Surviving what you prepped for

[Ura-Ki]

This is one of the BIG reasons to have a Bug out rig and supplies that are mobile, even if the rig gets busted, your supplies should still be savable. SO............your buddy needs to make do with what he can find, and I say he needs to head out and find what ever he can, food, water, fuel, and medicals. beyond that, hunker down and build some sort of shelter that is easy to defend and go from there! There will be aid stations, and Shelters, BUT, that should be a last resort, I would focus on getting what ever I can find first and then decide what to do next!

 

[11Charlie]

I always try and keep my truck ready for anything. The one thing that made me really think Ura-Ki was his shop gone! I mean just gone? Really! I am assuming that his gun safe was bolted down because that is just the type of guy he is. So hopefully that was still there.

But to loose everything that you work for just for this type of emergency has to be heart breaking. The whole thing really made me think and how easy we all could be in the very same situation. I think that I am going to start storing some things in our guest bedroom closet and some in my shop. Hopefully that way if something horrible happened to one or the other I would still be ok.

 

[Camelfilter]

That's a drag, sorry to hear on your friends misfortune!

However, thanks for writing about it, as it does give a few ideas. Obviously can't possibly plan on every situation though.

If we had to bug out of our current location, due to some localized event, then yeah throwing a bunch of extra food and water in the truck and SUV would take but a few minutes more.

Loading up the trailer? If time permitted, and again depending upon the scenario, yeah would do it.

-Railroad explosion, with leaking toxins? We're out as freakin fast as we can.

So just depends...

 

[Dungannon]

Sorry about your friend. Hopefully USCG District 8 in Corpus Christi has some extras for retirees. If I lived in a flood-prone area [I don't] then I sure wouldn't store anything at ground level. I spent 7½ months as a volunteer in Pass Christian, Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina rebuilding damaged houses. Unlike New Orleans, that part of the Mississippi coast had a 30' tidal surge, so there wasn't so much as a stick left of houses close to shore. Five miles inland, where I was, they had 4' of water. Canned goods, bottle water and pop was about all that was salvageable in local houses. Everything else was water soaked, rusting and covered with mold. The health issues alone were enormous. WalMart and Home Depot had a better response plan than FEMA, and they implemented their plans quickly. Sadly, the stream of volunteer workers and dollars dried up long before the rebuilding was complete. On to other disasters, I guess.

 

[Lilhigbee]

Actually, this is something I have thought about within the last few days. One possibility could be a small network of people you trust.

Wearing a NWFA T-shirt would be a welcome sign at MY house. Maybe we should have NWFA banners we can fly in the event of an emergency?? The unwashed masses wouldn't know what it means so there wouldn't be any security risks associated with it!!

 

[11Charlie]

Wearing a NWFA T-shirt would be a welcome sign at MY house. Maybe we should have NWFA banners we can fly in the event of an emergency?? The unwashed masses wouldn't know what it means so there wouldn't be any security risks associated with it!!

A white flag with NWFA logo on it. Gotta be big so I can make it out through my scope.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

This is just me, but the first thing I would do is move my family to a place where the highest mountain is more than 13 feet above sea level!

 

[11Charlie]

This is just me, but the first thing I would do is move my family to a place where the highest mountain is more than 13 feet above sea level!

That is why I live on a hill. I'm not worried about flooding but there are so many scenario's that something like this make you think of. I just want to make sure that I have done the best for my family in any given situation.

 

[etrain16]

I've thought about this myself. First, I never assume I'll be home when a disaster hits, that means I have to think about how to get back home and how to survive in the meantime. In a while, we'll be heading to the coast for a vacation. I'll be thinking about what happens if the big one hits while we're there? Estimates are it could be months before you could get back into the PDX area from the coast and resources on the coast are far more limited than they are inland. That's some scary scenarios to prep for.

As for the house, we live high enough that flooding isn't an issue. And our area isn't going to get hit by a hurricane or F5 tornado. The most likely event is the Cascadia quake - and I have no idea what that may do to the house. It could just fall down, in which case I can dig out a lot of stuff. But we have natural gas, so a broken line, a spark, and it all goes up. We do have a small camper, so if I had to get out in an evacuation like in the OP, I would be taking that with me - it's at least shelter and extra room to store food, water and essentials. We don't camp much anymore, but we do look at that trailer as a backup living arrangement if necessary.

I hope things work out well for your brother. I'd like to hear an update in a few months so he could help educate us all on what he ended up doing to survive this and to get back on his feet. That info may be very helpful everyone's planning. Praying for his family and a quick recovery.

