Prepping for SHTF scenarios

[SteelCurtain]

I am, however, collecting bottle caps.

[Iroscato]

My dad collects the metal bottoms of deodorant/aerosol cans. Not sure if it's in preparation for something or...

When I ask him why he does it, he just goes slack-jawed and mutters "it means something."

So my guess is it's heralding some unspeakable eldritch terror that we'll never see coming right outta left field, but really, who has the time to investigate into that sort of shit?

[Thumpalumpacus]

I keep a small bag of canned food in case we've got a tornado in the neighborhood. I don't trip on apocalyptic scenarios, I've got my wits.

[AFTT47]

There is actually one pseudo-apocalyptic thing for a sane person to prep for: A repeat of The Carrington Event of 1859. The website may overstate how bad it would be but it would definitely be a SHTF event. It's a very real possibility to happen within our lifetime too. I hope not within mine because we're not prepared for it. I think there would be at least localized breakdowns of civilization that would take as much as a year to recover from.

[Ravenshire]

I work at a military base and my family live close, once trump kicks off the nuclear exchange we are screwed being in nuked in the first wave.
Merry Christmas.

I live just up the road from NORAD and 20 minutes from downtown Denver. I'm double fucked!

[Autumnlicious]

There is actually one pseudo-apocalyptic thing for a sane person to prep for: A repeat of The Carrington Event of 1859. The website may overstate how bad it would be but it would definitely be a SHTF event.

Dude, that's motherfucking InfoWars - the "Jews are the Illuminati, the Queen of England is a lizard alien" central.

Less trustworthy than the raving lunatic on public transit.

[Seraphina]

There's a decent-sized for profit industry around here for emergency "preppers", probably because we have a sizable Mormon population. There is a store around the block from my office devoted to prepper supplies. There are actual Meet-Up groups for preppers where apparently you can meet up for coffee or whatever it is preppers do and exchange prepper tips. Very bizarre.

If "The Road" comes true, I'd rather be dead than a survivor.

[AFTT47]

There is actually one pseudo-apocalyptic thing for a sane person to prep for: A repeat of The Carrington Event of 1859. The website may overstate how bad it would be but it would definitely be a SHTF event.

Dude, that's motherfucking InfoWars - the "Jews are the Illuminati, the Queen of England is a lizard alien" central.

Less trustworthy than the raving lunatic on public transit.

I didn't consider the source. As I said, the website probably overstated the impact but it would still be major. Google "Carrington Event" and you will find plenty of information from respectable sources. If we got a solar flare of that magnitude today, it would be devastating. The power grid would be down for months and electronics destruction would be widespread. It wouldn't be the end of the world but it would be very bad. Think of a natural disaster like a category 4 or 5 hurricane but over an entire hemisphere.

We're not talking about something like a super volcano which only erupts once every 40,000 years or a killer asteroid impact which are tens of millions of years apart. The Carrington Event was just 157 years ago! The possibility of a similar flare in our lifetime is very realistic - and we are not prepared for it. We could be but we're not.

[Thumpalumpacus]

EMP effects on IC electronics is well-documented. That's one reason why vacuum tubes had a much longer military life than their use in civilian applications.

[ignoramus]

Thump, just quietly, that's why I keep my 71 mach1 mustang. No electronic IC's to fry in an EMP.
I'll be driving past all those dead modern cars at speed! (for about 20 minutes till I run out of gas)