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From the article, the community has stockpiled resources, but their plows and skidsteers are all out of commission. They literally cannot get to the firewood, a

From the article, the community has stockpiled resources, but their plows and skidsteers are all out of commission. They literally cannot get to the firewood, and every time they clear some snow out more blows in. Some people have been completely isolated in their homes for 8 days. I'd say most people, even in rural areas, don't have a supply that'll last longer than that, except for some hardcore preppers.

nottorp 4y ago
How's the winter in that area normally ? Because i've lived my first ~16 years of life in a home heated with firewood (and coal but it's irellevant now) and by the end of september all the fuel needed for 3 months of winter was neatly piled up within easy reach of the house. All you needed was to shovel like 20 meters of path and maybe a wheelbarrow. Why would you need something motorized to get to your firewood? Doesn't make sense unless they've never had heavy winters before.
- jrochkind1 4y ago
  I don't know the details, but they are very very poor (Pine Ridge is often calculated to have the highest unemployment and lowest per capita income in the entire country; life expectancy is ~50 years), and I'm not sure how forrested the land is, it's mostly grassland/prairie. The OP article suggested that many people ordinarily use propane heat, which normally can be delivered just fine. I don't know enough to say why not firewood, but I'd guess expense and convenience. Aha, this other article mentions a firewood shortage, but doesn't say details: > In homes heated by firewood, there is another battle. Yellow Hair says there is a firewood shortage happening on the reservation, but communities are coming together to help one another. “Lending that helping hand, when they can and where they can,” said Yellow Hair. Keeping people warm is an issue across much of the Pine Ridge Reservation, with a firewood shortage and propane trucks jelling up from the cold. —https://www.blackhillsfox.com/2022/12/22/one-natural-phenomenon-after-another-people-pine-ridge-reservation-tackle-extreme-circumstances/ https://www.blackhillsfox.com/2022/12/22/one-natural-phenome... And here's an article about life in Pine Ridge generally: > Among the most impoverished of these reservations, Pine Ridge is plagued by an 80 to 90 percent unemployment rate with a median individual income of $4,000 a year, according to the Re-Member nonprofit organisation’s 2007 statistics. — https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2016/11/2/life-on-the-pine-ridge-native-american-reservation https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2016/11/2/life-on-the-pin...
  - brookst 4y ago
    Thank you for the context. It’s a little cringey to read all of the comparatively wealthy and privileged comments that boil down to “why didn’t they just spend lots of money on equipment and supplies.”
    - Aeolun 4y ago
      Another question is why they all still live there?
      - bombcar 4y ago
        It’s a reservation and they’re the natives there. And the average is quite young, so I think everyone who can escape does (which can harm the remainder in other ways).
        itsagavin 4y ago
        I spent time in ND, SD and MN matching online and phone wagering with receptive reservations. IMHO if you want to escape the res you gotta go far far away. Think 1000 miles. The racism in the Midwest is so entrenched that they solved the who!e uncomfortable mingling with people you hate thing by COMPLETELY excluding natives from society. The amount of times I saw natives bounced just for walking in to a bar in Fargo was disgusting. Its just assumed by race they are drunk, poor, vagrant and violent.
        doodlebugging 4y ago
        This also happens in Montana and around Four Corners, wherever there are reservations and non-native Americans mingling. The old bias against drunken Indians rears its head. Local characterizations propagate the narrative that the reservation is full of lazy drunks, dopeheads, or abusive and combative individuals. I was able to work with members of the Ute and Navajo tribes in Four Corners years ago when our company worked on reservation lands and was required to hire a percentage of local laborers. Those guys worked as hard as the rest of us out in the July sun down in the hot canyons. They laughed at and with each other poking jibes at each other since their tribes were traditionally not allies. It was all good-natured ribbing and I'm sure they knew each other or of each other before working with us. They worked the length of our contract in the area and had few issues with attendance or effort. Local whites always talked down about the natives but I found them to be as dependable as Mexican and central American immigrants (legal or otherwise) that I worked with in Texas and other states. These people needed jobs and were willing to work to keep a job and the quality of their efforts was on par or better than the quality of local labor. In contrast, our company cycled through local non-native help. Many of those people appeared and worked long enough to earn a paycheck and then disappeared. Some even played