re: Do you consider yourself a "Prepper"

Lick her before beer, you're in the clear
Beer before lick her, never been sicker


Sounds counter-intuitive, but seems to be the standard way of conducting yourself when SHTF

I am somewhat of a prepper, not as hardcore as some of those folks you see on TV or on youtube but since my stint in the military(over seas) and after watching what went down during Katrina, I decided I wasn't gonna get caught without.

Biggest prep that people don't have is good old water. Yeah, they have a ton of ammo and a dozen weapon, 6 months of food but just a week or two worth of water.
In fact, water is probably the easiest but must important prep you will have.

I would suggest to anyone that you have several cases of bottled water on hand, Aquafina keep longest, rotate it out. Don't just let it sit there.

Get you some of those big blue water containers like Aqua-Tainers, they hold 7 gallons and they don't have BPAs. Don't use milk jugs for water containers though, they are weak and degrade quickly. Those two liter soda bottles are good for storing water.

Millions of people die each year because of bad drinking water. Here in the US we have clean safe drinking water but in a SHTF scenerio it could turn bad quickly.

People think they can 'purify' water which is somewhat of a misnomer. Even the best water companies like Aquafina cannot purify water 100%. Reverse osmosis is about as close as you can get to purifying waterr.

The key word is 'disenfecting' water making it safe to drink.
You have to worry about three classes of micro-organisms:

1. Protozio: gardia, cyptosporiduims. These must be filtered out, resistant to chemicals like chlorine and idodin

2. Bacteria: E Coli, Dystentery, Botulism. Iodine or chlorine usually kills them and best to filter them out

3. Virus: Very difficult to filter out. Must boil water, chemical decontamination.

Then you have chemicals like pesitcides, herbicides, oil/gas. These are fitlered out through use of a carbon based filter.

Best thing to do is get a good filtration system like a Katadyn, a Sawyer, Monolithic or Berkey.

Also, keep a gallon of non-scented liquid bleach on hand, just remember though, after about 6 months, its strength starts to disappaite.

Better yet, get a few pounds of calcium hypochlorite granuals, pool shock. 5 lbs will last you for years.
Just remember, this stuff is extremely strong and will have to be diluted. Use 1 teaspoon for two gallons of water.

I live out in the country(northeast La) away from any major urban areas. I have two wells on my property and I am about 10 minutes away from a huge lake, plus I have a pond right across the road from me.

I keep my preps under wraps, no one other than my wife, knows that I keep a good supply of water, food, ammo and other supplies.

That will be the key to surviving a SHTF situtation. Keeping a low profile, not drawing attention to yourself will be a key to surviving.

If there ever is a SHTF or TEOTWAWKI, the first week will be the hardest as many will start to turn on each other for just the basics.

In the following weeks, the weak, the unprepared, the sick, elderly, the niave will be thinned out.

People will begin to turn on each, people will sell out their neighbors and freinds to roving bands of raiders for alittle food.

Small bands of militias will begin to form and then will further expand outward. Those with military or law enforcement experience will come out on top. Law and order will begin to be restored. Raiders, theives and the criminal elements will be hunted down and summerly executed.

TEOTWAWKI may never happen but you never know.

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In the following weeks, the weak, the unprepared, the sick, elderly, the niave will be thinned out.

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In my experience, the two week mark is where everyone gets settled in for the long haul. People who are smart have everything under control and haven't panicked the prior two weeks so they are good to go.

All of this is just based off of my experience in hurricane situations, especially Katrina. Was crazy for a lot of people, but I was calm and perfectly fine. Cool heads prevail because they can think more clearly

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In my experience, the two week mark is where everyone gets settled in for the long haul. People who are smart have everything under control and haven't panicked the prior two weeks so they are good to go.

All of this is just based off of my experience in hurricane situations, especially Katrina. Was crazy for a lot of people, but I was calm and perfectly fine. Cool heads prevail because they can think more clearly

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Having a couple weeks or a months worth of stuff if you live in disaster prone areas is prudent. I've got enough stuff for 2-3 weeks to carry me over if an earthquake or avalanche destroys the town.

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Having a couple weeks or a months worth of stuff if you live in disaster prone areas is prudent

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This is my thinking.

Nah

I'm just gonna off a prepper or team up with the zombies.

But Katrina was nothing like what we are talking about.

In Katrina, you had a bunch of displaced people waiting around to be taken to better shelter by their government. They knew all the supplies they needed to survive were a busride away.

Shtf scenarios are a lack of gov help and for weeks, if not months.

People will be nothing like they were in Katrina and it's not even close.

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In Katrina, you had a bunch of displaced people waiting around to be taken to better shelter by their government. They knew all the supplies they needed to survive were a busride away.

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The stuff you saw at the Superdome was kind of like that. Everywhere else was not. Even there, people started freaking out after a couple of days and they had government leadership all around. Myself and a few people I know had no intentions of leaving on a bus. One of the good treats was the Red Cross coming by and feeding us randomly. It almost parallels I think it was Andrew in South Florida. People will consistently react the same way in these situations.

Just from people I know very well and my personal experience, it was much different. One of my friends was trapped up a road 10 miles away from a city. Took 3 days without food plus two days with it to get to the city and resupply. Most of the food had gone bad and was getting thrown out. As soon as the storm passed, people were walking and driving around looking for stuff. I had national guard guys tell me that they wouldn't have let us in to work if we weren't armed. We had a guy outside at all times watching for people. He got in a fight with one guy because we wouldn't give him food. Until I found a big generator, we had no power for 2 weeks. Water was bad, sewers didn't work, and the police had taken over 95% of the places to get fuel and weren't giving it away.

I can tell you, people did freak out, had no way of leaving, no way to get water or food for close to two weeks, and started getting what they could from places. Most businesses were broken into

I a not sure of you think it is going to go a different way, but rational people do irrational things in the heat of the moment. One person can get a large crowd of people going crazy. IMHO, things will progress the exact same way that I have seen. General psychology of people is the same. You could actually see things happening day-by-day. The few radio stations that were still up had control of basically what everyone was thinking. If they say there is food or water somewhere, people flock. If there is barely any water or food, people fight.

Just think of how much people freak out if their cell phones don't work. Multiply that by a million.

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I threw out all my crappy 5 gal plastic cans and am getting the red 5gal metal Eagle cans

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I did this a couple of years ago and it is just unbelievable how much longer fuel lasts when sealed up well in one of these cans...put in a little stabil and non ethanol gasoline would last years in one of these...