Surviving a Partial Collapse

Lets start by Categorizing Catastrophic Events to put them in perspective:

Level 10 - the entire planet earth is destroyed
Level  9 - 90% of the humans on planet earth are killed (Asteroid Strike)
Level  8 - 50% of the humans on planet earth are killed
Level  7 - 90% of the humans on a continent are killed (Nuclear Winter)
Level  6 - 50% of the humans on a continent are killed
Level  5 - 90% of the humans in a region are killed (EMP)
Level  4 - 50% of the humans in a region are killed
Level  3 - 10% of the humans in a region are killed
Level  2 -  5% of the humans in a region are killed
Level  1 - single digit % of the humans in a region are killed

An Asteroid Strike, Nuclear Winter,  EMP or a Solar Flare would likely cause a total collapse of our country civilization.  Such an event could be classified from Level 3 to Level 9, but a more likely scenario would be a temporary Partial Collapse that would be from an event in the Level 1 to Level 3 range and which might include things like:

1. Large scale natural like a Super Volcano
2. Man-made disaster or Terrorist Attack such as a small Iranian nuke in several US cities
3. A global economic recession and Hyper Inflation
4. Civil, political and religious unrest with Riots and Looting
5. A nation wide Pandemic <- Click on Links for more info

More common events like Winter Storms, Hurricanes, Floods and Power Outages can cause regional breakdowns, but help will soon be on the way.  These are Level 1 events.  Where the really serious problem starts is when the domestic "Help" is also incapacitated and won't be able to come.  This quickly escalates an event classification by one or more Levels.

Realistically, most Preppers can only afford to prepare for things in the Level 1 to Level 4 scale.  The preparations or these events are similar except for how long you need to prepare for, how much water and food you need and how much seed & land for longer term events. 

This is where our Step by Step Prepper Plan comes in handy. The more you follow the plan and repeat the cycle, the better prepared you are for longer and more serious events.  Once you get to the point where you have a 1 - 2 year supply of food, seed, tools for a Prepper Garden, Livestock and extra supplies to Barter then you are ready to start working on an underground shelter with Solar Power. There are a number of sources on this, and some group retreats have them included.  The more catastrophic Level 5 and higher events will likely require a substantial investment to survive underground.  Nuclear preparations are well documented and information is readily available and not expensive.  www.ki4u.com has lots of good nuclear info, products and links to even more.

Below is a picture showing the before (bottom) and after (top) effects of an 18 kilo tonne (kt) nuclear bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima Japan. The nuclear bomb sizes last published were 200,000 kt, or 11,000 times more powerful.  Likely nuclear targets for the US include Washington DC, Houston, New Orleans, New York, Chicago and Los Angles plus other large population centers.

 

The devastation is major but primarily on the surface.  Radioactive fall out is likely to kill just as many as the blast. 

After having your preps in order, getting to your retreat early is a key.  Recognizing the RED FLAG warnings that it is time to bug out is important.  Short term Level 1 events can be dealt with in the city, with a good Urban Plan.  Sustainable City Survival is possible if well prepared, but chances are lower than in the country.  Knowing what to expect in urban areas will help.  Country dwellers should expect to be swarmed with city gangs desperately seeking food and water. 

Once you are well stocked, you need a security plan to protect your supplies and loved ones.  Here are some links to read about security:

Night Vision vs Thermal Vision
Investing for Preppers (Financial Security)
The Best Gun
Best Handgun Selection Criteria

Group Security Drills
Urban Survival Perspective
Urban Survival Plan
The right amount of Ammo

Passive Layered Security
Communications
Actionable Intelligence
PVC Survival Tube

Using your garden for cover
Security Patrol Pack (or Bug Out pack)
Country Home Security Plan
Home Invasion Response Plan

Guns in plain sight
Situational Awareness
Intruder Detection
Riot Preparations

Double Barreled Defense
Modern Home Security
Sustainable City Survival
BB Gun

Top 5 Combat Rifles
Best Prepper Dog

For additional information see the following links:
Blog Table of Contents

See similar topics by clicking on the labels below

Emergency Essentials Disaster Preparedness

 

The above link provides useful information that is free to learn on the following topics and more.

