As part of History Channel's "Armageddon Week," they are airing a show called "After Armageddon" that looks to past disasters to examine human behavior under the stress of disasters and resulting disruptions in the basics: water, food, sanitation, health care and security.

It airs on Tuesday, January 5, at 8:00p

http://www.history.com/schedule.do?actio...d=1262734200000


After Armageddon:

What have past acts of destruction taught us about what will happen to mankind after the apocalypse? Is it inevitable that disaster will someday strike America on an unprecedented level? How has history prepared us? History's most dramatic events--Hiroshima, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and others--are examined and analyzed with hard data gathered from their massive aftereffects.

The disappearance of water and food supplies, the effects of deteriorated sanitation and health care on the remaining population, and the increased use of violence as a means of survival--all illustrate how societies have responded and survived.

I'm presently watching DC deteriorate in the "Life After People" series. Decided it's too cold (single digit wind chill) to venture outside for long so am one with the TV.

Another installment during the week that may interest many on ETS:

Wednesday, January 6, 9:00p

Apocalypse Man:

Government authorities say it's "not if... but when"...a moment in the future when, just as it has in the past, some catastrophe sparks mass destruction, leaving humans challenged to find shelter, heat, food, water and defense. If that happens, would you know what to do? Survival expert Rudy Reyes journeys through abandoned buildings showing us some surprising survival techniques, including making fire from steel wool, finding safe houses and creating shortwave radio transmissions.


I've never heard of Rudy Reyes.

I wonder if this is the same show that was on a couple/three months ago? It was a scenario about the nuking of DC.

But as riveting as TV is, I'll probably watch it again even if it is a re-run.

I don't think so. I watched that DC nuke scenario show.

It sounds interesting, I will keep an eye out for it. I do question the bona fides of many of the "survival experts" I see on tv but have never heard of otherwise.

Thanks Dagny. I'll program the DVR so I don't miss it/them.

What every General or Admiral will, and has stated concerning an EMP attack, it's not a question of "if", but of "when".

An enemy has 1 nuke, is it going to get the "biggest bang for the buck" by being used against a large city (a few million dead) or in an EMP tactic to maximize the effectiveness such as making the nudet approximately 300 miles above Kansas.

That would creat an EMP wave that would cover the entire USofA, Southern Canada, and northern Mexico. We will have been pushed back to the early to mid 1800's. All computers and electrical generators will be fried.

It is still being debated whether automobiles built after 1971 (1972 to the present) will still work or not.

Some societies just don't survive historic disasters or they ae at least radically altered so that they are unrecognizable as to the society that preceded the event. The black death in the European middle ages ended serfdom for example. As always there tends to be a silver lining to every dark cloud. It always pays to be optimistic rather then pessimistic, even in the direst of circumstances, probably because it helps you to become one of the folks who can and will see that silver lining.

"Some societies just don't survive historic disasters or they [are] at least radically altered so that they are unrecognizable as to the society that preceded the event."

That's how I visualize the U.S. during another Great Depression or after an EMP incident (accidental or deliberate).

All the people who have an umbilical cord to the TV, computer and games. All the people who seem to be totally lacking any iota of common sense. All the people who are so heavily dependent on the electrical and oil infrastructure. All the people who are so ignorant of ways and means to anything.

Scary, isn't it?

Sue

I don't worry about EMP's when I can worry about the next Carrington Event. No bad guys needed...

I think the most bang for a rogue nation's buck when it comes to devastation would be to fire of a couple of nukes to create a lahar on the Cumbre Vieja of the Island of La Palma in the Canary Island. The ensuing tsunami would pretty much wipe out all the coastal cities of West Africa, Europe and North America.
Heck most medium sized nations with nuclear capability would have a hard time beating that devastation. And I don't believe it would take too much ingenuity to pull such a thing off.

I am currently watching something called "Apocalypse Island," which evidently is part of Armageddon Week. I sincerely hope things get better as the week goes along. Apocalypse Island is so dreadfully bad that is unclear whether I am watching the History Channel or the Comedy Channel.

