Survive A Catastrophe In Suburbia Without Firearms

Chapter 1 – Plan For a Worst Case Scenario

A study in 2009 of our U.S. power grid vulnerabilities from space weather (solar flares, CME’s etc.) was prepared for NASA by The National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C.  The report goes into great detail of the many weaknesses of our North American power grid, such as, “...Severe geomagnetic storms pose a risk for long-term outages to major portions of the North American grid.”  In this study was a quote by a report done by FEMA and Metatech Corp that states, “Impacts would be felt on interdependent infrastructures, with, for example, potable water distribution affected within several hours; perishable foods and medications lost in about 12-24 hours; and immediate and eventual loss of heating/air conditioning, sewage disposal, phone service, transportation, fuel resupply, and so on.  Kappenman (of the FEMA/Metatech joint study) stated that the effects on these interdependent infrastructures could persist for multiple years, with a potential for significant societal impacts and with economic costs that could be measured in the several-trillion-dollar per year range.”

You can read the full report online at www.nap.edu/catalog/12507.html

For our government to publish this remarkable report online, says a lot about our outdated, highly vulnerable power grid.  The inability to overcome a major power surge from a strong solar flare by our grid is daunting to contemplate.

This book works with the worst case scenario.  Our interconnected power grid being hit by a major solar flare (Coronal Mass Ejection) followed by 24 months without power…in the suburbs…without any firearms.  I do have a “bug-out” section, however, families will “shelter in place” when possible, so that’s where the focus will be on.

Let’s start with our society’s vulnerabilities and what we’re actually preparing to overcome.  The Complexity Theory is based on our complex systems of commerce, technology, electrical grid and transportation systems.  It’s the interconnectedness and integration of our advanced society that makes our lives in the West so good, compared to the rest of the world.  Our integrated systems and there computer centric abilities also leave us with major vulnerabilities.  If North America should ever have an electrical grid failure, the electrical problem would cascade and permeate through our modern society within a matter of hours.

Every store in North America only has 3 days’ worth of food supplies on hand.  That’s without any mad rush for supplies by the masses.  After the entire store generators have exhausted all their fuel, that’s all she wrote.  If you live in the inner city, the only reasonable option you have is to plan to bug out within 72 hours.  Our Big Box chain grocery stores are the best run stores in the history of the planet. If/when North America loses its electrical grid, it would be impossible for any stores’ integrated systems to work at all.

We know business in North America has to have electric power to run their computers. Gas stations need power to get the gasoline out of their underground storage tanks and into your fuel tank.  Without power, banks can’t get you your money or even give you a basic bank account statement.

Without power, the various financial companies (mortgage, credit card etc.) are gutted (karma?).  The city buses are parked while the subway systems are shut down as well.  Our 18 wheelers and trains that haul 100% of our countries supplies daily are parked.  All the stores in North America and Europe are computer centric throughout their complicated supply chain, so they’re more of a problem, during a major power grid catastrophe, than a solution.

Our telecommunication system infrastructure would have a shelf life of hours, not days, in the event of a power grid catastrophe.  Other complex systems incapacitated will be the internet service providers, cable and satellite television, radio stations and airlines to name a few.

All city services you presently count on will stop immediately.  Water, sewage and trash pick-up service will be terminated by the local officials.  All police, fire and emergency services will be severally crippled, if not completely shut down, for the duration of our 24 month catastrophe scenario.

As you can see, if/when we have a collapse of our power grid; our present society could not survive intact.  In contrast to this would be 3 world countries like Afghanistan.  When they lose power (often) they never miss a beat.    Most of the population is living without what we would consider basic necessities anyway,  and without any electrical service what-so-ever.  No power for Afghanistan would largely go unnoticed to the majority of the population.

By the second month of our 24 month scenario, bartering will become the new “currency” for goods and services.  Since the banks will be closed for 24 months, as well as most places of employment, the Dollar/Euro will be replaced by a more practical method of trade, bartering.

The cheap items to buy today, for our bartering tomorrow are: Lighters, matches, LCD flashlights, disposable razors, candles, toilet paper, various types of soap, socks, baseball caps, whiskey, reading glasses, used books, pens, tablets, plastic bowls & cups, kids toys and dozens of other items specific to your particular region.

The local Flea Market is the best place to find most of these items.  A garage sale or Dollar Store is two other choices.

Chapter 2 – Diversify Your Supplies

By diversifying and duplicating supplies, you’re strengthening and hardening the households systems of survival.  Example:  If you run out of candles, use the solar lights and/or LCD flashlights.  Some great ways to diversify, duplicate and harden your survival systems are listed below.

Outdoor Solar Accent Lights:

The first items I recommend you buy are three (or more) cheap solar outdoor accent lights.  You can find them in any large “Big Box “stores garden section.  These lights use AA batteries (rechargeable) that are recharged every day.  Use one of them for continuous light at night, while the other solar lights are dedicated to recharging AA batteries for the other needs you’ll have.  With three solar lights and one small package of AA rechargeable batteries, you’re already ahead of everyone else when it comes to the longevity of use for small LED flashlights, radios, walkie-talkies two way radios, weather radios and several other items you’ll find take AA batteries.  All it takes to get to the AA battery inside the solar light is to remove the three small screws on the back with a small Phillips-head screwdriver.

