Yup, grain goes bad and is bulky, alcohol is portable and lasts forever, still would be sort of a neat thing to have too.

I have an "Earthquake box" in the garage.

Water, first aid stuff, bleach, iodine, couple IV start kits and some IV fluids, food.

The jugs and propane tank are next to the box, but you get the idea.

There was a place out by Lake Conroe that was a full on high security compound. My understanding is that it was the facility for some biotech concern, with a sort of weird CEO. Fenced perimeter and the main part of it was like a concrete pill box, fully self contained. Had , video surveillance of the grounds, a well, air filtration, generators, the whole shebangabang. Business went teats up, property went on the market. Realtor gal I know showed me some photos of the place, very trippy. Looked sort of like the complex in the Netflix show, Stranger Things, only with no windows. Just the ticket for when the zombies come

The rest of your post was spot on as well, exactly my circumstance. My neighbors are all independent people that have, in times of crisis (hurricanes that have destroyed houses), worked as one to protect each other.

The fixed fortification fantasy, the willingness to invest money in a Prepper Maginot Line always makes me laugh.

Agility is penultimate...maneuver.

We aren't preppers, but living in the countryside with a 10 acre farm, we have more supplies, and provisions than most. We also have dogs, and guns, and plans should SHTF, and WILL NOT share with those who haven't given any thought towards their own survival, and expect to be fed (I laughingly call the city dwellers who walk slowly, and aimlessly with outstretched hands looking for their next meal....ZOMBIES).

Wait, FEMA taking care of you is a naive way of thinking....ask any hurricane survivor.

Yep, good list. It's almost irresponsible not to have some forethought, and provisions on hand.

If the S(really)HTF, it's true that agility will be penultimate. Those who hunker down will last for a while but ultimately end up fighting outside with everybody else for resources. As you can see in any population, there will be the stronger and the weaker. The strong will cull out the weak by killing them and/or taking their resources and leaving them to die. That will last until the government (or some government) forces come in and take over the situation. At that point nobody will have the fire power to resist. Maybe those who are truly out in the boonies will be able to outlast.

The de-masculinization of men is alarming.

We live on a few acres. My two sons have been shooting guns and compound bows since elementary school. We regularly are in the woods hunting and tracking. Today my 14 year old was dialing in his compound bow for the upcoming season. He can drop a deer from 30 yards and assembles his own broadheads without help from Dad. We buy a local grass fed cow once a year which is butcher by the same man who pulled it from its mother’s womb and ensured its first hours of life. My wife bakes his wife pies. We own several pistols, rifles, shotguns and, yes, a few semi automatic long guns. We own a generator, wood burning stove, knifes, compasses, backpacks and have a pantry which is usually packed and have a few hundred pounds of frozen meat at any given time. If more was needed, we are more than capable of providing it for ourselves. We can also defend ourself if needed.

This is not because we are preppers. It is because we are men who can and always have been able to take care of ourselves and what’s ours. There are too many man-wusses out there for now. Natural selection.

I'm going to try to be right under the giant meteor when it lands.

Living in a semi rural area kind of makes you a prepper. I can survive well without power for weeks. Hand pump on the well, wood stove, stored food, etc.

Both Cindy & I in our 70's...if it gets really bad, like the chaos Tabs predicts, we probably wouldn't care much about surviving anyway.

I think you have to be willing to be more violent than the average person to survive and that cannot be bought.

My only 'prepping' is for local power outages, weather events, etc.

But it is always interesting to read about this kind of stuff and think how things can change in an instant.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/evidence-of-sodom-meteor-blast-cause-of-biblical-destruction-say-scientists/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1862

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1811%E2%80%9312_New_Madrid_earthquakes

I suspect a whole lot of folks with spoons these daze have never shot anything other than paper at their range. They're living in a fantasy land imo...and scare the crap out of me too ;).

That describes me. What scares you?

Though I've never hunted, I've helped a neighbor butcher deer in his garage. I've shot rabbits and other varmints with my pellet gun. I've eaten things I've killed. Just because I haven't butchered a large animal that I've killed with a gun doesn't mean I don't understand what has to to be done and I'm not scared of doing it.