the employment game where a group of friends hired out to each of the three non-local companies and on any given day your rolls would show all of them working with one of your crews, some of them with one of your crews, or none of them with your crews that day. They went where they thought the best pay opportunity of the day would be and had a friend sign them in where they were expected to be so they could earn a check there too. This went on for weeks until one of our crews had a problem in the field and in the process of sorting it out and looking for a scapegoat, they went through the rolls of potential crew members who should have had responsibility and discovered that several people listed as being present and working did not show up at all. Since the three companies were in the same business and everyone knew everyone else our party manager had a talk with the other guys and they compared employee rolls and discovered all the overlap and the system of sign-ins. All of those people were fired immediately when they showed up for their next day's work. These were ordinary white guys who all lived in that area.
- Klathmon 4y ago
  >All you needed was to shovel like 20 meters of path and maybe a wheelbarrow. According to the article some of the areas are getting 30 inches of snow and ice! With drifts easily doubling that, I could see how 20 meters could quickly become near impossible to clear by hand, especially while it's still coming down.
  - plorg 4y ago
    The article mentions drifts as tall as houses. Even if you could get a shovel or snowblower under that, where do you put the snow? That's a ton of work!
  - postalrat 4y ago
    Snow drifts can go 20 feet or higher with no place to shovel the snow to
    - jkepler 4y ago
      Could they dig or melt a tunnel to the wood? If the snow were melted and then refroze as ice at the bottom of the tunnel, one could then slid the wood back to the tunnel entrance... Hardship breeds creativity. Necessity is the mother of invention (except under excessive government intervention, which may be at the root of reservation problems). Maybe if we could calculate the present day market value of all the land the US government stole from the Native Americans (I've heard we broke nearly every treaty we signed with the Native Americans... to our shame), that could be structural payments to encourage entrepreneurial activity on the reservation
      - lazyasciiart 4y ago
        This idea sounds like literal murder.
      - zdragnar 4y ago
        The odds of the snow caving in and being buried alive are far greater than the risks of waiting to get plowed out.
- CWuestefeld 4y ago
  That matches my experience. We'd typically have enough for the winter stacked at the edge of the woods behind the house, but maybe 1-2 weeks worth actually on the porch under cover to ensure it was dry by the time it was needed. (This was back in the late 70s to very early 80s, on account of fuel costs, inflation, etc.)
- kranke155 4y ago
  This comment is peak HN contrarianism. “How come they didn’t prepare better for a brutal winter” Is the new “Dropbox will never work”
  - bombcar 4y ago
    I suspect that most HN commentators do NOT know exactly how close to starvation and freezing and death they are (you can sit down and calculate it based on which assumptions could fail) but in the places where it gets cold you may be days or less if power fails. If your furnace can’t run without electricity how long does your house stay habitable? What backup heat do you have? If the gas lines are flowing you might be able to use a stove for awhile, or the water heater (both are often firable without electricity) - but how long will your food and water last?
    - toomuchtodo 4y ago
      I really love your comment because it helps reframe the requirements gathering and solutioning process (as well as the constraints you're operating within) for an audience that, under the right circumstances, can effectively direct their engineering experience and knowledge to solve real world problems.
      - bombcar 4y ago
        Yeah it’s actually kind of “fun” in a way. What will fail first? Ok let’s mitigate that. What now fails first? Can we mitigate that without ruining the first fix? It’s like a survival Gantt chart!
    - pard68 4y ago
      I too appreciate your comment. Most folks here are probably less prepared than those in these rural reservations. NYC area has begun warning about blackouts to conserve power. They don't even have a fireplace or woodstove to burn clothes in.
      - bombcar 4y ago
- Brian_K_White 4y ago
  Same, upstate NY as a teenager. A couple cords stacked a few yards from the house, enough for the entire year. One problem we would never have is heat, except that if the power went out then some rooms would go cold with no way to run fans to move the air around. But no one would freeze because most of the house could be like a dry sauna. I think in this case it must be more about a level of poverty so extreme they can't even pull together the years supply ahead of time, even if the community as a whole does have it all ready. Maybe they don't distribute it except it tiny amounts for some reason? Maybe it gets stolen or sold? I mean I can only assume that there is some reason they can't do the sensible thing. I couldn't imagine risking relying on daily or weekly deliveries of tiny armloads of wood. I can only assume anyone doing that has no choice or at least thinks they have no choice. I'm sure there are a few individuals who are just, let's say thoughtless, because there are always some, I'm not counting those.
