Two continents Two threats

As an example of what people keep asking me " What are you preparing for" I offer these two snippets one from Fox in the United States and one from Russia Today.

In the US of H the Super Caldera that is Yellowstone is making rumbling noises and has triggered over 200 small earth quakes in the last few days.
This super caldera erupts on average every 600,000 years and according to the experts is now been 640,000 years since the last one. If it lets rip much of the American continent will be left devasted for decades, and it would almost certainly trigger another Ice Age. Obviously survivalists can do nothing to stop it should it occur, BUT the enlightened survivalist will be ensuring he has full fuel tanks, plus extra fuel , camping kit, sleeping bags, and BOB kit ready and loaded into his vehicle. AND he will never be out of ear shot of the radio. the Survivalist can be ready to get the heck out of its way if it gives him enough warning that its going to blow. Tierra del Fuego suddenly looks appealing.

Across the pond a similar threat to people is happening and this is manmade. Russia controls 3 of the 4 gas and oil pipelines that supply 42% of western Europes energy needs, and the fourth pipeline is in Georgia with a Russian army sat only 40 miles away from it. The threat? Oh thats easy Ukraine owes Russia 2 Billion dollars for gas, they refuse to pay. On January the 1st 2009 the Russians are going to turn off the pipelines (again) Imagine western Europe trying to get through the coldest winter in 12 years with a shortfall of 42% on its gas supplies. the Survivalist is stocking up on bottled gas and other storable fuel sources such as cords of timber, coal etc. Wish I had bought one of those Canadian Parkas when I had the chance.

Stay alert things are going to be very interesting in 2009.

[edit on 30-12-2008 by Northern Raider]

Not only that but I just saw that a volcano in Russia is erupting for the first time in 3000 years.

reply to post by Northern Raider


Thanks for the heads up once again NR.

I have some supplies put to one side and am storing more when I can.
I really need the weather and a day off to sort out my storage problems.

I had some luck the other day in that I found two small camping gaz ( Blue canisters ) dumped a local tower block. After inspection I can not find anything wrong with them.

I just need to get them filled up.

A problem I see with a lot of the survival threads (Not this one) is they generalize to much.

It is really difficult to prepare because we do not know what type of situation we will be faced with. Preparation also depends on the type of environment/climate you plan to survive in.

We should try to come up with a core list of must haves that would be useful in all scenarios. What do you think?

Great thread OP! It's always nice when somone can make me feel less crazy as a survivalist and back p why it's such a great idea to be one with facts. Always appreciated.

The difficult thing about this is that there are so many results that can come of this problem. quakes, canes, twisters... It dizzies the mind. I will definatly keep y eyes ot as well. I think we need to be a little more ready than we usualy might be due to this.

Originally posted by SailorinAZ
A problem I see with a lot of the survival threads (Not this one) is they generalize to much.

It is really difficult to prepare because we do not know what type of situation we will be faced with. Preparation also depends on the type of environment/climate you plan to survive in.

We should try to come up with a core list of must haves that would be useful in all scenarios. What do you think?

I will try and Help here, I think Northern Raider as well jkd up will be along with advice too.

First of all, where do you live ??? ie if you live next to the coast, are storms, floods a problem ??? if so you may need to have alternative lighting, cooking heating alternatives to the electric and gas mains. These may become cut off.
So you need candles, flashlights, lighters / matches, maybe a small camping like cooker with gas for cooking. If a major storm approached, you may need to leave your property ( bug out ). this is where a bug out bag ( BOB ) can be made. The BOB allows you to grab and go with minimal fuss. Look for ideas here on how to make and what should go into a bob.
There are also alot of vids of youtube that can help you construct a BOB.

Northern Raider has info on this.
Basically you need to look at what could happen with a given situation ( sitx ) put in a order of most likely and then plan around that situation. Some sitx's will require you to stay at home and some may require you to leave in a hurry.

Where I am I am preparing for loss of mains electric and gas, civil unrest and flooding. These sitx's i feel are the most likely that I will face in the near future.

I hop you are following what I am saying. NR, Jkd up, care to add anything.

Start here.US Bunkers


For 35K$ can have one of these.
Then..


Fill it up with all the essentials for under 10K$.

reply to post by MREALE


Ooooooo!!! Yummie! Hmmm.... How will I clear the zoning permit for that?

Heck, the world's gonna end in 2012 anyway right? Let's get a credit card and charge all this on it. Each of us doing that will help the economy, but destroy the banks when we don't pay back. How they gonna repo what they can't find?

reply to post by Jkd Up


Good point, if I was sure the world was ending in 2012 I would not even bother preparing, but would spank alot of credits cards on doing all the things that you should give it a go just once in your life.

The world will end one day but hey my crystal ball needs new batteries.

Those bunkers do look very interesting though.

Originally posted by colec156

Originally posted by SailorinAZ
A problem I see with a lot of the survival threads (Not this one) is they generalize to much.