ROTFLMAO

The fate of the History Channel is truly Armageddon in its own right. They have aired some good stuff, and occasionally they still do, but when they spew this sort of garbage, you realize that it all about entertainment and not any kind of veracity. What will they be serving on Tuesday?

Well, there's less money to be made by focusing on disasters that are likely to happen. Car accidents, power outages, earthquakes, and ice storms just aren't as sexy as the "apocalypse."

I especially enjoyed the "enhanced" imagery of the "sculpture."

That paragraph encompasses at least 95% of Americans. That is very scary.

Our population of 300 million could not be sustained if we lost the power grid and energy resources to fuel transportation, food and medicine production, water supplies and sanitation.

I was watching "Jericho" recently, a show which I think was ambitious and before its time (it ran on CBS from 2006-2008 and is available on DVD). While the entertainment series falls short in some factual respects and production value, it hit upon in thought-provoking ways many fundamental issues of survival in a just-in-time society that's suddenly upended by war just as it heads into winter: notably in regard to food supply, medicine, power grid, fuel supply, communications.

In addition to the initial nuclear calamity, a few episodes into Jericho's first season there was a subsequent EMP attack that finished off the power grid, newer cars, cell phones, computers, etc.

Amazon is still selling Jericho, it's worth a watch for anyone interested in the subject.

The History Channel is a curious mish-mash. Seems they're running a lot of religious history and prognostication shows lately.

By the way ... let me throw out a useful fact.

If you go back and look at the atomic testing that was done in the USA in the 1950's (Nevada test range), you will discover that the radiation that was released across America did not fall evenly. Many people assume that the radiation blows in the air as a dust cloud. Although dust problems are possible. there is another concern. In fact, local "hot spots" of radiation in the USA were often associated with areas of rainfall. The radioactive dust from the nuclear blast gets picked up into the clouds, then comes down later in the subsequent rain.

If you are generally "downind" from a nuclear detonation, you need to ba careful about contaminated rain water in the days after the event.

Close to the bomb blast, your main concern is heat.

other Pete

Interesting, Pete.

History Channel also has a show on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, focusing on the famous Doomsday Clock and how and why it evolved from its inception in the late-1940s.

Back issues can be read online. Interesting to read contemporaneous columns and articles.

http://books.google.com/books?id=9gsAAAA...l_issues_anchor

I especially enjoyed the "enhanced" imagery of the "sculpture." [/quote]

Right! Never say they lack imagination. What really got me were the novel climbing techniques. When does one lead a pitch and then throw down a seat harness to the "belayer"? And on and on....

And you can be quite a way downwind and still be hit by fallout. Two days after a Nevada-based nuclear bomb test in 1953 a thunderstorm in upstate New York blanketed the area with radioactive fallout.
The Troy Incident

This fallout was discovered by one of the professors at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (my old school) and has been blamed for all sorts of weirdness since then.

-Blast, who has never been the same since.

That glowing personality?

Wasn't there a period in the 1970's or so in the midwest where people were advised not to drink milk due to fallout from indian nuke tests?

I tell people it's my halo.

-Saint Blast

Nevermind, found it.

Here's an incredible life story: this man survived both Hiroshima (where he was visiting on business when the A-bomb dropped) and Nagasaki (his home, where he'd gone back to with severe burns only to experience the 2nd A-bomb three days later.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...d=moreheadlines


Interesting note from the article:

Last month he was visited in the hospital by filmmaker James Cameron, director of "Titanic" and "Avatar," who is considering making a movie about the bombings, according to the Mainichi.

So, I actualy watched this show last night. honestly, the senarios that were presented I feel were totaly "worst case scenario"

After watching most of the show I was left with a sense that MOST of the people on this site would fair rather well. While I am not totaly set up I think that I have the mindset and am ahead of the ball game much further than the rest of the people. I feel that people on this forum, for the most part, would fair well either through prepairedness, or mindset, more than likely a combination of both.

What I find intresting is that so many of there shows are asking these dark questions.

While I didn't like 100% of the show, I feel that

I saw After Armageddon last night. Didn't even realize that it was going to air. Since there was some question about the topic when Dagny first posted about it, in this fictional, worst-case scenario, a global pandemic wipes out most of the population in a few months, much the same way that the Black Death left only a fraction of Europe's population alive in its wake.

