Prepper lessons for the paranoid ...

[togor]

Sam a few 5lb sacks of iodized salt will be worth a lot in trade too. Whiskey and Salt. You betcha! Gotta have ammo too, to shoot back at the roving cannibals. Don't forget, all meat will be suddenly in short supply save for one variety.

[aintright]

Another good read I haven't seen in a spell is Citizen Soldier . it's an old one , but good advice .
Kenneth

[dogtag]

My old Truck will still run but that $80,000 Land Rover car won't
not if we get hit with an EMP.
Don't scoff at the thought - a nuclear explosion in our atmosphere
would do the trick. Iran would do it in a heartbeat if she could.
Russia and China could. Yes we'd retaliate but that wouldn't get
your favorite TV program back on.
Flint Knapping lessons anybody ?

[Vern Humphrey]

A Survival Story – By Vern Humphrey

On Tuesday, February 5th, 2008, Super Tuesday, I was stationed in the Stone County Clerk's office in Mountain View, Arkansas. I am a County Election Commissioner, and my duty was to supervise the primary election. My wife is Assistant Director of Nursing at the local nursing home.

We had warnings of storms and tornadoes. Late in the afternoon, we heard that the town of Clinton, about 25 miles to the southwest, had been hit by a tornado. Then we heard other towns, closer to us had been hit. At 6:00 PM I directed poll workers to lock down the precincts and evacuate, and to return after the storm had passed.

At 6:30 PM, the tornado tore through the eastern part Mountain View. All the electric power in the county went out. Cell phone signals were lost. We retained landline communication with most of the county, but could not make long distance calls, nor could we contact the eastern section of the county. The county hospital was hit, only the operating room remaining intact. Patients were evacuated to the nursing home. Roads were blocked for days with fallen power lines, debris, and so on.

I won't bore you with how we had to recover ballot boxes and voting machines -- but it took seven days to collect everything and get certifiable results. In the meantime, the county was cut off, with no power. This tornado tore a half mile to a mile wide swath through the state, 123 miles long!

My wife and I put our personal survival plan into effect, moving into our basement, heating with a wood stove, cooking on a Coleman stove, lighting it with a Coleman lantern. We survived in comfort until the power went back on at 4:00 PM on Monday, the 11th. This is hardly the first time we have put our survival plan into action -- the county has had two tornadoes and two ice storms in the last 12 years.

Here are some tips:

Make a plan -- a realistic plan.

• Start with a realistic situation based on actual likely risk factors where you live. Here it is ice storms and tornadoes. They have two similarities -- long term loss of power, and physical isolation (due to trees and power lines down on the roads.)

• Develop an outline plan -- this plan, sometimes called a "Long Term Plan" is a statement of what you plan to accomplish.

• Resource the plan. Acquire the things you will need. If you cannot afford some things now, plan to acquire them later. This is sometimes called a "Mid Term Plan."

• Execute the plan -- the execution plan is the "Short Range Plan." Don't wait for a tornado or earthquake -- take some vacation time and put your plan into action. If you plan to walk from Atlanta, Georgia to Nantahala carrying your gun safe and Dillon 550B reloader, you might want to try that before the disaster strikes.

• Evaluate your execution. Make notes of what worked and what didn't work. Make a list of the things you wish you had, and plan to acquire them.

Stress the elements of survival. I won't list them in any particular order, because one element may be critical in one situation, but not in another.

• Shelter. This is where you will live. You may have to live there for days, weeks, months, or even a year or more. A cave or tarp under a tree is not a satisfactory long term shelter. My shelter is my basement -- fully finished, with reinforced concrete walls, two steel girders running the width of the house, and two exits -- basement stairs and double doors to outside. It is furnished with a hide-a-bed sofa, and there is an 8X12 "machine room" where the HVAC, water heater, and so on reside. There is room enough for a large gun safe, a freezer, shelves containing canned goods, batteries, etc.

• Food. We have enough canned goods to last us a month in the "machine room."

• Water. We are on a rural water system, so no need for a pump. We also keep a gallon of bleach in the machine room so as to be able to purify creek water if needed.

• Heat. The temperature was in the 'teens this time. The basement stays at 55 degrees year-round, so the wood stove was adequate. This is characteristic of underground shelters, and makes them especially desirable.

• Power. We keep a 1.35 KW generator in the machine room, take it outside and run it to keep the freezer from thawing.

• Light. My wife and I have flashlights everywhere -- in the truck, in the car, in the bedside tables, in the machine room. We also stock candles, oil lamps, Coleman fuel (2 gallons) in there. Our Dual Fuel Coleman lantern will burn regular gas, too.

• Cooking. We keep a Coleman Dual Fuel camp stove in the machine room.

• Communications. We keep a hand-cranked radio. We may add a transmitter-receiver after this experience. Fortunately, telephone service (at least within the county) has never failed us.

• Sanitation. We have a half-bath in the basement, and with gravity water and a stove to heat it, we were able to keep clean. However, not everyone was so fortunate, as I noticed when working closely with others during the emergency.

• Transportation. We have 4X4s, and keep 10 gallons of gas in cans in our outside shed. We also have tire chains.

