So, it's the middle of the day, on a workday, and the SHTF....what steps do you take?

I work nights so if SHTF I'd be able to make the 14 mile drive home in record time. Most normal people would still be asleep for a few more hours as "midday" for me is around 2-3 am for everyone else on the Easy coast.

On the way home I have 15 places I could stop by to purchase any last minute preps (Two Latino markets, three Asian markets, two Publix, two Wal-Mart and six different gas stations.) I'd grab a few Cliff bars with my reserve small bills collection and head home where I have enough dehydrated 5-10 year food reserves, water filtration options, 6 months of water held back and a few months of canned food as well.

I would make a call on my satellite phone.
Board the Reverends chopper at the lake house.
Next stop, Cabaña Island. A very small private island with a 33 room villa.
The island has a self sustained living environment with a 15 acre farm, with farm hands and kitchen staff.
We'll be fine.

Except.

I just made all of that up.

I guess I'll go down to WalMart and go ape s###
Maybe stop off at a pet store and buy a bunch of rabbits.
breed em and eat em

originally posted by: FinalCountdown
I would make a call on my satellite phone.
Board the Reverends chopper at the lake house.
Next stop, Cabaña Island. A very small private island with a 33 room villa.
The island has a self sustained living environment with a 15 acre farm, with farm hands and kitchen staff.
We'll be fine.

Except.

I just made all of that up.

I guess I'll go down to WalMart and go ape s###
Maybe stop off at a pet store and buy a bunch of rabbits.
breed em and eat em

Rabbits are good for short term but can result in a whole host of issues in and of themselves.

As for Wal-Mart... just think to what happens right before a storm or Black Fridays across the US. It's a madhouse at Wal-Mart then and that's for the short term and people still have radios due to the radio stations having a generator. Now imagine if there were no radios and everyone was 10x to 100x worse than that.

This is why you should have a "few things" stashed away just in case.

If this had happened up till recently... it would depend either way me and the wife could both be home inside of 10 mins with bad traffic, get home arm up and re-asses the situation. If it looked more regional and local pd/state guard would handle security etc I would bunker in. load all fire arms fill bathtub, and all containers available till I ran out of containers or the water stopped coming out. fill sandbags and harden the street side of my house (from the inside).

If it looked like say a cascading power outage across the US which would leave us in the dark for an extended period (a week is no biggie in the Midwest has happened several times to me) and that the Fed may declare martial law, it would be bug out boogy time and I could be clear of even the outskirts of the city in 90 mins, and be at my initial bug out stop in 2.5 hours. Where I would again stop to asses the situation, and see if we need to move on to our final bug out location.

Or some semblance of the above, since plans are great till you meet the enemy.

(currently my wife is living in Germany and I will be following her in a couple months and right now I don't have the slightest clue on what to do in the same scenario.)

a reply to: Gazrok

Leave work immediately,
Anything I could tell coworkers could probably be said over the phone if necessary.
Try to drive home, my wife only works 2 of the days 5 days I do so there is a good chance she's already home and her work is on the way either way.

Depending on how quickly things escalated I may or may not take the interstate but that really depends on the outlook at the time. I know alternate routes either way. The point would be to get my wife and kid and go home asap. Home for me is 70 acres of land with a man made pond just outside the city by about 10 minutes. It's also surrounded by a large metal fence that was welded together and has a gate. The water there is ground water pulled up from the water table. Probably wouldn't lose it right away since the pump should work as long as I have electricty but I'd start saving some water. At that point I might take a bicycle to the local grocery to stock up on as much as I could. Might just take the cart as someone else suggested. Easier to carry. Hell might even be able to throw the bicycle on it. I could walk back. No biggie.

I have guns, bow/arrow. That pond is stocked with fish. I'd try to get others to gather at my place and go from there.

I'll assume the scenario is: economic collapse, shops soon to be empty, hyperinflation, parabolic loss of fiat's purchasing power, etc...

* pickup "the get home bag"
it contains what I'd need to get home, on foot, in about 72 hours. It's got some food, but I'd probably be a bit hungry when I made it home,

* fill both canteens with tap water before leaving work,

* drive home (55km),

Beside the primary (freeway) route, I've got two paved alternatives and an off-road one; wire-cutters in the boot allow for a way out in case the freeway is completely swamped with cars.

* call home from car (wife and kids should be there or there about)

* if possible and time permitting - three stops along the way in order of priority (not essential)
1. gas station (diesel, kerosene)
2. groceries (sugar, oil, beans),
3. camping and outdoor shop,


We live on a farm with our parents, raise our own animals, grow veggies, make our own cheese and so on. There are a few spare barrels of diesel in the barn. Firewood is always prepared a year in advance and things are wired up so that if we need power the tractor can supply us with up to 16kW of electricity, on demand, for as long as diesel lasts. Rainwater is collected in a giant reservoir I spent a fortune building and there are two fresh water streams in 3km radius. The farm has been there for generations and, thanks to my father, hand-powered tools have not been thrown away.

Sidenote: It has just occurred to me that what I've written above is agonizingly boring. As you can tell I've played this scenario out in my head so many times that anything that could be done to prepare for it, has.

With one exception. Insulin. My Achilles heel. Haven't figured that part out yet.

All the best,

Wyddle

originally posted by: anonentity
reply to post by Gazrok

 

I think i' d go to the public library, and get a hard copy of a device that was used to power trucks in Britain during the war.

This? www.lowtechmagazine.com...

I drive .5 miles to pick up my fiancé and kid from home and school. And then head straight west for about an hour and a half to the country where my family lives. We have two cargo containers full of food. And one w weapons and ammo all hidden in a spot in the country side.

We have 2 wells and river running through our property. Not to mentiOn a crazy amount if wild hogs. Deer and turkey that run through the property and 3 tanks stocked w fish in addition to the river

There's a bridge that separates us from the other side of the river that can be used strategically.

Fortunately my house and step daughters school are all in the edge of a small town very small so getting out in short order shouldn't be hard at all