This thread was originally deleted since I'm a nub and had no idea what I was getting myself into, SO, if I pissed anyone off with my off handed comments, I'm sorry, I had no background information. Won't happen again 
.
Anyway, since I got a couple of PM's about survival stuff, I thought I'd write up a quick guide for anyone who may need it. I am an "experienced" outdoors person, with a few multi-week backpacking expeditions and of course training and FTX's from the army. I have summitted a couple of mountains in the Rockies (Northern Idaho and western Montana), and hiked the trail for about 100 miles. I have also spent numerous times out in Big Bend on the Rio for weekends and week-long hikes. This does not by any means make me an expert, as I don't know half the stuff a lot of the guys I've hiked with have forgotten, But it did allow me to pick up a few things, and figure out the mindset, if not the details, of a survivor.
This guide isn't about gear, or the "spirit" of a survivor at the end of the world or anything like that. There are hundreds of those; it's just a list of ideas that will help you make your own plan, and your own guide to surviving the minor and major disasters that may occur to YOU, in your area. I suggest you take a look at what I've written, then go off and write your own plans so you will be better prepared for the journeys that may be offered to you.
I guess I'll start this off by saying my training got me ready to think about how to formulate my plans. I have a farm in the woods, not too big, about 12 acres, with chickens and goats and big dogs, rabbits, donkeys, etc. I live right on the river, my tug boat literally 20 feet behind me; I've got all the tools I need to live where others may not. All I needed was a plan and the right tools.
My Plan: Survive.
There are way too many scenarios to list, but it boils down to minor/major, manmade/natural, local/global. you can have a "minor man made local disaster", like a terrorist bombing a building. Or, maybe the super volcano in Yellowstone finally blows. That's pretty much the definition of "major natural global disaster". Pretty much everybody dies. Everyone but ME.
Now, I won't get too detailed as far as specific plans go, and I'm not giving any potential zombie valuable Intel on my location, but, I will talk about what It will take to formulate your own plan, from the minor to the major.
Minor disasters:
In any minor disaster situation, the ideal plan for you, if you are out of immediate danger, is to secure your location (go home), and just wait it out. Pretty simple. Make sure you have a couple of weeks worth of food and water laying around your house and you're fine. As long as you are not in danger, no worries. Don't rely on your tap water though. Get bottles/jugs, and keep them out of direct sunlight.
It gets complicated if you are not at home, we'll deal with that later.
Major disasters:
This is where things get tough. In any major disaster, you're effectively on your own. You could be in immediate danger, in which case you need to move, quickly. You could Not be, where you may want to consider waiting it out, or move later (that is dangerous, but doable). You need to have a detailed plan to sit tight and wait for Jesus, or be your own savior. It depends on the scenario and your situation.
Man made:
Sometimes, we get manmade disasters. Not always terrorist attacks either. You need to look around your region and try to find important locations. Are there oil refineries, chemical plants, factories, industrial zones etc. up wind or upstream of you (up to a hundred miles or more in some cases) ? Do you get your water from a well (the water table can become contaminated). Do you live in or near a city? Are you in a fall out zone? Do you live on or near (within 20 miles) of a major highway or interstate? If you are like me and answered no to all of those questions, you really should probably stick it out where you live. If not, you need a plan to run while the running's good.
Natural:
Everyone here knows about Katrina and Rita and Gustav, and hurricanes are by far the most likely threats we'll face, but there are others. Everything from flash floods to tsunamis to volcanic events to even Asteroid strikes, of all things, are possible. Little ones and big ones. Is your home in a flood plain? Do you live near a levee? Are you near a river or coast? Are tornados prevalent in your area? If you answered yes to all of those things, like me, you need a plan to run while you can, and how to survive the things you Can't outrun (like a tsunami, where you MIGHT get 5 minutes warning, if you are stuck on the weather or news channel 24 hours a day).