It is really difficult to prepare because we do not know what type of situation we will be faced with. Preparation also depends on the type of environment/climate you plan to survive in.

We should try to come up with a core list of must haves that would be useful in all scenarios. What do you think?

I will try and Help here, I think Northern Raider as well jkd up will be along with advice too.

First of all, where do you live ??? ie if you live next to the coast, are storms, floods a problem ??? if so you may need to have alternative lighting, cooking heating alternatives to the electric and gas mains. These may become cut off.
So you need candles, flashlights, lighters / matches, maybe a small camping like cooker with gas for cooking. If a major storm approached, you may need to leave your property ( bug out ). this is where a bug out bag ( BOB ) can be made. The BOB allows you to grab and go with minimal fuss. Look for ideas here on how to make and what should go into a bob.
There are also alot of vids of youtube that can help you construct a BOB.

Northern Raider has info on this.
Basically you need to look at what could happen with a given situation ( sitx ) put in a order of most likely and then plan around that situation. Some sitx's will require you to stay at home and some may require you to leave in a hurry.

Where I am I am preparing for loss of mains electric and gas, civil unrest and flooding. These sitx's i feel are the most likely that I will face in the near future.

I hop you are following what I am saying. NR, Jkd up, care to add anything.

Its difficult not to be general in threat assessments, but the basic facts are you are attempting to maintain the continuity of your family after a crisis. So to begin with you must ensure that you have
Shelter
Food
Water
Defence equipment
Fuel
Clothing
Medical kit
Transport
Heat
Light
Tools
Reference Material
Communications.
You need all of the above in your plans. Then you tailor them to the threats you feel are specific to your own lifestyle and geography. IE if you live on the coast of Florida the threats are Hurricane, Fuel shortages, Tsunami,Epidemics.
You will need a home or retreat thats at least 30 ft above the highest known flood level with a water supply that is gravity fed not pumped. You will need a bug out vehicle, but with FLA being the way it is you may need an airboat, or microlight to allow you to get past all the inevitable traffic snafus that occur every time a storm threatens the area. You will need more medical kit than normal and pesticides to spray the area with after the storm has hit to try and keep disease casrrying insects at bay.

That booklet of mine that I keep refering to has plenty of risk assessment stuff in it for most people to make plans with. But people still need to carry out a risk assessment of where they live, where they work, where the kids school is,where the wife works, how much food is available locally, how much fuel is available locally, are their gang or ethnic issues, how many routes out of town are there, are there any hazards in town etc etc. Guys read the scenarios I posted a few weeks back and get an idea of what you need to be thinking about. Or simply ask for a copy of that e booklet I have.
Or ask more questions, I respect people who have the brains to ask for guidance and advice.


[edit on 30-12-2008 by Northern Raider]

The calender ends in 2012 not the world the Maya, Aztec, Toltec and other believed their societys would end, not the world. Accordingly if our society fails in 2012 what are you going to do if you survive the failure ?

Thats what you are planning and preparing for now, You could or should be one who survives because you will have prepared.

Respects
NR

Great thread!! star and flag for this one!!

If Yellowstone goes off, a good deal of folks can bend over and kiss their butts goodbye.......and after the eruption, one can count on a long, long winter with food shortages world wide, not just US based. They figure total destruction from a Yellowstone eruption to be a 600 mile radius around the volcanic eruption. That doesn't mean that there won't be damage further out from this radius...just that there will be total destruction in this range. There will be a thick layer of ash over much of the US, and of course that means our crops will die. Animals will die from inhaling the ash, as will people. Yellowstone has far reaching consequences that most don't even think about.

If Russia cuts off the fuel supply, I can't even imagine what will happen over there in Europe. BTW, I'm glad even though I don't live in Great Britain, that I do own a good parka and pants to keep me warm. May need them someday.

Every good BOB should contain the "10 essentials" for your region and needs, and should include what he stated above.....
Map/Compass
Shelter
Food
Clothing- one layer more than you think you will need
Medical Kit
Sleeping bag
Rain gear (something to keep you DRY)
Water purification (Aqua Mira or a filter)
Whistle (for communications)/Cell phone/amatuer radio
Jacket (something to keep you WARM)

The list could go on forever I suppose but whatever your climate/region, plan accordingly and test your setup out before you need it. Make sure you know how to use everything you carry, and make sure you can carry everything you plan on taking along. Know that you will end up carrying the kids' gear in most cases, especially if they are young kids, and plan accordingly.

Have fun planning your BOB's or hiding site and Happy New Year's all! Let's hope we don't ever need them!

Soul Sista

Oh Bugger, it looks pretty bad, this from the BBc tonight


Russia-Ukraine gas talks collapse
Talks to resolve a gas supply row between Ukraine and Russia have failed, the chief executive of Russian gas giant Gazprom has said.