Keeping in mind the limited budget of a TV episode and the limited time, I thought that it was actually a well thought out and pretty comprehensive episode. Short on details so don't expect a tutorial but covers a lot of topics. The fictional scenario not only included approximately three months of the pandemic, but also the weeks and months after the pandemic burns out and what survivors are faced with afterwards.

I'm always a bit annoyed with the fear-mongering nature of much of what we see and read, especialy with 2012 being the new Y2K, and this show does show looting and crimes, but in this case, I think it was a pretty good balance of showing the risk of violence without going over the top with it. I appreciated one of the experts talking about balancing Mad Max visions of the future with a more balanced possible future after such a disaster.

Just my personal take, but I was a bit disappointed that the very last two scenes--which occur 25 years after the pandemic--still show people armed and obviously on the lookout for imminent danger. Not Mad Max, but not Little House on the Prairie either. The scenes leading up to the end of the show imply a more pastoral future and you don't see the guns until the very end of the show. Gotcha! Personally, I just would've appreciated a more optimistic ending, but that's just me. OK, group hug everyone!

The episode was actually quite practical in the topics addressed. For example, how people have to cope with lack of flush toilets. Not our favorite topic but something we would ALL have to face. Or what to do with all the dead people and the fact that the air could reek from the smell of rotting flesh or that we could see a lot of dead bodies. Or some of the psychology that could be involved.

Since I live in Southern California, the fact that the main characters are living in Los Angeles when the pandemic starts hit a little close to home.

Oh, I know Martin F. has mentioned this in the past, but the show also came to the same conclusion that he does about who eventually survive and live on--small, organized communities of people, not individuals or individual families holed up in their fortified homes with a million rounds of ammo.

Anyway, I think this is one show that probably needs to be seen more than once to catch all the things covered. Not everything is pointed out by the narration or dialogue. I would recommend the episode since it's not just simplistic fear mongering but does cover a lot of legitimate topics.

I was pleasantly surprised, after expressing some forebodings earlier. I didn't care for the emphasis on dramatics, but there were some thoughtful notions expressed.

Just a thought. At least some economic historians hold the view that the Black Death sparked the Industrial Revolution by basically raising the value of workers' efforts. There always seems to be a silver lining.

Deja Vue. Was that Susan I saw carrying out the slops? - instant reminder of her thread.

"America's Hottest" Marine, a Recon guy, apparently there was an HBO series he was in


Well, lost the rest of my text!!! So, here it is, AGAIN:

I only caught the last 10 minutes of it, sadly. It was 25 years after whatever happened. Two questions-how did the guy in the cemetary get charged batteries for the vidcam? And, when has technology lasted 25 years?!?!?!?

I do want to catch this on rerun-it looks interesting, and I wish I wouldve watched it last night.

I watched part of this show last night. The mindset of "wait until the government gets here to help" seemed to be really prevalent. The husband had some good ideas, but was too freaking sissified to act on them, while the wife was all over the map, one minute whining about no power, the next screaming to stop throwing clean clothes on the lawn, but she was the proponent of evacuating, the only good idea they had in the time I watched.

Ok, so it was a re-do of Stephan King's "The Stand" with less actors. And it lacked Jamey Sheridan as the Devil Incarnate.

Would rather watch a show with useful ideas. I already know that the majority of people will not be prepared for anything, instead they will wait on Uncle. Oh, in this case, Uncle was spirited away on a helicopter to "an unknown location" under Joe Biden's house...lol.

I think I will depend on me instead.

Ha! Yeah, I think that's part of the "poetic license" part of the dramatization.

One other thing that I thought was informative and rarely discussed was the "fog of war" aspect of many emergencies. When you're in some disaster, often you only know what you can see and hear around you. Even months later, the main characters didn't know what was happening in the rest of the country or world until they eventually could get some info from someone with access to Amateur (HAM) radio.

I didn't think the gossip factor was really emphasized enough, although mentioned. I mean, look at Katrina or even the beginnings of the H1N1 outbreak in Mexico and how lack of good information created all kinds of anxiety and fear and actions based on that anxiety and fear. That could cause a lot of problems, short and long-term, that otherwise wouldn't happen if it weren't for "bad intel". Unfortunately, not a whole lot you can do about that in many/most situations, but at least it's something to keep in mind.

