east coast hurricane and san diego power outage

[stonewater]

everyone,

I have had 2 unique opportunities lately. I have 2 family members on the east coast and a close friend in san diego county. I called my east coast family 3 days before katia was supposed to hit the virginia area. they were not to concerned, one of them said "I have a generator I will be fine" we proceeded to discuss how many watts it was (1000) and what he was planning on running (2 refrigerators, lights and furnace) well this of course caused me to laugh hysterically in his ear for a few seconds. I then proceeded to do a few ohms law calculations for him. needless to say they needed at least a 6500 KW generator just for his basic "needs" I then asked him how much gas he had stored, he had a gallon for his lawnmower and a bit of mixed gas for his weed eater, you can guess where that conversation went..... on to food and water " I will go to the store on my way home today" good luck on that, there were no bottles of water or soda left, no bread or produce and all that was left were cans. this is with 3 dqays to go before the storm hit.

no candles other than the tapers used for dinner table, no way to store potable water, other than a few buckets and no way to sterilise water.

this is from a family that "knows" better.....

my san diego friends were no better off, could not flush toilets, could not cook food, except to barbacue, ran out of water and cold drinks fast. fortunately the power came on quickly.


I consider these two events an act of mercy from God to get people into a different mindset, my east coast family is now listening, got them to look at a few good websites, and print out the big list from JWR at survivalblog. use this as an opportunity of a current real life example of how to NOT be prepared, there are a bunch of blog sites now talking about this

stonewater

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Good share.
I actually laughed at the power outage stuff though. "It was horrible not having power, we couldnt sleep" LOL, why? "Because there was no power and no lights" LOL so it was dark right? They stated they wernt scared either. So they sat up in the dark because there was no power to sleep by. LOL oh man turn the lights off me with no danger and see what happens zzzzzzzz

[stonewater]

it seemed it was the heat that kept them awake as opposed to not having lights, it was fairly hot down there. no one could think to move outside and sleep under the stars under some mosquito netting......I think it is interesting to understand there are people that are so used to their creature comforts that the thought of 'roughing it" even for a night is bothersome. the san diego power outage could have been a true disaster it just would have taken a few days of no power to see riots start and the national guard activated. I used to live down there and there is a thin veil between the haves and have nots.

stonewater

[sewbeit221]

Well after watching the debates on CNN last night I went and looked up an online article that kept coming on screen right before they would go to commericial. It read "FEMA almost out of disaster funds" These "UN" prepared people think they are just going to wait until help arrives-They had better wake up and smell the coffee!
I was having a conversation with a friend the other day and she made a comment "...One of those crazy people w/ twenty years worth of food stored away" Why are we portrayed as crazy? I don't think I know of any prepper with twenty years worth of food "stored" but I'll bet they have a plan to create some as soon as they no longer have a store to visit. And I bet they, like myself are working to learn the skills to survive if and when that time arrives. How is that crazy? With all the natural disasters one after another I think the "UN"prepared are the crazy ones! Why are we labeled "paranoid" to be ready for whatever life throws your way. Good grief isn't that what scouting teaches? Or is that no longer a sound wholesome activity for children? It just really get me going!

[HDM]

There's an old saying that says something like: In an insane world it's the sane who are judged insane.

[stonewater]

please reccommend a book

well after another conversation with some friends, I decided to ask all of you, if you could reccomend 1 book, just one that would actually get them to think about being prepared, something that will at least get them to scratch their heads. nothing heavy just how to be prepped for say 7 days
stonewater

[rockriver]

patriots by
j w rawles
is my book suggestion

[HomeDefence83]

Why is anyone shocked by this attitude? Even 10-20 years ago, a power outage meant you used your gas oven to make hot dogs and read a book by candlelight. Now people can barely function without juice. As for not knowing your gas needs, come on. People can't even change their furnace filters or motor oil by themselves. I'm not surprised. All we can do is try to help others learn.

[ebb]

The end of the world will come and most will be upset cause they cant text there friends. As long as the cell towers dont go down the world could end and most wont even notice.

[HomeDefence83]

You're probably a bit right, ebb. People would last a long time as long as their cell phones worked. Still, I think they'd start noticing, at least in Indianapolis, when their furnaces stopped working and the computer couldn't find mrquikhomeservices.com anymore. I'd like to think freezing and lack of food would wake most people out of their stupor.

[CLT46910]

You're probably a bit right, ebb. People would last a long time as long as their cell phones worked. Still, I think they'd start noticing, at least in Indianapolis, when their furnaces stopped working and the computer couldn't find mrquikhomeservices.com anymore. I'd like to think freezing and lack of food would wake most people out of their stupor.

If the power went out in Indianapolis for any length of time or food was unavailable, there would be riots in the streets and building burning for heat.