Prepared for THE Storm

Received this via e-mail: "Urbanman, first time I have wrote. I am currently sitting pretty close to the center line of Hurricane Sandy. I thought huricane's would be a thing of the past for me when i moved north from he Orlando, Florida area. I am a long time prepper but i had to change my game since the last major storm and the earthquake hit this area. Hurricane's are one thing but if this storm knocks out the utilities for a week or longer like it has the potential for I am prepared for bunkering in. I have food for at least six months, water for at least a month and firearms to protect my family and me if the lights stay off for more than 3 days, maybe four days which will create desperate hungry people. I live about 2 miles from known gang area. Tomorrow I will walk my neighborhood to see who is staying and to distribute five of the six Talk About radios I have. This will give me some eyes around my house and maybe start to develop my neighborhhood survival watch team or whatever you call it. Out. Jeff. "

UrbanMan comments: Jeff, I don't envy you sitting in the storm path, but it sounds like you are planning well. Hope the rains don't flood you out.  The latest projections are calling for power outages of 7-10 days.

You may want to consider a base station FRS radio to go with your hand held talk about radios. While a gas powered generator may not be a great asset for long range survival when fuel supplies are out, for short term natural disasters they may come in handy. I hope you have a good supply of batteries as well.

One thing you may want to do is establish a couple times a day where people you give the radios to will come up on the net and give a status. If the weather forces everyone in doors, this will mitigate the feeling of isolation and since you are providing the communications capability, this will further your credibility with your neighbors.

However, be prepared for questions about general preparation. Be prepared to provide other aid to these people, which will be a two edged sword because it will expose your preps and intentions to these people.

I would start wargaming what you are willing to and going to do if one of your neighbors comes up on the FRS radio net and say's they have criminals on their property trying to get into their house.

You may want to develop an alternate audible signal to generate an alarm such as vehicle horns, a length of wire and a switch from the vehicle in your drive way into the house would make this a viable way to send an alert. Stay safe and good luck sitting out the storm.

Convincing Your Family to Prep

Dude 101 recently e-mailed UrbanMan and wrote "I have a family group of (more than 6 people) which I am the only one that has any survival preparations ready. I don't want to leave my family behind, but I can't provide for them all. I've tried to get them to think about prepping without success. Any suggestions would be appreciated please. Good luck and God bless."

UrbanMan's response: Dude, The easiest way to get someone to start prepping may be to draw a link to the rising costs of the food, deflating value of the dollar, higher gas prices and the fact that grocery stores are supplied by diesel powered tractor-trailers.

With a collapse of the dollar or interruption of fuel, those food supplies will dry up. 90% of the food will be gone off the shelves within the first 24-36 hours.

Ask your family what their plan is when this happens,.... Prepping first starts with recognizing the threat:

Threat: Interrupted Food Supply, Lack of food.
Cause: Dollar Collapse; fuel interruption; natural disaster.
Risk Mitigation: Stock more food. Ever time you go to the grocery store, buy an additional weeks worth.
Get organized in your pantry or storage solution - use first in, first out principle. Consider it family insurance against natural disaster if you will.

Threat: Interrupted or Contaminated Water supply.
Cause: Infrastructure or power utilities collapse. Bio attack on water supply.
Risk Mitigation: Buy or lease a water cooler with periodic water service. Stock an immediate 50-100 gallons ectra water, soley for drinking. Obtain water containers,..e.g..5 gallon cans, bathtub resoivers (called Bath Tub Bobs), and other storage solutions.

Threat: Lack of Government law enforcement or security forces to provide security against civil unrest and riots, criminal elements, etc.
Cause: Decayed infrastructure,....communications falures, large masses of un-fed desperate people, organized criminal groups exploiting the collapse.
Risk Mitigation: Procedures for safety, travel restrictions, short range communications and ultimatley the need to have firearms and the training to employ them.

NDAA Update: Indefinite Military Detention of American Citizens

This came from an article published by a European news source under the title "Totalitarian State Wins After All: Obama Reinstates NDAA Military Detention Provision" based on a decision by a lone appeals judge who bowed down to the Obama administration and reauthorized the White House's ability to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge or due process.

The US Justice Department had asked for an emergency stay on the previous stay order, and hours later US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Judge Raymond Lohier, agreed to intervene and place a hold on the injunction.

The stay will remain in effect through September and probably into October in order for a three-judge appeals court panel to address the issue.

