The urban survival Category
How fast things can break down
In February 2008, some thunderstorms rolled through the town I live in, knocking out power to thousands of the local residents. During the storm a bolt of lightening hit a transformer at the local Wal-mart. In a larger town this might not be a problem, but in Jasper, Texas there are only 2 grocery stores – Wal-mart and Brookshire brothers.
Within hours of the power going out, the wal-mart employees were throwing away meat and other products that can spoil. What gets me, why did the store throw the meat away? Why not give it to the community? I guess if they throw it away, its counted as a lose and insurance will cover it.
The store was closed and locked down. So 1/2 of the food in this town was cut off. Just one lightening strike did all of this.
This is a good example – when there is a disaster, companies will be looking at how to protect their profits, not how people can work together.
Post your comments in the how fast things can break down thread of the forums.
Cooking for evacuees
A lot of people focus on having to “bug out”. But lets talk about just the opposite just for a minute – hat if people are bugging to your house?
Are you ready to accept 4, 6, 8 or even 12 8 people into your house? Would you be able to find a plce for them to sleep – even if it was on the floor, do you have extra blankets, pillows and are you able to cook for several people?
Lets talk about your ability to cook for people that might have to evacuate to your house. How will you be able to handle it? Will your guest be standing in line at the microwave, or will you be able to serve them a good hot meal?
Post your comments in cooking after a disaster thread of the survival forums.
Stocking up on firewood
When my family and I have a get together, the bar-b-q pit is the center of the entertainment. Its what cooks the ribs, brisket, sausage and pork chops. When the power goes out for extended periods of time, its also what my family uses to cook on.
The wood for this pit is kept in a small wood shed behind the house. Well, I had just enough wood to cook maybe 2 or 3 more times. The last truck load lasted about 2 months, the load before that lasted about 6 – 8 months. About 15 miles from my house I have a stock of about 1.5 cords of wood. This picture is about 1/3 of my stockpile. The other cord is mostly pecan used for smoking.
So I made a trip to my stock pile and grabbed 1/2 a truck load. Well, it may not be quit a 1/2 a truck load, maybe just under half a truck load. This should last a couple of months of bar-b-q’ing.
Washed out roads
Is your bug out location or camp located on a dirt road? If so, do any streams run under that road? If so, what is the possibility that the road could be washed out during heavy rains?
A couple of years ago some heavy rain came through and washed out a culvert on my mom and dads land. This left about 20 acres of land that we could not drive to. The only access we had was by foot.
So keep in mind natural disaster that could affect your bug out plans, or even how bad weather can affect your plans after the fact. Is there a possibility that bad weather could wash out any roads or bridges along your route?
Luckily for us the county came though a few weeks later and fixed the road. If we would have been in a long term disaster situation, my family and I would have had to fix the culvert by hand. It would have taken a little while, but we could have fixed it. This small stream empties into a larger creek about 100 yards from the road. If nothing else, my family and I could have packed 5 gallon buckets of sand to fill in the holes around the culvert.
Please post your comments in the washed out roads thread of the survival forum.
Grills and Ice Chest
Open top grills – are good for using charcoal or small pieces of wood. Even though this grill is portable and can use either small pieces of wood or charcoal, the limiting factor is its size. Only small steaks or small sausages will fit on this grill.
With this device someone could easy cook for a small group of people. The user is not limited by propane of liquid fuel. As long as there is a supply of sticks or twigs this grill can be used. Try not to use wood with a lot of sap, such as pine as this will leave a residue on the food.
Pull behinds have limitations because of the trade off in lowered fuel economy and the amount of fuel that is required to use this size of pit. Keeping the wood dry is another problem. If the wood is in an uncovered truck bed, during a rain the wood will absorb the water, weighing down the truck and causing worse gas mileage
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