Flood
Fires
Economic
Earthquake
Winter Storm
Tornado
Drought
Hurricane
Power Failure

For additional information see the following links:  
Blog Table of Contents

Why we are all Preppers

There are things in life that occur which are beyond our control; “Events” as we will call them, that can put you and your loved ones in danger. However, your level of preparation IS within your control.

The risk of your home catching on fire is small, but the consequences can be severe. Being prepared can greatly improve the chances of survival for you and your family. This is why we have smoke detectors and likely a fire extinguisher in our home. To do otherwise is potentially negligence or even illegal. But guess what most people die from during a fire? Smoke inhalation. Remember this later as we talk about the rule of 3.

Our government through FEMA (www.fema.gov/ ) and several other agencies (www.CDC.gov  www.Ready.gov www.Flu.gov  www.hhs.gov and www.redcross.org ) say that everyone should have some basic preparations. Things like a minimum of 3 gallons of drinking water stored per person and a lot more that you may not know about. Everyone, especially those of us who are responsible for others should have some level of emergency preparation.

Most Police Officers never fire their gun in the line of duty. Despite this, they still wear a bulletproof vest because the consequences of being shot can be severe (death) even though the likely hood of it happening is very low. The chances of a crisis or life-changing “Event” occurring are small, but the consequences could be fatal if not prepared, much like the Police Officer not wearing a bullet proof vest.

In these examples, we see preparing as just good sense, not prepping. But it IS Prepping. However, we are less likely to have any preparations for more severe Events & consequences. So what happened to good sense now? Shouldn’t we have our own “bullet proof vest” (figuratively speaking) or some sort of low-cost insurance for serious events? Perhaps we should have a few basic preparations like extra food, water and ammo?

So how do we start prepping? The answer is by reading this book or blog, assessing your current level of preparedness, and then developing a sensible plan that will help protect you and your family from potentially real Events that are beyond your control. The Beginner Prepper List offers a good starting list of how to prep.  Next look at the Prepper Incremental Strategy.

Take this test by National Geographic’s Dooms Day Preppers as a starter. http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/interactives/how-prepped-are-you1/

Remember your initial score and make a list of your findings, and then read on and remember:
The Rule of 3 – you can die in:

1. 3 seconds without security
2. 3 minutes without air;
3. 3 hours without shelter (in hostile weather);
4. 3 days without water &
5. 3 weeks without food.

This rule will help us set our priorities.

For additional information see the following links:

Blog Table of Contents

Beginners:

Beginner Prepper List

The Rule of 3 (set priorities by this)

US Government Recommended Preparations

US GOVERNMENT Recommended Preparations

Our federal government gives us a list of “Events” we should be prepared for and how to do so. It includes things like:

Natural Disasters

A.     Hurricanes

B.     Floods *

C.     Earthquakes

D.     Wild Fires  *

E.     Tornadoes

F.      Home Fires  *

G.    Black Outs (power outage) *

H.     Biological threats *

I.        Pandemics (1 – 2 week quarantine; see CDC Pandemic Flu Preparedness)*

J.      Drought

K.     Extreme Heat

L.      Severe Weather  *

M.    Space Weather (solar flares) *

N.     Thunderstorms and lightening *

O.    Tsunami

P.     Volcanoes

Q.    Winter Storms and extreme cold

Man-made hazards

R.     Hazardous Material incidents *

S.     Nuclear power plants (radiation leaks)

T.      Chemical Threats or weapons *

U.     Cyber Attack (computers, ATMs & store registers down) *

V.     Explosions (terrorist bombs) *

W.   Nuclear blast *

X.     Radiological Dispersion Device (dirty bomb) *

 
All of these are covered in the Prepper Handbook in detail.

These are not Chicken Little (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Penny) saying the sky is falling, but rather our federal government (http://www.ready.gov/be-informed) telling us what we need to be prepared for.  The government even has “National Preparedness Month.”

