What if? An exercise for the new prepper

[Socalman]

This is a post I made on a California board and is in regards to an earthquake throwing us into SHTF. Not bad enough for a TEOTWAWKI. It is meant to be a a bit of an exercise for you to check your preps. Don't think that we in Kommiefornia are the only ones subject to earthquakes, remember the New Madrid quake!

So here is the scenario:

Three seconds after your read this thread a large quake hits your area. The rolling and shaking lasts 45 seconds and it was a 7.5 on the Richter scale. Of course you don't know it was a 7.5 because your electricity is off. Water mains somewhere are broken and you have no water pressure. Your gas line is broken and you have no natural gas for heating/cooking/hot water. You go to call the electric company but your phone line is dead. Grab your cell phone but the circuits are jammed and you can not make a call. Your home has several cracks, perhaps some damage but is still habitable. You walk outside and you can see that there are some fires burning, fortunately not in your immediate area. Sirens are blaring all around.

How much water do you have NOW? How many days do you think it will last? What will you do for a toilet?

What is your food supply? How will you cook it? Do you have a camp stove or other means of cooking? How long will you survive on the food in your house RIGHT NOW? Do you think the markets will have much on hand, even if you can get there?

Can you buy anything even if you get to a retailer or someone selling? Credit card readers are down. Cash is the only means to buy (some barter may take place I understand that). How much cash do you have on hand?

As roads may be blocked for a few days you may not go anywhere for sometime. Once they become passable, how much gas in your tank? Think you will buy gas? The stations pumps will not work. Do you have some fuel stored? Be careful where and how you store gasoline!

What is the extent of the damage overall? Turn on your radio and find the news. You do have a battery or crank powered radio? How long will those batteries last? Do you have a stock of extra batteries for it and your flashlights?

What about night time lighting? Candles can be dangerous.

Do you have a generator? Fire that up in an urban or suburban area and chances are someone will want and attempt to take it.

This is meant simply as an exercise to evaluate where you are in your preparations for a natural disaster. OK, go take stock of your preps NOW.

[helomech]

I have all the water I can stand, just needs filtered a bit. Food supply is good, got lots of canned meat, plenty chickens, and rabbits, 2 freezers full of meat that would be smoked. I have a smoker and a small wood burner outside I can cook on and have all the wood I can ever need. Always keep cash on hand. If I am home, roads being blocked are not a big deal, if I am at work I will have a very very very long walk. We always have a large stash of batteries, wife buys the big packs. Not worried about night time lighting, if it is dark it is time to sleep. I have a generator and enough fuel to get by for a month or so maybe longer

[Sniper-T]

If at home, I would simply close the gate at the end of the driveway and go about my business. It is still cold enough that I don't have to worry about my freezers for a few days, but I would be eating out of them first (along with perishables). If after 3 days, and the end isn't in sight, then I would fire up my genny, and run the freezers while also running my smokers and dehydrators. It would also be time to set up the turkey fryer on the deck and start pressure canning meat.

This process would probably take a solid 2 days to complete, and then life would go on. Spring is just starting, so I would be planting all my tubers, etc, maintaining all my seedlings, cutting wood...

Being that I am rural, and quite well established for an inconvenience such as this, I would be pretty much ok.

[T70]

I'm pretty well set on food and water. Lots of canned goods and MRE's. The freezer is full. Gas tanks are full, have a little cash. I have a camp stove and plenty of propane bottles, a smoker, and a gas grill with 2 full bottles for it. Fresh eggs every day, I could butcher a few rabbits and chickens if I had to. I do live in town so I'd probably keep a long gun handy for those who think they need MY stuff more than I do. I'd stay here as long as I can, then if it got really, really bad I have a couple other options on where we'd go. There's plenty of squirrels, doves and wild rabbits if I had to hunt in my back yard too I guess. If I can get to where I hunt (10 minutes away) there's always fresh food there from hunting or fishing if I ran out here. Always keep a good stock of batteries. The only thing missing from the original post, is I think the only radios I even own anymore are in vehicles lol. Guess I need to go to Wal Mart now.

- - - Updated - - -

Also 2 of our 3 vehicles are 4wd, and I have a 4wd UTV and a 4 wheeler. Worst comes to worst and I'll use them instead of the every day vehicles!! Of course, if this happens here I'll probably immediately be called in to work so I may have to make arrangements for my family. That's something else I really need to plan for.

[helomech]

T70 can always come to my place, if needed I can pick him and his stuff up with the 5 ton.

[bacpacker]

Water, more than I'll ever need, and the filters to use it. Food freezers 3/4 full, and lots of fresh canned goods. Enough store bout canned and dry foods. I think we could do 6 months or more easy. Plus garden is underway and have plenty of time to increase my plantings and do a major fall crop.
Gas tanks are never below half and have a fair amount stored, both gas and desirl for the tractor. Lighting kerosene lamps, battery powered, and andles. But like Helo mentioned, if it's dark out pretty much time for bed. Day light will be balls to the wall work.
Always keep some cash on hand, but other than to replenish fuel, I'm not sure I would even go out for anything.

