On one thread I asked about travel during a long term civil break down. I from the replies I got idea the majority of us think that civil break down would be a short-term deal and plan to that conclusion. Looking at the wide spread effects on this country's infrastructure that has occurred after natural and man made disasters. What would happen to this country if say we had several occurrences at one time? Say another Katrina size storm (damage wise) on our southern coast, a 89-size quake or bigger on the west coast, and a 9-11 style attack on the east coast say in DC or New York again. I use these particular ones because they are well known and stand out in every one’s mind. With the strain on our country’s resources caused by our current wars combined with not one but several emergencies at the same time how short term would that be. As a country we have been exceedingly lucky not to have had more than one large scale emergency at a time, but if our luck ended what would happen how long would it last? I am not advocating self-sufficient homesteads or any thing of that nature just providing food for thought.

Depending on exactly what is hit, things could get very chaotic, at least in places, and hopefully for only a short time. You might not see FEMA for a while (nothing new there), but there is a National Guard Armory everywhere, so I suspect that you would see green (or tan) trucks all over the place. In the past I have seen military water buffalos show up at a natural disaster within hours, and bottled water from breweries in well under 24 hours. A circus tent set up as a chow hall, with food service provided by the military, the American Red Cross, Salation Army, even major fast food chain stores within a decent commute time. Law enforcement agencies, at least in CA, have a mutual aid plan in effect, so officers from one agencies can be moved into other jurisdictions on fairly short notice.

A lot would of course depend on the nature of, location of, and size of the "disaster." Roads that are impassible are impassible, greatly complicating things. Helicopters can only carry so much...

Your also more likely to have a smaller more localized disaster than a large one. So we plan accordingly. A large long term disaster will take the same kinds of preps as a short term so having enough preps for a short term situation will still help in a long term, for long term you just need more. So as you start out becoming prepared you work your way up.

I agree that on the surface that it would appear to be several localized disaters, but you have to think about how many people come to those disaters from other parts of the country. if there are several large emergencies where do the recovery crews come from. After Katrina workers came from all over the country to repair power and other utilities, and after so long there are still workers on the gulf coast working to rebuild. if there are several disaters at once where would those people come from, and if it takes years to recover from 1 hurricane, or earthquake, or one attack what happens after several at once.

There is a flip side to the question of where do the repair crews come from. That is, where do the refugees go? The rest of the country absorbed the Katrina refugees relatively painlessly. But in your scenario where several population centers are hit at once, it makes me wonder where people would go to live during the recovery.

You definitely provide food for thought.

It is an interesting scenario, but that isn't civil breakdown. It's is TEOTWAWKI- it is in all honesty beyond the scope of the existing available response.

That being said, as I use it, WWII was a TEOTWAWKI event. Europe has recovered, Asia has recovered. The "Big One" hitting California or Japan, or multiple Class 4-5 hurricanes, or even a limited nuclear exchange would all similarly be TEOTWAWKI events. And honestly, by definition, that while you can prepare supplies and develop tentative plans, it's going to be worse than anyone can imagine.

Yeah, other than Houston's violent crime rate skyrocketing...


-Blast

I had never considered it TEOTWAWKI but your right. If you think about it it really dosen't take much does it.

I agree with Blast. Almost everywhere that refugees were sent will not agree with the "painless" description!

There are many places where FEMA has yet to provide any meaningful help because the cities are absorbing most all of the resources available. There are still many "blue roofs" in Port Arthur, Tx and eastward to Florida. I do "crew changes" all along the coastal areas and then drive through those areas on the way home. I still see a lot of damage that is waiting to be repaired.

I don't have any confidence that waiting "fo th' gummint to hep me" is a good idea.

Nope. We've outsmarted, outfought, outlucked and outstubborned our way to the top of the food chain, and it only takes Mother Nature to have a REALLY bad day to mess it all up. Who knows, maybe in three or fourth thousand years, they will tell Atlantis-like legends about our era.