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Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

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Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#41

Post by throw0101a »

boredumb wrote: post #11

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

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

Contrary to popular opinion, people generally pull together in disasters rather than society falling apart. Good book on what happened in various situations ( 1917 explosion that tore up Halifax, Nova Scotia, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans)

* http://rebeccasolnit.net/book/a-paradise-built-in-hell/

* https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6444492-a-paradise-built...

It's an area / sub-field of study:

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

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#42

Post by jerf »

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.

A "strong community" full of people with no resources isn't going to work so well, though.

Best way to get into that "small community" is to have something to offer. Of course, it may not be a "bunker", but if all you're bringing to your "strong community" is another mouth to feed and some free time, don't expect the community to celebrate your arrival.

Indeed, they may not even let you in. It would be a time of strong communities, yes, but not the "let's all hold hands and sing kumbaya in our glorious unity"-style strong communities. It's going to be working hard together to survive. Those who don't have something to contribute aren't going to find themselves very welcome.

Basically, what I'm saying is, don't think "oh, I'll just have a strong community to fall back on so I don't need to do any prep". Especially if you're not already in one! If nothing else, prep today as your contribution to that strong community tomorrow.

(And I mean "prep" as the document does, sensible precautions to increase your robustness and decrease your reliance on resources that will be stretched thin in event of catastrophe, things that might actually happen, not necessarily piling 4 years of food into a bunker. Considering one of the "things that will never happen" just happened you have a more clear view than ever of what sort of things might go wrong, and, well, even if the virus is basically done there's plenty of reasons to believe the consequences of it are not.)

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#43

Post by ghaff »

Tepix wrote: post #15

For me, planning for a five day power outage in the winter seems like it's something that takes only a limited amount of effort and resources and could come in very handy indeed. Make sure you have enough water (and a way to make it potable), heat, food, light, 1st aid and communications. Going all in and getting a year of supplies seems excessive. As always, YMMV :-) PS: In Germany, the BMI (interior ministry) publi…

For heat in northern climates, unfortunately there's only so much you can do (outside of a backup generator with a big propane tank). A wood stove/fireplace can keep you comfortable but you'll still probably end up with frozen/broken pipes.

But I agree with your basic point. Early on in the pandemic there were people stocking up on 6 months of rice/pasta/etc. In cities. You basically plan for relatively short outages or you plan for civilizational collapse which probably involves getting out of cities and preparing for people trying to take stuff from you.

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#44

Post by BoxOfRain »

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 think survivalism can get a little bit solipsistic. Realistically, once you've survived whatever made society collapse to begin with your continued existence will depend very much on how much practical help you can give a community rather than abstract things like money or pre-collapse social status. We're social creatures to the bone, it'll likely be the most effective co-operators who will ultimately win out in a post-apocalyptic society rather than the most violent or the most self-sufficient.

I think of 'prepping' more as about acquiring useful practical skills you can offer the community in a post-apocalyptic society than storing tons of tinned tomatoes in a bunker.

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#45

Post by Trasmatta »

jordanpg wrote: post #3

Of course, there is a non-trivial cost to spending time dealing with this stuff, particularly the less likely outcomes. As with any risk assessment, one has to judge the probability of certain events and act accordingly. The thing that bugs me about this culture -- and I don't include the author of this piece, who sounds imminently rational and level-headed -- is that a lot of people in this space seem to want these…

That's why I can't spend time on places like the Collapse subreddit. There are many people that fetishize the idea. This clouds their judgment and predictive power, and you see so many poor predictions of outcomes of world events there.

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#46

Post by tetris11 »

dTal wrote: post #32
toomuchtodo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

https://archive.org/details/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_332

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#47

Post by bluGill »

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.

While I understand non-violent, sometimes violence is the worst of your bad choices. I have no plan on shooting another human, but I need to reserve that right because there are people who will shoot me (Russia if you are in Ukraine)

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#49

Post by ejb999 »

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.

>>I’d rather we are raped, tortured, and killed than harm another person.

What a truly bizarre statement, and I seriously doubt you mean it.

Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)

#50

Post by [deleted] »

bluGill wrote: post #47
irrational wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

While I understand non-violent, sometimes violence is the worst of your bad choices. I have no plan on shooting another human, but I need to reserve that right because there are people who will shoot me (Russia if you are in Ukraine)

[deleted]
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