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Life After the Oil Crash
Deal With Reality or Reality Will Deal With You
I recommend these books on self-sufficiency:
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I really don't know what the news footage of Hurricane Katrina looked like from the outside, but I can only guess that it was completely sensational and focused mostly on the violence and mayhem in the Superdome and downtown New Orleans. Here is a different perspective on urban collapse, an insider's view that is less dramatic but hopefullymore helpful for those of you planning to stay in the cities.
Your best chance of survival is through a social network.
A lot of hospitality and help was extended to me through neighbors, friends, and friends of friends. Stockpiling supplies is helpful but nobody can possibly prepare for every contingency, and that's where pooling group resources comes in handy.
Be prepared to barter supplies to get help.
If someone gives you a ride in a boat, or shares food or shelter, you leave them with a few rolls of toilet paper or a gallon of drinking water. Common courtesy and gratitude will get you much further along than hording.
Water and Sewage Disposal are More Important than Food
The biggest problems you will face, possibly other than violence, will be lack of water, and lack of sanitation. There will be no running water or sewage disposal, so definitely make plans to provide your own. About the best situation you can be in is to live in an apartment complex with a swimming pool. True you can't drink pool water but you can certainly use it to wash dishes, clothes, and people, and that will take a lot of pressure off of your stored drinking water supplies. Many cities are located next to bodies of water, and if you are fortunate enough to be within walking distance to one, consider that your emergency water source. (just remember that a private pool will be much much cleaner than a public access source). If you can do nothing else, at least fill up your bathtub before the last of the water pressure dies out of the system. I can't stress this enough, without water you can't stay put. Everyone remembers to stock canned goods but almost no one thinks about water.
Sewage is another thing entirely. The toilets will not flush, the sewage lines may back up, and if you are staying someplace for an extended period you need to make sanitation a top priority. The best solution I can think of for this is a composting toilet, which can be made out of a five gallon bucket, a toilet seat, and a pile of sawdust. barring that you might try digging a pit toilet in the backyard, but this is going to stink to high heaven and make life very unpleasant. No matter what you do or how clean you keep yourself, be prepared for clouds of black flies all over the place from all the rotting food, uncollected garbage, (dead bodies?) that everyone else is leaving around. Stock toilet paper. Much more than you think you will need, because it's a great item for bartering.
He who has the boat, has the power
Anyone and everyone who had a boat after the flooding began in earnest could call the shots, barter transportation for supplies, play the hero and rescue old ladies, etc. Obviously New orleans is a special case being below sea level, but whatever your situation think about what would be the most in demand item to have in your city. this would be an excellent way to leverage yourself if you are interested in being the leader of your group, or conversely to avoid being dependent on others. My one caveat is: make sure your in demand item is not gas powered, because gasoline will run out almost faster than clean water.
Be prepared for random acts of kindness
Complete strangers will help you. Not everyone in the city is out to get you. Of course be sensible and be wary of people you don't know, but also be open to the genuinely nice folks around you who are willing to back you up. Never turn away help, because there is power in numbers.
The military/cops are NOT there to help you, they are there to keep you under control and contained within the city limits.
I have some particularly bad memories of the soldiers who were "organizing" the evacuation area where I stayed overnight, which was basically just a crowd of 6000 angry people sleeping under a highway bridge in a pile of garbage and piss (I wish I was exaggerating). I would be very cautious about any relief efforts provided by military. do your best to evade the crowd control and roundups that will happen. I would be somewhat more inclined to trust help from police as they are also residents of the city and will show you more humanity than government forces will, but ultimately they will be participating in the military roundups and should be avoided.
If you plan on escaping the city after catastrophe has struck, be certain to stay off the main roads. Military and cops will close all roads leading out of the city in order to "contain" the problem, they will detain you or shoot you if you insist on walking out. This is why I don't think the last minute evacuation is a reasonable plan. It's going to be harder than you think to get out once there is a problem.
At night it is going to be dark. Very, very dark.
This seems like common sense but it is a difficult concept to get across to a city person. Total darkness in an urban area is often something only experienced in a windowless closet. Otherwise you are surrounded by 24 hour ambient light, streetlights, safety floodlights, etc. If the power to the entire city goes out, your apartment is going to be much much darker than you ever imagined it could be. Walking outside at night is going to be scary as hell, you will not be able to see your hand in front of your face. I highly recommend a high powered flashlight or lantern to get you out to the backyard latrine or wherever you have to go once the sun goes down. Trust me on this one.
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Confessions of a Hurricane Katrina Survivor
by Beenie Weanie, orignally posted to the LATOC Forum