If anyone missed "After Armageddon" (I missed it), it will be on again this Saturday, January 9, at 8:00p

Hikermor: "Deja Vue. Was that Susan I saw carrying out the slops? - instant reminder of her thread."

HA! It was a woman carrying out the crap, wasn't it? TOLD YOU SO!


Arney: "I didn't think the gossip factor was really emphasized enough, although mentioned... how lack of good information created all kinds of anxiety and fear and actions based on that anxiety and fear.

IMO (biased and cynical as it is), our dear government and media supplied all the misinformation, far more than we needed. If it hadn't been for them, people would have thought this year was just another regular flu year.

I recently read the book Survival: How a Culture of Preparedness Can Save America and You from Disasters by Lt. General Russel L. Honoré's, US Army (Ret), and he said that during the entire time that all those people were trapped at the Superdome, it never occurred to anyone to give them some radios so they would know what was going on.

Sue

Excellent point Susan. The "fog of war" indeed inhibits your information flow. That's why I include a cheapo AM/FM radio in my BOBs and a decent radio to be added at the last minute if we have time. The bug in kit contains another radio. And there are 4 walkie talkies.

Sometimes there is too much information, right/wrong/indifferent while at other times there is no information. I would rather be sorting out the right from the rest than sitting with my thumb up my butt waiting on someone to tell me what is going on.

Jim

I just watched "After Armageddon" again. Regarding the batteries, there was a solar array in the complex. Also, from earlier in the show (25 years prior) knew how to hot wire a car. If he had only asked himself to use the ham radio, then it'd be crystal clear he had the skills!

Some nice quotes from the show:
"There will be a core of people who have survivor skills. I think they'll become the leaders in that new age." -- Dr. Robyn Gershon

There was also this one:
"You're going to have to learn skills your grandparents took for granted." -- Michael Bane

"People who actually know how to grow a garden will be far more valuable than someone who knows how to trade on the stock market" -- Kevin Reeve

Has there ever been a thread on this forum of "essential life skills"? Things like knots, starting fires, dehydrating food, etc?

Note there is not now any one kind of environment, there are environments.
Even now some places approximate "Mad Max" while others are placid resorts.

Some urban areas have extreme violence under "Normal" conditions, with virtual combat an everyday occurrence.
Look at some police blotters and it is apparent.

In any normal disaster quite a range of conditions exist.


One can imagine that in some catastrophe; some will exist in near normal conditions initially, others will face immediate extreme challenges and misery.

My main point is that for any given local geography (a small radius of 1 or 2 miles) you can have a disaster quotient hypothetically for example 1 to 10.

1 - being near normal or like the present, 10 - being extreme survival challenge.

Where the center is one question, how many 1's and 10's another (size of the tails).

Presently we live in a highly networked,high complexity, fragile society.
Things like just in time inventory leads to high efficiency, but also many single points of failure.
Most people have no idea just how much potential there is for cascade effects (i.e. one system's failure causing another systems failure). Remember when a communications satellite caused many credit cards to not work.

When regional events (Katrina, Tsunami's) occur in isolation, the resources can be marshaled to help.

A global problem would be different, there are only a small number of MRE's and such to distribute. If a major event caused a nation wide problem.
There will be a distribution of outcomes for any given area, some more self sufficient others utterly dependent.

Help from outside (by definition) would not be coming, the U.S. military will not be dropping off MRE's by the helicopter load.

Law enforcement works when only a small number of people need to be restrained.

Lastly you can't know in advance how bad it will be for a given location, for some Mad Max may an apt description.

I sure wouldn't think this program painted a dark scenario at all, it was very even handed even optimistic.
It may well be a lot more adverse.

People on this site will likely do well along with people in maintenance type professions or farmers.
People who presently are highly specialized will have a hard time adapting with some individual exceptions.

"apocalypse." is a religious term not a practical one, past collapses, die offs and disasters were survived by some individuals.