Toilet Paper + Metal Coffee Can + Rubbing Alcohol = Heater

Make sure you pull the cardboard roll out of the center before putting the TP in the metal coffee can.  Allow the alcohol to soak deep into the toilet paper.  This technique of making a heater with toilet paper, metal coffee can and alcohol has been used by Hobo’s since the invention of toilet paper.  This could save your family’s life in a pinch.

Steel Wool + Two DD Batteries = Fire

Just hold the two DD batteries together facing the same way.  Have your steel wool ready by fluffing it to twice its original size.  Roughly the size of a pair of glasses.  Hold the steel wool on each end of the batteries, one side will be positive the other will be negative.  You should of course have small dried leaves/pine needles, small sticks, dried bark etc. ready for this quick infusion fire.  Matches, flint and steel method, magnifying glasses and lighters are all good to have as well.  There’s no reason not to have all these really cheap methods of making a fire.  You can use AA, C and 9 volt batteries for this process too.

Fix-A-Flat

This fix-a-flat product needs to stay in your vehicle at all times.  It’s cheap and could make the difference in a tuff spot.  You could have a flat and trapped on the side of a highway during an Exodus of an entire city.  Every one of these items should build layer upon layer of confidence in your mission of survival for you and your family.

Two - 10 Gallon Gas Containers FULL of Fuel

If you have a safe place to store these two containers of fuel, please do so.  Even if you don’t own a car, you should try to put this aside.  It’s much easier to get a ride out of town from a friend in a SHTF (shit hits the fan) moment, if you show them a commodity they need, that’s hard to find.  At 20 miles to a gallon plus 20 gallons is 400 miles worth of fuel.  With a worst case scenario traffic situation, you’re still   looking at 250-300 miles worth of fuel.  That’ll get you there.

Car Battery Power Inverter

What a car battery power inverter (less than $20 in Wal-Mart automotive section) does is converts your car battery’ DC power to AC power.  Just pop the hood and find the battery.  The power inverter has a red clamp and a black clamp.  Just put red clamp on red battery terminal and black clamp on black battery terminal.  You can charge your cell phones or give your AA batteries in the radio a break and use the car battery for a while.  I wouldn’t use this power inverter for more than an hour at a time, before starting the car up to make sure the car battery stays charged.  This is one more layer of preparedness to ease your mind a little.

With the various ways to cook outdoors today, we’re able to utilize several different methods, making sure you’re diversified as possible.  Pick at least three of the following cookers to give you peace of mind during a catastrophic event.  Nothing on this list is over $100.00.

Coleman Camp Stove

This cheap camp stove will give you the time needed and opportunity to get over the initial shock of this life altering event.  Buy enough fuel for the camp stove to last a couple of weeks, cooking twice a day.  You will eventually need to transition away from the cook stove to a more sustainable cooking tactic but the camp stove will give you some peace of mind, during a period when you really need it.

Outdoor Propane Grill

These can be had today for less than $100.00.  Store as many propane canisters as you can afford if you choose this method.

Solar Cooker

These are surprisingly effective during warm sunny days.  You can make your own if need be.  There’s a lot of How To video’s online of making a solar cooker.

Sterno Cans

Sterno cans are a little bigger than a hockey puck, cheap and burn for over two hours.  This is a great way to heat water for a cup of tea.  Remember to put the cover over the top of the can when you’re done.  The jell (alcohol base) fuel will evaporate if left without the top.  Less than $3.00 a can.

Cheap Little Hibachi Cooker

Uses charcoal, so you’ll also need starter fluid. Use the charcoal a couple of times before it’s spent. Load up on the charcoal.

Handy Wipes

These will help you keep your sanity when you feel filthy from the outdoor exposure and the lack of bathing.

Tent/s

This is a plan for two adults, if you have more in your group just double or triple the items as need be.  You need to have one tent per two people.  For cold weather you need a small, low profile tent, and a whole lot of blankets (wool if possible) burr!  In warm weather you need taller tents for the heat to rise off of you.  Cotton blankets are best for warm weather nights.

Tarps

You can buy large tarps at Wal-Mart in the sporting goods section for under $30.00.  Try to find an area that is somewhat wooded to hang one of your tarps between two trees.  Make the tarp high enough off the ground to be able to set your tent up under the tarp for extra protection from the elements.  An 8’x12’ tarp will be able to cover a tent plus your firewood.

Sleeping Bags

Everyone in the family needs a sleeping bag.  Either a heavy sleeping bag for the cold weather or a light one for warmer weather.  If you don’t roll them back up after you get up in the morning, the sleeping bags tend to get sandy.

Hammer/Hatchet Combo

This is something you’ll use every day, several times a day.  Depending on the store you’re shopping at, it’ll either be in sporting goods or the tool section.