Now that you have a very brief idea on the kinds of threats you may face as a survivor, you need to make a plan, written down, for all the things you can foresee. Use your imagination, come up with Everything you can. Most likely, the same plan will work for many scenarios. That's wonderful! Now, go through your plans again and find all the things that can go wrong with them (car breakages, wind changes, bridges out, etc.) there will be hundreds. Try to find a fix for each thing that Can go wrong, and keep them all written down, Before Hand. That way when something doesn't go according to your plan, (it will Not go perfectly), you already have some idea on how to fix your problem. It will probably not be what you have planned for, and you will probably not have a direct fix, but you Will have multiple choices that you have prepared for exactly that moment, and you will then have options. That's the whole idea, Have Options. when you run out of those, you die.
Training:
This is actually the easiest part of being prepared, and in my opinion, the most fun. First thing to train is your mind. READ! Read everything from the Anarchist's Cookbook to Patriots to One Second After to as many relevant Army Field Manuals as you can. Turn the TV off and turn on your mind.
Train your body. No offense to any overweight people (I used to be one), but the fatter you are, the less likely you are to live. Pretty obvious, but so many people take it for granted. Even I do, though I am now working hard to remedy that situation. Its hard work but when you pass all the bloated, and large, corpses on your way to safety, you will thank yourself. The more fit you are, the more likely you are to succeed. So go all the way. I won't tell you that "you only need to be marginally fit", because that's a lie, you need to be Really In Shape to handle the stuff that may come your way. If it never does, that's wonderful, and you have a killer new body to enjoy your luck. If, however, you need it, you will be thankful for it.
Train your skills. What are you good at? Crunching numbers or shooting or gardening? All of those things will be important no matter what happens! Everything from figuring out how much food and water you need to carry to fixing your vehicle will be of immense value to you. Knowing some minor engineering won't hurt either (things like how to build a shed or deer stand).
Train your gear. All the tools and equipment in the world will not help you if you don't know to use it properly. If you have a field surgeon's kit in your car, but never learned CPR, are you really qualified to perform a tube thoracostomy to treat a hemopneumothorax? If you are concerned or even worried about getting shot a long way from home (hunters!), you NEED to know what this is. Your fancy duel fuel Coleman stove won't help you either if you pump too hard or forget to open the fuel pump a full turn. Read the manuals on all your gear, learn it ALL inside and out.
That's it for the first installation of my own little guide. I will post pictures of all my gear with breakdowns and reasons for bringing them if people are interested and ask for it. I will also help anyone with making plans both budgeted and not, if anyone needs.
. Anyway, since I got a couple of PM's about survival stuff, I thought I'd write up a quick guide for anyone who may need it. I am an "experienced" outdoors person, with a few multi-week backpacking expeditions and of course training and FTX's from the army. I have summitted a couple of mountains in the Rockies (Northern Idaho and western Montana), and hiked the trail for about 100 miles. I have also spent numerous times out in Big Bend on the Rio for weekends and week-long hikes. This does not by any means make me an expert, as I don't know half the stuff a lot of the guys I've hiked with have forgotten, But it did allow me to pick up a few things, and figure out the mindset, if not the details, of a survivor.
This guide isn't about gear, or the "spirit" of a survivor at the end of the world or anything like that. There are hundreds of those; it's just a list of ideas that will help you make your own plan, and your own guide to surviving the minor and major disasters that may occur to YOU, in your area. I suggest you take a look at what I've written, then go off and write your own plans so you will be better prepared for the journeys that may be offered to you.
I guess I'll start this off by saying my training got me ready to think about how to formulate my plans. I have a farm in the woods, not too big, about 12 acres, with chickens and goats and big dogs, rabbits, donkeys, etc. I live right on the river, my tug boat literally 20 feet behind me; I've got all the tools I need to live where others may not. All I needed was a plan and the right tools.
My Plan: Survive.
There are way too many scenarios to list, but it boils down to minor/major, manmade/natural, local/global. you can have a "minor man made local disaster", like a terrorist bombing a building. Or, maybe the super volcano in Yellowstone finally blows. That's pretty much the definition of "major natural global disaster". Pretty much everybody dies. Everyone but ME.
Now, I won't get too detailed as far as specific plans go, and I'm not giving any potential zombie valuable Intel on my location, but, I will talk about what It will take to formulate your own plan, from the minor to the major.
Minor disasters:
In any minor disaster situation, the ideal plan for you, if you are out of immediate danger, is to secure your location (go home), and just wait it out. Pretty simple. Make sure you have a couple of weeks worth of food and water laying around your house and you're fine. As long as you are not in danger, no worries. Don't rely on your tap water though. Get bottles/jugs, and keep them out of direct sunlight.