One thing the show got right was self organizing groups would spontaneously form. Plenty of past history to support this.

I'm watching "Apocalypse Man" right now. Seems Mad Maxish at the outset. Given the show's title that makes sense.

He's like The Omega Man -- all alone in the city. But mutant-free and not as clean-shaven.

Am presently dubious about the show's worth, but am entertained by it, as many on ETS would be. Am going to edit this post as I watch the show.

1. Using a tire iron as a grappling hook to secure to the raised drawbridge the rope that you've tied "butterfly" knots into. [note to self: put "how to tie knots" playing cards in ninjapack] One is to use this rope to swing to the undergirding of the elevated span and climb up. Then you are going to trot down the road to some abandoned, blighted buildings where you are going to shelter in for the night. I have an issue with heights so confess to some bias against the practicality of a normal person trusting that the tire iron has a hold and then Tarzan-like swinging out over the water. Let alone hefting their behind up the rope and over the side. {Note to self: find REI, raft, small tent and someplace other than rat-infested creepy building.}

2. How to descend an elevator shaft using the steel cables. Again, my height phobia comes into play here and I wonder how many normal people without a fear of heights would attempt it or what situation would cause them to need to in the first place. [note to self: find Gold's Gym to increase upper body strength]

It was one thing for middle-aged Shelley Winters (a physique approximating a significant proportion of our population) to swim through the submerged S.S. Poseidon. Would she have lept to the center of an elevator shaft to grab and shimmy down steel cables? Could she? I think most Americans attempting that maneuver would splat on the bottom of the elevator shaft.

3. Instruction on using a library's card catalogue system to find the map section. I'd probably check out gas stations or grocery stores for maps. Or steal them out of cars.

4. Instruction on removing a manhole cover so you can travel through the sewer system. I wonder if he has antibiotics in his backpack. And rabies vaccine. Yuck.

5. Hospital - notes that in the case of a crisis, these facilities will be on the frontline and will be ransacked of meds. Our Survival Dude, however, is not after meds. He's after the backup power generator -- where he's going to make his survival base. Flip all the breakers off (lights in the hospital could draw unwelcome attention). Examine the generator. Find fuel for the generator.

6. Getting fuel from abandoned gas station. Diesel's your best bet because most cars don't use it so you're more likely to find some left. Use garden hose and bike tire pump to siphon diesel. Stay on the lookout for useful items (grab the car battery -- a "force multiplier"). Use generator to charge up the car battery you found. Now you can monitor the hospital's entrances with the closed circuit security TV monitor system. Hospital is now home sweet home.

7. Collect rainwater from the hospital roof. Eat unlabeled canned food. Vienna sausages - yum.

8. Problem of loneliness. He's recounting his experience at POW school. Gotta keep searching for someone for company and to sustain dream of rebuilding. [ commercial break ] Survival is pointless without others. See #9 and e-harmony.com

9. Radio transmitter. Find taxi cab dispatch center. [note to self: ask taxi driver for directions] Grab radio battery (12v dry cell), tape recorder, CB radio, a "step-down" (from a coffee maker). Antenna with magnet base. Have duct tape in your backpack.

10. Find high ground (to use your radio transmitter and escape hostiles). Climbs fire escapes. {This building has stairs so he didn't have to climb up an empty elevator shaft.}

11. Broadcast radio message on CB channel 9. Horizon is about 26 miles out which encompasses about 2000 square miles. Broadcast name, date and time, destination. Record this into tape recorder and hit play. Make sure you get to destination a day prior, settle into "hide site" to see who shows up at your rendezvous point.

I'd have probably shot myself back at the drawbridge. Or drowned. But still enjoying the show.

12. How to hot-wire a car. Car battery (the one you charged back at the hospital and are now carrying around town in your backpack) - find car to use it in (parking garage). New car useless, old car good -- diesel is best (reliable engine and rugged). He found an old Chevy Suburban. Looks 80s-ish, or early-90s. Can make fuel for a diesel engine. The car is a "girl." We got wheels. "Got our girl runnin." Gotta make gas. Find Taco Bell.

