In a SHTF situation you will need to have a base, most likely this will be your home, largely because that is where your family and all your stuff reside. It is time to think in critical terms about your house. In Part 3a we will be looking at how well your house would continue to be a happy home in the face of the loss of electricity, gas and water. We will also consider relocation issues. I will look at the option of bugging out to a Place in the Country in Part 3b and Security and Defenses in Part 3c. How the collapse unwinds will determine the path of choices that we will all face, be it a sudden implosion or a gradual erosion of quality of life, or even a mixture of the two, it won't make life easier. As always preparation is key.
The first question you will want to ask yourself is, how well will my house take care of my family with the loss of electrical power (this is the most common failure among utilities), sure we have all experienced temporary outages, a good many people were impacted by the Great Blackout of 2003. I was, and it was damned inconvienient! In some areas it lasted more than a week. People died, others became ill, many lost a great deal of food that was in freezers and refridgerators, millions of dollars of productivity and wages were lost. One thing I noticed was the way that people came together, and this was in Metro Detroit, notoriously one of the meanest and angriest cities in the country.
Now imagine the very long-term loss of power, either from a terror attack, a weather event or a collapse of the economy that leads to the shuttering of the power company's facilities. How well would your house fare such an event? Probably not well, electricity is the life-blood of the modern home. Your food is stored in machines powered by electricity, the lights, furnace, air-conditioner, washer, dryer, etc. etc. are all connected to the power grid and are dead without it. Many people have generators for temporary outages, but calculate how long yours will run on a gallon of gas, then figure out how much gas you need for a month. Daunting, isn't it?
An alternative will have to be considered. Solar and wind can be useful in creating electrical power but are not reliable without extensive battery storage systems to cover the slack times. These systems are widely available but beware, there are a lot of scammers trying to make a buck. Another choice is to move as many home systems off of electricity as possible now. Stoves are a great choice as are the gas inserts for fireplaces. Many already have gas water heaters, if you don't consider swapping out your current one when the opportunity arises (they are also more efficient than electrical).
The two systems most impacted by the loss of power are the ones that demand the most; cooling and heating. You can live (unhappily) without air-conditioning, but without power your 'fridge/freezer becomes a metal box full of rotting food in a day or so and you furnace (assuming that you are like most people and have a modern forced-air system) will not work at all. I used to keep a lot of frozen food (before 2003, that is), now my SHTF supplies are the sort that doesn't mind the loss of power. I suggest that you make a move to establish a supply that does not need refrigeration. As far as heat goes you should consider that you really only need to heat the house to the point that your plumbing does not freeze, you should have clothing/blankets that is adequate to keep you warm inside your house if it is 50F or so. Gas or wood-buring fireplaces can help in this regard but must be positioned so that they heat the areas the pipes run through. Be sure that any system installed is rated for continious use and is properly vented. It is indeed unfortunate that the utility that we most depend on is also the most fragile system.
The next important concern is water. In a great many places water is brought a considerable distance from the treatment facility befor it reaches your tap. If the electricity goes out many of the pumping stations will also fail, leaving you with no water. I know many people that have a case or two of bottled water and think they are ready for TEOTWAWKI, I say that might be a start but it won't hold up in the long run. You need about a gallon of water each and every day (more if you are engaged in any sort of significant exertion) to stay healthy. That mean you need a supply that will generate a gallon of water for every member of your group (draw that line where you will, communities will be addessed in a later posting) each and every day of the year. And that is drinkable water. You will also need to have less clear water to do things like flushing toilets or washing clothes.
Running water is generally better than standing, well water better than both if from a properly drilled well. Clarifying impure water requires boiling or chemical treatment, Chlor-Floc is a chemical purifier used by the US military and can be had at the rate of 30 packets for $10US from many sources, get some. Boiling requires fuel and an efficient pot to boil the water in. Old-fashioned ceramic-coated camp kettles are a good choice, they hold a good amount of water and the wide base collects heat very well, thus requiring a smaller amount of fuel for heat.
Rain barrels can be improvised with the large 50+gallon industrial blue plastic barrels that are widely available, have one handy to put at the bottom of every down-spout. Another method of creating/collecting potable water is a solar distiller. This requires a fair sized bit of land, a shovel, a large clear or translucent plastic tarp and a bucket. You will dig a wide hole in the soil, about six to ten feet across and around two feet deep. In the center you place the bucket. Over the entire thing you place the tarp and weight the edges to seal it, in the center of the tarp you place a small stone, directly over the bucket. As the sun heats the area beneath the tarp the soil will release moisture which will collect against the tarp and run downhill to the low point and drip into the bucket. Ta-Da fresh water. This sytem will work best in rich, moist soil but will work in fairly dry conditions as well. Oddly enough, it will also work in all but the coldest of conditions, and even then it will collect frost that can be retrieved and melted. Depending on conditions this can generate as much as a gallon a day per unit.
I consider gas last as it is the system least likely to be interrupted in the short to medium term. Natural Gas is stored in large underground fields. The gas company pumps it down into clay fields that will hold it in place and also create a natural pressure to assist distribution. This pressure is created by the water that was present under the clay before the gas displaced it. Everywhere that I have ever been the gas mains were underground and are thus safe from all but the most traumatic physical events, the fields will still funtion even in the face of the loss of electrical power as pumping is not often required.
That being said there still is the potential for the loss of supply, again, consider your home. What is operated by gas? Most often the water-heater and the furnace, you can live without a hot shower (you probably won't like it, but you can get by), for those of us in temperate zones there simply is no option, at least three months a year we need heat. Heat enough that we are not burning precious calories making it ourselves and so that the household plumbing can continue to operate. There are a lot of things that you an do to make your home more energy efficient, insulation, sealing windows against drafts, plantings around the house to reduce wind exposure and on and on. Bottom line however is that you will need a heat source or you will be living as an Inuit.
Wood, coal and charcoal all will provide heat. They are bulky to store, and in the case of wood will rot and/or attract insects. I keep a lrge supply of charcoal as it is also useful for cooking. I would suggest that you find a stove or furnace that can use all three and have it installed in the lowest part of the house, heat rises on its own and will move upward through the house. I cannot stress how important it is to be certain that the stove is properly installed and vented, there is little point in surviving the collapse only to die of carbon-monoxide poisoning.
Having addressed utilities we can now consider the other crucial requirement for extended-term living; food. Is your home located in an area where food is available? If not, are there areas where food can be obtained from nature or farmed? This is critical, if you can't get food there is no point in staying in your home or making prepartions that include it to any significant level. Survival farming can be done on a surprisingly small but of land, but it is back-breaking work and demands a great deal of know-how.
You would need to get the largest variety of "heritage seeds" possible, these are the sort of seed that will reproduce a viable seed so that you can plant another crop the next year. Many modern seeds are so heavily hybridized that they only produce "mules", crops that will not provide viable seeds. Your local garden club and county farm office are two great sources of information, contact them now (after the world falls apart the Web probably won't work). You will also need a good supply of sturdy hand tools, do not stint on these. Do not buy cheap Chinese crap, you want solid steel tools with substantial wood or fiberglass handles, expect to pay some real money. Several round nosed shovels, a couple of square-nosed spades, long-handled rakes and hoes and a pair of good sharp axes will get you started. You will also need to have watering cans, I like the old style galvanized steel ones for myself, you make your own choice.
Until next time.
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