[Socalman]

As I stated, this is simply an exercise to make folks take stock in what you are ready for NOW.

[bacpacker]

Good scenario, I particular for those of us who don't expect to deal with an earthquake.

IMO, this would be an excellent driver to start doing g this with various types of emergencies. Get folks thinking

[Vodin]

Water we are good, when we run out we have 1' of snow on the ground and then a small stream bed in the back ~100 yds away.

Food we can, freeze and bought foods. When we run out look what is on the other side of our fence..
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y534/Vodin136/IMG_0561_zpsg9ngk6x6.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Vodin136/media/IMG_0561_zpsg9ngk6x6.jpg.html)

We have a few extra 20# tanks of propane spare. (we grill year round)
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y534/Vodin136/DSCN0236_zpsbvainqsz.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Vodin136/media/DSCN0236_zpsbvainqsz.jpg.html)

We own a business so we have cash reserve.

There is a spare tank of gas that is rotated every other tank.

We got the batteries to power other stuff but no crank radio or special radio. We have one in the vehicle and smart phones. Unprepared on the radio end.

I am a guy.. it goes without saying we love flash lights and lights. Got the vehicle lights and fog lamps.

No generator. Will be buying an electric inverter to hook up to the vehicle battery. We have a few outlets setup in it now but no grounds are available.

[realist]

So we would use the tents if nothing was left standing. Food stocks are dispersed among the buildings and would be easy to recover. As for cooking I have a BBQ trailer with three burners on the back. The trailer carries 15 gallons of fuel in three 5 gallon tanks, I have seven others in reserve which are always kept filled. For water all the vehicles have water filters. We have a pool which we could use for water and then there is the Laguna which is not far for our backup.

[AlphaTea]

Meh, I'll have a coke

[FLPrepper]

Filter straws are my go to for water. Have some from Sawyer and Frontier - minimum 30 gallons from each filter. Small, light, simple - should be on every prepping list.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Just caught this today. Hmmmm. figures you had to give me a quake. I need to make a gasoline run. However all "assorted" vehicles are full. Trucks, bikes, ATVs, mower. 500lb propane tank is full, one 100lb is full the other needs to be topped off. Food, plenty, some folks have seen the critters that I feed every other day in my back yard and then there's the other "stuff", water have a large creek out back, 2 Katydyn filters that will do 30K each plus I have spare filters, GTG. Power, yup, solar, batteries, etc. SECURITY is my primary concern and will always be! LadyHK and I can only defend so much by ourselves, the neighbors......well we are in the country. We have dogs, dogs are the first line of MY immediate defense. They always bark when I don't want them to, BUT that's because they bark at all the unusual noises and unwanteds. So I'll be watching everything they take notice of.

I think after evaluating this the first thing I would be doing is going to all the neighbors and checking on them and calling a meeting ASAP! Coordinating a defensive perimeter and laying out a plan to keep us ALL safe. Here my neighbors have many talents and equipment and STUFF. For instance, an assload of angus across the street, deer a plenty, creeks and springs on everyone's properties. Heavy equipment to set up a line of defense, barricades, road blocks, etc. I live in the midst of farmers and heavy equipment owner operators. We all get along great. I have been their local gunsmith and all I ever charged them was parts. Anytime I needed a favor they have always been there and visa versa. Most of the time we are busy taking care of our properties and fixin broken shit. So do I feel prepared..............NEVER.............I never will because "Seaman Murphy" will raise his ugly fuckin head any time he wants to and that will be the scenario I "didn't" prepare for. SO does that answer your question?


Guess I need to make that gas run now that we had an earth quake, and I only have 4 fuckin beers left.

The real story is this, where we live, we WILL get visited by unwanteds because we did before. When the tornadoes hit Huntsville they cleaned us and every town in between and all around out. We are the little country road just off the highway................yup, sure we may be a few miles back in there but they will pillage the village. I don't think anyone is safe, I think you have to think defense first and then go recon and offense.

Damn I've had way too much time on here with all these storms the last few days. But that's a good thing, gets me back on track.

[Illini Warrior]

if you want a complete testing of your prep and plans you need a more serious SHTF - a natural disaster doesn't qualify - it has a predictable response timeframe from FEMA, the utility company, cops & fire, even from Wally World & Home Depot ....

pick a scenario where there's no real determinable recovery ... your stored water runs out - try out the planned water scavenging and filter plan .... people are starving - how's that covert cooking plan going to work? .... same same with light discipline - can't run the generator anymore without drawing a crowd - even the least interior lighting is bad - how's your blackout curtains? ....

[Socalman]

We recently were in an evacuation area due to one of the CAlifornia wildfires. For a time, things looked grim and we were getting ready to leave with the thought in the back of our mind that we might come home to a pile of ashes. Though not exactly a SHTF situation, consider now what you will grab if you have 5 minutes; 15 minutes or 30 minutes to leave your home.

In 1980 we had a much worse firestorm and the first thing my wife packed - a new pair of shoes she had just bought that day and had not worn! I suggest you make a checklist for the emergency situation so that you do not have to think, just read, in the same manner pilots read a checklist in an emergency.