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  The skid steers comments were about an organisation which stores and delivers wood to residents in the area. Individual households / residences presumably aren't using skid steers to retrieve wood. From the article: Oglala-based service organization Re-Member provides firewood to families on all corners of the reservation, but the drifts of snow have rendered their wood stockpile inaccessible still – and it’ll be that way for the foreseeable future. “Our wood pile remains inaccessible,” read a Facebook post on Dec. 20. “Our skid steer and plow are out-of-service. Given the conditions, it would be near impossible to operate our equipment and unsafe for our staff to work in the conditions we are facing. That is, one of the key stockpiles serving the community couldn't provide fuelwood due to both weather conditions and broken equipment. And, as numerous others have noted, the region is desperately poor and remote.
survirtual 4y ago
Most people in rural areas have some kind of food store with canned goods. With things like Soylent and Huel, those can also be used. I had 6 months of Soylent back in the day. 2 bags of Huel can last about 6 days and fits in a small bag — it is one of my hacks for backpacking. If you haven’t already, I recommend having a supply of canned beans, canned tuna, canned meats to preference, canned sardines, bulk rice (you can drop dry ice in a 5 gallon container and fill it with rice, then put silica packets on top, then seal it). With that, you can eat pretty good limited only by the duration being prepared for, and it is relatively cheap & space efficient. For water, buy a Sawyer filter. I like the squeeze. They are capable of removing most harmful organisms out of the water, are very portable, and would help a lot during a water supply issue. They do not filter chemicals or dissolved solids. I use mine when backpacking to drink out of just about every fresh water source you can imagine, and I use it when traveling to other countries with questionable water supplies. Also, do yourself a favor and buy a bidet seat. These will change your life. Not only is it more hygienic, it reduces the use of toilet paper significantly. In the event of disaster but water is still flowing, that is one less thing to think about. For warmth, have the layers available. A wool base layer can keep you warm in even the coldest climates. Do not use cotton; cotton is deadly when wet in cold. Wool insulates even when wet — this is commonly known but I have actually tested it with wool socks walking around in the Virgin river in Zion National Park during the height of winter, among other places. Also would want an insulated windbreaker that can be removed as needed. Warm clothing / blankets / etc is more reliable than a fuel source for heating in my opinion, because you could get snowed in and cut off from the fuel. These are not actions reserved for just preppers. I think everyone should have this kind of basic readiness on some level. No one in the US, for instance, has any excuse because it is all very very affordable, and also contribute positively to the environment in the case of a bidet seat. If I was in the position most of you are in (I have opted out of the housing market for ethical reasons), I’d also be powered mostly via solar and a 3 day reserve battery for the house. Expensive, but worth it. All my heating and cooling would be electrical and I would have an inductive stovetop. Everything electrified. It is a privilege to have that kind of prep but it has a dual purpose of not hurting the environment. When I am in the wild, I do not like to carry anything that is singular purpose. Everything must have multiple uses. This reduces waste and increases efficiency in many ways. Likewise, for disaster readiness, you need to tweak the way you live normally to be efficient during disaster. A bidet seat, for instance, is a good example. This makes your life more efficient, more comfortable, and reduces waste. Simultaneously, it functions much better during disaster. Food storage can also be done similarly. Store things you would actually eat but preserve well. Rotate the storage by actually using it; this lets you keep track of what is still good and integrates it into your diet realistically. Water filters can be used while hiking. Use them. Go on a hike and take a drink from your rivers or lakes. It is refreshing. If your rivers and lakes have dangerous chemicals dissolved in it because of human activity, don’t you think something should be done about that? Aim for at least dual purpose in things. Readiness should function without the survival aspect and flow into survival without friction.
c-fe 4y ago
