Survival: So Simple it's Profound

[partsed]

My though exactly, do you pack two firearms-perhaps a 10/22 survival rifle and your carry pistol??

 

[Koda]

oh no... here we go. Id get the popcorn out but Ive already seen this show....

 

[Certaindeaf]

You could always trade guns along the way. Pretty simple.. profoundly simple!

 

[Koda]

You could always trade guns along the way. Pretty simple.. profoundly simple!

I find that every time Ive tried to ask someone to trade me my AR15 for their truck they end up throwing the keys at me and running away. Dont know why that is...

 

[jbett98]

You just need a Platinum Visa card. They're accepted all over the world.

 

[mkwerx]

You just need a Platinum Visa card. They're accepted all over the world.

Yeah, but if you're like most Americans, that platinum card may have $5 in credit left on it We are a debt driven society at this point. I'm just as guilty as the rest, and working to fix that.

A "black edition" Glock with Gold Dots may be a better credit card after the Big One or Very Big One hit anyway. I'm sure like Koda said- people may give you whatever you're asking for with no interest and low monthly payments

 

[19 Adam]

The only way I'll ever make it home is to follow the rivers and find rapids to drown out my snoring while I sleep.

The best thing about this thread is the Paratrooper folding Mt. bike. May just order one for my birthday this month and put it in my rig. I can think of all sorts of uses for that nice bike, including a little exercise throughout the year.

 

[Certaindeaf]

The only way I'll ever make it home is to follow the rivers and find rapids to drown out my snoring while I sleep.

The best thing about this thread is the Paratrooper folding Mt. bike. May just order one for my birthday this month and put it in my rig. I can think of all sorts of uses for that nice bike, including a little exercise throughout the year.

Hopefully your "rig" has an actual trunk or something.. the f'ing heathens are crazy compelled to thieve bikes.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Just my thoughts on the whole "There I was in my car when sh!t happened... And all I want to do is get home scenario."

This is paraphrased from Robert A. Heinlein's novel "Tunnel in the Sky."
For this scenario you are the rabbit trying to escape the fox.
Your only purpose is to stay alive.
Not to be brave , not to fight , not to dominate the wilds -but just stay breathing.

Good advise when all you want to do is make it home.
Andy

 

[Certaindeaf]

Just my thoughts on the whole "There I was in my car when sh!t happened... And all I want to do is get home scenario."

This is paraphrased from Robert A. Heinlein's novel "Tunnel in the Sky."
For this scenario you are the rabbit trying to escape the fox.
Your only purpose is to stay alive.
Not to be brave , not to fight , not to dominate the wilds -but just stay breathing.

Good advise when all you want to do is make it home.
Andy

Oh Andy, for shame.. that's just too simple.



lol

 

[Andy54Hawken]

True Certaindeaf ... But as the song says: "Be a simple kind of man..."
Andy

 

[The Heretic]

So, haven't read the rest of the thread, but here is the problem I see with that epiphany; the most likely scenario is:

The road - probably a highway - will be a parking lot in both directions - with no room to maneuver, and even if you could get their car (or they yours), turned around and across the median (i.e., headed in the other direction), it would most likely go nowhere.

 

[11Charlie]

Now that I am caught up and the OP got home from vacation. Swapping cars is a simple thought but chances are I won't run into one of you guys out there so the car on the other side will be worthless, empty on fuel or the tires will be slashed from some guy protesting the whole earth quake thing because he didn't have enough time to prepare and he finally realized that the gooberment is not going to save him.

If its a small enough earthquake to be switching cars I'll keep my truck and drive around the one over pass that I have on the way to the country roads to get home Just my .02 cents on this with no coffee.

 

[MrMillspecer]

I usually have my dog w me.

Lassie there's been an earthquake and if your get me home you can have 10 biscuits.

 

[Camelfilter]

The idea to swap cars is allrite, something to add to the toolbox.

...as is "trading guns", although posted as a joke, it's also something to keep in the toolbox. For example, let's say "the big one" hits while we're on our way back from the range, or from shooting at friends property far from home. Too many guns to carry/too much equipment. Too many folks about to pull them all from the truck & bury them. Can't make any decent movement driving, but maybe can side track a little bit...might be worthwhile chatting up someone at there home...do they seem sane & reasonable? Could they use the gift of some extra security? You could then leave your rig & whatever you can't carry with them, with the caveat that you'll be back someday (maybe headed back to your friends/family), and you'll need a "safe" place to hold up. In this scenario (or ANY scenario where you have to leave weapons/equipment in your rig), take a few minutes to "sanitize" it. Pull the tags & reg, plus anything with your address in it. Delete the most recent/frequent locations from your GPS unit (...you allready know enough not to have "home" programmed in...YES?).

