I'm sure that many of you are in the same boat I am; unable to leave a mid-sized city of about 180,000 people due to obligations taking care of elderly parents or for the simple fact that they don't have any money to move out. What advice or tips would you guys have for those of us in that situation beyond stockpiling and keeping quiet? We have purchased 7 five gal. propane tanks and plan to do all of our cooking on our BBQ grill in our garage at night. We'll have about six months of food/water for all of us. Lots of TP &guns&ammo. My biggest worry is the spread of disease from everyone else in the city(cholera, bubonic plauge, typhus, TB, ect.) I'm also worried about how to defend our home beyond just the guns&ammo aspect. How do you fortify your house without drawing attention to oneself? Any advice or tips would be appreciated. thanks!

-- Urban Survivor (please@help.com), February 07, 1999

Answers

A small Coleman type propane cooking stove will burn cleaner and use far less fuel than a BBQ. Consider firewood. It needs to be cut split and dried a year in advance of usage for less smoke and creasote and a lot more BTUs. Order now. By fall it will be half useless for winter 99/00. If you are concerned about a potential doorstep syndrome, add more beans and rice for stew to share with callers like our folks handed out sandwiches at the kitchen door to hungry passers during the depression. Sharing with neighbours may help you defend the source to keep it lasting. Your concerns are not without merit. By the way, most folks have enough clothing to put on in layers to fend off cold but our feet are very vulnerable.Does your family have real warm lined boots? I wish you well.

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), February 07, 1999.

At the risk of being overly simplistic (some earlier respondants seem to think I'm a rather "simple" man):

1) Maximize # friends

2) Minimize # enemies (watching your back is not fun)

3) Stay healthy. In some cities (like Dee Cee, where I live near), 3rd-world diseases like TB are making a big comeback due to high immigration (both legal & illegal) & travel even *now*, BEFORE TSHTF.

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous.com), February 07, 1999.

If I do say so myself (and it looks like I'll have to), my website, Y2K SURVIVE (www.y2ksurvive.com), has a large amount of free information about y2k survival both in urban and rural locations. There are many links to good suppliers of survival products. You might want to check out the site and the links.

-- cody varian (cody@y2ksurvive.com), February 07, 1999.

Now is the time to plant blackberry bushes around the perimeter of your house. Buy plywood to put up over windows in case someone decides to throw a gas bomb through your window. You can purchase adapters to fit your propane bottles for a cookstove. STERNO canned fuel also works good for heating up food. Go to a thrift store and purchase a fondue or chafing dish and use the STERNO. Eat two warm meals a day and have snacks like peanuts and dried fruit for snacks. To conserve on fuel, buy canned beans and quick cooking rice. A burn barrel will be good to have to burn paper products and human waste. Dig a big hole in your back yard and bury cans. Have several 5 gallon buckets available to catch rain water. Keep quiet about your plans and keep a low profile. Your not obligated to take care of everyone else and jeopardize your own families lives. If you have to take in relatives, tell them not to come over without bringing something with them. Set up a chain of command and make a list of duties for each person to be responsible for. Garbage duty, night watch, keeping things picked up, teaching the children school lessons, etc. Start rationing from the beginning. Try to stretch 1 year of supplies beyond the one year. If things seem to be getting better, then you can relax the rationing. A big mean dog will also be a deterrent. Don't let the dog outside without someone being with him/her. There's too much to do and you will always worry that you forgot something. The worst that can happen is someone burning your house down from the outside in. Good Luck.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), February 07, 1999.

One thing that comes to mind about fortifying your house is to install heavy wood shutters on the inside walls by each downstairs window. These could be simply 3/4 plywood boards attached to the inside window trim with hinges and a 2 by 4 bar that could be placed across them in some way so they could not be opened from the outside. They would not be readily visible from outside the house and they would prevent anyone from sneaking in at night.

-- cody varian (cody@y2ksurvive.com), February 07, 1999.

