SHTF in New Orleans

[airrick]

For people who live in New Orleans... What is your plan if the SHTF? Sure I'd like to move but that's not an option right now.

The city is kept dry by pump stations. With no diesel or workers for the pump stations we are one heavy rain storm away from flooding.
Seems to me that would mean bugging in is not an option. For those with only a small car one wouldn't be able to take many supplies either.

 

[Emperor]

For people who live in New Orleans... What is your plan if the SHTF? Sure I'd like to move but that's not an option right now.

The city is kept dry by pump stations. With no diesel or workers for the pump stations we are one heavy rain storm away from flooding.
Seems to me that would mean bugging in is not an option. For those with only a small car one wouldn't be able to take many supplies either.

Well laddie; long, long ago there was this little thing called Hurricane Katrina.............?!?

Lessons learned!

BTW: The bowl is kept dry by levees, not pumping stations. Your answer lies on "Track 8" of Led Zeppelin IV.

 

[SpeedRacer]

If "Step 1" on your plan isn't getting the hell out of there, you're doing it wrong.

Focus your supplies less on survival and more on bugging out. After Katrina, New Orleans was a whole different world than 20 minutes in any direction. Just pack what you need to get out of town and a couple days worth of food and water. Keep your car topped off, and have some extra fuel on hand.

 

[Gus McCrae]

You mean like in a hurricane?

Leave.

 

[jimdana1942]

And be the first one outa town, lest you spend your "bug out time" parked on I-10.

 

[Emperor]

And be the first one outa town, lest you spend your "bug out time" parked on I-10.

No **** here! Stuck on I-10 may be worse than actually dying!

 

[airrick]

I got the full experience of Katrina and grew up in Louisiana I'm not particularly asking about hurricanes. As far a levee's keeping us dry you are correct, but put a bowl in your front yard when it rains and you'll get what I'm saying. They fill up. New Orleans has many canals cut into the bottom of the 'bowl' to allow gravity fed drainage into them. These canals all lead to pump stations. Pump stations pump the water back over the flood walls and levees. Levees become long skinny islands with out pump stations.
I guess I was looking for more advice like SpeedRacer had. I'm not new to guns and am squared away on that front. Recently I've been trying to cover other bases like medical supplies, food, water, camping gear. I'm thinking of a situation where I may be forced to leave on short notice and never come back. A situation with long term government outages. I see preppers stockpiling lots of food, 55gal drums of water, tp for years, and want to become more prepared also. Since I live in probably one of the worst areas of the country for a gov collapse I'd be forced to leave and become a refugee essentially. Surely I'm not the only one with no bug out location and living on the protected side of a levee thinking about these things?

 

[DAUC]

I agree. There is little I have that I care to defend that I can not take with me, or that can not take care of himself/herself along with me.

It is always good to be prepared. But if you have to leave you won't be taking truckfuls of food with you. Know what you want to take with you and what you can part with. This is assuming there is another place to go. If there was unrest across the nation, I feel like you are better off defending what you have.

 

[Emperor]

Since I lived in New Orleans for 40 of my 49 years since birth I will tell you what I think. But thanks for the engineering lesson nonethless.

In my mind you have two main legitimate fears down there. Flooding and the nuclear reactor at Waterford 3. If the stars aligned again a la Katrina and you had warning, obvioulsy you leave. However, should a sudden catastrophic levee failure occur when the lake and/or River was at exceptionally high levels, you should have enough warning to haul ass. Unless you lived near or at the base of the failure. If your house goes under like my proerties did, you'd be best to think you would not be back. That city cannot survive that incident again anytime soon.

Pack a gun(s), lots of cash, have credit cards, and buy what you need in Jefferson Parish.

If the reactor explodes and you are lucky enough to avoid the radiation cloud that is going to descend on someone down there you will not be coming back anytime soon then either.

Same plan as above, except you will be heading alot further away.

I just can't see any other episode other than a terrorist attack (dirty bomb, small nuclear device), that would affect the entire region. Total economic collapse of course, but that will/may quickly descend into anarchy anyway. Then you are in the same boat as everyone else.