 

[P7M13]

I appreciate that most of the responses have made humor out of this. Many others approach the subject as TEOTWAWKI.
This will not be a collapse - the affected area will most likely be a radius of 150 miles or less. No need to bug out or hole up. My home will probably be a pile of rubble anyway.
My plan, if the big one hits, is to help people, family first, then others, plain and simple.

I was thinking about what I'd do to get home in a particular disaster scenario, like I often do, and suddenly a light came on.

Assessment of your first post: What light? -- you weren't thinking at all. If a 9.0 hits and you live through it, you'll be moving on to plan D immediately. Get off the freeway, back roads first, and if you have to abandon your car, do it in a remote place. Why? If societal collapse does happen, you will want to have a vehicle you know and can go to.

If I happen to be somewhere and there are stores still open, first thing I would do is buy non-perishables.
Would I loot? Hell no. Would I stop looters? No. @AndyinEverson said it well.

Well, whiskey tango foxtrot is you epiphany "so profound it's simple" then? Six pages on, and you're not delivering on your claim.

+1

What, we have a bandanna???? Who knew?
Brutus Out

Honorable mentions in the give-a-way contests.

Now the good news: Geological data shows that there are two possible Cascadia scenarios, the Big One (partial rupture of the fault line), and the Very Big One (full margin rupture of the entire fault line).

The USGS papers I've read indicate the likelihood is geographical: geologic fault and core analysis indicate ruptures to the north only show ~8.0 while ones to the south (Reedsport and points south) are more likely to be 9.0+.
If you want to have an idea what a 8.0 looks like, for those of you who are familiar with the Willamette ridge, on the west side of the river, from Lake Oswego to Astoria (Forest Park for those of you who hike it), that would be one of the results of an 8.0 when the plates decouple and the crustal component relieves its compression stress. Spring back. Doubt it if you like, but my planning scenarios are based on worst case. I am the prophet-o-doom on this one.

My basic GHB contains the following:

• Full Sawyer 34 oz. water bottle with filter insert in Ziploc bag
• Empty 70 oz. hydration bladder
• High-calorie food
• Fleece hat
• Sun hat
• Thermal shirt
  
• Rain jacket (plus rain pants in winter)
  
• Convertible pants in summer, thermal underwear bottoms in winter
• Extra pair of socks and underwear
• SOL Escape Emergency Bivvy
• Fire starting materials
• Sunscreen
• $100 cash
• Insect repellent
• Individual Trauma/First Aid Kit
• Rubberized cut-resistant gloves in summer, rubberized thermal gloves in winter
• Watch
• Headlamp
• Cell phone accessories including portable battery pack
• Photochromatic safety glasses
• Reading glasses
  
• Leatherman tool
• Dust masks
  
• Water purification tablets (even though I have a filter bottle, much of I-5 is bordered by livestock fields that can contaminate water sources with viruses that have to be killed because they are too small to filter out)
• Toilet paper and hand sanitizer
• 550 Paracord
  
• 5.11 Covrt18 Backpack

Most of this stuff I carry on me in my work pack, clothing, rope, bulky gear in the car. You'd be amazed the amount of stuff you can cram into the spare tire compartment.

• Socks and underwear: your mamma raised you right! LOL. Those would be the first things converted into rags.
  
• Your car will always be too far away when you really need it. If your car is parked in a garage when the big one hits, good luck getting that sucker out.
• Note to add respirator to my gear. Dust masks are useless.
• If I don't trust the water I filter, I boil it. I do not use water purification tablets. Talk about 'effing up your natural defenses. Nor do I use hand sanitizer or anti-bacterial soap.

If TEOTWAWKI, a really useful skill to have would be defeating electronic vehicle security and be able to hot-wire vehicles.

 

[mjbskwim]

I let this go too long . I should have kept up on this. Good ideas on here.
One thing coastal said was kinda funny. He talked about in a 9 earthquake everything would be destroyed but he wants to get home to sleep in his shed?
That's one thing I didn't read much of. Your homes may not be much when you get to them. So,do you need to get there right away? Family is there instead of school or work?
The place to head first ,of course is to loved ones then to see if you have a home.
But uri-ki hit the nail on the head with the shape of the rivers and flood plains
When I lived in Sequim,the Dungenous river,during bad rains, would move from one side of the banks to the other maybe 2 times a day. We're talking a couple hundred yards!
Once the structures start falling, the rivers will be everywhere. Those roads that you drive to look at the river? Under water.
Then there's the dams failing. Y'all were talking about how the tsunami won't make it up the Columbia to Portland.
Well let me tell ya,if any dams fail on the Columbia and a tsunami blocks that water from leaving,well you can see where this will go.
Floating rivers and trying to cross will end quickly once you watch people get hit or caught on debris in the rivers and streams.

