Katrina and your survival preps

G

Green Ice

Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Messages
637
I know a lot of us are into SHTF/TEOTWAKI survival preparations. This is my question to you:

How would your preps stand up in a colossal emergency of Katrina proportions?

Since I asked the question, heres how my family would fare. We have made serious preparations to include food and water along with water filters. There is enough for us and to help maybe another family for a good period of time even if we had to live in the upper storys of a building for a while. Firstly though, knowing that a storm or other serious trouble was approaching, we would have been long gone and headed to safer and higher ground. In the event we couldn't leave for some reason we would be surviving well even if not in complete comfort.

Those survival preps are something that should be on everybody's mind now.

Ice
 
No matter what Dave says, Ohio isn't bad. The occasional blizzard is easily handled by stocking food, water and firewood. Tornados are a different matter and I'd have a shelter if I were smart. I think there is a natural danger no matter where you live...the trick is to be prepared and ready to head for high or low as required.
 
I keep a hurricane survival bag myself- replenish and refresh every year at the start of hurricane season. I start with a Kelty Super Tioga external frame pack and fill 'er up from there. Basic camping style supplies like a white gas/gasoline stove, water filter (iodine too!), shelter, etc, toiletries, bulk foods and grains go in first. After last year I added an in depth first aid/trauma kit. Also keep a cheapie survival .22 in the kit along with a Beretta 9mm- the shotgun is my girlfriend's to carry if we must. ;) Fishing tackle too.

and then there are knives! HI WWII and a Busse FSH Also got one of those survival style ringed chain saws- I figure if the walls ever come down with these 3 by my side I'll still be able to get out of most anything.

It's overkill for my area I think but I've wanted to get myself an inflatable kevlar kayak for awhile now. They weigh around 50 lbs and the one I am looking at can hold two people and their gear (600lbs total) but costs over 600bucks.

All in all, I think I would be prepared to look after myself and my girlfriend in event of a catastrophic direct hit. That is, I would be prepared for it just so long as we had some dry ground to set up base camp from. Since my house is on reclaimed swampland this is not necessarily a given though. Especially if the dike round lake okeechobee ever busts; the last time it did so (70 some years ago) it flooded nearly 100 miles south and the dike has only been rebuilt once since then, in the 1960s.

At least the hunting and fishing are still pretty good in my area- if you don't mind waist high mud. The town I'm in has slowly turned into a bad version of nouve riche Boca Raton but the surrounding areas are still pretty!
 
I'm with Nasty on this one. The Midwest ain't a bad place to be. You're far more likely to die from boredom than mother nature's wrath. I suppose flooding would be the big issue here, but the last HUGE flood that I remember hearing about was in '28 or '29 maybe. The Ohio basicly swallowed the toe of indiana. However, they've done a lot with the river since. It gets high, but not even close enough to reach inland far at all. Winters are mild with "big snows" totalling 6-8" usually. Tornadoes can be a problem, but are far less common than out in Tornado Alley where nothing stops them.
Prep would be easy for most events: Water, purification methods, khuk, multitool, canned food and dried goods, propane stove, emergency gasoline.
The unforeseen would be trickier. i honestly would probably be caught with my pants down.

Jake
 
Steely: You're thinking of the 1937 Flood. Much of many cities along the Ohio were under water, including Cincinnati and Louisville. The strange thing was that fire was quite devestating. Entire sections of Cincy burned to the water line due to a combination of flooded / leaking fuel tanks and shorted / sparking electrical lines.
 
Yep, the mid-west is all in all a pretty safe place to live.
People are inherently scared of the tornadoes but most people are a helluva lot more likely to get hit by lightning than to be hurt by a tornado according to all the stats.
As far as running off somewhere if the SHTF that's just not an option for me in the shape I'm in so we'll just set things out until they're back in some sort of normalcy and that they will be either sooner than later and probably sooner at our location and *here* *Location* is the *Key* word!!!!
We have the means for protecting ourselves and eating and drinking until normalcy returns, beyond that it will be up to the younger and more able members of our family to provide. All I'm fit to do is supervise and dispense knowledge which can be quite a lot in an emergency. Someone has to set with the little ones and who better than those with the most experience? ;) :D
Each and everyone of us have situations unique to ourselves and our locations. Try to never live on or in the flood plain!!!!
 