13. Grease trap is like gold. Looking for grease trap at fast food restaurant. Scrape off white muck, get "clean" oil underneath (no debris). Cook down the grease. Need fire to thin it out, skim off surface any solid material. Methanol (in anti-freeze) and lye (household drain cleaner). Use 5 parts cooking fat to 1 part methanol (acts as stabilizer). Shake well. Half a tablespoon of lye. Shake. Allow mixture to cool. [note to self: drink it to put self out of misery]

14. Looking for people. Omega Manlike drive down deserted street.


The End.


Hmmm. Interesting. Never did see him use the steel wool. I might have left the room for that. Well, I now know how to approximate biodiesel.

Dagny,

Please watch the other episodes and make similar great posts. Reading your comments saves time (I don't actually have to watch the show) and provides me with some needed comic relief.

Good job!

Thanks,

Andy

Dagny,

FYI, it was filmed on location in Detroit, MI. http://www.michiganfilmoffice.org/Made-in-Michigan/Coming-Soon/Default.aspx

You probably noticed there wasn't much need for a props person or a set dresser.

He used it in the first building. He also put cinder blocks around his fire, to reduce the direct light from the fire, and wet cardboard on top to absorb the smoke. No mention I don't believe of where the precious water or wet cardboard came from.

If Discovery Channel/BBC didn't already own "Man vs. Wild", they could have appropriately labeled this "Man vs. Wild: Apocalyptic Edition". Why risk killing yourself jumping across voids? Me, I personally enjoy the thought of lying at the bottom of an elevator shaft enjoying a slow painful death!

You're welcome, Andy. Does focus the mind to take notes.

;-)

Very sad about Detroit. There's some Detroit in every city.

I'll watch The Road someday in part out of curiosity over the real-life settings that film used to depict armageddon.

LOL!

I didn't set out to get snarky on the show but I had to laugh at the drawbridge solution and elevator shaft for exactly the reasons you cite: the folly in a World Without Doctors to take those kinds of risks of incurring serious injury.

It was interesting if only to see what skills the producer thought you'd need if you were One of the Last People on Earth.

[note to self: in the event you are One of the Last People on Earth and have to sleep by yourself in creepy rat-infested buildings, pack cyanide]

Must've scooped up the water when he was swinging across the river.

Probably pulled the cardboard out of a recycling bin uptown.

My thoughts exactly. Just a few minutes into the show and he's already launching himself through the air, high over that river, to climb onto that raised drawbridge and I was thinking, "He just did a Bear!" You could tell what kind of show it was going to be right there.

And did anyone else notice that he let his precious can of sterno burn next to him while he wistfully recounted his "POW training"? Maybe, like a campfire, that little blue flame is supposed to keep up his morale?

Some amusing tidbits of information here and there throughout the show. Like, if I want to get a good night's sleep and not worry about looters kicking in the front door, I'll be sure to set up camp in the nearest library. Thanks, Rudy!

I found it Bear-y amusing.

So, where do all the people go in these shows? Frankly, I don't see survival in a depopulated city as that much of a challenge. I see stressed out and desperate people as the biggest post-apocalypse danger to a lone person on the move.

How does a hospital-sized genny run for hours and hours on one gallon of diesel? Does he know just how dangerously unhealthy an abandoned hospital can be? That's the last place I'd want to go.

I've actually been in looted and abandoned hospitals, stores and private homes, post-disaster. Usually, only the obvious is gone, and lots of useful stuff is left behind for the imaginative and resourceful survivalist, especially in the stores, but not so much in homes. Why do these shows encourage looting of private homes in a resource-rich urban/suburban environment, anyway? That seems like the best way to get into a confrontation.

I think this show demonstrates the need for commercial TV to emphasize the dramatic, eye candy stuff over more thoughtful presentations. Where's the glory in just walking down the stairs or through the woods?

I missed part of Apocalypse Man because I was watching a very thoughtful program on my local PBS station. PBS will tend to provide more substance than drama, such as a recent program on earthquake preparedness that was quite decent.