I found a sister article on this at Zero Hedge. The implementation of the NDAA sets a very bad precedence for this country, basically invalidating the rights of habeas corpus or what we commonly refer to a "due process rights". The rights to confront your accuser; for legal representation; to appear in an initial hearing before a judge and to request bail; and the have your family notified of your incarceration. All these rights are gone.

It is scary that not only the President asked for this authority but also that the NDAA had bi-partisan support in Congress.

President Obama said "“The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it. In particular, I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists.”

The part in the NDAA that allows for the military to hold citizens, declared as "terrorism suspects", is not only a red flag for us, but sends chills through our spine.

Strangely enough the military appears not to have lobbied for this authority. I think the professional soldiers know that getting involved in operations inside the United States is a "lose - lose" situation.

In fact, the FBI, the CIA and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) did not support the military detention provisions of the NDAA either. In fact, FBI Director Robert Mueller said words to the effect that the NDAA may actually be a obstacle to FBI investigations and cooperation between the FBI and Military would make it harder to gain access to suspects, records and evidence.

The NDAA with the thought provoking images of military units arresting American citizens gives life to the concnerns of many freedom loving and responsible Americans. Frankly, I think that the military patience with martial law over, and detention of Americans will be finite unless the situation is very grave.

7 Day Warning to SHTF

"Hey Urbanman, saw a conversation in a forum about what would you do if you had 7 days notice until SHTF. I'd like to hear from you about what you would do in this situation. To be sure, I don't believe I need seven days and I ain't thinking I'm going to be getting it. Prepare Well, Fight Hard. Frankster."

UrbanMan replies: Frankster, to be frank (I had to make that pun) seven days notice would be great. I routinely look at a wide variety of sources, from financial to political, to develop any sense of an impending collapse. A lot can happen in seven days and I don't expect anyone to be able to predict the collapse in a coming seven days.

I do think that one can analyze threat streams and conclude that the near term collapse is very likely,......whether it takes 2 day or 60 days. Therefore, once I think that SHTF is imminent there are some things, in a list of priorities, that I would try and do hoping to get them all accomplished before the time to hunker down and wait it out.

These are my priorities. The rest of my team's priorities may be a little different since our concept and agreement is that we would consolidate at my place (primary) and another's location (alternate) – these are our initial safe Bug In Locations. So some of my team's priorities would be the start moving additional items to my place.

My priorities: I am listing these priorities using a numbering system and the same numbers to indicate what I think I can do simultaneously.

1. Withdrawal of my bank accounts to maximize the use of fiat currency until that is no longer accepted. I think we'll see cash purchases still accepted but at extremely high mark ups. As I start seeing more critical indicators, I would start keeping more cash on hand. Banks can be ordered to close and ATM’s machines can cease to work.

1. Fill up all empty fuel cans,....using credit cards, fiat currency, barter items, then silver in that order. While I am filling up last remaining fuel containers, procure extra filled propane canisters as well. I can use them for many things among them cooking, heating and barter.

1. Fill up all my empty water containers – 5 gallon cans, bathtub bobs and 55 gallon drums.

Note: While I always have some stored water and fuel, both will eventually go bad if stored forever, so I only maintain a minimal amount. Timing is important to getting maximum life out of your stocks.

As I write this I made myself aware that what I don't have is an extra oil change set with motor oil and filters and an new air cleaner. I'll rectify this in the next two weeks, so this will be off my list. May as well pickup an additional bottle of chain oil for the chain saws, although I have two extra chains - one new, one used.

2. I make a lumber run picking up some plywood and 2x4x8's because they'll come in handy. If the crash is truly imminent, then my credit cards or cash ain't going to worth very much soon, may as well turn it into something useful. 2. I'll buy as much canned and boxed food as I can, using the same modes of payment as above. In fact, all my last minute pre-SHTF purchases will be on this model: credit, cash, barter then silver. Although I will not put myself at risk going to people packed grocery stores. At this time with the collapse imminent, the two person rule will be in effect and if some of my team consolidates at my place, we'll start to implement a 24 hour cycle of security.

I won't need to visit any of the sporting goods or gun shops. I am pretty well set on survival firearms, ammunition, camping gear and miscellaneous items. Maybe a stop at the local Dollar store to buy socks, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and miscellaneous first aid item but only if these stores are not a mad house of humanity.

The bottom line is that once the collapse is occurring or it is evident to the massed population of TEOTWAKI, the safest place to be is hunkered down at your Bug Out location.  Make each and every venture outside of this safety in a cold, sober manner and only execute if it is absolutely necessary.