Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

lcamtuf.coredump.cx

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 140 posts

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#31

Post by PragmaticPulp »

irrational wrote: post #23
boredumb wrote: post #11

Cash on hand, a gun with ammunition, canned food, and bottled water.

What use is cash in the case of a true catastrophe? And I don’t see the benefit of having a gun with or without ammunition. I would never ever be willing to shoot another person (or even an animal), even to protect myself or mine. I’d rather we are raped, tortured, and killed than harm another person.

Cash on hand is important for basic trade. There are plenty boring examples of extended power outages where people fall back on cash for buying groceries and such.

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#32

Post by dTal »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #16
snowwrestler wrote: post #5

The book Eternity by Greg Bear had an interesting take on this. In that book (spoiler) there is an exchange of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia, which devastates the surface of the Earth. But many people survive, and a society quickly develops post-war. But it is dominated not by those who were most individually prepared, but by those who contributed the most to their neighbors and communities. There is so…

Enjoyed this comment. Vibes with an essay by Cory Doctorow about needing a “bug in bag” not a “bug out bag”, to run towards community to help versus running to the mountains, as you need collective action to survive. https://boingboing.net/2015/12/21/a-survivalist-on-why-you-s... https://boingboing.net/2008/07/13/postapocalypse-witho.html

Doctorow also wrote a story titled "Masque of the Red Death" (yes, like the Poe story) which directly depicts the fate of an isolationist bunker in a post-apocalyptic scenario.

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#33

Post by btbuildem »

snowwrestler wrote: post #5

The book Eternity by Greg Bear had an interesting take on this. In that book (spoiler) there is an exchange of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia, which devastates the surface of the Earth. But many people survive, and a society quickly develops post-war. But it is dominated not by those who were most individually prepared, but by those who contributed the most to their neighbors and communities. There is so…

I've always thought the way to prepare for / survive such hardships is to have a strong community, not some elaborate individualistic prepper bunker scenario.

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#34

Post by tablespoon »

irrational wrote: post #23
boredumb wrote: post #11

Cash on hand, a gun with ammunition, canned food, and bottled water.

What use is cash in the case of a true catastrophe? And I don’t see the benefit of having a gun with or without ammunition. I would never ever be willing to shoot another person (or even an animal), even to protect myself or mine. I’d rather we are raped, tortured, and killed than harm another person.

> What use is cash in the case of a true catastrophe?

Not much long term in a civilizational collapse, but even then it might still be useful before everyone realizes what's going on.

> And I don’t see the benefit of having a gun with or without ammunition. I would never ever be willing to shoot another person (or even an animal), even to protect myself or mine. I’d rather we are raped, tortured, and killed than harm another person.

I think that's probably an unusually high level of commitment to nonviolence.

It's also creates moral dilemmas: allowing someone to be "raped, tortured, and killed" by others is harming that person. All your principle may mean in practice is the innocent are the ones harmed and the guilty are left unharmed.

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#35

Post by CPLX »

snowwrestler wrote: post #5

The book Eternity by Greg Bear had an interesting take on this. In that book (spoiler) there is an exchange of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia, which devastates the surface of the Earth. But many people survive, and a society quickly develops post-war. But it is dominated not by those who were most individually prepared, but by those who contributed the most to their neighbors and communities. There is so…

Since we are talking about books I’d like to add “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy to the reading list. It’s almost unimaginably bleak but just completely incredible.

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#36

Post by throw0101a »

Some decent guides from government:

* https://www.ready.gov

* https://www.getprepared.gc.ca/index-en.aspx

To start: have an emergency fund for 3-6 months' worth of expenses, be able to cook/eat/drink/clean/toilet and heat your abode for 3 days in case the power goes out.

Then prepare for 7d, 14, one month, etc: stop when you think you have "enough". Some will feel comfortable for more time and some less. One piece of advice I heard: make sure you have enough food in your pantry to survive to cover two pay cycles in case there's a hiccup with pay roll. Having your emergency fund at a second bank in case your primary one has (e.g., IT) issues.

Perhaps have a bag of necessities (clothes, toiletries) in case you have to evacuate your abode quickly.

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#37

Post by WesolyKubeczek »

btbuildem wrote: post #33
snowwrestler wrote: post #5

The book Eternity by Greg Bear had an interesting take on this. In that book (spoiler) there is an exchange of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia, which devastates the surface of the Earth. But many people survive, and a society quickly develops post-war. But it is dominated not by those who were most individually prepared, but by those who contributed the most to their neighbors and communities. There is so…

I've always thought the way to prepare for / survive such hardships is to have a strong community, not some elaborate individualistic prepper bunker scenario.

Why not both?

What good is your strong economy if one weak link in its supply chain just ceases?

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#38

Post by marcellus23 »

CPLX wrote: post #35
snowwrestler wrote: post #5

The book Eternity by Greg Bear had an interesting take on this. In that book (spoiler) there is an exchange of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia, which devastates the surface of the Earth. But many people survive, and a society quickly develops post-war. But it is dominated not by those who were most individually prepared, but by those who contributed the most to their neighbors and communities. There is so…

Since we are talking about books I’d like to add “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy to the reading list. It’s almost unimaginably bleak but just completely incredible.

I just read Parable of the Sower by Butler and it's also very relevant I think.

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#40

Post by bluGill »

btbuildem wrote: post #33
snowwrestler wrote: post #5

The book Eternity by Greg Bear had an interesting take on this. In that book (spoiler) there is an exchange of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia, which devastates the surface of the Earth. But many people survive, and a society quickly develops post-war. But it is dominated not by those who were most individually prepared, but by those who contributed the most to their neighbors and communities. There is so…

I've always thought the way to prepare for / survive such hardships is to have a strong community, not some elaborate individualistic prepper bunker scenario.

Even if you are a prepper, there is always the risk that you aren't able to get home. Maybe you are on a trip across the ocean, maybe you died in the initial attack. As such you should tell your friends who might be able to get to your bunker how to get in without you. Maybe you save a friend even if you can't save yourself.

Also it is easy to have enough food to last for a year or two, but what after that? It is a lot easier to survive if you have a village with you. A village protects against loneliness/depression. A village planting fields makes it more likely not all of them fail (rain/hail is often unevenly distributed even across a small village). A village makes it more likely that useful skills survive - medical doctors (even without modern infrastructure they can still do a lot), various trades can often figure out useful things (if there are enough engineers and some sort of easy power source you might even be able to get an electric grid for your village). With enough people it is more likely someone actually knows enough about gardening to help you grow food.

Post reply on HN