100ft Nylon Rope 1” Diameter

You’ll use and reuse this strong rope.  Found in any hardware section by the tools.

Small (size of your hand) Solar Panel with a Built-in Inverter

These are cheap online, and effective at charging cell phones.  This is a “Trickle Charge” so it’ll take several hours for a full charge.

Knives and Box Blades

You need a couple of cheap box blade knives. For less than $5.00 you’ll have something extremely sharp when the job calls for it.  A large hunting knife is a must.

Binoculars

Pick you up a cheap pair of binoculars.  If you have strangers approaching from a distance, the quicker you get the answers to how many there are, male/females, firearm/s etc. the better off you are.  Always plan for the worst in situations like that.

Medications and First Aid

Other than the obvious medications and first aid, add Benadryl, antibiotics, and laxatives plus anti-diarrhea medicine.  If you have pain pills, put them on the list too, you’ll be sore the first week or so.

Pots and Pans

One large skillet, the new stone ware non-stick skillet if possible.  Two ten gallon pots.  12 large bottles of liquid soap for washing….everything.  Pots, pans, face, hair, clothes, teeth (kidding) body etc.  If you run out of tooth paste you can do what the old’ cowboys used to do.  Every morning they’d take their version of a toothbrush, wet it, and then dip it into the camp fire ash and brush with it.  The acid in the ash along with the friction of the brush did a nice job.  I don’t recommend brushing this way more than once a week though.  On the other hand, I’ve seen a lot of cowboys with missing teeth?!

Chapter 3 – The Suburban “Shelter in Place” Tactic

When you plan on sheltering in place, the first thing that’s needed, is to make sure a lot of water is on hand.  Water heaters are full of potable water.  With that said, adults need to have 2 gallons a day per person on hand.  If the electric grid is down for 24 months, two adults would need 2880 gallons of water to make it comfortably through this extended period of time.  If you have a swimming pool, you’re good to go.  Just make sure you have enough pool chemicals on hand for the long term.

The answer for those without this built-in water storage solution, is to find the local Farm & Ranch Supply Store (I use Tractor Supply in Texas) or a Garden Supply Store.  There are containers made of very hard plastic to hold a large amount of water.  A 1,000 gallon container is roughly 7ft in circumference and 3ft tall. They come in all shapes and sizes.  The water should be treated once a month.  The rule of thumb is 3 drops of regular household bleach per quart.  I use ¼ cup of bleach per 1,000 gallons.  I use these water storage containers in various locations and can vouch for their durability and effectiveness.

Water weighs 8lbs per gallon, so a 1,000 gallon storage tank weighs 8,000 pounds.  Keep these storage containers in the garage or in your backyard.  Don’t ever store this much volume of water upstairs.  It could very well fall through the ceiling, for a short lived waterfall effect.  You’ll need to buy a cheap hand cranked liquid transfer pump too, at the same store you bought the water storage tank.  The Farm & Ranch/Garden Supply Centers will almost always deliver your tank to you.  They’re surprisingly lightweight.  Once you get your water problem under control, you’ll be far ahead of most everyone else in your neighborhood that’s going to shelter in place.  You might want to keep your new found water wealth under your hat.  People do strange things when backed into a corner.

Since you’re going to be sheltering in place, and have already solved the huge problem of water storage, the next thing to do is to stock-up on non-perishable food items.  Buy 5- 25lb sacks of rice per person; 1 – 25Lbs of flour per person; and 5 – 25Lbs of beans per person, to start off with.  There’s no need to break the sacks down into single servings, smaller portions or per meal containers etc.  When the time comes to close a sack after you’re through using them, just fold them back down.  Don’t get so OCD in prepping that you’re just making needless work for yourself.  Relax; you’re doing a great job!

Dried fruit should be stocked-up on by the pound.  50 pounds of dried fruit per person works out to 2Lbs per person per month. It has great nutritional value and most people will nibble on it without too much grumbling.  Beef jerky is something that is all protein.  Tuna fish has a lot of protein.  Large jars of peanut butter are good to have on hand too.  Now the jerky and peanut butter will make you thirsty, but you loaded up on water, so you’re good to go!

Buy 10 pounds (minimum) of powdered milk per person and two dozen cans of non-fat canned milk per person.  The fat in regular canned milk is what spoils.  Unlike the people planning to bug-out, you’re able to load up on the canned goods.  Canned goods will last for years, so buy’em low and stack’em high.

The only drawback from sheltering in place in the suburbs, once the water and food issues are concurred, is the security or lack thereof.  The security problem can be tackled with some organizational skills.  You’re going to flip this around, from worst to first.  With some simple skills, you will overcome this very important problem that comes to the forefront when sheltering in place.

The first plan of action is to convince any gang of feral thugs that your house is the last house in the neighborhood they want to steal from.  If I were to try and “thug proof” my daughter’s home, the first thing I would do (not recommended…unless you’re the protective father of a daughter) is to step inside the front door and send a bullet straight through her beautiful steel door.  Leaving an obvious bullet hole, pointing out, for any thug to contemplate, before any break-in occurs.  I would of course not do this unless our 24 month power outage is in full affect.  Yes, I’d catch hell from both my wife and daughter, but after patching the inside hole, I would leave the outside hole as is.  I’d sleep a lot better at night, knowing that the hole is starring a thug in the face when he steps onto her porch.