"Apocalypse Man: Giving your survival secrets away to the clueless masses"

I like these shows because they have the potential for the public to have a wake up call and start preparing. The other side is with most people in most situations, they will only learn as little as they need to know to get something done, and not fully understand the entire situation. I'm everyone of us has an example of something like that during our working career. Not to say I haven't done the same thing, but I can see people going "Library == Sewer Map". They won't stop to think. "Oh wait, since the city cannot protect the distributed sewer system from terrorists, all of the maps have been removed from public inspection. Let's go over to the water department instead".

I did learn one thing: If I want real survival supplies I need to stake out footpaths and railroad lines. These are where the "educated" people will go, not freeways.

+1 on the splatting.

Don't all buildings that have elevator shafts have stairs? Wouldn't it be less dangerous just to walk down?

Libraries don't have card catalogs anymore.

The sewer system is where the zombies live. Not good.

I'm not going to carry around no stinkin' 50-lb car battery.

Hospitals are full of germs. Cross them with the dust bunnies and you've got something seriously vicious.

It would be better to find a library with an REI next door or across the street.

Loneliness... what are the odds that you find someone you can even stand? It would make more sense to protect the friends you've got now.

If you have to manufacture power to make a radio broadcast, how will people without power hear it?

If there are no people around, there must be some cars with gas in them. If you can hotwire a car, what's the problem?

Food: find an LDS church and look around until you find a list of members, then get a map and track down where they live. Should be tons of food.

Don't forget the dog food and treats.

Sue

Lol, Susan!

Apparently I have to teach Gidget to rope climb drawbridges.



:-)

If he had time to put on his tacticool black outfit (with matching tactical gloves) why didn't he have time to pick out a smaller, lighter flashlight and maybe a couple of bottles of water? Here's what I got from the show. If you really wanna look suspicious in an urban area during the day, wear all black and walk around in a crouched position like you're being chased by someone. Oh, and do some parkour while you're at it.

Watching that guy dart around made me think of Ace Ventura after he snuck out of the bathroom window. The only thing missing was that A-man wasn't humming his own theme music.

I haven't been able to see the History Channel show Apocalypse Man. Is there a link to watch it on the Internet?

Is History Channel Apocalypse Man based on the UK version from the 1980s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u_3kKgkmF0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BW5utPpHAc

Good evidence supporting the know your AO. For example I moved to the north side of the city and didn't know where any libraries were so I'd be hunting for them. Best to scout them out first.
Our city made a bicyling map, it lists features like libraries that normal street maps may not, picked it up at the library, somehting to get and put in the bug in gear.

I'm not a big believer in post-apocalyptic planning or scenarios, and haven't seen the show, but wanted to point out one thing about generators: in the Pacific Northwest, nearly every gas station houses a pretty nice generator, used to pump gas after wind storms have knocked out electric power to run their pumps. You can actually track this by the very nice EPA (state or federal, I forget) website that lists locations they need a permit to host the generator on a commercial site for some reason I can't remember. No need really to map them though, so many gas vendors lost so much money after a storm a couple years ago that nearly every station has been upgraded since. For those more confident that we won't all descend to the post-apocalyptic scenario of hunter scavengers, generators connected to pumps preserve the availability of gas and diesel for the several days until new supplies can begin to roll into an area. It's a good example of a fairly inexpensive response to an irregular but real problem that typically comes from a natural disaster.

So why venture into a hospital, those generators are generally enormous and bolted down pretty good. A perfectly serviceable generator is probably down the street at your local gas station, and if you are a scavenger-thief in the after-world, you have even odds of being able to detach it, remove and take it somewhere else. And not that I advocate theft in any scenario, but post-apocalypse most of these generators are sitting on commercial properties that will have long been abandoned by any corporate presence - you would not be stealing a generator from some poor neighbor's backyard, used to keep his kids warm. Cuts down on the hero factor.

Your area of the country may vary.

I really loved the theory about sewers, in that as there are less people (read that no people) using them, they will be cleaner. Yeah, the rats and cockroaches will immediately move out smartly as there is no ready supply of poopywater.

Let's see here - less people = more bodies lying about (recall the one on the lawn?). Rats eat the dead bodies, and possibly spread the unnamed plague thru contact with foodstuffs, ratbites, fleas, rat droppings, who knows? So yeah, I am going down into the sewer.

On another note, if I was avoiding people, why would I be broadcasting to find them?