 

[etrain16]

I can speak to this SOME WHAT, based on the two events I got to be a part of. During Katrina, most people stayed put and they waited until things cleared up a bit, the looting and general lawlessness didn't happen right away, most were shell shocked AND nature played a huge amount in this situation, the flooding prevented a lot of serious crimes during the first few weeks ( In areas that saw the flooding) Those that went feral or were just looking to take advantage struck out once the big event had blown out and they were able to gather the gangs together! The Japan Earth Quake and Tidal waves was wholly different, the damage was so bad, and so many had been killed that general lawlessness was not such a big concern, but it did happen! The big difference ( besides the country) was even the people likely to go rouge were killed off leaving much fewer to do the looting or run amook! The looting that was observed was mainly for survival and not hoisting big screens and dvd players! One Huge difference we did see, in 'Murika, there were armed citizens that were able to fend off would be bad, where as in Japan, the crooks could pretty much run all over the people unchecked!
Japan should be the events being looked at as to just how bad it will likely get, and the death toll would likely be close enough for comparison! Watch some of the many videos of the quake and the flooding. Keep in mind that the entire stretch of the I-5 run from the Ashland to Tacoma will Liquefy the ground and that will make every thing really, really bad! Also keep in mind that there are a number of Dam's on both the Willamette and the Columbia that will suffer significant damage and this spells disaster on an epic scale! Fema will not be able to respond, local and regional teams will be completely over whelmed, and it will take several days or even weeks for outside help to arrive! and even then, your pretty much on your own!

I spent a few months last year looking into this with a team at our office looking into how to get the business back up and running in the event of something like the Cascadia quake should occur.

What I learned, that many fail to take into account when comparing other disasters is how much total area would be affected in a full-scale Cascadia event. The fault line runs approximately 900 miles from mid-north CA up to BC. If the whole thing lets go, that's a disaster 900 miles long by up to 100 miles deep (inland). It would likely be the largest modern disaster in world history, affecting more people than any previous event. Resources coming from the unaffected states would be stretched extremely thin. Recovery would take a huge amount of time. I was shocked at seeing this could be the case and has me thinking even 90 days of supplies may not be enough. And it's worse for those on the coast when it happens, it is expected they will be virtually cut off from any serious aid/support for weeks to months while the focus is on the higher population areas.

We know it's going to happen, but we don't know when, how severe or how widespread. With that in mind, I am rethinking my disaster planning for a much more serious and drawn out event, even more so than Katrina or Japan.

 

[etrain16]

If your employer doesn't have work for you and you can show up to work, you will get unemployment for 6 months or more (if it is extended). If your employer is still open for business, then it will depend on whether you can get to your workplace or not. I would not be surprised if there was some special programs in this regard.

Of course, if someone else has a job for you, that you can do and the pay is customary, that is within 50 miles, then you would have to accept that work.

For those of us that are older and/or not able to do physical work 8 hours a day, and/or have a different profession (e.g., I am a software engineer), it is customary to not require us to accept a job digging ditches.

Personally, I am pretty close to retirement, so I could handle my own expenses with SSI and my savings, but I would have to work in order to support my "children" (my daughter and her husband) who would probably be out of work.

Max unemployment is ~$500 per week.

I'm fortunate as our company will be one of those involved in rebuilding/restoration of infrastructure. We will have work from day 1 for those who are willing, and able, to work. Our biggest problem as a company will be communication, and we've spent some considerable time trying to iron that out. Our belief is that most folks will abandon any concern for work for a period of time, but will be looking to return once things begin to stabilize. The way we would most likely work is to have people work in the areas of town close to where they live, focusing first on the priorities like emergency services, hospitals, utilities, etc. It is likely we would be strictly in emergency work mode for a year or more. I am an office guy now, but I still have the tools and would likely be a field guy for months, if not longer.

 

[P7M13]

I spent a few months last year looking into this with a team at our office looking into how to get the business back up and running in the event of something like the Cascadia quake should occur.

What I learned, that many fail to take into account when comparing other disasters is how much total area would be affected in a full-scale Cascadia event. The fault line runs approximately 900 miles from mid-north CA up to BC. If the whole thing lets go, that's a disaster 900 miles long by up to 100 miles deep (inland).

Did you encounter any studies that even suggested the possibility of a 900 mile rupture? I did not, and such broad-scale cataclysmic thinking is not common in the geophysicists whom I knew. I had a professor who wrote papers on mega-shear events: imagine Montana lifting, moving and rotating as a whole. That would be in response to something like an entire subduction zone decoupling at once. Not inconceivable, but I would suggest your notion of affected areas only being 100 miles deep is not reasonable. I would suggest the crust will respond as far as Denver, with significant effects as far as Hells Canyon. THAT would be probably the closest to TEOTWAWKI that any one of us would ever come.