> I'd say most people, even in rural areas, don't have a supply that'll last longer than that, except for some hardcore preppers. I disagree. Or, at least where I live (densely populated europe), nearly everyone with their own house has at lease one (small) fireplace with some wood stored outside, typically enough for at least a month (otherwhise, do you go shopping wood every week?). Food-wise I agree that 8 days may touch the limits of food supply for families, but I know plenty people that have pasta / rice in stock for days. And this is in Europe without any wilderness. I cant believe that more rural americans are less equiped than this altough maybe I am wrong.
- LinuxBender 4y ago
  That is my take as well. Everyone around me keeps at least 1 cord of wood [1] or more. It can get cold here and people are expected to be self sufficient. The less fortunate people instead of buying wood will get a permit from the state to chop wood from a specified area but then they have to haul/cut/dry/season the wood themselves usually borrowing a neighbors trailer. People here are friendly and share tools. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cord_(unit) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cord_(unit)
  - barney54 4y ago
    People who live on Indian Reservations are frequently really, really poor and likely couldn’t afford to stock up with that much wood beforehand.
    - LinuxBender 4y ago
      You've given me something to go do. I've never visited the reservation near me. [1] If they are unaware of the wood cutting permits [2] I will show them. [1] - https://windriver.org/destinations/wind-river-indian-reservation/ https://windriver.org/destinations/wind-river-indian-reserva... [2] - https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mbr/passes-permits/forestproducts/?cid=stelprdb5151691 https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mbr/passes-permits/forestprod...
karmelapple 4y ago
I grew up in North Dakota, and the place in this news story is in South Dakota. I knew plenty of folks in rural areas with enough resources for weeks, not days. Running water might be the exception, but many farmers I know had well water.
- kwhitefoot 4y ago
  If you have enough fuel then water is not a problem in the snow. I've been in a cabin in Norway when the well which was about 70 metres away was buried in snow but we just took a bucket full of snow in an put it on top of the wood burner to thaw.
- msrenee 4y ago
  Running on a well only gets you so far in the running water game when the power goes out.
kneebonian 4y ago
> Some people have been completely isolated in their homes for 8 days. I'd say most people, even in rural areas, don't have a supply that'll last longer than that, except for some hardcore preppers. I wouldn't say that, I try and always have 3 months supply of food on hand in case something happens, even just a temporary job loss, in fact the idea of having less than a full months supply of food on hand seems terrifying to me, as evidenced all you need is one bad winter storm and your looking at starvation. In fact the church I belong to encourages members to have 1-6 months supply of food on hand in case of emergencies and it would be something I'd recommend everyone do. It gives you substantial peace of mind.
- EschatonCometh 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - kneebonian 4y ago
    I mean the Church I belong to says nothing about the end times but rather encourages it as a matter of self-reliance with the idea being you need to be in a stable place in order to help and lift others, nothing about the end times. EDIT: I should clarify the Church I belong to doesn't encourage having a supply of food because of end times although it does accept the doctrine of Eschatology.
  - pard68 4y ago
    > EschatonCometh I can't stop laughing. Your lack of self awareness is staggering
  - ArmandTanzarian 4y ago
    I would encourage Eschaton to re-read the words they typed and consider the irony. "F your peace of mind. It is a narrow banded one." I am not religious, but your hostility smacks of the "narrow bandedness" your post is so quick to call out.
- zdragnar 4y ago
  As pointed out elsewhere, this is a very, very poor community. Stockpiling food is likely not an option for most if they truly do have unemployment in the 90% range
paganel 4y ago
Serious question, why aren't the firewood stockpiles in very close proximity to the houses themselves? That's what we do in these parts of the world where I live (Eastern Europe), where even the apartment blocks that still rely on firewood store it very close to the buildings themselves, in walking distance (as can be seen via this GStreetView link [1]) [1] https://www.google.com/maps/@46.5413445,22.4545999,3a,49y,105.66h,93.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1saHJ_84ib93iiZ1O5iPegsA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@46.5413445,22.4545999,3a,49y,10...
- bombcar 4y ago
  Firewood also has pest issues and other problems so you often want to only store as much as you “need” near the dwelling. Remember that the distances aren’t even a football field away; more like across a large street. But under enough snow that’s impossible to pass.
qup 4y ago
Supply of wood? In my area people who don't cut their own just buy a cord or whatever they need each fall. Enough to go through winter. People who cut their own will generally have more than that. The people I know have propane heaters for backup, with their own tanks. I have a 500 gallon tank. I'm not a prepper.

