When New Wife first arrived here in Plano and I was giving her a tour of the new apartment, she looked a little taken aback at the extent of my SHTF supplies, as well as my grab ‘n go bags and tubs. While she didn’t say much about it, I got the impression that she thought I was being a little too paranoid about it — after all, we live in Plano, where disaster seldom strikes.
After the flooding of a couple years back, and the recent cold winters, she appreciated those SHTF preps a lot more.
Then two nights back, we watched A Refuge Of Last Resort on BezosTV, which was a personal video account of New Orleans during Katrina. She wasn’t here during that little episode, so I suggested that she watch it with me.
She watched the whole thing in silence. Then, after it finished, she said, “We need more emergency drinking water.”
I don’t have to tell you guys anything about SHTF scenarios, of course, as we’ve discussed this many times in the past. Nevertheless, let this serve as a reminder to check your own SHTF stocks, and add / replace as necessary.
My own takeaway from this man’s story was a little different.
Firstly, FEMA is fucking incompetent — we all know that, of course, but it was the depth of the incompetence (coupled with outright lying) which gave me pause. (Nor, speaking of government agencies, did the New Orleans police come out of this covered in roses.)
Secondly, it is even clearer to me that the more prepared you are, the less you’ll have the need to go to “evacuation centers” or any of that kind of thing. If you are forced to leave your home (predicted flood, fire, hurricane etc.), you’ll be better off hunkering down with friends or family, or in a hotel room off the ground floor, along with all your supplies.
Thirdly, if you are going to hit the road, do it sooner rather than later. Keep your gas tanks as close to full as possible at all times.
I certainly don’t have to remind anyone of the need to be well armed.
And finally: if you do live in a Democrat-run shithole like New Orleans, get out now rather than later.
I’ll only add that your greatest threat in all things now is any sort of occurrence with anything gov’t. Local, state, fed, it’s all criminal and contemptible and to be avoided at all cost.
Be sure to rotate your stock in your BOB. You really don’t want to be eating ten-year-old Velveeta.
I don’t want to eat YESTERDAY’s Velveeta.
In the Boy Scouts, we would carry Velveeta and Triscuits (and Bisquick) on multi-day hikes. The Velveeta didn’t require refrigeration so that was a plus. These days, I keep a small loaf in my BoB – out of sentimentality, I suppose. But I change it out every few months. I still carry the Bisquick, along with tuna, spam, kipper snacks, saltines, and some other “yummy” stuff.
I might suggest–and I don’t know if you’ve considered it, instead of more water you get a water purifier. Not one of those “life straw” things, but a serious one like the MSR or the Katadyn.
The three-hundred dollar Katadyn is long-lasting, as is the expedition model Katadyn filter with the stirrup that you operate like an old-fashioned bicycle pump.
They filter down to virus and cryptosporidium size.
Same here in the Florida Swamp. From all the eye-rolling and exasperated sighs, I take it The Princess does not approve of all the money going into preps, when it could do better service as shoes and purses. After all, the Gov’t will provide, and if not, the Serf must.
It will take a damn lot to root me out of our hold in a SHTF. A hurricane-reinforced house, with an artesian well on two acres with clear lines of fire is quite the inducement to stay put.
We have a fairly remote cottage 3 hours away by car, heavily insulated, carefully stocked, woodstove heat, a full winter’s worth of dry firewood, a big water cistern we can hand pump if necessary plus a reasonable supply of firearms and ammunition in a heavy duty safe.
The problem would be how to get there and the only solution I could think of was to keep 40 US gallons of gas in Jerry cans in my garden shed and cycle them through the vehicles before they get stale. It’s a pain.
Does anyone have any better ideas of how to flee a city if necessary?
My solution is 1) Buy Ethanol Free gas. (Much better Burn-By dates.) 2) I treat the gas with Sta-Bil. 3) Bought a truck with a 36 gal tank; approx 900 miles unrefueled. (You can get MUCH bigger aftermarket tanks.)
And nowadays, I start to sweat if the gas gauge drops below 3/4 full.
The roads will be clogged so use a bicycle or a horse.
Remember kids: Democracy is the premise that people who can’t (or won’t) avoid needing FEMA camps get to have a say in how you conduct your affairs.
Like Charlie, I live where I’d bug out to. 40 acres, with a good pond, a well, deer, rabbits, squirrel, and a 300 yard sight line in all directions, well off the paved roads. PLENTY of 5.56, 7.62×39, 30-06, etc. and the boomsticks to use them. Even have some subsonics and a can, should silence (or at least much quieter) become golden.
And BTW – WWII rifle shoot is still on, October 15, 10:00 am till . . . El Dorado Kansas, at the range on the lake. Google it up, you won’t have any trouble finding it. If you’ve got a hankerin’ (did I really say that?) to get behind a Garand or other WWII rifle (and some nice pistols, too) come on up (or over, as the case may be). Fundraiser for the local WWII museum, and I’ll try not to pick your pockets too much. Of course, once you’ve put a hundred rounds or so through the Thompson, you may not have much left to pick . . .
what was the name of that book written by a guy who survived Venezuela’s collapse caused by Sean Penn’s buddy, Hugo Chavez?
Buy stuff you’ll eat. In prepping for a hurricane I bought some Dinty Moore Beef Stew and figured that would be good over noodles. We cooked that up over a Coleman camp stove and the stuff was dreadful. Never bought a can of that again.
JQ
Sawyer has a water filter that comes with a bag, dirty water in bag and then squeeze or let it drip by gravity through the filter into a clean container. If you use a Camelbak type bladder, you can connect the Sawyer filter in the line itself. Also, a couple of life straws pack rather small and are handy. I also through in some of the water purification tablets too.
Water bladders are handy because they store in a small space and can be expanded as needed.
Garand Thumb made a good point on a REECE video of his that water supply attracts animals and people. If you want to minimize being at the water source, a wide mouth container might be a good choice so you can grab some water and go filter or treat it someplace else.
MSR makes an incredible water filter that is incredible but runs almost $400 they recently had a 25% sale. Search online and you might find a good deal because it’s the coming near the end of camping season.
Another thing I threw in my bag is a Sillcock key. In areas with commercial buildings this can be used to open the valve and voilia, potable water from the town supply. That might be handy on a trek. It set me back about $8 from a hardware store.
Just like Army canteens had a metal cup that fit in the bottom of the canteen cover, they make a round one that fits for water bottles. I threw that in my gear so I’d have a metal cup for boiling water. I also grabbed a manual coffee grinder because I like coffee.
Grey Beard Green Beret has some great tips on his website and youtube.
JQ
Living in a Democrat run city seems to really increase one’s need for SHTF supplies, to include firearms.
If you want a bug-out country, have you looked into taking up your British citizenship (via marriage) yet?
Went home and watched this on amazon prime as soon as I could. everything about it was built on bad ideas, from living in a city below water level to waiting on .gov to save you in a time of need. the only difference between N’awlins and Mogadishu is time. Another year or 2 from the that point and you’d be making the Captain Phillips movie about pirates working off the coast of Louisiana. I went and bought more preps after watching it. I swear I will never get on that bus unless it’s my carcass they toss on it.