A predator will always find the weakest, easiest prey to go after.  So, we’ll make a sign that reads “Trespassers Will Be Shot On Site.”  Whether your family owns a firearm or not, make the sign.  Place the sign either on your front door or front window, in plain sight.  You’ll find that most of the subdivision has also chosen to shelter in place.  There’s strength in numbers, of course, so we’ll use it to our advantage.

Organize your street (if possible the surrounding streets) to come out of their homes, day or night, if they hear a gunshot, a car alarm, a firecracker, scream, whatever anyone has that makes the loudest noise, they should use it to bring in the Calvary.  If you’ve chosen to not have a firearm in your house, that’s ok.  You’ll have many families on your street that don’t own a firearm.  The odds are good though that several families have firearms on your block.

There will be zero noise outside the house, day and night.  No planes, cars, air conditioners or motors of any kind.  Complete silence.  Inside everyone’s house, for the most part, it’ll be quiet as well.  No TV’s (bummer) no radio’s etc. nothing.  Make sure everyone has something that can make a really loud noise.  I recommend everyone have their cars parked in the driveway, facing the street.  Sound that car alarm when any of you need help.  Remember, you have 20 gallons of gas sitting in the garage.  Once a week start your car to keep the battery charged up.

Go through drills with the whole block to make sure everybody is participating and on the same page.  Explain how this is a life or death scenario everyone’s living through and you have to stick together.  If you do not have prior experience with a firearm, please don’t have one in your house.  That would just be a problem waiting to happen. There’ll be those on your block with firearms.  Make sure these people are “All In” with your efforts of organizing the community.  As long as everyone participates, your plan for the block is very hard for any feral thug to breach.

As the organizer, you’ll need to be more prepared with resources than anyone else. By having an abundance of strategic supplies on hand that many will run out of (or never had in the first place,) this is  the secret to your success.  This bolsters your effectiveness overall.  Greases the progress of security around you. Buy twice the basic supplies you’ll need for this very reason.  Use your resources to assure things are progressing the way YOU want them to.  You’re reading this book now because you want to get ahead of any disaster.  You’re trying to anticipate any problems in your prepping strategy.  You ARE the best person to organize the block.  For everyone’s safety, don’t concede your position of leadership to a lessor prepared individual than yourself.  Honestly, if they are not as prepared as you are, with supplies, they’re not eligible for the responsibility for so many people’s safety and welfare.

You’re going to make it through this 24 month period without power (with or without a gun) because you’re prepared, organized and have people around you watching your back.  Depending on the personalities involved on your street, you might be able to persuade several people to park their cars at the ends of your street, to block anyone’s entrance by vehicle.  Draw more “BEWARE” signs on the barricade cars.  The more “In their face” you can get, the less likely these thugs will try and break into any homes to steal supplies on your street.  During a period of Marshal Law, signs such as these will be common place.  Make sure your block has the highest concentration of these signs for miles around.

To secure your house, you need to make sure all sliding doors have a board or broom handle laying down the slide track.  It needs to fit snug against the door that slides and the vertical wall where it slides toward.  All bottom floor windows need to be done the same way.  Jam a small board or broom handle where the window can’t be opened.  Any intruder would have to break a window to enter your home.  That’s when the car alarms, guns going off etc. bring in the Calvary.

If you own a gun and are confident in your abilities to use it, then use it.  Nobody should be walking the streets at night during a period of Marshal Law.  They certainly shouldn’t be walking down your street, let alone trying to break into a house!

Hey everyone, it’s Diesel Magic!  If by chance you locate a diesel tractor or are in need of diesel, you’re in luck.  All our power line transformers have oil in them to cool the wires at various distances.  If you’re in dire need of diesel for a tractor, truck, car or generator, find a local transformer.  Locate someone with a small caliber rifle.  First, shoot a hole at the very top of the transformer.  Locate a couple of 5 gallon buckets and a ladder.  Make sure there’s no wind.  Now, shoot a hole in the bottom of the transformer, climb up the ladder and recover the oil (runs in diesel motors) with the buckets.  Of course, don’t shoot your own transformers.  The local, barren, strip mall will have several to choose from.

Once everyone runs out of vital supplies, the next natural sociological step is for folks to start bartering for goods and services.  Lighters, small LCD flashlights, candles, disposable razors, toilet paper, soap, cheap sandals, hair brushes, deodorant, cans of sterno, baseball caps, toothpaste and whiskey just to name a few.  As I stated earlier, I’m sure you can add several items to this list.  I can’t stress enough how important these bartering type items are to your families in a bartering economy.

Instead of individual peddlers coming around sporadically, or you running around looking for a specific item, organize a “Swap Meet” on your block.  Word will get out for miles around.  You won’t have to go looking for the items you need anymore, the items will come to you, at your blocks “Swap Meet.”

