Further I believe that one should plan from the ground up. By this I mean plan for any and all situations starting with the lowest level all the way up to your plans for worst case scenarios. This way you will be very well rounded in your preps and plans and should be able to effectively take care of any situation. Many people want to prep for just say a tornado or hurricane and make a prep plan for anywhere from 3 days to 3 months. I can understand this also and will try and assist with preps for anyone who contacts me.
I want to be able to help out those seeking information and not as well informed on these topics in hopes they will be able to use this information. Please see the "about me" in the sidebar for details as I am offering free survival/preparedness consulting via phone/Internet. And no, I am not trying to sell anything or promote anything except the topics of survival and being prepared in an ever changing, uncertain and at times dangerous world.
I have quite a bit of experience in this area and have been planning and doing prep work for many years along with other like minded individuals. And in reference to that statement be aware that it is not that hard to become prepared, it just takes time, research, some training, effort, and being able to budget your money a little and anyone can do it.
Also the more people that become prepared the less people there will be forced out of their homes, begging for food for themselves and kids, or worse yet that will become dead bodies in the street creating disease, or looters, and or turn to lawlessness to survive. That said, many people that first start off preparing become overwhelmed and think that they have to go out right away and spend spend spend. First, sit down, write out a plan, set goals for what you want to do and accomplish, and then go from there.
I look at preparing in this way, it's like insurance, it's there if you need it, and chances are you won't need it tomorrow, or the next day, so start preparing now. A major SHTF event may not happen in your lifetime so take your time and prepare for it in the right way. I also explain this further in # 5 linked below.
Having Like minded individuals also help as force multipliers. Having people you can count on and that also have the right skills, equipment and essentials stored will greatly increase you survivability. It would be hard to be highly proficient at every skill needed to survive in a major SHTF event. Look at it this way, it's kinda like a Special Forces A team where everyone has a specialty and then they cross train others in that specialty. Small communities with small populations to get involved in is what one should be striving for.
Some of the specialties that will be important are, gardening, farm/ranching, raising livestock, mechanical ability, welding, engine repair, cooking/food processing, cutting and transporting firewood, horse/mule/pack animal handling, hunting/fishing/gathering/poaching, (poaching only in a true SHTF event as this would entail breaking game laws) food/water storage/handling, all of the country living/homesteading skills (some of these skills are listed above), electronics, carpentry, reloading, first aid/EMT/nurse/doctor/dental skills, NBC, home schooling, bushcrafting/outdoor survival and some of the most important because they will keep secure the list above are basic/advanced combat skills to include but not limited to, large and small unit tactics, firearms/handling proficiency, defensive tactics, perimeter/base security, etc, etc. Our group has extensive weapons, tactics and force multipliers training and gear.
On EMP;
There are certain ways you can protect critical electronics form EMP, one of these is to make a faraday cage. I have most of my electronic equipment in a cage. some of the gear I keep in it are shortwave radios, ham radio gear, SSB CB gear, handheld radios, solar panels, 110v-12v inverter, led lights, dosimeter/radiation survey meter, battery chargers, 12v fuel pump, older laptop, and other gear that has solid state electronics in it.
One thing they did not show in a recent NatGeo EMP special was trying their test EMP on a vehicle that was not running, if you saw this show, notice the vehicles that were tested were running. Most information on EMP state that if the device is not in use there is much less chance of the EMP frying the electronics.
Detailed info on EMP with reference to vehicles;
http://www.futurescience.com/emp/emp-protection.html
From what we have researched small generators should be able to withstand an EMP but I don't want to take that chance as do the others in our group with generators, so we have made faraday cages for them. We have fuel stored for their use and treated it with Pri-G. Pri-G is a unique gas treatment additive that has brought 15 year old stored gas back to life. In a grid down scenario fuel can be obtained from fuel storage be it in a vehicle or large fuel tanks with a fuel pump (see the 12v fuel pump listed in cage storage above). Here is how to make one;
http://www.survivalblog.com/2007/02/..._12_vdc_f.html
Pri-G info;
http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/showpo...0&postcount=10
If you have a person in your group that can work from plans and weld like we do then you will be able to power a generator, tractor, or vehicle with wood.
Construction of a simplified wood gas generator for fueling internal combustion engines;
http://www.woodgas.net/files/FEMA_emergency_gassifer.pdf
Demography;
This area is extremely important and I also go over it briefly in post # 8 below. Demography is basically the scientific study of populations, and we will be looking also at density.
And just to give you an idea of this, Great Britain is around 80,823 square miles with a population of 61 million. The state of Montana is 174,046 square miles and has a population of around 974,000, or less than a million people, less people equals less people problems in a major SHTF scenario and more game and plant life for food. If you have ever seen the movie Threads then you know what would happen to most of the population of GB in a thermonuclear war.
This Demography along with "lines of drift" in a major SHTF scenario will greatly affect your security and hunting/gathering ability as #8 below will explain.
As far as having a 72 hour kit that would be good and I would also recommend getting something a bit more extensive. Our group has stored food that will last a long, long time. Enough to get up and going in reference to post # 3 below.
Below is other survival/prep information that I've written about that could help you out.
#1. Water storage;
http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/showpo...3&postcount=16
#2. Wood stoves, critical for grid down SHTF;
http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11713
#3. Gardening;
http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/showpo...0&postcount=31
#4. Food storage and preps;
http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5890
#5. SHTF subcategories;
http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/showpo...68&postcount=8
#6. Dealing with 4 and 2 legged vermin;
http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/showpo...9&postcount=33
#7. Hunting/Gathering, horses, mules and vehicles after a SHTF event;
http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5259
#8. Info with regards to Demography in a major SHTF action;
http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/showpost.php?p=60855&postcount=36
If you have any questions on the above or any survival or preparedness related questions please feel free to contact me at Yondan4@msn.com as I offer free prep/survival consulting.
All material on this site copyright © by the author, DW.
The fear of man lays a snare,
but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.
but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.
Proverbs 29:25
DW