Alexei Miller said gas supplies to Ukraine would be cut on Thursday but that Russia would do its best to guarantee supplies to Europe.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier said that Ukraine would block supplies to Europe if no deal was done.

Ukraine denies owing money to Gazprom, and says it has guaranteed gas transit.

Gazprom said it would cut Ukraine's supply from 0700 GMT on Thursday.


"The debt to Gazprom for gas supplied earlier was not paid. Despite verbal statements from Kiev, Gazprom did not see any money in its account," said Mr Miller in a live television briefing.

He criticised Ukraine's stance during the negotiations as "unconstructive", and said Gazprom had no legal reason to continue supplying gas to Ukraine.

Mr Miller said the contract to supply gas depended on the full settlement of £2bn in gas bills and late-payment fines levied by Gazprom.

A similar row between Gazprom and Ukraine in 2006 led to gas shortages in several EU countries.

'Unconstructive'

A spokesman for Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz, Valentin Zemlyansky, confirmed that the negotiations were over.

Naftogaz said it has paid $1.5bn (£1bn) in outstanding bills to RosUkrEnergo - a Switzerland-registered gas trading company which is acting as an intermediary - but not the fines imposed by Gazprom.


The company also said that natural gas supplies to European neighbours would remain secure, reported AFP.
"Europe will receive all the gas Russia supplies it with," the agency quoted Bogdan Sokolovsky, the Ukrainian president's representative on energy issues, as saying.

Gazprom is the world's largest gas producer and supplies a quarter of the European Union's gas needs, or 42% of the EU's gas imports, much of it via Ukraine.

Russia's Vladimir Putin had earlier warned Ukraine not to disrupt the transit of gas to Europe.

He warned of "very severe consequences" for the Ukraine in terms of its relations with both Russia and European countries.

Mr Putin said Gazprom had been generous in offering Ukraine a price of $250 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas in 2009, given that the price in Europe was currently more than $500.

He said he understood that Ukraine was in "a difficult economic situation" which was worse than Russia's, but put the dispute down to a "war of the clans" between the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, and President Viktor Yushchenko.

In response, Ms Tymoshenko abandoned plans to fly to Moscow to take charge of the talks in person.

Northern Raider,
I do hope that things don't break down so badly that you guys end up really cold, in one of the coldest winters ever. That would be bad news indeed.
This sounds like an internal problem between the Ukraine and Russia, and that the rest of Europe is getting caught in the middle. Yikes! Correct me if I'm wrong, of course. Winter is bearing down hard upon us all and this is the time Russia wants to demand her money or cut off supplies? Nice......(include sarcasm here)
I wish you guys the best over there. Just what we need at the New Year...more strife and pain for us all.
The folks in high places making these decisions won't suffer a bit....just us small folks, heating our homes and driving to and from work will, with shortages and much higher prices. Great way to bring in the New Year!!! Can't bring down the prices by the regular way, so create a man made shortage instead to bring prices back up. Sheesh! Just an observation from the other side of the pond.

Take care over there!!
Soul Sista

If all hell break loose, I rather just go ahead and be a dead one. At least then I wouldn't have to worry about how to survive or what doom awaits us next.


When SHTF, Jam321 RIP.

BTW, Good thread op.

[edit on 31-12-2008 by jam321]

Originally posted by jam321
If all hell break loose, I rather just go ahead and be a dead one. At least then I wouldn't have to worry about how to survive or what doom awaits us next.


When SHTF, Jam321 RIP.

BTW, Good thread op.

[edit on 31-12-2008 by jam321]

Question, If the Bomb drops or whatever, and you thow yourself under it , what happens to say your wife, kids, GF/ BF, Mum etc if they survive?, Who's going to care for them?
Respects
NR

Originally posted by Northern Raider

Originally posted by jam321
If all hell break loose, I rather just go ahead and be a dead one. At least then I wouldn't have to worry about how to survive or what doom awaits us next.


When SHTF, Jam321 RIP.

BTW, Good thread op.

[edit on 31-12-2008 by jam321]

Question, If the Bomb drops or whatever, and you thow yourself under it , what happens to say your wife, kids, GF/ BF, Mum etc if they survive?, Who's going to care for them?
Respects
NR

This is the reason why I have chosen to be a survivalist. If I am dead, I am of no use to anyone or anything. If I survive, then maybe just maybe I can help others. If a major sitx was to happen, I would like to think that once the dust was to settle a new brotherhood of man would emerge from the ashes with people helping people again.

reply to post by SailorinAZ


Still researching how to purify the air if electricity is off. I have some (not nearly enough) surgical masks and regular masks, duct tape and plastic sheating, and have some aerosols that eliminate germs but, not sure how to purify if there is other types of dust.

Does anyone know of a battery powered air purification system or a makeshift alternative?

So far I have a tiny battery run fan that I plan to use with an air filter by just blowing the air in the direction of the filter (not sure this will work) but, it may help.

[edit on 3-1-2009 by Siren]