nottorp 4y ago

How's the winter in that area normally ? Because i've lived my first ~16 years of life in a home heated with firewood (and coal but it's irellevant now) and by the end of september all the fuel needed for 3 months of winter was neatly piled up within easy reach of the house. All you needed was to shovel like 20 meters of path and maybe a wheelbarrow. Why would you need something motorized to get to your firewood? Doesn't make sense unless they've never had heavy winters before.

jrochkind1 4y ago
I don't know the details, but they are very very poor (Pine Ridge is often calculated to have the highest unemployment and lowest per capita income in the entire country; life expectancy is ~50 years), and I'm not sure how forrested the land is, it's mostly grassland/prairie. The OP article suggested that many people ordinarily use propane heat, which normally can be delivered just fine. I don't know enough to say why not firewood, but I'd guess expense and convenience. Aha, this other article mentions a firewood shortage, but doesn't say details: > In homes heated by firewood, there is another battle. Yellow Hair says there is a firewood shortage happening on the reservation, but communities are coming together to help one another. “Lending that helping hand, when they can and where they can,” said Yellow Hair. Keeping people warm is an issue across much of the Pine Ridge Reservation, with a firewood shortage and propane trucks jelling up from the cold. —https://www.blackhillsfox.com/2022/12/22/one-natural-phenomenon-after-another-people-pine-ridge-reservation-tackle-extreme-circumstances/ https://www.blackhillsfox.com/2022/12/22/one-natural-phenome... And here's an article about life in Pine Ridge generally: > Among the most impoverished of these reservations, Pine Ridge is plagued by an 80 to 90 percent unemployment rate with a median individual income of $4,000 a year, according to the Re-Member nonprofit organisation’s 2007 statistics. — https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2016/11/2/life-on-the-pine-ridge-native-american-reservation https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2016/11/2/life-on-the-pin...
- brookst 4y ago
  Thank you for the context. It’s a little cringey to read all of the comparatively wealthy and privileged comments that boil down to “why didn’t they just spend lots of money on equipment and supplies.”
  - Aeolun 4y ago
    Another question is why they all still live there?
    - bombcar 4y ago
      It’s a reservation and they’re the natives there. And the average is quite young, so I think everyone who can escape does (which can harm the remainder in other ways).
      - itsagavin 4y ago
        I spent time in ND, SD and MN matching online and phone wagering with receptive reservations. IMHO if you want to escape the res you gotta go far far away. Think 1000 miles. The racism in the Midwest is so entrenched that they solved the who!e uncomfortable mingling with people you hate thing by COMPLETELY excluding natives from society. The amount of times I saw natives bounced just for walking in to a bar in Fargo was disgusting. Its just assumed by race they are drunk, poor, vagrant and violent.
        doodlebugging 4y ago
        This also happens in Montana and around Four Corners, wherever there are reservations and non-native Americans mingling. The old bias against drunken Indians rears its head. Local characterizations propagate the narrative that the reservation is full of lazy drunks, dopeheads, or abusive and combative individuals. I was able to work with members of the Ute and Navajo tribes in Four Corners years ago when our company worked on reservation lands and was required to hire a percentage of local laborers. Those guys worked as hard as the rest of us out in the July sun down in the hot canyons. They laughed at and with each other poking jibes at each other since their tribes were traditionally not allies. It was all good-natured ribbing and I'm sure they knew each other or of each other before working with us. They worked the length of our contract in the area and had few issues with attendance or effort. Local whites always talked down about the natives but I found them to be as dependable as Mexican and central American immigrants (legal or otherwise) that I worked with in Texas and other states. These people needed jobs and were willing to work to keep a job and the quality of their efforts was on par or better than the quality of local labor. In contrast, our company cycled through local non-native help. Many of those people appeared and worked long enough to earn a paycheck and then disappeared. Some even played the employment game where a group of friends hired out to each of the three non-local companies and on any given day your rolls would show all of them working with one of your crews, some of them with one of your crews, or none of them with your crews that day. They went where they thought the best pay opportunity of the day would be and had a friend sign them in where they were expected to be so they could earn a check there too. This went on for weeks until one of our crews had a problem in the field and in the process of sorting it out and looking for a scapegoat, they went through the rolls of potential crew members who should have had responsibility and discovered that several people listed as being present and working did not show up at all. Since the three companies were in the same business and everyone knew everyone else our party manager had a talk with the other guys and they compared employee rolls and discovered all the overlap and the system of sign-ins. All of those people were fired immediately when they showed up for their next day's work. These were ordinary white guys who all lived in that area.
