The problem here is this..Sunna has laid out a rough.. what if.. he also points out...i know it might not be normal for us in the UK to have such a disaster as this....this is true....in turn we try to address it through eyes that have not seen or experienced such an event which is made bigger for the very fact they do not have much of anything resource wise..even MB illustrates even if you are the richest country on the planet things take time to fix and the will to get it done...do you honestly think that the Nepalese a sat on their arses twiddling their thumbs waiting on us , of coarse not they are doing what they can by any means possible to save lives,eat ,drink and try to get back to some normality just as we would given the same circumstance ....Its what all humans do its called SURVIVAL AT ALL COSTS FROM YOUR OWN ENDEAVOURS
Of course we are better prepared to deal with disasters than the poor people in Nepal, but to be honest, human reaction doesn't change much, and there will still be panicking people even after a small disaster. It's only human nature and definitely not geographical.
For me, it's the aftermath of this disaster that is the most thought-provoking. 6000+ people killed to date, but 8,000,000 affected. Listening to the news reports, fresh water seems to be the biggest issue.
It strikes me that, irrespective of the cause of a disaster, water will very quickly become an issue. There are, of course, cascading effects. Lack of fresh water leads to drinking contaminated water, which leads to gastric problems, which leads to dehydration, etc.
A SHTF prepping plan that involves:
A) a way of storing and/or purifying water and
B) having a way to deal effectively with human waste disposal
Is an absolute must. Remember Tewkesbury a couple of years back? Flooding of a pumping station led to no running water being available for days, and the army having to distribute bottled water on playing fields.
You don't need an earthquake for TSTHTF!
So, what water-preps to forum members have?
Edit to add: it doesn't matter whether a country eventually gets back on its feet if you die of cholera within a month of the event.
Regardless of the disaster that may befall any of us at any time, you need to have the basics covered, shelter, warmth, drinking water and food, miss any out and life is gonna get tough in a matter of days, got them covered and you can start to do something to improve your situation.
Outside about a 1000 gallons drinking water, inside about 700 gallons drinkable but i would boil it first, for flushing the loo 200 gallons , waste into sceptic tank plus some water butts filled from guttering...small emergency water filter ...plus home made charcoal filter with sand and gravel...moving the outside tanks to new location shortly.
If my area were hit with a quake like Napal just endured, we'd be in "deep kim chee" for sure. All the underprivileged (read: "on the government dole") minorities within a hundred mile radius would be robbing and pillaging anyone owning anything that they thought they'd like and/or need and/or were entitled to. Society here would crash and burn in a week, giving the current administration and their Federal Government all the excuse it needed to take over with a heavy hand.
Yes Jonas but you have moved into the east coast urban corridor, which is the birthplace of the American nanny state.
Any built up urban area is going to suffer simply due to the complete dependency on the systems in place, and their absence during crisis. It has been that way since the first walls were built around the Jericho 10,000 years ago.
And the quake would have to cover the entire North American continent to prevent services and help from the other regions of the nation.
I still remember driving on northbound I75 right after Kartina when the entire Ohio National Guard was mobilized for relief work. I was headed north and they were headed south and it took 4 full hours to pass that convoy and I was doing 70mph. And they were just one state that was mobilized. We have 49 more in reserve.
I have friends that work for utilities in Kentucky and Tennessee that spend a good part of each year dispatched to the gulf and east coasts doing repair of the infrastructure after hurricanes.
It's what we do. Rome was sacked, Constantinople was sacked, England was blitzed, Berlin was bombed into a pile of rubble along with most of the other cities of central Europe, Stalingrad and Leningrad were nearly leveled to the ground.
Sometimes it takes a while, recovery is not instantaneous, but it gets done.
Pity is that most of the folks that remember all the recover are now dead, and the present wrigglers think everything is now as it always has been.
To me, this isn't a question of could we and would we. The answers to both are yes and yes. The true question is, WHEN would the 'large scale' (think government and well organised/equipped local area project) rebuild take place in your area?
Around here there are military bases and power stations. Those would take obvious priority. So any government assistance in this area would be focused on damage control and getting the basic utilities up and running. For example, most hospitals are stationed with a maximum of 2 days emergency power. So the people in charge would have to triage certain strategical points. So what matters is where are you on the priority list? Is your house location as high a priority as stopping a nuclear reactor nearby from going critical? When Fukushima (definitely spelt that wrong) was hit, they evacuated the people and focused hugely on stabilising the reactors. But what about the smaller villages on the coast that were also hit. Did we even hear about them on the news? Will anyone hear about your little village either?
If you can imagine the priorities of the government and other people doing the larger scale rebuilding going on in your area, think about how long it would take to get to you.
What I'm thinking is it would make sense to team up with a few neighbours and work with them to clear what you could so as to make the job as easy for the rescue teams as possible. Maybe saw up and cut down trees blocking the road. Help clear as much rubble as possible. Granted you shouldn't be waiting for the gov to save you, you should be able to support yourself for the month it could take for them to get to you. But until the larger rebuilding projects start, you should do your best to help where you can, without compromising your stores or giving away too much information about what you have. Lending a neighbour a wood saw is okay, but saying "Here, I have 2 years worth of food. Let's distribute this out to everyone" is not okay! That'll make you a target if things get rough around your area.
Our plan. The wife protects the home, and I will try to help clear what I can. But that is of course providing the home is still standing. If the house is burned down or flat to the floor…thank goodness for caches! Yes that's a scary thought hu? Do your caches provide enough of 'everything' if a disaster ripped your house apart or burned it down?
We all know everything will be rebuilt, but could you last until your area is being rebuilt?
yep searching through the rubble of your home looking for anything usefull to eat , wear , drink , build a shelter with don't sound like fun .
any ideas on what else you could try.