Did the SHTF really happen?

[News Shooter]

Were we all taken in by bad reporting????

I've spent the last month building a bug out bag and buying ammunition, but now I'm wondering if I was taken in by zealous journalists and nefarious, lying politicians.

Are things really that bad out there after all? The stories I'm hearing today are totally de-bunking the hysterical reports of rape, murder and mayhem in NO. There was looting, but even that seems to be relatively minor in nature.

Yes, I want to be prepared and will be. I just am wondering today if I got caught up in a panic.

I think this is something we ought to be honest with ourselves about and be willing to discuss.

Again, I intend to be prepared, but I no longer belive that there is necessarily going to be chaos in the streets just because something bad happens.

 

[Derek Zeanah]

I think most here can agree:

• Bad things happen. Like hurricanes and earthquakes.
• Bad things may happen to you. Or not.
• When bad things happen, your preparedness is going to have a larger impact on how well you get through than the actions of the authorities.
• Once the badness has begun, it's generally too late to begin preparing. If you want to leave early without leaving anything important behind, then that's a planning thing. If you want a generator running when the power's out for weeks, then that's a planning thing. If you hear the sliding glass window break in the middle of the night and the phone has been cut, that's a planning thing.
• The media generally does a poor job of getting the facts out -- you'll have many stories here of the media getting things completely wrong on issues with which THR members were involved, and very few counter-examples.
• New Orleans was a bad place to be after Katrina swept through it.

Now, having said that, what in particular is bothering you?

 

[fistful]

Being ready for bad situations is a good idea, especially because of the terrorism threats we hear about. Supposedly, Iran is planning to cause an EMP above the U.S., frying all of our electrical gadgets. Even if these nightmares don't come true, it's good to know you're not totally dependent on the grid and on modern conveniences.

I need to make those kinds of preparations, myself.

 

[Derek Zeanah]

Oh -- as far as "getting caught up in the hype," I'll allow that my plans have changed a bit since Katrina:

• I'm now got my amateur radio license, something I've been putting off for years. I also have my station up and running, though I need to find/build a good HF antenna and learn morse code to increase my privs.
• I've got 20 gallons of diesel stacked up -- enough to last a while if supplies dry up or get too expensive for a while (that should get me an additional 800 miles normally, or 600 with a trailer).
• I've found a trailer that I've put off buying. Now I just need to mount the hitch on my car.
• I'm taking inventory of important things that need to go with us should we need to leave town in a hurry. Scanning important documents to a 256M key fob, storing essentials in rubbermaid containers, actually itemizing things that should go with us, documenting serial numbers of expensive items, recording account numbers and policies, etc.
• I've started talking with friends about what to do if things go south in the near future -- where to go, who to hang with, stuff like that.

Nothing terribly paranoid here -- just good planning.

I don't regret it at all, either.

 

[Polishrifleman]

Widespread or not who cares? I really believe the upstanding people of NO did no wrong? :banghead: There will always be those that take advantage of the situation but really, knowing that there is such a lack of human compassion etc.. who would go to NO, of course they need to "isolate" the problem so our vacation dollars will head back that direction one day.

Hopefully the spin won't keep you from being prepared because mother nature is not picky.

 

[JJpdxpinkpistols]

Scanning important documents to a 256M key fob, storing essentials in rubbermaid containers, actually itemizing things that should go with us, documenting serial numbers of expensive items, recording account numbers and policies, etc.​

I was thinking on this, and I came up with one of those vaccum sealers for food...put documents in manila folder and attach to a stiff backing (like cardboard or masonite). Seal into bag, and you are good to go.

If you are gonna be where water is likely to be, and want the stuff to float, follow the above, omitting the masonite and go for sandwiched cardboard layers with bubble wrap around it..bingo! Floaty document container, sealed against the elements!

 

[torpid]

Read some history, bad things can and do happen on national and global scales. (Accounts of The Thirty Years War make my skin crawl).

We live in a fortunate age, but most people seem to think that it is somehow a magical and undoable way of life we now have, with little connection to the chaos and strife of the past. I, for one, hope it keeps on going relatively smoothly for the next hundred years, but a hard look at historical trends has some pretty lean odds of that happening.