Klathmon 4y ago
>All you needed was to shovel like 20 meters of path and maybe a wheelbarrow. According to the article some of the areas are getting 30 inches of snow and ice! With drifts easily doubling that, I could see how 20 meters could quickly become near impossible to clear by hand, especially while it's still coming down.
- plorg 4y ago
  The article mentions drifts as tall as houses. Even if you could get a shovel or snowblower under that, where do you put the snow? That's a ton of work!
- postalrat 4y ago
  Snow drifts can go 20 feet or higher with no place to shovel the snow to
  - jkepler 4y ago
    Could they dig or melt a tunnel to the wood? If the snow were melted and then refroze as ice at the bottom of the tunnel, one could then slid the wood back to the tunnel entrance... Hardship breeds creativity. Necessity is the mother of invention (except under excessive government intervention, which may be at the root of reservation problems). Maybe if we could calculate the present day market value of all the land the US government stole from the Native Americans (I've heard we broke nearly every treaty we signed with the Native Americans... to our shame), that could be structural payments to encourage entrepreneurial activity on the reservation
    - lazyasciiart 4y ago
      This idea sounds like literal murder.
    - zdragnar 4y ago
      The odds of the snow caving in and being buried alive are far greater than the risks of waiting to get plowed out.
CWuestefeld 4y ago
That matches my experience. We'd typically have enough for the winter stacked at the edge of the woods behind the house, but maybe 1-2 weeks worth actually on the porch under cover to ensure it was dry by the time it was needed. (This was back in the late 70s to very early 80s, on account of fuel costs, inflation, etc.)
kranke155 4y ago
This comment is peak HN contrarianism. “How come they didn’t prepare better for a brutal winter” Is the new “Dropbox will never work”
- bombcar 4y ago
  I suspect that most HN commentators do NOT know exactly how close to starvation and freezing and death they are (you can sit down and calculate it based on which assumptions could fail) but in the places where it gets cold you may be days or less if power fails. If your furnace can’t run without electricity how long does your house stay habitable? What backup heat do you have? If the gas lines are flowing you might be able to use a stove for awhile, or the water heater (both are often firable without electricity) - but how long will your food and water last?
  - toomuchtodo 4y ago
    I really love your comment because it helps reframe the requirements gathering and solutioning process (as well as the constraints you're operating within) for an audience that, under the right circumstances, can effectively direct their engineering experience and knowledge to solve real world problems.
    - bombcar 4y ago
      Yeah it’s actually kind of “fun” in a way. What will fail first? Ok let’s mitigate that. What now fails first? Can we mitigate that without ruining the first fix? It’s like a survival Gantt chart!
  - pard68 4y ago
    I too appreciate your comment. Most folks here are probably less prepared than those in these rural reservations. NYC area has begun warning about blackouts to conserve power. They don't even have a fireplace or woodstove to burn clothes in.
    - bombcar 4y ago
Brian_K_White 4y ago
Same, upstate NY as a teenager. A couple cords stacked a few yards from the house, enough for the entire year. One problem we would never have is heat, except that if the power went out then some rooms would go cold with no way to run fans to move the air around. But no one would freeze because most of the house could be like a dry sauna. I think in this case it must be more about a level of poverty so extreme they can't even pull together the years supply ahead of time, even if the community as a whole does have it all ready. Maybe they don't distribute it except it tiny amounts for some reason? Maybe it gets stolen or sold? I mean I can only assume that there is some reason they can't do the sensible thing. I couldn't imagine risking relying on daily or weekly deliveries of tiny armloads of wood. I can only assume anyone doing that has no choice or at least thinks they have no choice. I'm sure there are a few individuals who are just, let's say thoughtless, because there are always some, I'm not counting those.
dredmorbius 4y ago
The skid steers comments were about an organisation which stores and delivers wood to residents in the area. Individual households / residences presumably aren't using skid steers to retrieve wood. From the article: Oglala-based service organization Re-Member provides firewood to families on all corners of the reservation, but the drifts of snow have rendered their wood stockpile inaccessible still – and it’ll be that way for the foreseeable future. “Our wood pile remains inaccessible,” read a Facebook post on Dec. 20. “Our skid steer and plow are out-of-service. Given the conditions, it would be near impossible to operate our equipment and unsafe for our staff to work in the conditions we are facing. That is, one of the key stockpiles serving the community couldn't provide fuelwood due to both weather conditions and broken equipment. And, as numerous others have noted, the region is desperately poor and remote.

