Thank you all!
RickZ: You sure are right about children. No matter what you do, they end up having opinions of their own. Sorry to hear about your health problems. I'm not as scared of the Death Panels yet as I am of possible unrest if things go really bad. I am not much help physically, and I'm not sure what precautions I can take to offset this deficiency.
Hi Lisa, and welcome. A lot of us here are "preppers" to various degrees, however, I am probably the most extreme one here on the the topic, but I don't think anyone here is ready to be featured on Nat Geo's doomsday preppers ( or dumb enough to do so) . Please feel free to post any questions you might have in the Teotwawki section, and I will do my best to answer them. (Actually don't be shy about asking questions on any topic. The folks here are paying close attention, but we know ( boy do we know) that a lot of people aren't paying attention- so just being interested in looking for the truth (not that we claim to have possession of it) is always going to be greeted with respect.
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Just start with the basics - Get yourself ready for a 3 day problem. Dried food. Batteries. Emergency Radio. Water Filter. Firearm, and Meds. Then get yourself ready for a week. (more food,more meds, generator) Then a month (more food,more meds, reliable water supply (well/spring,access to lake, river) , fuel storage, hunting firearm, hunting equipment and outdoor gear appropriate to your situation, ) Do what you can,and DON'T look at the big picture. If you do, you will be overwhelmed by all there is to learn, try, do and acquire, and then you might not do anything. Eventually you can start looking at Years. However, I do not expect any unrest will last more than a few months at most. I see 3 likely scenarios: 1) Argentina Style Fiscal Collapse: initial unrest, and then a decline over months to 3rd world living. Power outages, Food Shortages, High costs, High Crime. 2) WWIII - Draft (gets those troublesome unemployed off the street) , Supply rationing,internment camps, potential nuke fallout ( probably NOT from within the US) - and sadly the most likely scenario if WWI and WWII are any guide 3) Civil War - Who the heck knows what that will look like..
Even if your disabled status means can't use some of the preps equipment yourself, having it available may be the missing piece needed that will allow someone else to help you (and prove that you are worth helping) . You may need to rely on Children and any like-minded individuals close to you. Being a Lone-wolf Prepper is NOT a good idea. Humans lived in tribes in even the most primitive times for a reason. Finding like-minded individuals IS hard. I don't have an official group - I did find a place where most of my neighbors are like minded, and doing SOMETHING. Point is, few preppers are the looting kind. They generally won't take advantage of the less prepared or those who CAN'T take care of themselves- in general they are prepping so they don't have to rely on others any more than they have to, and so they don't need to join the looters in order to survive. Is those who refuse to take responsibility for themselves and therefore panic that will be the problem.