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The biggest vulnerability we have as a nation, in my view, is the electrical grid. Compound that with the complexity in major cities of the supply chain with regard to food and fuel and a lot of people are at risk if a catastrophe happens.

With the power outage in San Francisco today all I can say is - you heard it here first boys and girls...

Sorry, but if I don't toot my own horn who will?
 
rural areas are used to power outages.

One place in SE Montana I worked for a few weeks had power outages once a week or so, more often in the winter when the snow drifts closed the highway.

In rural or remote areas, they are the last people to get their power restored.

Just the same, it is annoying and inconvenient when it happens, especially if it lasts more than a day or two. I was pretty lucky when I lived in the Seattle area; despite power outages that happened every winter from windstorms, I rarely lost my power and then only for hours, while thousands of others would be without power for days, even weeks. We are still cleaning up from the last windstorm here.
 
I did a show on this awhile in a podcast I did and a few places I thing I posted what I call the
Basket Ball Effect, ( The short version is as follows) . A few years ago I was watching a game on TV it was playoffs and
there were all these people cheering and having fun eating their food and having a great time. These same people all went out and
trashed the city they were, burned cars, rioted stores. Yet these same people hours earlier where enjoying themselves sitting side by side in peace. The explanation is pretty long but sure most get the jist. Maybe its that I am old school but seen so many bad people do bad things. And why I am no angel God knows that clear, I hate seeing people being cruel to each other and well in SHTF whom would control those people ? No one so these people we see even rioting could be restraining themselves. It would be hard to trust people yet in some cases in SHTF you will find situation where you must venture out and guess thats why we all practice with our firearms time an time again. But hey let hope that doesnt happen because unlike in wars, if SHTF there will be zero rules, or conduct observed.

Dang tooo deep a subject for e Friday LOL
 
... Dang tooo deep a subject for e Friday LOL

...it's my "Tuesday", I have 3 "Wednesdays" this work week, and I didn't have my "Saturday" off, so I hear what yer' saying...

It's SUPER EASY for folk to fall into a group think/mob mentality.

I remember a young co-ed died back in Beantown after a Red Sox game and all the kids in town became rioted. She was shot with a less than lethal round (pepper dispersment round if I recall correctly), which nailed her in the throat/broke her larynx/suffocated.
 
I did a show on this awhile in a podcast I did and a few places I thing I posted what I call the
Basket Ball Effect, ( The short version is as follows) . A few years ago I was watching a game on TV it was playoffs and
there were all these people cheering and having fun eating their food and having a great time. These same people all went out and
trashed the city they were, burned cars, rioted stores. Yet these same people hours earlier where enjoying themselves sitting side by side in peace. The explanation is pretty long but sure most get the jist. Maybe its that I am old school but seen so many bad people do bad things. And why I am no angel God knows that clear, I hate seeing people being cruel to each other and well in SHTF whom would control those people ? No one so these people we see even rioting could be restraining themselves. It would be hard to trust people yet in some cases in SHTF you will find situation where you must venture out and guess thats why we all practice with our firearms time an time again. But hey let hope that doesnt happen because unlike in wars, if SHTF there will be zero rules, or conduct observed.

Dang tooo deep a subject for e Friday LOL

It also happened with "polite" Canadians in Vancouver, BC when the Canucks lost the final game for the Stanley Cup in 2011.

2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup riot - Wikipedia
 
I'm pretty sick of the uglyness of the residents of this cesspool known as Portland right now. If the sh*t truly hits the fan, I won't be concerned about them.
It will be the other way around.

Andy pretty much summed up my other thoughts.
 
Even with hydropower, it's still dependent on the lines and distribution substations... very vulnerable to some local warlord deciding to cut off everybody downstream.

Although regional power is distributed through the huge steel towers that would be hard to disable, local distributions are still made through wood poles, some damn big ones, but nothing a few notches with a chain saw and some tannerite won't put on the ground.

Have a less-lethal plan as well. If you have a group of people roaming your neighborhood... you really cant do anything unless theyre entering your place. You cant start pumping rounds at them through your fence boards.

When order is restored, and it will be, you will have to account for the dead people around your property:D

Excellent point. If nothing this thread should get all of us thinking about this option. Flame pits, concertina wire, some types of containment needs to be added to the prep plan.
 
People will be generous and helpful in the immediate aftermath of any SHTF. It's when the food runs out...or, more accurately, when people realize its GOING TO run out...that all bets are off...
 
Yeah, the windstorms this year caused my local grocery store to get wiped clean within minutes a few times, as well as a lot of others around Washington county. Also, people get murdered over Playstations during Black Friday sales. Hurricane Katrina turned New Orleans into a Mad Max free-for-all, where even some cops became murderous marauders. I think I've seen enough desperate acts from minimal disasters to get a feeling for how people will act when a real disaster hits.

People aren't as self-sufficient as they were in the depression or during wartime. They will totally lose their sh!t when their 3 day supply of food runs out and all the grocery stores are empty. A lot of people feel entitled to whatever they want already as it is, they're going to be thinking that they deserve your food more than you.
 
Interesting thread. I guess that is one (1) positive thing about living in the country, most people are good with their hands, and can hunt/fish/farm/gather. And everyone knows everyone else, so it's not like working with strangers.

Portland is the most pretentious American city I've ever been too, and I've been to all of the big ones, and many of the medium sized ones. Even a bike courier will flip you attitude in Portland if they get the feeling like you're a "breeder" or a capitalist, or a "bro", or whatever... So, I think it's pretty ugly already, but YMMV.

I just can't imagine what all those trustafarians are going to do if the power is out for weeks at a time. They'll probably just go home like River Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho and let the poor kids fend for themselves. Or, go backpacking in Argentina for 2 months until the power is restored.
 
Like the man said:
"Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet."

And therein lies the problem.

What are we supposed to do with the bodies? I mean, I know my neighbor will still want to feed his pit bulls, but Jeez, that seems kinda extreme.
It's too rocky around here to dig that many holes,... So what's the defensive marksman to do?

The coyotes around here take care of stuff like that, and quickly. So I am told.
 
For anyone who has not seen the film The Trigger Effect, it's a great film that deals with how quickly "society" fades away in a prolonged crisis.
+1 for Trigger Effect. Even if it weren't for the subject matter, it'd be worth the price of admission to watch Elizabeth Shue be GD gorgeous ;)
 
If you live near a creek or river, the crawdads, and otters take care of those things real quick. Don't know what else ate the azz out of a beaver my neighbor trapped last year.

Mmmm, nothing like putting rotting corpses in your nearest water source.

I guess if you got your water from upstream, it would be an easy way to get rid of that pesky neighbor problem.
 

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