As for killing another human... If it's a choice between killing someone else or my family not surviving, I don't need to have an exhaustive internal debate. I'll make a judgement call and sleep with a clear conscience.

3-five gallon tubs of freeze dried food my son got me at a great deal where he works, a few five gallon jugs of water that have been treated, a Honda 2000 watt generator and five gallons of stabilized gas which should keeps a refrigerator running for a week or so. A few guns, and ammo. An RV at a storage lot a few miles away with at least 40 gallons (1/2 tank) of gasoline. That will get me (assuming the roads are passable) about 300-400 miles, depending on the traffic.

Been through a few major earthquakes and the longest power was out was two days. Gasoline was the biggest issue.

If you've never had a spoon pointed at you, or have never needed to have one "ready" for action as you investigate something....it's hard to explain. Twice, in recent years, I've had to do the latter....my pulse rate must've been 200. I wasn't referring to you though. I know several folks who never shot a spoon their whole lives, got a CCW after 50 years, and now carry...I'd run as far away as I could from them if the shtf....they scare me...seriously. In the "real world", schit gets real...real fast imo. I wish it were always binary....it rarely is imo.

I have guns, a backhoe, and 10 acres, so no witnesses.

I agree with PWD72s, your life echoes my sentiments exactly....although we are younger at 53.

I survived 9/11 in NYC and the blackout a year later with just a couple candles.
My father freaked out after the bird flu around the same time and convinced all the family members to go in on a large quantity of non perishable food ( likely perished by now though).
I think the odds are so slim that any of this prepper stuff will ever be necessary.

Over here in Japan everyone will probably band together and support each other.

Most around me will do the same. Also, the “roving mobs” discussed in the article will be neither plentiful or tough.

A local story comes to mind. A nearby wealthy gentleman was in the hospital. Thinking his wife was alone and an easy target, a group of drugged up idiots break into her house for some heroine money. She sat at the top of the stairs and shot the first one through the door with her shotgun. As it was during the winter, the guy was easily found in the bushes, covered in blood and his own feces.

No break-ins ‘round here since.

There was a situation a few years ago where I broke up a fight. I only did it because it looked like one guy was unconscious and on the way to being murdered. Normally if two people are fighting, I'm perfectly happy to let them be. Well, the second I intervened the guy who was down and apparently lifeless jumped to his feet. This surprised me and I had to take control of the situation and call the police. I was armed, my pulse was 200, and I was watching both of them for anything that might turn bad for myself. Fortunately, I was able to maintain control by responding to everything with (yelled, in a firm voice): "You will sit the **** down and you will shut the **** up!" I never even drew on them, but I would have without hesitation to defend myself.

Along those same lines; a friend of mine used to own a small gun shop. Old lady comes in and wants to buy 6 bullets for her .38. Seems she heard (or thought she heard) someone trying to get in her front door in the middle of the night. She got out of bed and from the top of the stairs unloaded the .38 at the door. She also asked him if he know of anyone that can patch the holes in the floor and walls. No holes in the door.

I agree with you and dan79. It seems to me that people band together in times of extremis, share what that have, rescue each other, and even die for each other. People risk their lives to save strangers. Exhibit A is 9/11. The toughest, meanest city in the U.S. banded together and pulled for each other in an incredible and unexpected way. The weeks after 9/11, painful as they were, were the time I was proudest I've ever been to be an American. And there are plenty more exhibits from all around the world. It's what we humans were naturally programmed to do. Instinctively, we are social animals, and we default to that primal instinct to band together in times of stress. Band together and cooperate for the survival of as many as we can save. That's how we perpetuate the species.

Although I definitely believe in being prepared, I think spending your time and money on a bunker you can hole up and shoot people who come by to do a wellness check or ask for food is a pretty bad idea. If the big quake hits as predicted here, and I survive it, I don't plan on holing up behind sandbags with an arsenal to defend my stuff. I'll be out helping pull folks out of the rubble.