if you had too..... beautiful part of the world...... I'm down in the wilds of Derbyshire.....

As i said in my original post, I visit Costco once a mont / every six weeks and just pick up an extra 12 cans of tomatoes or 24 bottles of water and store them... Have been for a while now.... only problem in the UK is that if the SHTF then self protection against gangs would be the hardest thing to overcome....

Cheers

PurpleDOG UK

reply to post by 12voltz


Thanks for the reply....

I think in any of the potential scenarios we all hypothosize over then being in Oz or NZ is probably a 'good' place to be......
UK is an island but we have too many problems and divisions in our society for it to be a 'safe' refuge......

I always wonder how the UK would fair if we faced another 1939 - 45 situation..... I think most people would fall apart if they couldn't plug their hair straighteners in or check their Facebook page !!!!

Regards

PurpleDOG UK

Originally posted by 12voltz
Scenario.You are sitting at home and a thread comes on ATS,saying that the power grid will fail in your country in about 1 hour due to a massive solar flare ,possibly taking weeks even months to return,you verify the story by crosschecking local and national news reports and confirm the truth.You have no supplies for such a situation ,relying completely on government services ie water, sewerage, power,phone,banks, never expecting this to really happen.Can you get what you need in a short time?
Do you panic or remain calm knowing that the longer you wait the more people are going to here about the news and rush the stores filling up trolleys and emptying shelves.
This situation will turn ugly very quickly, can you deal with it?

edit on 17-11-2010 by 12voltz because: of the unexpected

Fill up every water container and tub in the house; you can go a lot longer without food than you can water. As far as food goes, we have a decent stockpile and there's plenty of critters to shoot if I had to, and lots of edible veggies.

We live in very rural Florida, and know all our neighbors, so we'd probably band together and pool all our resources and skills.

Probably put up a roadblock and set watches and then just hunker down. I sure wouldn't count on being able to go anywhere my feet can't take me, so I figure that would be a community "bug in" scenario.

Truth is, I think the utilities MIGHT be able to save some or most of the infrastructure, but I'd not count on that either.

We might purifying lake water and eating squirrel, gators, deer and wild boar for a quite a few months, but we'd definitely be in better shape than those in the more urban areas.

I fill up empty water bottles with haste,after i have all full it is time to seperate the survival gear from the material crap. I then try to find a way to get more pure water after mine is out because i will be running into the deepest forest so i am not in town when the mindless looting zombies are everywhere.

Every once in a while I will buy a big pack of bottled water but I'm not much of a stockpiler. Lord knows if it hit the fan the first thing I'd do is leave my city.
I bought the best yet non "hey look at me and my military grade field bag" backpack I could find.
Packed it full of essential items and tools. I can live off the land. Even if it means eating small varmints and rodents as I make my way out of populated areas.

reply to post by mydarkpassenger


Like me. I live in urban Florida and I have yet to meet anyone in my city who has some sort of action plan/SHTF reserves. I don't expect many people to make it past 72 hours if something catastrophic were to happen. Everyone just has to have the new iPhone.

I think i would be just fine were i am..
Live in one of the remotist parts of europe. Fresh water no probs, fresh fish no probs. For fuel we have peat to burn.....Dont have to worry about looters thers very few people here and everyone knows each other.
Ok it would be a bummer not having any electricity, but i would sit the event out and enjoy it...

kx

reply to post by Mr Tranny

I think you should look into what you stated in a little more in depth. A large solar storm has the ability to cause a massive damge to electrical infrastructure... Even with a warning...

kx

reply to post by PurpleDog UK


Sorry to reply so late, but no I don't run courses. Since being a kid I've always been self sufficient. One time my whole family was sick, and when they woke up, I was no where to be found. They then realized I was at school...grade 2....I made my breakie, packed my lunch kit, went down the road to the bus and proceeded to go to school. Maybe I just should have stayed in bed lols. We had 10 acres and I always went solo to the creek behind our property and caught fish, just kinda was in my nature. If I was hungry I went to a tree and ate an apple or picked saskatoon berries or a plum or pulled a carrot(yup dirt also went down).

But...My point is, that when you know what to do, it goes a long way. Some people would starve under a cherry tree.

Being prepared is alot more than storing water and preserves and I think it is more of a mind set than an omg I have 1 hour till doom hits.

PS- i have seen people on the streets begging for food, and 15 minute walk away is an orchard that has unwanted apples(still good just not for sale) laying on the ground.