Critical infrastructure failure

[festus]

Ok...here is the scenario...No Power, Limited Water and no Gas service or any other major utility for that matter. No internet, No phone...
You get the picture. What if this and take stock of your ability to survive for two weeks let alone long term. This ain't doomsday, this is post disaster recovery on the standard govt schedule.

[NDS]

Originally Posted by festus

Ok...here is the scenario...No Power, Limited Water and no Gas service or any other major utility for that matter. No internet, No phone...
You get the picture. What if this and take stock of your ability to survive for two weeks let alone long term. This ain't doomsday, this is post disaster recovery on the standard govt schedule.

Interesting set of stipulations. Most folks worry about TEOTWAWKI, but your scenario is more like what I consider realistic. Two weeks is my target number for a 'bug in' scenario like this. So, I'll assume we're not leaving for some valid reason (city quarantined, roads blocked by police/military, etc)

No power or gas--not an insurmountable problem, I can deal. Limited water can be a problem; I live in a desert and would immediately begin to be very cautious of water use.

NO PHONE--my prayers have been answered!!!

No internet, oh well, I'm down to the radio for news I guess--withdrawals but I'll probably be better for it, I spend too much time on the internet.

I have a gas barbeque and I've got SKILLZ (I can barbeque a pizza, can you?) Cook up the frozen, refridgerator food before it spoils. I've got plenty of canned goods, ramen, etc etc for well over 2 weeks as stated above.

My wife and I can take turns on watch when needed, and our ammo stocks are more than sufficient for our needs.

What many don't think about is: What about the neighbors & strangers around you if you're stuck in place? I'd have a hard time watching the neighborhood children do without water/food/protection if things got nasty...

[mom of 3 angels]

Assuming nothing happens to my home or family members, we're good to hang out for quite a while with the supplies we have here. Our main issue is heat if something were to happen in the winter--gets nasty cold here. We've got a coal/wood stove in the yard waiting to be installed in the home, so once that's in it will take care of the heat issue. We have real good neighbors who I would hope would share shelter if ours was destroyed and theirs wasn't. I'd definitely welcome a neighbor in if our home was left standing and they needed a safe place to stay.

We were just recently discussing the neighbors/children. Now assuming basic structures/homes were left intact which probably wouldn't be the case if all other services were out. It would be real hard not to share with the kids--not their fault their parents didn't do anything to prepare. For now I'm just trying to encourage those around me to stock food/supplies of their own while it's available in hopes that there will be fewer of my friends and neighbors especially little ones going hungry in a disaster situation. I know there are others in our area making preparations, but most aren't/wont. My obligation is to provide for my family, trying to have as much as possible here for them. I'm not sure what I'll actually do in a disaster situation, we cannot and will not feed the entire town, but like NDS said, it would be real hard to watch neighbors and children suffer. Lots of variables play in here. We could share quite a bit if we knew the whole thing would be over in 2 weeks, but how can you know how long before things get back to normal? Tough situation.

[HK4U]

Survive or thrive? Of course there can be a big difference. A few summers back we had several times that the elect. went down in our part of the city. Once for about two days. I am telling you in the middle of summer in Texas going without air is not fun. We have become so used to being comfortable that when this happens it is ruff. As far as surviving there are a lot of things we can do without if we had to. We shoul all ae enough of the eccentials on hand to last at least 2 weeks. Longer would be a lot better. Although I am not a Mormon one thing that they believe in that I agree with is having a long term supply of food. Now that we no longer have the food reserves in this country that we used to and a majoriy of it comes from out side the USA it is even more critical to stock pile.

[Cooter]

All I would need is a few cases of Mountain Dew, enough ammo, and a deck of cards to ride out the apocolypse. Oh yeah, can't forget the hand grenade as a last option. (Ever see I Am Legend?)