So I prepare for bad times just in case, but enjoy the ride during these good times.

And if somehing happens that is beyond what I can prepare for?
Well, at least can take solace that I had a higher standard of living than any of my historical predecessors- hot fresh running water, central heating, refrigeration, fresh food from around the world available all year, online shopping with unlimited global items delivered right to my door, instant woldwide communication and information, and the ability to travel huge distances in hours and days (plus, I got to ride in our futuristic "flying machines"!).

 

[ctdonath]

Did SHTF happen?

- 80% of a major city was under water
- the local gov't began door-to-door firearms confiscation

How much more can the S H T F?
Whaddayawant? mutant radioactive brain-munching zombies?

 

[torpid]

Did SHTF happen?

- 80% of a major city was under water
- the local gov't began door-to-door firearms confiscation

REVISED:
Did SHTF happen?

- 20% of a medium city suffered some water damage
- an auxillary member of the local gov't began door-to-door firearms inspections
on his own initiative.

Expect further revisions in the next upcoming days...

 

[carebear]

REVISED:
Did SHTF happen?

- 20% of a medium city suffered some water damage
- an auxillary member of the local gov't began door-to-door firearms inspections
on his own initiative.

Expect further revisions in the next upcoming days...

REVISED (ver. 2.0):
Did SHTF happen?

One damp tart hurled a few scimitars about a small town, no one was injured, no new systems of government were formed.

 

[geekWithA.45]

Did the S HTF?

-5% of the city suffered from heavy rain, and light wind damage.
-A cop from NJ asked a resident whether he had a gun or not, until his local boss told him to knock off his blue state Jersey attitude, reminding him that 2A applied to Louisiana...

 

[Radar1]

I think you really would have to have been in NO to find out what really happened. You won't find that out on the TV with cable even. Those of you who weren't there only know what the talking heads told you.

 

[TexasRifleman]

So the press we never trust says bad things happen.

Then the press we never trust says those bad thing never happened.


Only those that were there know if it really Hit The Fan or not. I think their stories will come out over the next few months......

 

[Phyphor]

Heh

Just wait until the Yellowstone Supervolcano blows.





Kaboom

 

[ctdonath]

Jokes and biased reporters aside, we do know some facts that lay out the situation pretty well:

- 80% of a major city was underwater (inches to yards of depth)
- chief of police did issue general firearms confiscation orders
- widespread looting did occur with police tolerance and complicity
- police, fire, etc. were severely overwhelmed
- complete breakdown of basic infrastructure

"Only those who were there knew" is wilfully ignorant of the images that did come out of NO. The S did H T F. We'll find out more accurate details over time, and much we will never know - but all that simply fills in a huge framework we did know. Ignore the talking heads; the photos & videos tell most of the story.

Unless your defintion of SHTF starts with zombies.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Yes, TS did HTF. You shouldn't be upset that you were not standing in front of the fan at the time... .

lpl/nc

 

[Burt Blade]

The quantity of brownstorm in New Orleans was insufficient? That is an unusual concept.

I treated this more of an exercise in "Is my kit up to this latest situation?" I live in central Florida. We had three hurricanes pass through this part of the state in 2004. I evacuated for the two that were highly likely to reduce my home to kindling. I had a year to re-think my hurricane kit before Katrina and Rita passed us by.

I was over packed. My post-evacuation efforts to include everything left me with a pre-packed trunk I could not easily get out of the home and to my car. oops. Plus, the important stuff was on the bottom, under all the "well, just in case" extra crap. oops.

I have since repacked, with an eye towards more rapid skedaddle, and general purpose items that will work adequately in most situations. Things needed first go in the pack/container/car last.

You will probably not need fifty pounds of ammo for a week-long hurricane bugout. You will almost certainly need fifty pounds of water. At 8 pounds to the gallon, 50 pounds is less than a week’s minimum supply, 7 gallons. You need to be able to make water pure, not just haul it.

