Couldn’t last long in the car, wouldn’t want to be at work for any longer than it would take to raid and run, but the raiding would be spectacular—in event of a true societal meltdown, a large hospital is a great place to stock up and I have some good keys.
If he could get there in the 4 wheel drive, Drachillix would come to me at work to find me defending my ill-gotten cache. If disaster struck at home, we’d implement ‘the plan’ and go from there. This plan depends on the disaster and how long one might reasonably expect society to be on a coffee break. Global or local? Is this Day After Tomorrow or The Stand? Red Dawn? Are we fighting or running? This has a great deal to do with how long I think we’d survive. We both have medical training, so we’d likely be welcome in any newly forming society…
Several months, at least. The previous owner did all kinds of Y2K planning (Y2K fearing?)and I reap the benefits of being able to go off grid. Somewhere in there, I’d have to start planting a garden.
Well, I’ve got food storage and water. A couple weeks’ worth of water and a few months’ worth of food. Then I’d start sewing clothing on my treadle machine and trade warm clothes for food, I guess.
I think my current food would last a month if I was frugal. I have a lot of dry beans and pasta and things that are bulky and filling, so they’d last for a while, plus I have a fair amount of canned stuff. My water supply is probably good for a week, after that I’d need to find water. I wouldn’t hunt for food unless it was really, really, really dire. I’d sooner eat a half a package of ramen every day for a year and come out malnourished but recoverable than start killing stuff to eat… but if it came down to it (like, say I was on an island in the middle of the ocean with no guarantee of finding a way out of it) then I’d do what I needed to do to survive. I’d try to get by with just fishing first. I have no weapons except for a very rusty “sword” that is actually a cut-down fencing foil with a fancy handle… it would work very well for skewering someone (it’s cut short enough to no longer be very flexible) but it couldn’t slice anything. I’ve just barely gotten past white belt in karate, so my chances of surviving Cluricaun don’t look good.
Hope you were not waiting long dear. 
If were talking local mess like major tornado, earthquake, dam burst, stuff like that, round up the family and dig in for a few days. We have some food and water, I tend to buy alot of dry bulk stuff like rice, dried potatos, powdered milk, and pasta for general cooking needs. Guns to repel less motivated scroungers.
Cavalry will be along in a few days…no biggies, toast a few marshmellows and deal with anyone who might be hurt.
Regional disasters, major earthquake that splatters the west coast or katrina scale hurricane scenario for example… something thats going to be weeks without power or effective assistance. In some respects the plan is about the same, but I would probably look to do a little foraging ASAP for some basic staples, fuel, water, etc. If possible at least 2 weeks worth. That done, dig in and let the rest of the idiots fight over whats left. After that Dunno, it would depend more on circumstance. Natural disaster, stuff will slowly recover and we will all be fine, just a little thinner. If we have fuel I have power as well since I have a 700W inverter for my truck so power tools, electric cooking, emergency lighting, etc are a possibility.
Something like the stand, hell we probably could survive indefinitely. Between canned food, seeds, well packaged and or repackaged dry foods, and a gun for collecting critters, I would only be worried about predators of the 2 legged variety.
For something like 80-90% casualities over a large area, places like where we live, a gated, well fenced apartment complex, could turn into a veritable fortress of sorts for 50 or so people with plenty of room for storage left over. Few guard posts on the rooftops and at the gates, all set.
Hell this thread might be interesting to play out with more specific scenarios, especially realistic situations involving known hazards. For example, where I am there is a pretty big dam that could go in an earthquake that would do a hell of a job on northern Fresno and Clovis, CA.
I freely admit that I am a city boy and a giant Libra to boot; in a bomb shelter, my first priority would be to redecorate. Accordingly, any significant natural, military, nuclear, or biological disaster would likely see me face-down under my bed wibbling until the mutant weasels came.
Make your way to Thetford Forest and you’ve got yourself a deal - plenty of wild game there plus building timber, and I’ll see you don’t starve in exchange for a great BJ once a day plus some light domestic duties; I have a few useful tools in the shed and a spot of know-how. But I’ll want you to trade a few more of the same to the first person who wanders by with a copy of Scouting For Boys he can live without.
I could survive for a good, long while even in a complete collapse of civilization. In my house, I usually have about ten gallons of bottled water on hand (I get jugs delivered). I have enough canned food to last at least six weeks.
I also have skills that the majority of people don’t. I know how to salt meats for preservation, so I could keep what’s in my freezer from going bad. I also know a good deal about edible and medicinal plants in my area, as well as knowing how to make butter, candles, soap, and the like. In a pinch, I could even spin thread and weave rough cloth. I have guns and I’m an excellent shot. I know how to butcher and start a fire without matches.
Long enough to survive a local disaster. Not very long in the event of a truly catastrophic event, which is fine, as I have no interest in living in a world without Dunkin’ Donuts, take-out Chinese, and the WB.