There Will Be Blood ha.  When you have twenty separate personalities interacting for months on end, there’s going to be problems from time to time.  There should be two women and two men that constantly monitor the group, looking for any problems before they occur.  If you can recognize hot spots before they become full blown forest fires, everyone will be better for it.

Take a Hat Shower

Buy your family several baseball caps a piece.  It’ll keep a lot of the sun off your face and nose.  In the beginning of this period without power, you’ll have times when you JUST HAVE TO HAVE A SHOWER!  You’ll think you can’t stand it anymore.  Your hair is greasy and that just pisses you off!  Work through this impulse by taking a hat shower.  Condition yourself to put on your baseball cap anytime you feel yourself freaking out Try and stock-up on baseball caps for your family.  Anytime the sun is out, everyone should try and wear over your lack of bathing and grooming.  The Handy Wipes will only go so far to appease a sense of needing a shower.

I Hear Thunder!

Anytime it rains, you need to have an improvised system in place to gather as much water as you can capture.  Use this water for showering/bathing.  Try not to ever dip into your huge water reserves to take showers or baths.  They’ll quickly turn into small water reserves.

Outdoor Leisure Living

Let’s face it, you have 24 months of living in a lawn chair, you need to be comfortable. Ask yourself, what would Jimmy Buffett do?  Well, other than supply the herb?  Right off the bat, don’t skimp on the lawn chairs.  Make sure they’re nice comfortable lawn chairs with all the bells and whistles. Keep the mosquitoes out of the general gathering area at night.  Lemon Oil is the answer here.  Dilute some Lemon Oil in a mist sprayer and spray it all around the area.  Then take “Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus” and Olive Oil.  Mix this concoction at a 1 to 1 ratio.  The olive oil soaks the lemon oil into your skin nicely.  The CDC doesn’t recommend this concoction be used on a child under the age of three.  Everyone at the gathering area is skeeter free, except for the raging babies screaming in the background!  I’m kidding of course, every store has products to keep the skeeters off babies, and they’re just not as effective as the lemon eucalyptus and olive oil concoction.  You’ll need several bottles of Aloe Vera Lotion, Sun Block, Hand Lotion and Lip Balm.  Maybe a case or three of Tequila and Margarita Mix for special occasions, like Tuesday?  Try and have a little fun during our 24 month journey through suburban hell.

The only time you need to go into combat mode, is when there is an eminent threat to you or your group.  You won’t need night vision goggles or eight AK47’s and rocket launchers to be secure and content.  The guys who rely too much on their weapons will end up using them, instead of using conflict resolution skills first.  Just coordinate the hell out of your street/block and if need be, “fake it till you make it”, ok.  Everybody watches everyone else’s back.  Keep your noise maker handy and listen for anyone signaling for help.

You’ll need all different kinds of games to keep everyone sane.  Everything from horseshoes to football to chess and monopoly.  Jump ropes and chalk for sidewalk art.  Buy a telescope for star gazing on these lightless nights.  Try and have on hand games for every age group and skill level.  Who knows, kids might learn how to play outside again!

We’ll all re-learn a slower pace of life from a bygone era of contentment.  Where everyone knew their neighbors and people would walk next door to borrow a cup of sugar.  When children chased fireflies, while old men filled the background with fermented stories of a simpler time of practical living.

Oh, I think we’ll be just fine.

Chapter 4 – Other Possible Disasters

Global Economic Implosion

Allow me to get on my soap box for a minute over the U.S. and E.U’s colossal mess.  “Plan for the worst and hope for the best,” is the old adage.  Some individuals make hope their strategy.  Hope is not a strategy.  The U.S. and E.U’s fiat currency has spread around the globe. No countries are on the Gold Standard anymore.  Countries are hoping for the best.

In 1972 Richard Nixon took us off the Gold Standard.  Now, 41 years later, the bill is coming due.  The U.S. Central Bank needed Nixon to take us off the Gold Standard in 72,’ so they could print more money without the consequences of having to back any newly printed money with gold.

Not one country in the E.U. has the same entitlement structure as any other country in the E.U.  In Greece they retire with a government pension as early as 58, by 2015 the retirement age in Greece will be 63.  Germany on the other hand has a retirement age of 67.  Greece has had much more government entitlements for its people than Germany has had over the years.  The Greeks have had their layed-back systems in place for decades.  They’ve racked up huge debts in the process.

The elephant in the room for Greece and Portugal are the citizens of these countries.  They have rioted on and off now since 2009.  The Greek government has squeezed its people, all they can be squeezed. Any more austerities from the government, could cause Greece to be overthrown by its own populace.  An apolitical revolution, if you will.

The only reason a Greece type austerity isn’t implemented in the U.S. is because we just print more money.  The only thing that allows our dollar to pass for actual “money” is the Good Faith of the United States.  As long as we’re printing money (borrowing) to pay our bills, everything is copasetic.  Every man, woman and child in the U.S. would have to pay $42,000 to pay off our IOU’s.

