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An overview of how our family is prepared

michaelharley.net

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Re: An overview of how our family is prepared

#61

Post by ryandrake »

throw93947309 wrote: post #30
bluGill wrote: post #23

The most important preparation: be friendly enough with your neighbors that you look out for each other. You can hate each other in general: so long as you won't allow looters in the neighborhood, and you can force yourself to get along enough to share/divide labor (in whatever way it turns out you need). In the worst disasters preppers prepare for - odds are they die, so make sure your neighbors know what plans you…

So my neighbours hate me, but somehow major disaster changes that? > won't allow looters in the neighborhood My neighbours will be the first one to "equally share" everything I have with random junkies. > if you die ... your preparation can save someone else's life. Yeah, my neighbours make sure I die, and my stash will save their life.

You're getting unfairly downvoted. Yes, in a perfect world, we all have great, wholesome, cooperative neighbors who will help us out in an emergency. But we don't really choose our neighbors, and the sad reality is there are a lot of (and more and more these days) really shitty people out there, and by random chance you might be stuck with a neighbor who would rather rob you during a disaster than help you.

Re: An overview of how our family is prepared

#62

Post by matltc »

reubenmorais wrote: post #40
matltc wrote: post #25

So like a month of food and water? If the big electrical grid pop happens https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/magazine/national-blackou... >, we're looking at years, which no storage solution can accommodate. So while this is sensible for most outages, doesn't do much for this event, which becomes quite possible if (1) China moves on Taiwan and (2) USA intervenes on behalf of Taiwan. I would expect that China would ac…

> I would expect that China would activate their dormant ICS and telco access in such a circumstance to knock the US out of the conflict basically immediately If they could do this, wouldn't they already have moved on Taiwan?

What makes you say that? The cost to China to invade will still be incredible with zero US intervention. Wsj had an article last December https://www.wsj.com/world/china/how-china-chinese-invasion-t...> on what this might look like

Re: An overview of how our family is prepared

#63

Post by matltc »

nemomarx wrote: post #59
matltc wrote: post #25

So like a month of food and water? If the big electrical grid pop happens https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/magazine/national-blackou... >, we're looking at years, which no storage solution can accommodate. So while this is sensible for most outages, doesn't do much for this event, which becomes quite possible if (1) China moves on Taiwan and (2) USA intervenes on behalf of Taiwan. I would expect that China would ac…

Does the US still have enough material to intervene over Taiwan anyway? But in any case a month makes it more likely you can try and find another source. Better to have some runway than none?

> enough ... to intervene over Taiwan

Probably not. My guess is the Pentagon's calculation would be that the cost to intervene would be unacceptable and could not be sustained anyway; many reports say the US would deplete their ammo stocks for such a conflict in like a week, and that was _before_ the blunder in Iran

> Better ... than none?

For sure. But doesn't solve the problem of "how do I survive if the power grid goes down for over a year?" Best solution is to get out of USA prior to that event. I don't think any amount of prep will significantly change your outcome in that scenario if you remain in the US.

Re: An overview of how our family is prepared

#64

Post by zephyrthenoble »

bluGill wrote: post #29
infecto wrote: post #10

This is a sensible type of prepping. Prep for the things you will most likely face and some outliers within your geography. I myself could never understand the years worth of food types of folks. If things breakdown that much I don’t know much that food is going to matter.

Even if things do break down such that you need years of food people have the wrong things. You don't need gas for your generator, you need to learn how to live like 500 years ago - without all that. Have enough food to last until next spring, and enough seeds and farming knowledge (which you can get from a few books that you read after the disaster) that you can continue to live off of your garden. As I said elsewhe…

But how do people realistically prep for this? Not a historian, but in my understanding, when major metropolitan areas devolved, people had to spread out significantly in order to restart the agrarian lifestyle that could sustain them without the complicated "modern" economy. This isn't feasible for cities like New York or Tokyo, and those people are not able to purchase a homestead and stock it with these things ahead of time for a hypothetical situation.

It feels like you're suggesting prepping for a Shit Hits the Fan type scenario, which the OP post explicitly says is unreasonable. It postulates a world where most people would starve because growing plants to survive through a year is extremely difficult if you don't have any experience doing it, assuming you have enough land time and other resources to even do it properly. And I guess I just doubt that a box of seeds and a willingness to share your garden would see you through the year. You would need a whole lot of luck.

Re: An overview of how our family is prepared

#65

Post by throw0101d »

SoftTalker wrote: post #58
bryanlarsen wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the most part, looters are thieves of opportunity. They'll take the stuff that's easy to take and won't risk a confrontation. It's like the parable of outrunning the bear: you don't have to be completely looter proof, you just have to be a harder target than the next block over. Most of the time that just means having a couple people per block patrolling with a camera to scare them off.

Depending on the circumstances you may need more than that. A shotgun and an assortment of shot/slugs might be good to include in your planning.

> Depending on the circumstances you may need more than that.