survirtual 4y ago

Most people in rural areas have some kind of food store with canned goods. With things like Soylent and Huel, those can also be used. I had 6 months of Soylent back in the day. 2 bags of Huel can last about 6 days and fits in a small bag — it is one of my hacks for backpacking. If you haven’t already, I recommend having a supply of canned beans, canned tuna, canned meats to preference, canned sardines, bulk rice (you can drop dry ice in a 5 gallon container and fill it with rice, then put silica packets on top, then seal it). With that, you can eat pretty good limited only by the duration being prepared for, and it is relatively cheap & space efficient. For water, buy a Sawyer filter. I like the squeeze. They are capable of removing most harmful organisms out of the water, are very portable, and would help a lot during a water supply issue. They do not filter chemicals or dissolved solids. I use mine when backpacking to drink out of just about every fresh water source you can imagine, and I use it when traveling to other countries with questionable water supplies. Also, do yourself a favor and buy a bidet seat. These will change your life. Not only is it more hygienic, it reduces the use of toilet paper significantly. In the event of disaster but water is still flowing, that is one less thing to think about. For warmth, have the layers available. A wool base layer can keep you warm in even the coldest climates. Do not use cotton; cotton is deadly when wet in cold. Wool insulates even when wet — this is commonly known but I have actually tested it with wool socks walking around in the Virgin river in Zion National Park during the height of winter, among other places. Also would want an insulated windbreaker that can be removed as needed. Warm clothing / blankets / etc is more reliable than a fuel source for heating in my opinion, because you could get snowed in and cut off from the fuel. These are not actions reserved for just preppers. I think everyone should have this kind of basic readiness on some level. No one in the US, for instance, has any excuse because it is all very very affordable, and also contribute positively to the environment in the case of a bidet seat. If I was in the position most of you are in (I have opted out of the housing market for ethical reasons), I’d also be powered mostly via solar and a 3 day reserve battery for the house. Expensive, but worth it. All my heating and cooling would be electrical and I would have an inductive stovetop. Everything electrified. It is a privilege to have that kind of prep but it has a dual purpose of not hurting the environment. When I am in the wild, I do not like to carry anything that is singular purpose. Everything must have multiple uses. This reduces waste and increases efficiency in many ways. Likewise, for disaster readiness, you need to tweak the way you live normally to be efficient during disaster. A bidet seat, for instance, is a good example. This makes your life more efficient, more comfortable, and reduces waste. Simultaneously, it functions much better during disaster. Food storage can also be done similarly. Store things you would actually eat but preserve well. Rotate the storage by actually using it; this lets you keep track of what is still good and integrates it into your diet realistically. Water filters can be used while hiking. Use them. Go on a hike and take a drink from your rivers or lakes. It is refreshing. If your rivers and lakes have dangerous chemicals dissolved in it because of human activity, don’t you think something should be done about that? Aim for at least dual purpose in things. Readiness should function without the survival aspect and flow into survival without friction.

c-fe 4y ago

> I'd say most people, even in rural areas, don't have a supply that'll last longer than that, except for some hardcore preppers. I disagree. Or, at least where I live (densely populated europe), nearly everyone with their own house has at lease one (small) fireplace with some wood stored outside, typically enough for at least a month (otherwhise, do you go shopping wood every week?). Food-wise I agree that 8 days may touch the limits of food supply for families, but I know plenty people that have pasta / rice in stock for days. And this is in Europe without any wilderness. I cant believe that more rural americans are less equiped than this altough maybe I am wrong.