• Tools. Forget "survival tools." The most important tool is a chain saw. During the last ice storm, we had to cut about 20 trees that had broken or bent over blocking our 1/4-mile drive. We had a couple on the 0.6 mile common road, too.

• Protection. I am always armed (except in polling places -- dang it!). I keep firearms spotted in the house where I can get to them quickly, as well. Of course, our isolation (3 1/2 miles down the county road, 0.6 miles down the common road, and a quarter mile down our drive) also offers protection.

• Community. We worked together to help save and provide necessities to our neighbors. They would do the same for us, if needed.

[Allen]

a nuclear explosion in our atmosphere
would do the trick. Iran would do it in a heartbeat if she could.

And a president like obama or hillary would see to it that it happened.

[togor]

We've had to use the 5kW gas generator a number of times over the years. Disasters? Disaster avoidance really. Keep the deep freeze from thawing out! Our well pump is on a 230VAC circuit hence the need for a bigger but still portable unit. I rigged up a double male "suicide" cord on 12/4 and we back feed the house through the electric dryer circuit. Enough juice to run the furnace, pump, refrigeration and some lights. Which reminds me it's due for an oil change.

[dryheat]

It's manslaughter if the lineman taps into it and gets blasted, but I'm sure you know enough not to let that happen. But I wonder if it has ever happened to anyone.

[togor]

And a president like obama or hillary would see to it that it happened.

Yeah those darned Obama EMPs. Just when I got everything fixed, *Boom!* Another one!

[Sandpebble]

It's manslaughter if the lineman taps into it and gets blasted, but I'm sure you know enough not to let that happen. But I wonder if it has ever happened to anyone.

Ya gotta flip off the main breaker.... don't forget.

Along though those lines.... when my neighborhood lost juice for 2 weeks after Hurricane Charlie no one gave the breakers a thought ....

When the power came back on there were all these homes with damaged roofs and soaking wet that suddenly went all arcy sparky ....

[togor]

It's manslaughter if the lineman taps into it and gets blasted, but I'm sure you know enough not to let that happen. But I wonder if it has ever happened to anyone.

You gotta open the main to the street before closing the dryer breaker. Otherwise the unit would quit in any number of ways. Topping up the fuel tank on a running unit during a rainstorm is not my favorite thing to do.

[Jiminvirginia]

Kind of funny. I replaced the hunk of junk generac with a dual fuel, propane or gasoline Chinese made generator and havn't lost power since. We even had an ef3 tornado 8 miles down the road a month ago.

[Jiminvirginia]

You gotta open the main to the street before closing the dryer breaker. Otherwise the unit would quit in any number of ways. Topping up the fuel tank on a running unit during a rainstorm is not my favorite thing to do.

I went with an interlock swith. Prevents you from having the generator breaker and main breaker closed at the same time. Fairly simple to install. You have to make sure you get the correct kit for the panel.

[togor]

I went with an interlock swith. Prevents you from having the generator breaker and main breaker closed at the same time. Fairly simple to install. You have to make sure you get the correct kit for the panel.

Cutover switches are nice. My rig is definitely home-brewed and requires attention to detail, but we've had some outages at interesting times and it has worked very well. I tell you, if the countryside is dark for an extended period, the distant sound of a generator or spec of bright light from a window will attract desperate people. The best resource in such a time is friends you can trust. A guy can boil acorns to eat if he has to, but true friends, real allies, can be the difference between waking up or not one day. That's why I think so many preppers, the ones with an anti-social streak, have it just plain wrong.

[RED]

I tell you, if the countryside is dark for an extended period, the distant sound of a generator or spec of bright light from a window will attract desperate people.

I think that is of no concern. For one thing I do not know a single old neighbor that does not have a generator, so there are going to be specs of bright light all over the place and if that is a concern, only operate the genset in the daytime. As far as hearing a generator running, you cannot hear my propane fired 15KW Generac over 100 feet away and the closest public road is 400 yards away. As far as a Generac being a "hunk of junk," mine has started itself and ran for 12 minutes once a week for the past 11 years. Maintenance? An oil change every year, a couple of new spark plugs, an air filter and a new battery every 3 - 4 years and that's it.

If you plan on keeping your freezer going, having hot water, and even some heat and A/C, even 5 KW's come up short and propane is the fuel of choice... it is easy to store lots of it and it doesn't age.

[S.A. Boggs]

This thread is getting interesting and insightful as well. In the years that my wife and I have been together we have experienced a flood where we had to abandon our home, a tornado close by, heavy snow and ice storms. This August "we" will be restarting a home improvement that my cancer stopped two years ago. The addition of a large greenhouse/solar room, new kitchen/large pantry, and a 10,000 watt diesel generator combined with a new wood furnace. I have already and use daily a water filtration system and will be installing a rain water harvesting system. If money permits a large more accessible chicken house with additional solar. Some people have a place to "bug out" to, what happens if you get there and find it already occupied or problems getting there? For me and Vern we are already there so we just have to watch our perimeter. For the record, all "we" are prepping for is life, anything else is just a guess and a needless worry.
Sam