Contrary to urban legends (and fictional entertainment), in times of disaster humans generally pull together:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Paradise_Built_in_Hell

Re: An overview of how our family is prepared

#66

Post by bluGill »

zephyrthenoble wrote: post #64
bluGill wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if things do break down such that you need years of food people have the wrong things. You don't need gas for your generator, you need to learn how to live like 500 years ago - without all that. Have enough food to last until next spring, and enough seeds and farming knowledge (which you can get from a few books that you read after the disaster) that you can continue to live off of your garden. As I said elsewhe…

But how do people realistically prep for this? Not a historian, but in my understanding, when major metropolitan areas devolved, people had to spread out significantly in order to restart the agrarian lifestyle that could sustain them without the complicated "modern" economy. This isn't feasible for cities like New York or Tokyo, and those people are not able to purchase a homestead and stock it with these things ahe…

I agree with OP that major collapse is not a likely/reasonable thing to prep for. I'm saying that those who think they are prepping for it are not prepping the right things and so no better off (or only minimally better off) than anyone else.

Major metropolitan areas devolved over centuries from how I understand history (I'm not an expert). that means you and your descendants have time to figure it out. However where to go is a question. My [very limited] plan is since I live in Iowa, I'll just find a farmer who can't get fuel for his tractors and thus can't afford to farm his land anyway - I'll buy a small homestead cheap and make it work. I have a few books from 1920 on how to do things that might be useful, but I suspect the local library has others. However if you live in New York you will find all the land taken by the time you can walk to Iowa...

There is also the case where war killed everybody in the city, but that isn't devolve and I'll ignore it: prepping for an afterlife is a religious discussion. I feel the need to acknowledge this though just in case.

Overall though, I don't think this is a realistic thing. I haven't done much more prepping than the above. Civilization won't collapse - and even if it did I'd probably die in the collapse so I'm focusing my preparing on religion which applies even if civilization doesn't collapse.

Re: An overview of how our family is prepared

#67

Post by bryanlarsen »

SoftTalker wrote: post #58
bryanlarsen wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the most part, looters are thieves of opportunity. They'll take the stuff that's easy to take and won't risk a confrontation. It's like the parable of outrunning the bear: you don't have to be completely looter proof, you just have to be a harder target than the next block over. Most of the time that just means having a couple people per block patrolling with a camera to scare them off.

Depending on the circumstances you may need more than that. A shotgun and an assortment of shot/slugs might be good to include in your planning.

A shotgun is a useful tool to have locked in your house. But carrying it around during a natural disaster will do far more harm than good. Neighbors and looky-loos will almost always give you help if you ask for it; they won't if you're armed.

Re: An overview of how our family is prepared

#68

Post by VCFundedGenYer »

blooalien wrote: post #43
throw0101d wrote: post #13

September is (US) National Preparedness Month: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Preparedness_Month General guidelines to have a decent pantry, someway to cook things, some spare water, a way to heat your home if you're in a place that has winter, a source of emergency lighting: * https://www.ready.gov * https://getprepared.ca Zombie apocalypses are a fun meme, but a broken city water main or an ice storm can…

> Zombie apocalypses are a fun meme ... A) Not really that much fun (as evidenced by how shitty life gets for pretty much everyone in "The Walking Dead"). ;) B) In my mind "The Zombie Apocalypse" has always just been an amusing way to generically refer to whatever future real "apocalypse" might happen to occur (eg; broken water main, ice storm, etc).

Kind reminder that zombies are not real and you should understand that you are critiquing an entertainment product.

Re: An overview of how our family is prepared

#69

Post by bluGill »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #67
SoftTalker wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on the circumstances you may need more than that. A shotgun and an assortment of shot/slugs might be good to include in your planning.

A shotgun is a useful tool to have locked in your house. But carrying it around during a natural disaster will do far more harm than good. Neighbors and looky-loos will almost always give you help if you ask for it; they won't if you're armed.

That is very much a it depends. Most of the time you are correct. However there have been times when a gun was used to stop looters who otherwise didn't care.

The guns were used to protect houses and the neighbor's house though. So this could well fall into what you meant by useful in your home. (but if that is what you meant locked shouldn't have been added)

Re: An overview of how our family is prepared

#70

Post by grebc »

bluGill wrote: post #66
zephyrthenoble wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how do people realistically prep for this? Not a historian, but in my understanding, when major metropolitan areas devolved, people had to spread out significantly in order to restart the agrarian lifestyle that could sustain them without the complicated "modern" economy. This isn't feasible for cities like New York or Tokyo, and those people are not able to purchase a homestead and stock it with these things ahe…

I agree with OP that major collapse is not a likely/reasonable thing to prep for. I'm saying that those who think they are prepping for it are not prepping the right things and so no better off (or only minimally better off) than anyone else. Major metropolitan areas devolved over centuries from how I understand history (I'm not an expert). that means you and your descendants have time to figure it out. However where…

Are you lugging around a suitcase full of gold bars? How are you purchasing land in such a scenario?
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