If the Chinese are ever not willing to buy more of our debt, we’re toast; the whole Ponzi scheme is exposed and unravels.  The only way to find out who’s swimming naked is to wait for the tide to go out.  I’m afraid the tide is about to go out for U.S. and Europe, so it’ll look like a nude beach soon.

We’re living in a slow motion train wreck that could hit any day now.  The Feds can’t put enough lipstick on this pig to make it presentable anymore.  Its musical chairs, the music is about to cut off and everyone will be looking for a chair…there are no more chairs (economic safe havens.)

Hyperinflation is a real possibility in the coming months.  When a nation’s currency isn’t worth much, it takes a lot of it to buy anything.  The Feds have stated that the inflation rate in the U.S. is at 2%, as of Feb. 2013.  The dirty little secret they don’t like to talk about is that the Feds do not include FOOD and GASOLINE in their figures!?  Conveniently, food and gasoline are the most sensitive to inflation.  Oil is traded around the world in dollars.  Since the dollar is worth less today, the Saudi’s must charge us more  to buy their oil.

The last people to know about an economic crash are usually the people that can least afford to lose any money at all.  I’m not a big believer in gold and silver for purchasing power during an economic implosion.  I understand the mindset; I just disagree with its basic premise.  If/when this economic implosion begins; gold and silver coins and bars will be the last thing on people’s minds. In the U.S., less than 2% of our population has physical possession of gold and silver.  I’m not talking about jewelry, just coins and bars.

With currency, there has to be a certain saturation level reached before currency is widely used and accepted.  Since the dollar will be worthless, most people will learn to barter for goods and services.  Something you can use, for something the other guy can use.  There’s no way a guy would “sell” his last case of canned fruit for a gold coin, post implosion. Since there’s no way to gauge the value of these coins (set by a large market today), and there isn’t enough of them in circulation to create a true market value, I don’t see how they’ll be worth much in the future.  Alright, moving on...

The other possible man-made disasters of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons are possible but unlikely.  Our scientists have the capabilities to trace the radioactive isotopes to their source country.  The fingerprint of a government sponsored nuclear weapons program would be known within a matter of days, if not hours.  A full scale nuclear response would have to be made by the U.S. to deter any more of these attacks in the future.  Any attack of a biological or chemical nature can be isolated and contained with a vigorous government/military response.

The one man-made disaster that WILL happen and IS happening today, over and over again, is cyber warfare.  These government sponsored cyber-attacks are here to stay.  This isn’t some Russian hipster ripping-off credit cards online from Hungarians, while the Russian authorities look the other way.  This is North Korea shutting down several television stations and two major banks in Seoul South Korea (March 2013) or the Chinese government hacking into trade secrets from several large U.S. corporations (Feb. 2013.)

There’s a full scale cyber war that’s been ongoing for several years now between Israel and Iran.  In 2010, Israel, with the sponsorship of the U.S., unleashed the cyber worm known as Stuxnet on Iran’s centrifuge complex (that was in the processes of making Iran’s first nuke) that set Iran’s nuclear weapons program back several years.

The Islamic Jihad (sponsored by Iran) hacked into the Israeli Military personnel database in 2012 and obtained over 5,000 high ranking personnel detailed records.  A virus called “Flame” was discovered in Iran that was said to be 20 times larger than the virus Stuxnet (per Symantec November 2012) and was attempting to steal the nuclear blueprints of the Russian/Iranian reactors.

In a 4 day stretch in November of 2012, Israel deflected 44 million hacking attempts.  This was during the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.  The Palestinians do not possess the capabilities needed for this attack; many believe they ultimately came from Iran.

There are dozens of sophisticated cyber-attacks world-wide every month.  Many of these attacks are on hardened government sites.  Some are on corporate websites that lack much of the sophistication needed to thwart off these hacking attempts.

Our power grid is owned and operated by a loose group of power companies and power cooperatives.  The vast majority of these “for profit” corporations, answer to their shareholders and Board of Directors.  The shareholders and board look at the bottom-line first and foremost.

To invest in the duplicity necessary to bring our power grid into the 21 century, these corporations would have to invest heavily in products that effects negatively their bottom line.  It’s not going to save them money; it’s only going to cost them money.  It’s hard for a CEO to “do the right thing” in a situation that’ll only show him, personally, negative results.

Our various state and local jurisdictions have very little influence on the amount of cyber-security these electric companies must invest in.  Washington, on the other hand, could mandate a certain standard of security infrastructure on this sector.  They don’t and they won’t.  They beg the power companies to do the right thing, it’s not happening of course.

This power grid of ours will be our undoing I’m afraid.  Either through a Coronal Mass Ejection (solar flares throwing charged material at us) or by a cyber-attack.  Any one of these two scenarios could happen tomorrow.

This is why we should plan for a 24 month period without a functional power grid.  This unfortunately is the practical choice for the masses to prepare for.

Regional disasters will always be with us.  Hurricanes and earthquakes hamper power grids every year.  A month and a half without power, for a major hurricane in one of the Gulf Coast states is the norm, not the exception.  Major earthquakes have the added problem of having many of the roads and bridges in the area compromised as well.  Earthquakes cause severe ruptures in natural gas pipelines.  If you smell the rotten egg smell of natural gas, immediately start walking with any wind that’s available until you’re unable to smell the rotten egg smell anymore.