 

[Mauserguy]

I wonder how many rapes, murders and mayhem did not get reported in New Orleans.
Mauserguy

 

[mr.trooper]

Um, i hate to break this to you man, but the "News" is just another show. Pure entertainment; They have no intention of informing you. They intend only to keeping you placated untill the next round of commercials start.

 

[torpid]

I wonder how many rapes, murders and mayhem did not get reported in New Orleans.

None.
It isn't real unless it is officialy documented.

 

[HI express]

Panic preparation?

News,
I have been in Los Angeles during a bunch of situations which I felt pretty good about being kind of prepared.

In the L.A. riots I was hanging out at my friend's gun store where we saw many folks whose businesses were in the middle of all the rioting (more looting and burning) and they were coming into his store to try to arm themselves or were buying a lot of ammo in order to defend their businesses where they had invested their life's savings. Some told us about being shot at as some of the rioters tried to strongarm their way into their businesses. If anything the news guys were under reporting some of the things that did go on during the riots. For example, there seemed to be an organized attack on gun stores..same M.O., only certain types of guns and ammo was being stolen. We only found out when BATF showed up at the store and informed us of what they suspected.

I have friends who told me in their neighborhoods where they confronted large groups of rioters. In all of their cases, they faced the rioters with a show of force (read firearms) and the rioters turned around and left theose neighborhoods alone. The newsies never reported that. Some of those neighborhoods were well organized and prepared, others put together some hastily made plans, but still protected their neighborhoods.

In New Orleans, there were a few stories where the neighbors got together and defended their neighborhood against armed looters.

So, just saying it is better to be prepared and not need it then not being prepared and need your gear when the SHTF.

 

[DontBurnMyFlag]

i admit, even I started more planning and preparation after Katrina. There have been plenty of posts on THR as well. I think it puts things in perspective and lets us see how we might have handled it.

That aside, there was a lot of chaos in NOLA. There was chaos in some sections of NOLA before the hurricane. Its just a fact of life.

In my opinion the govt got there in time to keep anything extremely bad from happening. What if 10 major cities had disasters at the same time, do you think NOLA would have had as much help? What if the help didnt come for another week? Do you think people would have waited around patiently? People got what they needed eventually and it didnt take long enough for them to kill each other. However, it was dangerously close. The situation in NOLA was not nearly as bad as it could have been.

 

[MudPuppy]

an auxillary member of the local gov't began door-to-door firearms inspections

Didn't the NO Police Superintendent (Compass) say in a televised new conference "no one would be allowed to own guns"? (or am I slow and that was sarcasm/humor?)

 

[shermacman]

Good planning is one thing.
Believing the Media is another.
We were absolutely lied to, the New Orleans mess was exaggerated out of reality.

The entire fiasco is directly tied to the end result: The Nanny.

Most people want a disaster to happen so that they can cede control of their lives to The Nanny. Doesn't matter if it is Social Security or gas prices or prescription drugs or global warming or FEMA. If it can be advertised as a crisis, then The Sheeple want The Nanny to fix it. And willingly throw away their freedom.

 

[Thin Black Line]

If you count a single dingle-berry hitting and sticking to a single fan
blade, then yes NOLA would count as STHF. However, one must look
at potential situations and ask "Could it be possible that more S could
have HTF causing all the fan blades to be hit?" And "Would there have
been enough S that it would have splattered across the room and literally
touched everyone in the room of our global community?"

But the most fearful situation would have been so much SHingTF that
the fan itself became bogged down and came to a complete stop. That
is the situation that invades my nightmares and gives me sleepless nights
even deep within my bunker. The fan struggles to move so much S
beginning to pile up, but yet it can't move. Eventually, even the electric
hum of the fan dies beneath.

What could cause such an amount of S to be created in the first place?
Nuclear war? A Virus? Yes, it would have to be something creating
so much S for the fan that in effect it wipes us off the earth.

However, let us take "lighter" scenarios that only create smaller looser
amounts of S for the Fan. Conventional wars, economic collapses, and
the drying up of oil wells would be a only a few among many. These
are much more likely to happen than the literal pile of bricks being
dumpped on the fan.