 

[Joe13]

It is already happening!!!

I followed a guy with Texas plates almost all the way to work this morning.

 

[Tully Mars]

The only thing I didn't like about Texas was that it was full of Texans

 

[Joe13]

The only thing I didn't like about Texas was that it was full of Texans

I think I integrated into the PNW well and have been here longer then any other place by a lot of years but my dad's a Texan and my moms from Arizona-California so I can understand the distaste for either state lol.

 

[11Charlie]

I happen to like Texas and texan's! Any state that is allowed to shoot first and ask questions later when someone is breaking into there house is alright by me.

Now the Cowboys I really dislike.

 

[41mag]

I had personal experience with massive flood. The Great Central California Flood of 1955, up until that time, was the largest in US history....affected Yuba & Feather River as it approached Yuba City & Marysville.

As a then-10 year old, I was daily exposed to the turmoil and unrest of the entire community. Even with what seemed like ample 'get out of town' advise, my dad put it off as long as possible.....I know memory is somewhat distorted, but my image is one of the last cars fleeing across the long bridge, water literally up to the pavement we were driving on. My sensation was that of the tail pipe burbling in the waters as they rose behind our nearly-too-long-delayed departure.

Losing everything, literally, and coming back to the house weeks later, to find it was the only one on the block still on its foundation, was a Reality Biscuit, and to find all my boyhood treasures now under retch-producing fine silt, with watermarks to the ceiling of the first floor, probably was a suitable introduction to How the World Works.

Scenes of flooding remind how tenuous our little survival island really is.

The sense of loss and the sense of having survived, at least THIS one, are in my permanent memory file....along with the ongoing 'be prepared' mantra that left me literally for years, tucking a small pack ready should 'evacuation order' come.

 

[Caveman Jim]

If a natural disaster were to happen to me and the people I live around I would first think of getting the hell out, rule number one evacuate especially during flooding unless you can hang on to that radio tower 4 days or even weeks.... not going to happen captain.

Just like your friend in Texas hurricanes are common to that region and what you do and how you prepare for them is to take what you can and get the hell out. Go to an area that is unaffected. Since prepping is for emergencies I would have an RV (stocked with survival food & supplies) in storage in an area that i know would not be affected by said hurricanes (if I could afford it).

Prepping for disasters takes a lot of time, thought and ability to implement that plan. It also takes total cooperation of all in your family or crew that would be affected by emergencies. This last aspect is so dire to your plan because if you have just one person that does not pull their weight when it is imperative, it could all fail. FAST.

 

[etrain16]

If a natural disaster were to happen to me and the people I live around I would first think of getting the hell out, rule number one evacuate especially during flooding unless you can hang on to that radio tower 4 days or even weeks.... not going to happen captain.

Just like your friend in Texas hurricanes are common to that region and what you do and how you prepare for them is to take what you can and get the hell out. Go to an area that is unaffected. Since prepping is for emergencies I would have an RV (stocked with survival food & supplies) in storage in an area that i know would not be affected by said hurricanes (if I could afford it).

Prepping for disasters takes a lot of time, thought and ability to implement that plan. It also takes total cooperation of all in your family or crew that would be affected by emergencies. This last aspect is so dire to your plan because if you have just one person that does not pull their weight when it is imperative, it could all fail. FAST.

Along those lines, I think this would sum up what I would love to have set up - outside the potential disaster zone:

 

[11Charlie]

Along those lines, I think this would sum up what I would love to have set up - outside the potential disaster zone:

Ya but money comes to mind.

 

[Caveman Jim]

With the above mentioned about a network of friends family whatever along the way is very crucial to survival in emergency situations.
Years ago when we moved away from our homelands in the south we would come back through for visits, vacations, reunions and in worst case scenarios funerals.
We new people along the way which helped immensely sense we were just a starting family away from home. The trip from the Pacific Northwest was it a long one to Florida and during the driving trip there was only one night that we had to stay in a motel and that was in between Seattle and Phoenix. The rest of the trip we had people along our route that we could stay with which serve dual purpose that we had a place to stay and we visited with them.
It was a win-win for all involved and I believe that what Ikemay suggested is a golden opportunity to rekindle old friendships with family members and Friends in different areas.

 

[titsonritz]

Semper Paratus is the Coast Guard motto, just saying.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Along those lines, I think this would sum up what I would love to have set up - outside the potential disaster zone:

Exactly, with all that Firepower you will be able to eat and drink yourself fat and silly...