Doomsday Prepping

[CF DolFan]

Imagine a beach or river with thousands of people fishing at the same time.  Even if you know what you're doing, you won't catch much.  If you don't have a boat that lets you fish farther out in the ocean, you're screwed.

I don't buy that. It doesn't take much of a boat to get into the ocean. I see people on kayaks all the time pretty far off shore. Heck, in many places like the Keys it isn't very far until you're in very deep water.

[Dave Gray]

Imagine a beach or river with thousands of people fishing at the same time.  Even if you know what you're doing, you won't catch much.  If you don't have a boat that lets you fish farther out in the ocean, you're screwed.

There are simple boats, piers, you can fish from the shore -- I'm also assuming that people will either be dead from whatever happened or will be fighting for resources and territory, so there won't be thousands of people.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

My prepping isn't based fishing or hunting.  

In the last 50 years: The worst I have ever been stuck in my house because of snowstorm is 4 days (but we didn't lose power)
Worst power outage we had was 5 days.  Longest we have gone with a dry tap is 36 hours.  Longest we have gone with a boil order on the water is 3 days.  The longest I have been unable to order toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and paper towels was four months (during covid)

Therefore:  I am prepared to go 21 days without being able to leave my house for food, water and power.   I  have a 12-18 month supply of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, paper towel, masks, garbage bags and various other items that have a near infinite self life.    

That makes me prepared for a disaster considerable worse then anything my area has seen, I am not preparing like it is Oct 6, 2023 and I live in Rafah.  

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

or will be fighting for resources

Like a fishing rod and a bucket of fish. 

[Spider-Dan]

There are simple boats, piers, you can fish from the shore -- I'm also assuming that people will either be dead from whatever happened or will be fighting for resources and territory, so there won't be thousands of people.

To take a random example, let us take the city of Sanford, FL.

Sanford's population in 2020 was 61,508.  How many of these 60K+ people do you expect to be dead?

"Fighting for resources and territory" is precisely what I'm talking about when I say that no one will be successful if there are tens of thousands of people trying to fish and hunt the same local area: there will definitely be skirmishes as the well-armed people decide that you're messing up my fishing and you need to go somewhere else.

[Dave Gray]

To take a random example, let us take the city of Sanford, FL.

Sanford's population in 2020 was 61,508.  How many of these 60K+ people do you expect to be dead?

If there was no more electricity or food supply?  I don't know....50,000?  I mean....pretty much everyone eventually.  We are all weeks away from starvation and will be relying on canned food.  It would be widespread death very, very fast and I bet some armed people would be taking over the Costco and hoarding years worth of canned goods.  But outside of that, Mom and Pop would be dying within months from famine, disease, dehydration and human conflict.

[Spider-Dan]

In the long run, everyone dies.

I mean immediately after this event, in the first few days, how many of those 60K do you expect to be alive and looking for food?  If you have tens of thousands trying to fish, or roam through the wilderness hunting, there will be far too many people to make the activity productive.

[CF DolFan]

To take a random example, let us take the city of Sanford, FL.

Sanford's population in 2020 was 61,508.  How many of these 60K+ people do you expect to be dead?

"Fighting for resources and territory" is precisely what I'm talking about when I say that no one will be successful if there are tens of thousands of people trying to fish and hunt the same local area: there will definitely be skirmishes as the well-armed people decide that you're messing up my fishing and you need to go somewhere else.

Just curious why you chose my hometown as an example? Much of Sanford lies outside the city limits and is kind of rural. Sanford lies on the St Johns River so many miles of land to fish from. Besides, they say manatees taste like beef.  Sanford has Lake Jesup which has the most alligators per square mile of shoreline than almost any other lake. It takes 6-8 weeks to grow a chicken big enough to eat. Eggs are produced daily. Cows and goats are in abundance so milk and beef are plentiful too.

Obviously not everyone will survive very long but many people., especially the rednecks of Sanford, will do fairly well on their own.

[Dave Gray]

I mean immediately after this event, in the first few days, how many of those 60K do you expect to be alive and looking for food? 

Not many, in terms of hunting and fishing.  I expect the first waves to come from theft and looting.  I don't think we will hit the fishing stages for months.  People will be on canned goods and raiding the Costco.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Just curious why you chose my hometown as an example? Much of Sanford lies outside the city limits and is kind of rural. Sanford lies on the St Johns River so many miles of land to fish from. Besides, they say manatees taste like beef.  Sanford has Lake Jesup which has the most alligators per square mile of shoreline than almost any other lake. It takes 6-8 weeks to grow a chicken big enough to eat. Eggs are produced daily. Cows and goats are in abundance so milk and beef are plentiful too.