Thank you FallingKnife:)
All i had to go on was the recollection of my grandfather who would start to talk about how his house was half underwater during the flood, but would immediately break away and tell me how the footings of his house are only 6"X12" and hold like a rock due to how ductile 2500 stength concrete is. The stuff today is too hard. Too brittle at 4000...you see where i'm going with this:D Old concrete finishers never die, i suppose;) Thanks for the date. I looked it up. pretty scary stuff.

Jake
 
Pretty much the only things we need to worry about here in eastern Idaho are blizzards, forest fires or the occasional zombie grizz. :)

My biggest concern is losing heat (power outage) in the middle of a blizzard. It could get pretty cold here fast. A wood stove would be nice, but there is no provision for that in this house. Other than that, we just keep the place well stocked with food/water and keep an eye on the weather.

Alan
 
In a nuclear event no place would truly be safe. The large numbers of 'migrants' and the loss of infrastructure would be devastating. I don't know there is a plan.

MY neighbor down the street told me about his brother, living in North Dakota and convinced when the Big One hit he'd have to defend his property from squatters. There wouldn't be enough resources to go around, and the City would empty to the county, was his thinking.

That's probably true. How many squatters is one willing to shoot? Last night in New Orleans law was leaving fast and law of the jungle rising quick.

If it gets that bad you do what you can. IN the meantime, I have emergency goods in the vehicles, flashlights, blankets, water, etc; and canned goods at home, alternative heating sources, and lots of khuks, guns and ammunition. I need a generator.





munk
 
Survival kit of the 21st century American? Full tank of gas in the SUV, credit card, and cell phone. Seriously, I watched a friend one day trying to get a fire lit in his own fireplace. After three unsuccessful attempts he began to inspire some "negative cheerleading" from his missus, so I told him if he'd go make a pot of coffee I'd square the fire away. I popped out the door, walked off into the woods, and returned a couple minutes later with some hastily gathered materials. Arranging my fire lay in the fireplace, I produced my flint and steel from it's pouch in my coat pocket, and had a cheery blaze going in no time. You'd have thought I was a scorcerer the way them folks were goggle eyeing me.

In the aftermath of Andrew, my fieldcraft skills held me in very good stead, and I helped out my "modern" neighbors as much as I could. Seriously, many of them were a considerable danger to themselves and their families, simply by not knowing better when it comes to the basics like fire, wood cutting, and such. It's a gloomy thing to ponder, but I know in my heart of hearts, that many folks will be maimed, crippled, or killed in the aftermath of Katrina, as a direct result of axes, chainsaws, etc., being widely wielded in untrained hands. In Alabama, after hurricane Eloise, a fellow did himself in in a most spectacular fashion. Those who've used chainsaws know that occasionally a log will pinch the blade and bind it. That happened to this guy, so he yanked the chainsaw with all his might, and consequently with the throttle wide open. When the blade popped loose, it struck him at the left collar bone and split him right down to his bread basket. There was no using calling for an ambulance, he died right there in front of his family.

I've no doubt the folks on this forum have the savvy to get by no matter what comes. But, you take your average modern person, and suddenly thrust them into a post apocolyptic type environment, most are sheep for the slaughter.

Sarge
 
Cliff,

Your post had the desired affect upon me. I shuddered inwardly thinking of what a chainsaw can do and how fast it's all done. Thanks for the reminder. Our khuks need special handling too.



munk
 
Same here. A tree guy I recently used said he had a recent job where the homeowner had a brand new ladder, a brand new chain saw, and a brand new leg cast. I guess he got lucky.

ETA: I really thought that Y2K fatalaties would occur in spring of 2000, when people fired up their Y2K generators at home after a thunderstorm and either suffocated themselves or set off their gas stockpiles.
 
Nuclear survival!!! Gee, thanks Munk! It took a good ten years of civilian life to get that scenerio out of my head :D

After seeing all the Minuteman silos getting decommisioned in SD, I kind of got lulled there. But you are right. Now that N. Korea and Iran (not to mention China) are all members of the nuke club... things just ain't safe.

AND, I completely forgot they are trying to get a Plutonium 238 plant approved just a hundred or so miles upwind of where I live. NOT COOL!!!

I guess I get to go back to my 70's/80's era planning mode and get a good kit put together. I've got most of the stuff already.. but that doesn't mean I can't shop aroudn for new stuff too!!! :D
 
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