Cody: Would those boards be easily kicked in from the outside (breaking the window) whereas if they were nailed or screwed on the outside they would be harder to remove or kick in? I suppose if they started to kick in the window you could blast them with your 12 guage shotgun.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), February 07, 1999.

You might also want to read the interesting Live Off the Land in the City and Country by Ragnar Benson.

-RCat

-- Runway Cat (runway_cat@hotmail.com), February 07, 1999.

You didn't mention what you are doing for a secure water source. For any long-term situation you must have a dependable, safe to drink and safely accessable water source.

Can you legally drill a well where you are? More to the point, can you drill one "illegally" without being noticed? There have been people who have gone into their basements or garages and done just that.

On the subject of a basement, if you have one that may be the best place to concentrate your efforts towards building a hardened area of your house to retreat into. Check out Joel Skousen's book on how to build a hardened shelter, there are sections on retrofitting an existing room or basement to create a strong room where you could ride-out the worst. I don't have a URL on hand, but a web search on Joel's name should get a link to his home page.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), February 07, 1999.

Urban Survivor: Locks and window shutters are meant to keep honest folks out. If someone wants in, believe me they are in.

-- salty (north@north.east), February 07, 1999.

Indoor shutters are not going to keep out someone who really wants to get in badly, but then what is? They are to give the homeowner time to get his guns out, or perhaps to provide enough difficulty so that a casual intruder will give up rather than take the time and effort to batter then in. You're better off with them than without.

-- cody varian (cody@y2ksurvive.com), February 07, 1999.

Burlap bags and a load of sand, so that you can later fill sandbags with sand to create ONE room that is impervious to bullets. I lived in a town where drive by shootings were common and the bullets went through THREE WALLS! We also observed that the guns people use nowdays will also put a bullet right through an automobile or a telephone pole. Should anyone decide to take pot shots at your house it is smart for you to have some place for you and your family to retreat to that offers REAL PROTECTION from most any bullet, and a room lined with sand filled burlap bags will do the trick nicely. P.S. DO NOT MERELY LINE THE OUTSIDE WALLS! A killing bullet could come from the direction of an unfortified INTERNAL WALL after having passed through an unfortified outside wall in another room. Line ALL FOUR WALLS of your "safe (or safer)room".

-- Ann Fisher (zyax55b@prodigy.com), February 07, 1999.

http://www.y2kchaos.com/s35p113.htm

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), February 07, 1999.

Urban Survivor; Ah, you didn't mention if you have a two story home or a ranch style? Should you have a two story home don't put your food items in the basement unless you plan on plugging the sewer line that is in every home. Just in case the sewer plant reverses it's waste. Four inch plugs avalible at hardware stores. If you don't want to draw attention I would take the time to measure each lower window and cut plywood to match each window. Store it in the garage untill you feel it's needed. Hope you like being in a closed in area? Furie...

-- Furie (furieart@dnet.net), February 07, 1999.

Someone, a long time ago, on this forum, suggested a product called Scotchshield Ultra Saftey shield from 3M. It's a clear film for your windows. Protects from blasts and impacts, and offers some protection from bullits. And I'm hoping, from annoying ex-husbands. And it's hard to see once it's on. It looks like it would provide a nice "first line of defense" The website doesn't offer much, for more info call 1-800-480-1704

"A long time ago" Looks like the Tarotmaid is showing her age....(creeek)

-- Annie O'Dea (tarotmaid@yahoo.com), February 08, 1999.

I suggest a flame retardant asbestos suit, iodine tablets, a geiger counter, a 0.22 uM charcoal filtered gas/biohazard mask, and a phony "official" badge or ID of some kind. Of course, you'll also need the usual smoke detector and all the other stuff. But definitely, I'd go with the gas mask and the asbestos.

ho ho ho. sorry to sound so glib, but I am in a similar situation and am making a funny. laugh, darn it. ha ha.

-- hb (coprolith@rocketship.com), February 08, 1999.