Truth be told, unless you are forced to leave your residence to save your oWn life, stay and fight for it. It is easier to fight for your house from your house then to fight for survival out in the never.

To that end, could you really have enough crap?

 

[madmax4x4]

Just go to the superdome

 

[BenCarp27]

If you have a limited means of transportation, and are unable to pack away enough supplies to leave you comfortable, I suggest storing these supplies at a location outside the city. This would allow you to make a quick decision to leave, having only to grab a 72-hour bag and essential protection. Hopefully, this will get you on the right track prior to the mass panic and gridlock.
If you don't have a place to store material outside the city, don't worry, most folks don't. Do you have close friends or family who live in the city with you that share the same concern? If so, I'd recommend a small rental storage unit with a short drive of the city limits. Look for an area with multiple road/highways as access, and stay away from areas that contain vital infrastructures, as these will be the areas where limited access and travel will be enforced the quickest.
Most storage units range in size to fit you and your partners need, and are relatively inexpensive, especially if you are splitting the monthly cost. You may be out of pocket $15-$20 a month to cover your share of a small rental unit.
This would give you not only a storage point to stop and load up after quickly leaving, but also a rallying point to meet up with others in your group.
Just make sure you have the basic essentials here in New Orleans with you.

 

[03protege]

I would take the advice of this fellow New Orleans prepper.

Life vest and AK47.

 

[jimdana1942]

There are many, many areas in the U.S. that will be a nightmare for the majority of citizens when the S does HTF. NO is one. The vast majority of all those people will be too far from any remote enough area and will not be able to get there. Highways and roadways will be closed, blocked, untravelable. Choke points like Bridges and major intersections will be closed. All places trhat sell gas will be closed by Pres. order. Retail establishments will be closed or will have been looted. Gangs in some areas will be on the rampage. If WW3 conditions have happened then getting anywhere will be a moot point as most people will have perished and the ones left will be dying in mass.

The only thing that might work, (maybe), is to leave now and get situated in some western, remote area and begin stocking up, incognito.

It doesn't matter a whole lot because when SHTF it's gonna be rough to the nth degree.

Just my opinion.

 

[airrick]

Thanks for the replies... Some good info in there. Getting the gear is fun, and I'm pretty sure Amazon is losing money on my Prime membership because of it.
I like the mini storage idea a lot to get some supplies out of the city. I will look into that.

 

[LACamper]

So ya'll are only worried about flooding in N.O. What if its widespread rioting for economic reasons?

 

[03protege]

So ya'll are only worried about flooding in N.O. What if its widespread rioting for economic reasons?

This is what I would be more worried about, the flooding could generally be avoided by skipping town.

If you live in New Orleans I will be saying a prayer for you when the welfare money runs out.

 

[nickatnite]

For people who live in New Orleans... What is your plan if the SHTF? Sure I'd like to move but that's not an option right now.

The city is kept dry by pump stations. With no diesel or workers for the pump stations we are one heavy rain storm away from flooding.
Seems to me that would mean bugging in is not an option. For those with only a small car one wouldn't be able to take many supplies either.

You need to read this website:

http://www.theplacewithnoname.com/blogs/klessons/index.html

I lived not far from the break in the 17th st canal (Polk and Canal Blvd)...

Get the hell out is the best advice....

 

[LACamper]

You need to read this website:

http://www.theplacewithnoname.com/blogs/klessons/index.html

I lived not far from the break in the 17th st canal (Polk and Canal Blvd)...

Get the hell out is the best advice....

Shane from The Place With No Name is a nice guy, and his website is pretty informative. Just stay off his other pages. Nudist camping trips make me itch just thinking about them!

 

[Gator 45/70]

Got a tape measure.? Go measure your tire width and then go measure the railroad track's headed west...I think your getting the idea...If the roads are no longer passable...May want to air down those tires and hit the rails...???

 

[CEHollier]

Why live in a fishbowl below sea level kept dry with pumps?