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Doomsday planning for less crazy folk

lcamtuf.coredump.cx

41–50 of 340 posts

Re: Doomsday planning for less crazy folk

#41
The context sections of this article are super helpful. I've recently become acquainted with this subject matter. Doing a quick audit of my lifestyle I realize how unprepared I actually am. I think this speaks to the safety I've felt growing up.

I've been following this guide: https://theprepared.com/guides/emergency-preparedness-checkl...

I really need to take the time to go through and thoroughly cross-reference these two resources.

Re: Doomsday planning for less crazy folk

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment got me thinking about some form of volunteer force of medics. Imagine if every 20th car that drove by had a government issued medical bag in the trunk and a driver guaranteed to have recent first aid and emergency training. And in return the driver gets some sort of tax break, or an HOV lane free pass, or whatever the appropriate incentive is. Surely some country has tried this out.

In many European countries, you won't get a driver's licence unless you pass a first aid test. And I think in some places it may also be required to have certain emergency equipment in your car.

A standardized first aid kit is definitely required in Germany (and many other European countries).

Re: Doomsday planning for less crazy folk

#43

A 10 AM Bay Area earthquake is the highest plausibility * severity event you're likely to experience around here on a day to day basis - leaving some people with a 25 mile commute back to a structure that might or might not be standing, intermittent at best communications, and potentially impassible roads. IMO if you don't have a case of water, a road map, and a change of walking-around clothes in your car around her…

I want to leave water in my car, but it gets so hot in there I'm afraid of what is leached into the water from the plastic. I've read a lot of conflicting information about this.

Having left some water in a car in hot climate for some time (probably more than one but less than three weeks), I don't need studies to tell me that I don't want to drink it. My tastebuds do a sufficiently good job.

Probably still OK in an emergency though.

Re: Doomsday planning for less crazy folk

#44

A 10 AM Bay Area earthquake is the highest plausibility * severity event you're likely to experience around here on a day to day basis - leaving some people with a 25 mile commute back to a structure that might or might not be standing, intermittent at best communications, and potentially impassible roads. IMO if you don't have a case of water, a road map, and a change of walking-around clothes in your car around her…

Your comment got me thinking about some form of volunteer force of medics. Imagine if every 20th car that drove by had a government issued medical bag in the trunk and a driver guaranteed to have recent first aid and emergency training. And in return the driver gets some sort of tax break, or an HOV lane free pass, or whatever the appropriate incentive is. Surely some country has tried this out.

There are search and rescue volunteers, and most counties have a team (that's usually roughly proportional in size to the population of the county), and while they don't get tax breaks, a few places are nice enough to offer them discounts here and there.

Medical training varies from team to team, but a minimum of wilderness first aid is pretty typical. EMT is pretty popular too.

Re: Doomsday planning for less crazy folk

#45
I'm an exited valley founder who just launched an emergency preparedness site for the rational crowd: https://theprepared.com

Have been prepping in the SF / startup community for almost 10 years and teaching other techies how to prep for a long time, but historically was face to face because of stigma, etc.

We started The Prepared because prepping is very rational and it's gone mainstream enough to have threads like this on HN.

Beginners checklist here: https://theprepared.com/guides/emergency-preparedness-checkl...

Post on reasons why liberals should be preppers: https://theprepared.com/blog/five-reasons-why-liberals-shoul...

Happy to help anyone in their journey.

(long time personal HN members but this is a new account)

Re: Doomsday planning for less crazy folk

#46

A 10 AM Bay Area earthquake is the highest plausibility * severity event you're likely to experience around here on a day to day basis - leaving some people with a 25 mile commute back to a structure that might or might not be standing, intermittent at best communications, and potentially impassible roads. IMO if you don't have a case of water, a road map, and a change of walking-around clothes in your car around her…

IMO tsunami in the bay area would be equally plausible with a much higher potential severity. When a tsunami hits a bay, the waves will rise. Further, with Alameda and Oakland at just a few feet above sea level... well...