During the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, over 3,000 people died.  300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of 412,000.  It’s estimated that 90% of the destruction of San Francisco was caused by over 32 fires from ruptured natural gas lines.  It wasn’t until the New London Texas School Explosion of 1937, that killed 295 students and teachers, that the Texas Legislature mandated within days that thiols (mercaptans) be mixed with the odorless natural gas to cause the rotten egg smell it has today.

Chapter 5 – The Practical “Bug-out” Plan

OH NO!  The worst case scenario has just happened, NO POWER ANYWHERE IN NORTH AMERICA….FOR TWENTY FOUR MONTHS, now what?!

You’ll need to get out of any inner city, ideally within a 72 hour period.  I strongly recommend if you live in the suburbs, plan on “sheltering in place,” for the duration. There are advantages and disadvantages of both “bugging out” to the hills or “sheltering in place.”

The carnage will begin in the inner city and slowly migrate outward.  If you think you need to drive through that area of town, even on an elevated highway above the city, don’t.  If you have any mishap at all with your vehicle and need to pull over to work on your car, that could be a death sentence.  If it takes a 100 mile detour to stay out of the city, take the detour route.  Remember, you have the gas.

There’s something called the Complexity Theory we should touch upon.  When societies and systems evolve over time, they become more integrated and complex.  Every business in North America needs electric power to turn on their computers. Gas stations need power to get the gasoline out of their underground storage tanks and into your fuel tank.  Without power, banks can’t get you your money or even give you a basic bank account balance.

Without power, the various finance companies (mortgage, credit card etc.) are gutted (karma?).  The city buses are parked while the subway systems are closed.  The 18 wheelers and trains that haul 100% of our countries supplies daily are parked.  All the stores in North America and Europe are computer centric throughout their complicated supply chain, so they’re more of a burden than a solution.  Our telecommunication systems will be down for the duration of our mock 24 month scenario as well.  Other complex systems incapacitated will be the internet service providers, cable and satellite television, radio stations and airlines too.

All city services you presently count on will stop immediately.  Water, sewage and trash pick-up service must be terminated by the officials.  All police, fire and emergency services will be severally crippled, if not completely shut down for the 24 months of our scenario.

As you can see, if/when we have a collapse of our power grid; our present society could not survive intact.  In contrast to this, if Afghanistan ever lost power, it wouldn’t change much at all.  Most of the country is living in the 12 century and without any electric service.  No power for them, a less complex society, would largely go unnoticed.

If your home is within 3 miles from a downtown metropolitan area, your only option for survival is to flee the area, better known as “bugging-out.”  The number one thing necessary for a human’s survival is water.  Unless you have plans to strap four 55 gallon drums of water to the top of your Mini-Cooper, you need to find a location that has a lot of water, maybe some fish and wildlife too.

The nearest lake or stream is a place that will save your life in a catastrophe that forces you outside your comfort zone and into a “bug out” situation.  It’s best to pass up the first couple of lakes/streams for something a little further away from the nearest city that would be the best option.  Far from the mass exodus of people leaving the regional inner city’s combat zone.  Remember, you have the extra 20 gallons fuel to cover at least an extra 300 miles.

Once you’ve located your lake/stream try and find an area far enough away from other people and their drama’s, but close enough to signal if you need some serious help.  There won’t be any oversight by game wardens, local sheriff’s office after the first week.  There’ll be no gas for standard patrolling.  Once everyone understands the event has caused a long term problem to our country’s power grid, it’ll take time to adjust to the mindset of our new paradigm.

Bring along at least three fishing poles with various tackle.  You can’t ever have enough hooks and bobbers on hand in this situation.  Buy an inexpensive trotline with fifty hooks or so, in case the rod and reels aren’t very productive for you.  You need a 4’ wide throw net to catch your bait or a shovel to dig for worms and grubs.

As far as non-perishable food items, don’t complicate your life with needles containers if you don’t have to. Prepare for this disaster by buying these basic supplies: Buy 5 sacks of 25lbs of rice per person (125lbs total per person.)  Don’t buy brown rice; it’ll spoil within 6 months.  Also buy 5 sacks of 25lbs of beans per person (125Lbs of beans per person) and 50 pounds of dried fruit per person, that’ll be 2 pounds per person, per month of dried fruit. Buy 4 large bottles of multi-vitamins per person.  Take one half of a multi-vitamin, three times per week.   This will help supplement your body’s ability to recover from any injury or sickness.  Try and only cook three times a week if possible.  Buy 20 pounds (minimum) of powdered milk and 2 dozen cans of non-fat canned milk per person.  The fat in regular canned milk is what spoils.  Try to use the solar cooker to warm up any food.