In our recent avian flu training, we were told to stock up a minimum 21-day food and water supply. Of course, if avian flu actually does hit, a 21-day supply would not be enough.
The refrigerator here at my office is always fully stocked. If/when that ran out, there are cases of dog/cat food, and of course dogs/cats. Eight Jugs of Polar Water would last a while. In fact, I’d be in a good position to trade for other necessities.
Sure it will. See previous posts by Cluricaun, among others. After three weeks, you scavenge the supplies of those who didn’t make it. Or take the supplies of any fool who tries to take my stuff. Or know where there ar unarmed Mormons.
If you prepare for The Stand, a minor problem like earthquake or pandemic won’t be any problem.
Um, I think we have a few weeks worth of ramen, another few weeks of canned goods, and some diet soda. I know ramen is usually cooked, but if there isn’t another option, I’ll eat it. Guess we’d be screwed on water, though. Thing is, any disaster that would affect us where we live would also evict us from our home. The only thing that <i>wouldn’t</i> would be avian flu, and I don’t think that particular disaster would shut down society. I’d be fine going out in a mask and washing my hands.
Honestly, what I’m working on is building up the portable reserves. You can’t take it if it’s already inside my body! ;).
Oh thank God. I’m not the only person around who’s not a crazy survivalist?
I’m with DianaG. No interest in the subsistence lifestyle for me.
Well then, since Pennsylvania’s much closer for me than Alabama…how you doin’? 
Don’t worry John Carter, the most excellent Czarcasm has offered to save the day!
Count me in, too. If we’re talking an End-Of-The-World kind of thing - oh, well. I’d get by the best I could for a few weeks and then I’d most likely end up being killed by Cluricaun. 
If we’re talking severe weather, I’d do okay. I have camping gear and a wood stove. I always have plenty of food and water on hand. I’m smart enough to know that if it’s really cold and the power goes out, you can store food outside. Hey, it’s like a big giant refrigerator out there!
I have a small propane stove and I know we have at least a dozen of the little propane bottles.
We have a good supply of wood, although some of it’s pretty fresh. I’d have to mix it in with the seasond stuff to get it to burn.
We have cold-weather sleeping bags, and could sleep right in the living room with the woodstove if we had no power.
We lost cable and phone a few years ago (and obviously Internet) for almost a week when Hurricane Isabel went through and I thought the kids were going to go nuts.
“No cable? No Internet? Why continue living?”
The whining from them was enough to make me kill myself.
I was lucky enough to be raised by a conspiracy theorist who was pretty sure that something was going to happen on Jan. 1, 2000. Nothing did, of course, but if something had, I’d have been fairly well prepared (aside from being not at my house and only having a bicycle for transportation). My dad’s nuts, I swear, but his Army training has served me well. I can trap, or kill if I have a gun, small and large game, I know how to skin and preserve it (both by drying it out and salting), I know how to construct both rude, temporary and sturdy, permanent shelters, and I know how to construct a makeshift water filter.
My dad really is paranoid, though. My boyfriend and I rent a room from the 'rents (it’s really cheap and amusing to see my dad in his moods) and one of the requirements for living there is that we have to maintain an “emergency kit” in all rooms of the house, the garage, and each of our cars. So in the back of my little hatchback I have a decent sized box with about five days of canned food for myself (two if there are other people), a portable water filter, a can opener, an empty jug, road flares, waterproof matches, space blanket, you know, the works. We have something similar to this in every room in our house except for the bathrooms (we had to talk him out of that) and a big one in the garage. My dad’s nuts, he really is. But on the plus side, everyone’ll be thinking he’s pretty sane if the world comes to a crashing halt.
On the MRE front, when I was in ROTC here, the local recruiters station used to get them and give them to us when they got new shipments. I’m not sure if they’re allowed to give them to civilians, but I’m really quite fond of them (I grew up eating those things…thanks again, Dad) so I urge everyone to at least try one or two. Also, careful buying real military MREs from people, because if you have a bitchy police officer you can get popped for it: reselling and buying re-sold MRE’s is a crime now. Now, if they GIVE them to you, that’s another story…
~Tasha
Hey, Cluricaun! Just do it quick and clean, dude, and we’re cool. 
You can have the canned soup, but you probably won’t find much else in the way of useful supplies.
If the system went down entirely, I have enough water on hand to last, oh, maybe a day.
With a bit of warning, of course, things change. I have a 7 gallon water jug that I can fill in a pinch, and I can survive on stuff lying around for a couple of days. That’ll do in a natural disaster.
In a xeno / nosferatu invasion scenario, I only have to survive long enough to refresh my firearms skills, and validate my 20 year old Sharpshooter III award. After that, I can hire out or volunteer, as the situation requires, as a sniper.
Uh, I do believe you possess certain basic design features that the honorable Czarcasm doesn’t have.
Perhaps you’d change your mind if I told you I also have 12 hives of bees on this farm? There’d be plenty of honey. Honey mixed in grits is yummy! Better re-think not making the trip to Alabama.