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Booze...My "Oh Shit Kit" is booze

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by downndirty, Mar 23, 2019.

  1. downndirty

    downndirty
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    So, during my absence I took a job with a federal agency that oversees disasters and emergencies. It's a four letter word that rhymes with 'Lima".

    Anyway, it's been very enlightening to learn about how people prepare for shit hitting fans, especially considering a study that reported 57% of Americans can't afford an unexpected $500 expense.

    Focus: Ever lived through a disaster? Tell us the story.
    Alt-focus: How are you prepared for shit to go sideways?
     
  2. Juice

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    Moderately Gender Fluid

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    Never lived through a natural disaster. But the closest I came was on my honeymoon. We were on the Cook Islands when there was a major earthquake off the coast of Chile. 24 hours later we had a tsunami warning. Never having experienced it, my wife and I freaked out for a bit. The worst of it hit the reefs on the opposite side of the island we were on and we had a storm surge of about 4 feet, which barely made it up the beach.

    As for disaster planning, my wife and I have a healthy emergency fund that covers about 8 or so months worth expenses, which is going to come in handy since I might lose my job in the next few weeks. For general disasters, I made sure not to live in a flood zone, but I don’t have a packed bug-out bag or anything like that. Prepper culture is fascinating though.
     
  3. downndirty

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    Prepper culture is...bizarre to me.

    The most resilient folks you know are likely the ones that don't own much shit, have mobility and a significant financial buffer. It's easy to find another apartment, IKEA furniture and internet connection. It's hard to fix flood damage on a 4 bedroom house without insurance.

    So, the idea of stockpiling survival rations, having a giant 4wd truck, and knowing how to make biscuits out of cattails is antithetical to what actually happens to most people during a disaster. The power might be out for a couple of days, even a week in 99% of most cases, so most folks go crash on a couch, stay with family or get a hotel. Worst case scenario, the government can put you up while your shit gets fixed, or cover you if your rent goes up.
     
  4. bewildered

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    I grew up and lived for most of my life in hurricane prime zone on the gulf coast. If one was slated to be a big one with a direct hit, we left town to stay with one of my siblings. We started doing that when the pecan tree in the front yard fell. Luckily, it fell away from the house into the street, but if it fell towards the house, it would have crushed the bedroom my two sisters were sleeping in.

    My parents lived through Hurricane Fredrick and have lots of stories about it. They were without water and electricity for weeks. That is the hurricane to which all others stack in my family. That was until Hurricane Harvey came into TX and dumped all the water it could on Houston and surrounding areas. My sister's house was flooded and they evacuated with their special needs daughter on freaking kayak with the help of a friend. My sister hadn't really ever kayaked before then. She bought it used on a whim a few months before. Their house is just now back in order as it had to be completely gutted. Pics of the demolished stone fireplace were jarring because I didn't realize that even that soaked up nasty water and had to go.

    My hometown would always have a lot of violent thunderstorms in the summer. Man, I miss those. Where the sky turns purple and the wind is so strong it makes the knocker on the front door go wild. As a result we also had a lot of tornado warnings. In North AL they have gotten smashed with a lot of catastrophic tornadoes in the last few years. We were not in that zone but still had some activity, one of the worst being some around Christmastime one year, that ripped the roof of a large hospital and a high school. Luckily I have never directly been affected by a tornado, but during the last series of alarms at 2am that freaked out el hubs, we acquired an emergency crank flashlight and radio, iodine tablets, and a few other choice pieces that we stash in a duffle bag. It's more peace of mind that anything, because if the roof is ripped off I am pretty sure we are toast. We have savings to help in emergency, and that would probably help us the most.

    I also lived through a "tsunami" in HI. It was like a 2" wave and I lived in the middle of the island, so no risk. Just fear of the unknown. Our friend stayed with us. He has some serious PTSD after living in MS through hurricane Katrina.
     
  5. Kubla Kahn

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    Yeah, most disastrous thing Ive been involved in is a wind storm that knocked out power at my apartment for a week. I just moved the perishables worth saving in my fridge to my moms house that had power. I think the idea of a bug out bag or prep bag is actually insanely useful compared to the negative connotation it gets being attached to the doomsday prepper crowd. Hell we don't even carry enough batteries in my house to run flashlight if the lights were out for more than a day. Having flashlights with batteries, some canned goods for a weekish, and some sort of water filter seems like a no duh part of home ownership or being a grown adult.


    My X factor surviving the next EMP? Guns, lots of guns.
     