Save all your strong plastic bottles, for instance Welches Grape Juice.  They make potable water storage easy.  Every day boil 10 gallons of water for drinking until you run out of water storage containers.  If your lake has a sandy beach close, you should dig shallow water well.  Start digging roughly 20ft back from the water’s edge.  Dig 3ft down or so, until you can observe water seeping into your little well.  You might have to shore up the sides of the well; they tend to fall in overnight.  The sand will filter the water for you fairly well.

The way you wean yourself off the Coleman camp stove is by cooking on top of a small campfire.  An old steel grid off a scrapped barbeque pit is the best.  Once you get the hang of it, you’ll never go back to that Coleman cooktop.  In a bug-out situation it’s difficult to load the propane grill, so we’ll have to improvise.  The Sterno Cans and the little Hibachi Cooker should be with you and used also.

Don’t allow yourself or your loved ones to be at the mercy of any outside group during a bug-out, there are too many unknowns in this equation.  At a minimum you need a .22 rifle to hunt small game and for protection.  Unlike the families preparing to “shelter in place,” you’re small group needs to have the ability to harvest small game and can’t rely on anyone outside of your very small group.  If you choose not to have any firearms, then please take this simple suggestion.  Go to a sporting goods store and buy traps for small game.  These are made like cages, with a door that shuts the animal inside the cage when the bait is eaten.  These traps are humane and do not harm the animal in any way.  You’ll need to watch some short YouTube video’s on how to dress the various small animals for cooking.

If you choose to buy a .22 rifle, you need to pick up at least 2 boxes of shells.  That’ll give you 1,000 .22 shells and should last you for two years, that’s if you don’t allow non-hunting activities with it.  If you try and make every shot count, you’ll have several years’ worth of .22 shells.  Always keep the .22 fully loaded with the safety on.

The other gun you should bring is a shotgun.  The 12 gauge shotgun is a large, loud, and a powerful shotgun.  If you’ve never owned a gun and have very little experience with firearms, I recommend you buy the 20 gauge shotgun.  It’s a little lighter with much less recoil or kick to it.  My wife could shoot a 20 gauge…she won’t, but she could if she had to…..I think?

For the shotgun/s, you should buy several boxes of shells.  Buy buckshot shells for protection.  Keep the shotgun loaded with buckshot at all times, with the safety on, of course.  Also buy birdshot shells for your shotgun for various fowl.  When you’re through hunting for fowl, take the remaining birdshot shells out of the shotgun and replace them with buckshot for security.

It could spell disaster for the group if anyone should get sick or injured during this two year period without a power grid.  Everyone needs to wear shoes or sandals at all times when outside.  No kids should be climbing trees or needlessly out in the cold weather.  Teens and grown men shouldn’t be rough housing or generally acting a fool.  We tend to do this from time to time.  It must be a natural “thinning of the herd” mechanism built into our DNA.  If you see stupid, tell stupid to stop it.

If your group can hear guns going off in the distance, for no particular reason at all, that group is led by an idiot.  That group will go through their provisions faster than a June bug through a duck.  When all their supplies are gone, they might come looking for more at your base camp.  Beware of this group.

Don’t allow your group to be in an episode of “Survivor.”  Everyone and every group possess strengths and weaknesses.  When you’re at the mercy of a larger group, you’re AT THE MERCY OF A LARGER GROUP!  That’s the very thing someone bugging-out should be trying to avoid, during this two year stint of 3 world living.  This is not “survival of the fittest,” as much as it is survival of the brightest. Coordination and cooperation with another group is a wonderful thing, as long as there are boundaries established on the front end.

Here’s your good news, your reward for driving that extra 300 miles to a more remote location on a lake or stream is vacant vacation homes and cabins.  These vacation homes and cabins will be much more prevalent (and vacant) in these further away locations.

After the first couple of days at the lake, take a walk around the area to find a specific type of empty house.  A house that has two story’s, with a fireplace and a propane tank setting outside.  Without electricity, you’ll want to sleep upstairs in a cold environment and downstairs (with the upstairs windows open to release the heat) in warm weather.  You’ll be able to cook with the propane and heat the house with the fireplace.  Once the propane tank is empty, start cooking in the fireplace, if need be.  The new digs will help with security, bathroom functions (keep a 5 gallon bucket of water next to the toilet to enable flushing) and group morale.  Drastic circumstances call for drastic measures.  You’re not doing anything wrong under the conditions you find yourselves in.  Within two weeks, every vacant house and cabin on that lake will be occupied by groups such as yours. Once the paradigm shift (zero power for 24 months) sinks into every group at the lake, the mad dash for vacant homes and cabins will be on.  Your group is already dancing with the “Bell of the Ball” of vacant lake houses for the next 24 months, it can’t get much better than that until the power grid is restored.  When you’re in bug-out mode, any preparation you’ve made will make a major difference in your quality of life during our long catastrophe.

In conclusion, I hope this book helps you with the process of preparing for a “worst case scenario” power grid meltdown.  I do believe it’s a very possible scenario, backed-up by data from NASA and Intelligence agencies alike.  The likely culprit is an online terrorist hacktivist, that’s educated and radicalized.  This sobering thought needs to translate into us, preparing for our family needs for this very possible catastrophe.

The End