Ok then so lets rephrase the question and make it a smaller scale local emmergency where you may need to live off grid for a few weeks

I remember one Sunday morning a few years back, I got up at 8AM, and at 8:05 the power went out. I forget what the storm was but I had made preparations. By 8:30 I was serving bacon and eggs with toast, and my coffee was hot.

A few weeks is no problem for me. Even during the winter I keep a spare full tank of propane for the BBQ grill. I can cook a large dog in there.

For everyday I also use propane, but in the small (expensive) bottles; I typically buy 1-2 pairs when I see them go on sale and have a large supply now. That keeps my lights, heater, and alternate stove going.

(Meanwhile, when Sandy took our power out my wife freaked out after 3 days and so we bugged out to Ohio till power was back.)

 

The operative phrase is "be prepared".
Have enough drinking water, food and fuel to last at minimum four days, 7 days preferred, 14 days even better.

 

I can cook a large dog in there.

Emergency rations?

 

I have 5kW of panels, at 300V DC, and would like to find a compatable inverter with 120 60 Hz out, but luck yet. Working on food storage & water.

 

I prefer the more realistic method of being nice to my neighbors and those who I interact with so that in such a situation I have a group of people with combined resources to fall back on.

Now as far as society collapsing what exactly is going to trigger it? So far I keep hearing that it will be brought about by total governmental collapse yet as has been demonstrated very well during every major extended government shutdown society and life as a whole seems to improve rather than fly to bits while they are out pouting.

As far as the raiding hordes go, Really? If a person does not have something to begin with what purpose or point would they have to go and try and take said resources from someone who has it and knows how to use it?

Are clueless city dwellers who have no clue about how to use tools and equipment going to come and raid my place to steal items and devices they have no clue as to how to operate let alone would know how or where to sell elsewhere in order to gain anything?

 

Emergency rations?

Yep. Got a problem with that?

 

As far as the raiding hordes go, Really? If a person does not have something to begin with what purpose or point would they have to go and try and take said resources from someone who has it and knows how to use it?

Yeah, any self respecting city dweller will just lay down and die quietly seeing the awesome job you and your friends did singing and hugging each other.

Towards "what purpose or point"? Life itself.

 

Yeah, any self respecting city dweller will just lay down and die quietly seeing the awesome job you and your friends did singing and hugging each other.

Towards "what purpose or point"? Life itself.

I am not following that comment at all. Why are we singing and hugging?

I grew up in the country and I have seen a lot of tough talking city people in my life. Sure by city standards they may be tough but by common farm folk standards they are nothing but a bunch of clueless goofs when on our turf.

The point of my comment is when it comes to hands on application and use of life sustaining resources what city people have and typical farm folk have is way way different.

How many city people do you know of that could jump in a random farm truck or tractor get it started and actually go someplace with it let alone make themselves useful to the remaining people they need to trade and deal with with it?

The point I was trying to make is when situations go bad smart people make friends to combine forces and share resources. Stupid people go looting thinking that its going to get themselves someplace and the only place it gets them quick is on the wrong end of the guns the smart people are holding.

Which BTW most rural people hunt big game like deer or larger which means that we also know how to do kill shots from so far away that raiding hoards of city people who only want to loot and steal would tend to get pretty thin before they ever reached the front door!

Watching any news coverage of any major disaster should have made this concept rather apparent. Even in the best of bad situations looters don't get very far in the end. Yea the liquor stores get raided and emptied out rather quick but thats about all.

 

Yeah, any self respecting city dweller will just lay down and die quietly seeing the awesome job you and your friends did singing and hugging each other.

Towards "what purpose or point"? Life itself.

Yes, People will 'do' what's needed to keep alive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfI-287t5ug
Very close to a complete breakdown in order.
How the US military is directly providing humanitarian assistance to help restore order. :
http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=77708
http://www.navy.mil/management/photodb/webphoto/web_131117-N-XN177-310.JPG
http://www.navy.mil/management/photodb/webphoto/web_131116-N-TE278-555.JPG
I also was raised on a farm but in my short life I've been to some of the poorest places on the planet during some of the worst times for it's citizens. When the regional support/supply system is disrupted for any reason there are simply too many people competing for that's left and they must be dispersed to keep civil order if you can't feed them.

People loot liquor stores when they know help is just around the corner, people loot food storage facilities when they know it's do or die.

 

People loot liquor stores when they know help is just around the corner, people loot food storage facilities when they know it's do or die.

To a point they do but the smart ones pack up and started heading out before the disaster came let alone reached the point they might starve to death.

The ones to dumb or lazy will just sit there and whine that someone should do something for them until they take their last breath which in American society would eliminate a huge percentage of the urban populations before they ever got out of town.

The thing is around most every major population base all most all of the primary food storage facilities are within the first 30 miles of the city. Once you get past that range you are essentially in rural territory where the indigenous people are experienced and knowledgeable in surviving and coping with not having the conveniences of large city life.

If a major disaster or social collapse event takes place everyone on the outlying areas of the large population bases are going to be packing up everything of value and use and heading further away from the city because that's where the next trouble is going to come from.

Because of that clearing out those who go trekking out from the urban areas are going to be finding a lot of empty dead homes with little to no resources they can work with.

How many large urban area dwellers do you know that could walk the first 50+ miles out of their city with little to no resources or knowledge of how to live outside their convenience zone in order to find people that would have what they need?

 

To a point they do but the smart ones pack up and started heading out before the disaster came let alone reached the point they might starve to death.

The ones to dumb or lazy will just sit there and whine that someone should do something for them until they take their last breath which in American society would eliminate a huge percentage of the urban populations before they ever got out of town.

Sadly the ones who are usually the first to go are not the 'lazy or dumb' because they will go feral first and start to prey on the smart nice people who prepared for an emergency and the feral will be the first to pull the trigger in a confrontation. The majority of the 'lazy or dumb' in current society are not stupid as most of them are very astute and up-to-date on the things (other than working hard) that are important to them. People who have a long term investment in an area are reluctant to leave even when things go bad, it's just human nature that we see all the time.

So if you really think disaster is headed your way and whatever material things you leave behind will be lost anyway bugging out is smart but few actually do it.

The 'Spike' episode about 'Pandemic' was good.
http://www.spike.com/episodes/dxhbrm/surviving-disaster-pandemic-season-1-ep-109

 

The operative phrase is "be prepared".
Have enough drinking water, food and fuel to last at minimum four days, 7 days preferred, 14 days even better.

Yes, I learned from my Father what survival is all about. We lived in several rental properties without running water and electricity.

By age 9, I could hunt and fish with the oldtimers.

Also taught all my kids the same.

I don't worry too much about them surviving , as it should be.