Obviously not everyone will survive very long but many people., especially the rednecks of Sanford, will do fairly well on their own.

Unless you are more than 25 miles down a dirt road you are not rural enough to be left alone.  In post WW2 Europe any area/farm that was within 20 miles of an Intercity road or 50 miles of a city was looted by hungry refugees.  There is literally no place this side of the Mississippi for a safe homestead post a total breakdown of society.  That is why total breakdown is not something I am prepared for

[CF DolFan]

Unless you are more than 25 miles down a dirt road you are not rural enough to be left alone.  In post WW2 Europe any area/farm that was within 20 miles of an Intercity road or 50 miles of a city was looted by hungry refugees.  There is literally no place this side of the Mississippi for a safe homestead post a total breakdown of society.  That is why total breakdown is not something I am prepared for

I get that it's all hypothetical but 40 clear acres gives plenty of sight line for different family members to keep watch and dozens of rifles to defend. Sure they could get overrun with enough people and equipment but that's a risk we all take every single day. While declining, millions of home invasions occur annually.

[Sibster]

I have somehow gotten it into my ad algorithms that I am an ultra-right doomsday prepper.  I get a lot of ads for patriotic-based, off-grid survival stuff, like portable solar generators and dehydrated food tubs.

And while this isn't my thing at all, I do actually kind of respect it.  Unfortunately, I think it takes advantage of the conspiracy riddled mind, but the concept of being prepared in the face of certain disasters definitely appeals to me.  I'm the kind of person that will have a hurricane box, for example, with basic supplies.  But for me, it's all about risk assessment.  I'm likely to have a hurricane.  I'm unlikely to have to live underground because of societal collapse.


All that said, I do think that the concept of a lot of these things is interesting.  And sadly, I imagine the kind of people that do this are perpetually unfulfilled, because you can never really be ready for the end of civilization, so I imagine it's always nagging at you that you aren't doing enough, if you're truly convinced that the fall of man is immanent.

Off grid living and self-sustaining systems line up with other interests I have so it's all tangentially related.  Do you guys have any thoughts or interests in this?

I actually have a few of the items you see on lists like this.   The reason being, these "doomsdays" you speak of could actually happen, and not just for political reasons.   It could be an attack from a foreign country with an EMP bomb, a radioactive pulse from a nearby star, or any other number of ways that the grid gets disabled leaving us in a powerless environment.

I currently have two solar powered generators with EMP protection sheaths and a 1968 Ford F-100 in my garage.  I also have a shelf full of MRE's, dried beef and Ramen Noodle packets.  I also have two rifles and a pistol and several boxes of ammo for all three guns.

Just curious why you chose my hometown as an example? Much of Sanford lies outside the city limits and is kind of rural. Sanford lies on the St Johns River so many miles of land to fish from. Besides, they say manatees taste like beef.  Sanford has Lake Jesup which has the most alligators per square mile of shoreline than almost any other lake. It takes 6-8 weeks to grow a chicken big enough to eat. Eggs are produced daily. Cows and goats are in abundance so milk and beef are plentiful too.

Obviously not everyone will survive very long but many people., especially the rednecks of Sanford, will do fairly well on their own.

He's just trying to start shit like he always does.   I know Sanford really well and with its rich farming and fishing history, a lot of its residents would last much longer than Orlando to the south.   

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

While declining, millions of home invasions occur annually.

Not millions less than a million with the majority of them being because the burglar knew the house contained guns or illegal drugs.  Best way to avoid a burglary is to not own drugs or guns

[CF DolFan]

Not millions less than a million with the majority of them being because the burglar knew the house contained guns or illegal drugs.  Best way to avoid a burglary is to not own drugs or guns

According to Mr. Google's AI ... In the US, there are approximately 1.65 million home invasions annually. These incidents account for a significant portion of the 2.5 million burglaries that occur each year, according to Simply Insurance. Many of these break-ins happen during the day, with a reported rate of one every 30 seconds.

If we are in an Armageddon situation and you have anything, then it would be considered more valuable than drugs and  guns would be even more valuable. 

[Spider-Dan]

Just curious why you chose my hometown as an example?

Because you appear to be representing in this thread that you live in some remote rural backwater when the US Census says you live in a town of over 60,000.