It gets complicated if you are not at home, we'll deal with that later.
Major disasters:
This is where things get tough. In any major disaster, you're effectively on your own. You could be in immediate danger, in which case you need to move, quickly. You could Not be, where you may want to consider waiting it out, or move later (that is dangerous, but doable). You need to have a detailed plan to sit tight and wait for Jesus, or be your own savior. It depends on the scenario and your situation.
Man made:
Sometimes, we get manmade disasters. Not always terrorist attacks either. You need to look around your region and try to find important locations. Are there oil refineries, chemical plants, factories, industrial zones etc. up wind or upstream of you (up to a hundred miles or more in some cases) ? Do you get your water from a well (the water table can become contaminated). Do you live in or near a city? Are you in a fall out zone? Do you live on or near (within 20 miles) of a major highway or interstate? If you are like me and answered no to all of those questions, you really should probably stick it out where you live. If not, you need a plan to run while the running's good.
Natural:
Everyone here knows about Katrina and Rita and Gustav, and hurricanes are by far the most likely threats we'll face, but there are others. Everything from flash floods to tsunamis to volcanic events to even Asteroid strikes, of all things, are possible. Little ones and big ones. Is your home in a flood plain? Do you live near a levee? Are you near a river or coast? Are tornados prevalent in your area? If you answered yes to all of those things, like me, you need a plan to run while you can, and how to survive the things you Can't outrun (like a tsunami, where you MIGHT get 5 minutes warning, if you are stuck on the weather or news channel 24 hours a day).
Now that you have a very brief idea on the kinds of threats you may face as a survivor, you need to make a plan, written down, for all the things you can foresee. Use your imagination, come up with Everything you can. Most likely, the same plan will work for many scenarios. That's wonderful! Now, go through your plans again and find all the things that can go wrong with them (car breakages, wind changes, bridges out, etc.) there will be hundreds. Try to find a fix for each thing that Can go wrong, and keep them all written down, Before Hand. That way when something doesn't go according to your plan, (it will Not go perfectly), you already have some idea on how to fix your problem. It will probably not be what you have planned for, and you will probably not have a direct fix, but you Will have multiple choices that you have prepared for exactly that moment, and you will then have options. That's the whole idea, Have Options. when you run out of those, you die.
Training:
This is actually the easiest part of being prepared, and in my opinion, the most fun. First thing to train is your mind. READ! Read everything from the Anarchist's Cookbook to Patriots to One Second After to as many relevant Army Field Manuals as you can. Turn the TV off and turn on your mind.
Train your body. No offense to any overweight people (I used to be one), but the fatter you are, the less likely you are to live. Pretty obvious, but so many people take it for granted. Even I do, though I am now working hard to remedy that situation. Its hard work but when you pass all the bloated, and large, corpses on your way to safety, you will thank yourself. The more fit you are, the more likely you are to succeed. So go all the way. I won't tell you that "you only need to be marginally fit", because that's a lie, you need to be Really In Shape to handle the stuff that may come your way. If it never does, that's wonderful, and you have a killer new body to enjoy your luck. If, however, you need it, you will be thankful for it.
Train your skills. What are you good at? Crunching numbers or shooting or gardening? All of those things will be important no matter what happens! Everything from figuring out how much food and water you need to carry to fixing your vehicle will be of immense value to you. Knowing some minor engineering won't hurt either (things like how to build a shed or deer stand).
Train your gear. All the tools and equipment in the world will not help you if you don't know to use it properly. If you have a field surgeon's kit in your car, but never learned CPR, are you really qualified to perform a tube thoracostomy to treat a hemopneumothorax? If you are concerned or even worried about getting shot a long way from home (hunters!), you NEED to know what this is. Your fancy duel fuel Coleman stove won't help you either if you pump too hard or forget to open the fuel pump a full turn. Read the manuals on all your gear, learn it ALL inside and out.
That's it for the first installation of my own little guide. I will post pictures of all my gear with breakdowns and reasons for bringing them if people are interested and ask for it. I will also help anyone with making plans both budgeted and not, if anyone needs.