Slip falts have much lower risks of tsunami. It most definitely could happen, but a large earthquake is far more likely.

Re: Doomsday planning for less crazy folk

#47
post #19

I've been in a number of major natural disasters at this point. Fukushima, Ike, Colorado's 2013 floods. I've also been in two shooting incidents (where fortunately only the shooter was hurt). My point is, I've been lucky so far because none of these posed a major problem for me. I made it out with manageable inconvenience. However, I can only get lucky like that so many times. So now I keep the following at home: * 5…

You should add an sillcock key set for water access... they're handy.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-4-Way-Sillcock-Key-UWP0002D/2...

Re: Doomsday planning for less crazy folk

#48
post #34
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I have a Glock 17 and a years' worth of ammo, so I don't need to stockpile the other stuff, you are doing it for me. (edit: hopefully it is obvious this is a play on words, speaking in the voice of a hypothetical desperate citizen. obviously I do not own a gun for the purposes of threatening others, only for self-protection) Sounds trollish but my point is that Californians in particular eventually need to square…

Well, for one I live in Colorado, not the Bay Area. Two, you're assuming that I also don't have a firearm. I actually don't, but you're still making a big assumption that whoever you try to steal from can't fight back. How much overlap do you think there is between emergency preparedness and firearm possession? Certainly in Colorado, even Boulder, that's not a bet I would be willing to take. This is a situation where…

You make a damn good point. I was talking to some of my more conservative friends the other day about the potential for civil unrest at some point in the future, and they said something along the lines of "rednecks have guns, they'd win the war". Problem is, while I'm not really a "gun person", I'm not anti-gun either. I don't go around bragging about my gun collection or how much ammo I have, and I also don't go around in public showing off or even talking about the four rifles, two shotguns, and the handgun I own. Even my closest friends, while knowing I own guns, have never seen them unless we've hunted together.

It never really gets talked about much, but if the people who like to brag about their guns somehow think they're the only ones who own guns, they're going to be very surprised in an actual emergency situation. Plenty of people quietly own a gun and would be willing to use it to defend their property again criminals.

I mean if you think about it, how many people own a bicycle? Now how many people are dressed in spandex in public bragging about their VO2 max? There are a lot more quiet, casual bikers than there are braggadocios bikers. You just only hear/see the ones out bragging about it.

Re: Doomsday planning for less crazy folk

#49
post #19

I've been in a number of major natural disasters at this point. Fukushima, Ike, Colorado's 2013 floods. I've also been in two shooting incidents (where fortunately only the shooter was hurt). My point is, I've been lucky so far because none of these posed a major problem for me. I made it out with manageable inconvenience. However, I can only get lucky like that so many times. So now I keep the following at home: * 5…

It might be crossing into the prepper territory too much but I'm really happy to have a 2 meter radio in my car/handheld tranceiver in my bag. The cell network went down south of us during the eclipse but repeaters were still running just fine. Even if you don't have a license you're allowed to transmit in emergency situations.

Is there a 2m radio model that you would recommend?

Re: Doomsday planning for less crazy folk

#50
post #34
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I have a Glock 17 and a years' worth of ammo, so I don't need to stockpile the other stuff, you are doing it for me. (edit: hopefully it is obvious this is a play on words, speaking in the voice of a hypothetical desperate citizen. obviously I do not own a gun for the purposes of threatening others, only for self-protection) Sounds trollish but my point is that Californians in particular eventually need to square…

Well, for one I live in Colorado, not the Bay Area. Two, you're assuming that I also don't have a firearm. I actually don't, but you're still making a big assumption that whoever you try to steal from can't fight back. How much overlap do you think there is between emergency preparedness and firearm possession? Certainly in Colorado, even Boulder, that's not a bet I would be willing to take. This is a situation where…

> I only need to aim in your general direction

Maybe I'm just bad at trap/skeet but in my experience you still have to aim with a shotgun! ;)

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