These are Events that often happen. Obviously some are more of a risk than others are, depending on where we live and our situation. Those identified by * are “Events” that could happen to most anyone.

In addition to this list, I would add:

Riots, gangs, and looting that might occur for a number of reasons including something as simple as the LA Lakers winning the NBA Championship or as complex as an economic meltdown from hyperinflation (read Wikipedia on this subject).

These “Events” as we will call them can cause a wide range of event consequences. The degree of severity depends on the Event AND our level of preparation for it. The range of Event consequences broadly includes:

1. No problems
2. Minor inconvenience for a few days
3. Serious hardships for a few weeks.
4. In the worst cases, they pose a threat to well being, life, limb, and property for a long time.

How prepared you are will determine how you fare. For example, being prepared for an Event can easily move you from serious hardships (#3) to minor inconvenience (#2).

But there are real risks of far more serious Events. Is there any doubt that one of the many suicide bombers would not discharge a weapon of mass destruction in the USif he could get one? Only 5% of the millions of daily import containers are inspected. Getting something smuggled into the US would not be hard. When Terrorist attacked us using airplanes on September 9, 2011 or 9-11 they did so with 4 different airplanes and totally successful with 75% or 3 out of 4. If they tried to smuggle in 4 nukes from North Korea, Iran (formerly Persia) or lost ones from Russia through our normal import shipping channels to attack us with, our chances of catching all four is about 6 out of 1 million. Of course, they would test our different ports (if not already in progress) to see which ones were the easiest to smuggle illegal products into and would use those, reducing our chances even further.

The US has a Billion plus dollars per day trade deficit (over spending) with much of it going for foreign oil which has a little more cost than pumping water from the ground and transporting it. This provides a lot of disposable income for the oil rich countries to buy nukes from India,Pakistan,North Korea, or the former Soviet Union countries, most of which hate the US.

Sure, North Korea missiles only have 2,000-mile range, but the EMP caused by a nuke launched from a fishing boat or submarine in the Gulf of Mexico and exploded 250 miles over the central US would take out a majority of our electronic and electrical systems for many years. A solar flare from the sun could do the same thing. Expert testimony before Congress in 2014 warned us that an electromagnetic pulse attack on our power grid and electronic infrastructure could leave most Americans dead and the U.S.in the dark ages. Google “EMP Attack On Power Grid Could Kill 9-In-10”

Think of the consequences from having no electricity for years especially in a country where farmers representing 2-3% of the US population are feeding the other 97 – 98% (300 million Americans) and much of the world. Or what if honeybees continue to die off and even perish? The food supply will quickly be disrupted from not being pollinated. People will do what ever is necessary to eat and feed their children. First they will ask for food, even beg. Then they will try to sneak and steal it, then eventually organize into groups (gangs) and take it by force if necessary. They will have no problem killing “greedy people who won’t share” to feed their children.

Without electricity, city water supplies will quickly dry up. Hoards of desperate people will flee to the country in search of food, water, and shelter.

The US Government has a Continuity of Government plan (COG) called Continuity of Operations (COOP) that believes the highest value terrorist target would be to detonate a Washington DC nuclear bomb while the President was addressing joint sessions of congress. So clearly, they recognize there is a real risk, if they are developing plans on what to do in such an Event. An Event that most people are not prepared for I might add. Some of their plans for different Events are shocking, expecting mass casualties of unprepared citizens.

There are a large number of Events with a low probability of occurrence, but severe consequences. A major volcanic eruption or limited nuclear exchange could spread enough dust through our atmosphere blocking out the sun and inducing a multi-year winter and disrupt the food supply. Read about 1816, the “Year Without a summer…. was an agriculture disaster.”

Fortunately for us, the basic preparations are generally the same for most of the Events, with a few specialized additions for each Event.

This is another excerpt from the Prepper Handbook  by JR Ray on Amazon.  You can download their free e-reader and read it on your computer, iPhone or iPad.

For additional information see the following links:

Blog Table of Contents

Here is another good story on EMP:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/05/04/military-eyeing-former-cold-war-mountain-bunker-as-shield-against-emp-attack/