  6. Nettdata

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    Yeah... I had CRA (Canadian version of the IRS) freeze my accounts years ago. I had less than $20 in cash, and it took me almost a month to sort through the bullshit and get my accounts unfrozen.

    Years ago a Canadian bank froze all activity to their accounts for 4 days while they unfucked some shit that happened... and a ton of people couldn't buy food, etc. They totally lived on bank and credit cards, and they were acting like people were being shot in the streets.

    Lesson learned... I always have a stack of cash to live for a comfortable month sitting in my safe.

    As to a "bug out bag", I actually have 4, but not for the typical "but the apocalypse!" reasons... I love to fish, and if/when an opportunity arises, I have 4 bags packed that I can throw in the back of the truck and be gone within 5 minutes of making the decision.

    -- camp stove and cookware and fuel
    -- tent and sleeping bag and cot
    -- fishing gear (rods, reels, lures/flies, etc) (my rods are all travel rods that break down into small hardcases
    -- clothes (boots, socks, underwear, jackets, hats, gloves, etc)

    All I need is food and booze and I'm on the road.
     
  7. xrayvision

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    Been through flooding almost annually. We’ve had consecutive flooding the last 3 years with the exception of last year. The worst being Harvey in 2017. The city was completely underwater and shut down for weeks.

    What people around here bafflingly forget is that the actual storm part is just the first stage of getting prepared. We are far enough inland that the wind and storm surge isn’t an issue. People love to joke around like “hurdurr I’m gettin beer and chips! Hurricane party!” It’s the fallout after the storm. When the grocery store has no food. At all. Gas stations are shut down. No atm. Oh and the standing water is keeping you from being able to leave your neighborhood.

    I always recommend getting supplies as early as possible when it looks like a storm MIGHT come your way. Most people run to store at the last minute. Do it 2 days earlier and you won’t have any issues. If the storm turns a different direction, then you have a bunch of stuff for next time.
     
  8. Crown Royal

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    I live in an area that is just not prone to disaster or even any intimidating wildlife to boot. We have a first aid kit. Road kits for the car. That’s basically it.

    However....Seeing who my neighbours are, I’m confidant if shit went sideways I’ll take them out with a little of the ol’ blunt-force trauma and tax their gear. Mostly old people or the kind of low-IQ folks who would trade their canned goods for a big-screen around us.
     
    #8 Crown Royal, Mar 24, 2019
    Last edited: Mar 24, 2019
  9. greybeard

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    I ran out of beer once
     
  10. TJMax

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    You're building death camps, aren't you? AREN'T YOU?!

    Alt-focus: Not the least bit prepared. If a small nuke went off in Vegas, I'd stay and help out. If anything were to happen to disrupt the food supply from California, I'd grab my cats, hard drives, and autographed football of the 1986 Bears (pretty much the same team as the year before) and get the fuck out of Dodge. I'm close to the north end of the valley, and it would be about two days before everyone else starts to say "oh, shit." In the nuke scenario, we've got aid coming in. If California gets glassed instead, on a good day there's a three day food supply here. Bye.
     
  11. Bundy Bear

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    I've been through a few floods with power out for a week or so and I've slept through a couple of Cat 5 cyclones while I lived in Nth Queensland. I've never worried too much about food or anything, my regular shopping normally keeps me going for a while and I live alone so no issue there.

    It's fucking annoying though the amount of people that at the sign of even a small storm where I used to live they'd panic buy all the food and it would end up going to waste.
     
  12. wexton

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    Never lived through a natural disaster but we live adjacent to them. Our town is a port town but is heavily sheltered by other island, so a tsunami is a possibility but is every so slight if it comes from the right direction but people freak the fuck out, some even drive way out of town. An other thing that happens is the first 150km(100miles) out of town is literally one road that run along side a river, and that does flood, so sometime we cant get out of town for a day or two. Well one time it washed the road completely out. Well you really want to see people freak out, that was fun as hell. All the milk, was go within a day, line ups at the gas station. It is almost like people forgot we are a port town and we literally get stuff by boat.
     
  13. walt

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    Alt focus: I don't consider myself a "prepper", but we have some extra stuff including food. It's mostly out of an old fashioned mentality that it's best to have some on in case we can't get to a store.

    Doomsday scenario? It's a week or two's worth. With two teenage boys, likely a week.

    Beyond that, it makes little sense to me to stock up on a years worth of food only to have your house burn down. We're in the country: I can hunt, trap, garden and grow. We have alternative heat sources. Plenty of water readily available.

    Knowledge, skills and resourcefulness are as, if not more, important than loaded shelves.