LinuxBender 4y ago
That is my take as well. Everyone around me keeps at least 1 cord of wood [1] or more. It can get cold here and people are expected to be self sufficient. The less fortunate people instead of buying wood will get a permit from the state to chop wood from a specified area but then they have to haul/cut/dry/season the wood themselves usually borrowing a neighbors trailer. People here are friendly and share tools. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cord_(unit) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cord_(unit)
- barney54 4y ago
  People who live on Indian Reservations are frequently really, really poor and likely couldn’t afford to stock up with that much wood beforehand.
  - LinuxBender 4y ago
    You've given me something to go do. I've never visited the reservation near me. [1] If they are unaware of the wood cutting permits [2] I will show them. [1] - https://windriver.org/destinations/wind-river-indian-reservation/ https://windriver.org/destinations/wind-river-indian-reserva... [2] - https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mbr/passes-permits/forestproducts/?cid=stelprdb5151691 https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mbr/passes-permits/forestprod...

karmelapple 4y ago

I grew up in North Dakota, and the place in this news story is in South Dakota. I knew plenty of folks in rural areas with enough resources for weeks, not days. Running water might be the exception, but many farmers I know had well water.

kwhitefoot 4y ago
If you have enough fuel then water is not a problem in the snow. I've been in a cabin in Norway when the well which was about 70 metres away was buried in snow but we just took a bucket full of snow in an put it on top of the wood burner to thaw.
msrenee 4y ago
Running on a well only gets you so far in the running water game when the power goes out.

kneebonian 4y ago

> Some people have been completely isolated in their homes for 8 days. I'd say most people, even in rural areas, don't have a supply that'll last longer than that, except for some hardcore preppers. I wouldn't say that, I try and always have 3 months supply of food on hand in case something happens, even just a temporary job loss, in fact the idea of having less than a full months supply of food on hand seems terrifying to me, as evidenced all you need is one bad winter storm and your looking at starvation. In fact the church I belong to encourages members to have 1-6 months supply of food on hand in case of emergencies and it would be something I'd recommend everyone do. It gives you substantial peace of mind.

EschatonCometh 4y ago
[flagged]
- kneebonian 4y ago
  I mean the Church I belong to says nothing about the end times but rather encourages it as a matter of self-reliance with the idea being you need to be in a stable place in order to help and lift others, nothing about the end times. EDIT: I should clarify the Church I belong to doesn't encourage having a supply of food because of end times although it does accept the doctrine of Eschatology.
- pard68 4y ago
  > EschatonCometh I can't stop laughing. Your lack of self awareness is staggering
- ArmandTanzarian 4y ago
  I would encourage Eschaton to re-read the words they typed and consider the irony. "F your peace of mind. It is a narrow banded one." I am not religious, but your hostility smacks of the "narrow bandedness" your post is so quick to call out.
zdragnar 4y ago
As pointed out elsewhere, this is a very, very poor community. Stockpiling food is likely not an option for most if they truly do have unemployment in the 90% range

paganel 4y ago

Serious question, why aren't the firewood stockpiles in very close proximity to the houses themselves? That's what we do in these parts of the world where I live (Eastern Europe), where even the apartment blocks that still rely on firewood store it very close to the buildings themselves, in walking distance (as can be seen via this GStreetView link [1]) [1] https://www.google.com/maps/@46.5413445,22.4545999,3a,49y,105.66h,93.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1saHJ_84ib93iiZ1O5iPegsA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@46.5413445,22.4545999,3a,49y,10...

bombcar 4y ago
Firewood also has pest issues and other problems so you often want to only store as much as you “need” near the dwelling. Remember that the distances aren’t even a football field away; more like across a large street. But under enough snow that’s impossible to pass.

qup 4y ago

Supply of wood? In my area people who don't cut their own just buy a cord or whatever they need each fall. Enough to go through winter. People who cut their own will generally have more than that. The people I know have propane heaters for backup, with their own tanks. I have a 500 gallon tank. I'm not a prepper.