WATER IN THE DESERT

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Taken from a previous post:

I live here in AZ and I just wanted to respond to those of you who have said you wouldn't want to live here when the Y2K bug bites. Arizona is going to be one of the best places to be since our weather here is absolutely beautiful in the winter. No heater is needed at night and no air-conditioning is needed during the day. As long as you've stocked plenty of water, there's no need to worry about living in a desert. I would much rather be here during the winter than in many other areas of the planet where it will be terribly cold!

-- Diana (Wonder@Woman.Wow), July 12, 1999

Answers

I live here in ND and I just wanted to respond to those of you who want to be in Arizona when the Y2K bug bites... Good luck!!! As long as I have plenty of wood for the wood stove and all the other necessities I'd rather be here.

I wonder how many people in Chicago and New York will be driving to ND vs driving to AZ when the power is off?

-- Nobody (Home@ND.state), July 12, 1999.


ND is flat, flat ,flat!!!! Ugly, Ugly Ugly!!! Give me the mountains anyday!

-- ND? (ND?Gimmy@break.com), July 12, 1999.

The smart bug-out money will move to an unattractive location. The comfortable areas mught be a little crowded. Cf. Alas, Babylon (Pat Frank).

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), July 13, 1999.

Gee Diana, It's good that you're stocking lots of water. Are you also stocking lots of bullets to fight off the thirst crazed hordes when they are beating down your door to get to the water you've so diligently stored? I used to live in Phoenix. Seems to me that water was PUMPED in from the Salt River Project and various wells. No power=no pumps=no water=thirst crazed hordeds breaking down the doors of the 1% of the population who are preparing. Hope you've got enough water for the other 99%!

-- Dyan a Thirst (fake@email.com), July 13, 1999.

Dyan --

It's true that a lot of our water is pumped from the ground by SRP. However, we also have the lake system that serves as our water storage, and the new Tempe Town Lake, which puts a gazillion gallons of water right in the middle of the metropolis.

All we can hope for is that it doesn't stay as dry as it has been lately, I think the lakes are pretty low. If we have to rely solely on pumped water and the power goes out, yeah we'll have problems. I'm gambling that people will have the stereotypical impression of Phoenix as a dry, barren desert and stay away. When and if panic occurs, people's tendency around here may be to flee to the nearby forests and hills. And I don't think I would want to actually go to the lakes and rivers, there's three million plus people here and half will probably try to do just that!

A big concern is the transient "snowbird" population that lives here in the winter. These are wealthier older people, typically far away from any relatives, and any help. They may exacerbate any bank runs.

Got lots of water, food and ammunition!

-- ariZONEa (arizona@usa.com), July 13, 1999.



Well... since everybody is chiming in, I think I'll throw my two cents in too. How about the Florida panhandle... what's commonly called LA (Lower Alabama)? I bet that stricks most of you as off the wall. Plenty of water... you dig a five foot hole and it'll probably fill up with water in about 10 minutes. The average deep water well is less than 200 feet deep. Low population density... after the beach tourists leave town. Warm climate... you'll sweat in the summer. And affordable land... $1500 to $2000 an acre. The fellow I bought my acreage from just picked up 450 acres he is starting to develop and wants to sell off in parcels of 5 to 40 acres.

Oh... and not to be forgotten, an abundance of sunshine at this latitude that makes solar power a practical source of electricity.

For an example, one of the plumbers working on my house told me, after noticing my PV solar panels, that he did a job for a "scary" man last year only about 20 miles from my place. The scary man had assembled a steam boiler system for generating heat and electrical power and he hired the plumber to install it in his house he had just built, plus he had solar power. Turns out the guy is a 49 year old retired neurosurgeon from Chicago of all places that had become alarmed about the y2k problem, retired from his practice in Chicago, did a survey of the country and settled on the FL panhandle as the place to move his family to. Go figure. He has 100 acres, fully fenced, a pack of dogs and carries a sidearm at all time. My plumber (who doesn't like guns to begin with) said the guy was scary because, even though he was pleasant enough to talk to, always had his sidearm and he made it clear that anyone caught on his property uninvited would probably get shot.

Unfortunately, folks here in the southeast don't have the same longstanding tradition that rural folks in the southwest have of packing a sidearm as a regular article of one's clothing. But we have a great "carry" law that makes a permit easy to obtain with a requirement for a minimum of safety training. For less than $150 you get a 5 year permit to carry concealed.

Can I sell someone a doublewide?

-- Phil Morris (pemorris@digitalexp.com), July 13, 1999.


To Nobody: No one will be driving anywhere is the power is off.

-- curtis schalek (schale1@ibm.net), July 13, 1999.

To curtis schalek:

Just because there is no power, do you really think people won't panic, jump in their car, throw in their gas cans, and point that sucker South?

Try watching The Trigger Effect and you'll get the general idea!

There's nothing like 3 feet of snow and 20 degrees below zero for keeping the riff-raff out!

-- Nobody (Home@ND.state), July 13, 1999.


How many of you have started living iin accordance with your beliefs? When my old truck broke down six months ago I didn't see any reason to repair it as gasoline might be soon scarce. Now I'm in much better shape using a bicycle for transportation. I live five miles from the nearest town. I eat what I stored for emergencies and restock when I get the opportunity. I've learned to bake bread outdoors in a Dutch oven. I supplement my food with fish I catch. I doesn't matter if it's Y2K or a general population panic or a comet that disrupts life, I know I can survive because I'm doing it now. Are you?

-- Hop (drh@inu.net), July 13, 1999.

Yes...FL panhandle sounds like the perfect y2k haven.

NBC tonite said La Nina would still cause problems this fall and winter. Forcast is for the Nothern half to be stormy and nasty.....Southern half to be very dry. Lot of hurricanes in the forcast.

I live in Phoenix and have a number of friends outside of town with deep wells on their property. We have a string of large lakes just NE of the valley....Saguaro, Canyon, Apache, and Roosevelt (real big). There are dams between each lake. Lake Pleasant is 30 minutes north of the valley. We have water canels flowing thru town and most people have pools.

Everyplace in the country will have it's unique problems and I do not plan to buy a snowmobile.

Phoenix Sam's now has blue barrels. (and a big Y2K sign)

We lost power in our neighborhood area (1400 homes) for over an hour one evening last week. My neighbor's 3 year old son said "Mommy, get the Y2k stuff"!

-- rb (ronbanks_2000@yahoo.com), July 13, 1999.



Moderation questions? read the FAQ