And why wasn't our guy carrying a weapon? Did gunpowder suddenly take a turn south? All the dead people = more guns and ammo lying about. Break into a gunsafe if you have to, who is there to complain?

Personally, I am finding an National Guard armory. Weapons, food (if you can count MREs) and equipment.

Hummmm,

Sewers. This fellow did not mention the noxious / hazardous gasses in confined spaces. Best to let a "Friend" go first. If they pass out, don't go in your self, pull them out with the rope you tied around them. Wait, you did think about getting the body back, right?

Elevator Cables. Ever seen an elevator cable? They are covered in grease. Good luck holding on to that and descending safely.

Well, he did mention that bit about how a few rain storms would clear out the sewage (assuming the storm drains connect to the sewer system). So, without sewage, gases like H2S persumably wouldn't be a problem (at least according to the show's logic), although I think it would've been smart for them to mention toxic gasses, just in case any viewers get any "bright ideas" about exploring their local sewer system in the near future.

"Elevator Cables. Ever seen an elevator cable? They are covered in grease. Good luck holding on to that and descending safely."

If you want to descend to ground level safely, you take the stairs. If you want to descend really fast, you slide down the greasy elevator cable! (That's where the SPLAT! comes in...)

Sue

I had to laugh out loud with this. Makes perfect sense and I wouldn't have even thought about it. Going to have to ask on Facebook. "Any friends in the area Mormon? I'd like to do some canning...". Figure if they prepare for a year, they must have some ideas about getting out of town.

BTW, somewhere in the history of these forums is a link to a LDS preparedness manual. Has all kinds of information on what food to have and how to store it.

I understand that nowadays not all Mormons follow the injunction to store a year's worth of food and critical supplies. They are still way ahead of the pack.

Years ago I worked for a Mormon couple in a fairly isolated location. Storing quantities of food makes an awful lot of sense in that situation, and it is worthwhile anywhere.

IF a few rain storms would clear out the sewers, would it not stand to reason that the cholera infested river would be clean as well. After all, it would be exposed to UV light.
I find fault in crossing a drawbridge on a tire iron cum grappling hook. The bridge would be a predictable avenue of approach and probably watched. I think a boat of ones own contrivance would have been a wiser choice, particularly under cover of near darkness.
I can't think of anyone in their right mind who would slide down an elevator shaft cable unless it was absolutely necessary, those cables can be slightly frayed and a length of that broken cable could penetrate Lord knows what. Think of the ensuing infection.
I would assume that in a postapocalyptic world that hospitals would also be like little repositories for MRSA and who knows what else, I would opt to avoid them.
And first and foremost. If you are living in a world full of hostiles and you are a combat veteran, who in their right mind would not be armed with something more substantial than a four cell maglite and a leatherman.
If you are going to set up a transmitter to broadcast your location, withdraw to a distance so you can observe your broadcast location/RV point and watch the area. You can't tell from a radio conversation the intent of anyone you would meet. IF things degenerate to the Mad Max level, slavery and cannibalism are viable possibilities. It will be a labor intensive, protein deprived life...I would want something more suitable to protect me than a large flashlight and a small knife

Why do none of these shows advocate traveling at night? It may not work in every city, and I can think of some areas of NYC that it might not be wise, but if you can move fast and quick, in a city without power, you won't be seen for long. You do have the issue that you may not be seen either. Yeah, you can adapt to the night, but you have to hope someone doesn't literally blind you with a flash light.

These shows also never ever mention about how do deal with the stink either. The apocalypse is going to be a smelly affair with hundreds of millions/billions of rotting corpses; enough to ensure that no matter where you go on the planet the stink will still be around.

Of course some folks may have already been a little more prepared to cope with the sweet sickly smelly meaty stink more than others, especially folks who stand around malls outside the local well known burger chains.

Traveling at night makes a lot of sense in many circumstances. Unfortunately, it makes for bad TV.

I don't have TV, but this show sounds like a cross between Omega Man and the book Earth Abides.

Sue

Its a good thing they did the show during winter. If it were late spring, early fall, or summer, he would have been eaten alive by mosquitoes, especially wearing all black.