What if? An exercise for the new prepper

[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.