Some questions for my readers.

[ambitious_wench]

Pick a question or two, and answer in the comments.

Do you have a "bugout bag"
A. Why?
B. What's in it?

Define Civilization, as it relates to infrastructure and the creation of society.

If the US were to experience utter power failure, nation wide, how long to you thing it'd be before we sank into barbarism,

A. 24 hours
B. 48 hours
C. 72 Hours
D. Longer
E. I'm not sure we'd sink into barbarism
F. Any and all of the above, depends on location.

What would it take to make you part with, say, an extra blanket should we be reduced to a no-money society?

Do you have a store of canned goods in case of a disaster? How long would it last?

If you had to leave, and leave RIGHT NOW, what would you take with you? Assume no electricity available anywhere, and you have a working passenger car with a full tank of gas.

How full is your gas tank right now?

Do you have three days worth of potable water stored?

Have you ever read Lord of the Flies? When, and how true do you think it is of human nature?

Comments

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

You've known me a longish time and you know I'm a vaguely paranoid doomsayer who's lived in different states with different known hazards. So this is all over the damn place, as I have been.

Bug-out bag or "go bag". I used to keep one of these in Oregon (earthquakes, wildfires). The contents varied, but at minimum there was a change of socks and underpants, toothbrush/toothpaste/soap, emergency space blanket, flashlight, and a small amount of cash. Usually a paperback novel or deck of cards, some matches, other sundries. The idea was that if the deputy banged on the door (or the ceiling came down) it was the minimum (plus my wallet) that would get me going until I could get something else sorted out. This was the bag for leaving RIGHT NOW. Also kept shelter-in-place supplies (canned food, bottled water, etc.)

In Louisiana I kept a mental inventory of what I needed to gather for a hurricane evacuation, and I always kept supplies to shelter in place. Including a minimum of three gallons of water (one person, three days straight ration or six days emergency ration) and usually twice that. Emergency water purifcation is a pain in the ass, ditto food spoilage with no power. Shelter in place was more likely for the places I lived; never was close enough to the coast to warrant evacuation.

In Maine, this is probably the one thing I'm less organized about than when I was on my own, but up here the primary hazard is winter storms (losing power to ice/wind). Same idea as hurricane prep, except you're NOT likely to evacuate until after the event is past, and you have to think about heat. (Hypothermia bad, frozen pipes bad, but less concern for food spoilage if you think to use the snowbanks, and you can melt ice for relatively clean water if the power to the pump is out or the city tap is contaminated.) Right now we could probably eat for a month at least on what's in the house, between the chest freezer down cellar and all the staples.

In a milder climate I might be more persuaded to barter away a blanket, but it's 4F (-16C) out there this evening and you will only get my blanket when you pry it from my cold dead fingers. Unless I'm feeling generous or you have something I need more than a blanket on a cold winter night.

As far as the collapse into barbarism goes, I really think "F" is the only close to accurate answer. It greatly depends - on how prepared people are in a given community, on how much (if any) communication they have outside their immediate disaster area, on what exactly the NATURE of the disaster is (magicking away the electricity doesn't work for me, is it a power grid collapse? an ice storm? a hurricane? government action in an effort to quell real or imagined civil unrest? Why?) This question is like trying to predict the weather when all I know is that it's 4F outside. I can tell you it's cold, that's about it. Without any more information I can't even tell you whether it's getting warmer or getting colder.

I believe that communities which have gone through a natural (or unnatural) disaster in recent memory stand a better chance of pulling it together after another disaster. There will always be a percentage of people who go completely unhinged when the world spins out of control, and there will always be a percentage of people who become opportunistic and try to spin the situation to their advantage, but I really believe most people are mostly decent most of the time, and the human damage control in a disaster situation involves keeping the nutjobs and the scammers out of positions where they can exploit or otherwise harm the basically decent people who would just as soon make themselves useful.

[ambitious-wench.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Thena. Some good food for thought there.

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

I could go on for pages, but the generic ny-quil is starting to take effect. :-)

Have you had a look at Jim Macdonald's (I always have to look up how to spell that) emergency medicine posts on Making Light?. Lots of useful stuff there and don't skip the comment threads (it will take weeks to read it, I'll wait.) He's got one on go bags, hypothermia, burns, trauma, lots of emergency/disaster preparedness stuff, sort of "how anything (medical) that can go wrong, will."

I'm sure at least one of the comment threads wandered into disaster preparedness territory. It's a good community to read if you don't already.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

It would be hard to say if we would sink into 'utter barbarism' because there would be people who have off-grid or otherwise differently generated power, and those numbers are growing. So the idea of an 'utter' power failure is probably miniscule- barring some sort of global EMP, which- if it fried even hardened facilities- would be deadly.

We've been without power for as long as 5 and 6 days- and we managed to muddle through. Ice storms will do that. Parts of the city were without power for nearly three weeks.

I keep a bag in my car with a change of clothing and some toiletries. I know where my grabbit stuff is, and I keep at least one cat-carrier near to hand. The cats would not like being stuffed into it, but it's there.

I'd swap any extra blankets for things I don't have.

I have a good-sized, well-stocked pantry, and can fill at least three handy water containers.

I keep the car at least half-full at all times. I get nervous when it drops below that.

The barbarous ones will kill each other. The better model to consider is the 'Dies the Fire' series by S.M. Stirling.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

In bushfire season I'd keep a one-days'-clothing-bag. I definitely should do one that I can keep in the car, for changing when I've grotted myself changing a tyre or something.

I liked the "Zombie Survival" team that are teaching people what to pack in case of Zombie Apocalypse - really as survival in case of earthquake/fire/etc but the concept is the same.