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As Portland resident, I remember the waves this article made around here. Friends and family prepared "go-bags" and "bug-out kits" and dutifully stocked away ex

As Portland resident, I remember the waves this article made around here. Friends and family prepared "go-bags" and "bug-out kits" and dutifully stocked away extra provisions. This has mostly all evaporated into distant memory and nobody seems to have the same level preparedness anymore. This was just the time my wife and I purchased a slide-in truck camper. In my view, a truck camper is a perfect emergency shelter. We keep it fully fueled, with full fresh water tanks, and fully stocked with provisions. The camper has a built-in generator, solar chargers, 50+ gallons of fresh water, hot shower, kitchen, comfortable bed, fridge, freezer, etc. It sits in our driveway. It is fully mobile - it can also go anywhere the dually truck can go. We've had to use it as an emergency shelter twice now because of ice storms knocking out power to our home and neighborhood for days at a time with ambient temps below 15 degrees. I keep 5 extra propane tanks in my shed along with extra water and shelf stable provisions. In the next month, we are going to install a transfer switch on the breaker panel in our house that will allow us to run the house from the camper generator. It will be limited, but we will be able to keep the furnace and fridge going. Nobody I know who owns an RV sets it up as an emergency shelter. I don't know why - but the threat of a major, disastrous earthquake is very real. Further, many of my neighbors were ill-prepared for the most recent major storm two weeks ago (despite plenty of warning) and grumbled a lot about the city falling down on its job. In a major earthquake these people are going to be desperate and many people will die. The city will be broken and if you rely on emergency services - you are going to be lucky to survive. I'm not a prepper. We bought the camper for off-grid camping in remote wilderness - but I do believe in common sense preparation for "The Big One". Despite the flurry of attention this article created in 2015 - most people have put it out of their mind.

blueprint 3y ago
this is virtually my strategy too - but keep in mind when the event happens, chances are you won't be able to drive super far without going off road, and even then, you may end up blocked. roads and highways are expected to have massive damage. people dont realize that e.g the entire valley zone of Oregon will have no restoration of infrastructure until potentially more than a year after the event (coming straight from a study I could cite if needed). we're talking no hospitals, no police, no water, no sewer... for more than a year...
- ramenbytes 3y ago
  Cite for curious folks?
  - blueprint 3y ago
    https://www.oregon.gov/oem/Documents/01_ORP_Cascadia.pdf https://www.oregon.gov/oem/Documents/01_ORP_Cascadia.pdf looks like I slightly exaggerated a couple figures and understated others. 3 years to restore healthcare in the valley zone.
- 7952 3y ago
  Yeah I think people overestimate the effectiveness of four wheel vehicles on uneven ground. It is very easy to get bogged down, tip into a ditch, run out of clearence on one side or have major technical issues. And the routes that do exist can get blocked very easily. A pair of boots, a trail bike, or a mountain bike are in a different league on that kind of terrain. You can always get off and push. Obviously a vehicle is good but may just be phase 1 of bugging out. Best to pack the bike, sleeping bag and water purifier.
  - LiquidPolymer 3y ago
    Good points. My comment about the mobility of the truck camper applies only if we can in fact, find passable surfaces. The point for us is to be prepared to the best of our ability and I think we have done a good job in the regard. We will have a potential survival advantage. My biggest worry are other, extremely desperate people whom I would be very inclined to help. But this would have limits and things might get gnarly leading into an area I hate to think about - using lethal force to protect my family. Hopefully, simply being visibly armed would be a deterrent, but its hard to game out how bad it might get. My larger point is really about how ill-prepared most of my neighbors are. The recent storm simply highlighted this problem. We were all very comfortable because we had a generator and alternate, heated shelter. I spent a lot of time helping neighbors. I also had the only vehicle (Outback with all wheel drive with blizzak tires - just amazing on ice) on my sloped street that could successfully navigate ice so I was out buying cat food for my elderly neighbor, and buying groceries for our other neighbors with a new baby.
Steven420 3y ago
You are a prepper... And that's not a bad thing. Only stupid people think that being prepared for emergency situations is stupid
AlbertCory 3y ago
it's good you can live in the camper, but: the roads will all be out, or gridlocked in both directions, with criminals on foot robbing the cars. Or if you do get where you want to go, it'll be thronged with other urban escapees and they'll have even less food, water, and shelter. My own belief is, your house is unlikely to be really unhabitable. It's better to NOT bug out, and have your emergency supplies there. You'll get to know your neighbors, if you don't already know them. Of course, a tsunami cancels all that advice.
- LiquidPolymer 3y ago
  Oh I agree - the roads may very well be impassable and/or gridlocked. The plan is to stay in place and live off provisions. If leaving was possible, it would be a few days before we even tried to do so. My worries about a tsunami are tempered by the coastal mountains. This would send a surge of the Columbia River and likely take out the airport. But we live on high ground well-above any flood zone. In the absolute worst case scenario - we might all be toast.
  - AlbertCory 3y ago
    See: Paradise, CA. Maui. HI.. Yeah, stay where you are . More support there,
- asveikau 3y ago
  > criminals on foot robbing the cars. You live in a paranoid universe. The vast majority of people will want to help strangers, and they will outnumber opportunistic criminals by far.
  - woleium 3y ago
    To start, but if the situation does not improve in two weeks or so, roving gangs spontaneously arise (or so i have been told by someone who drops into disaster areas to provide aid)
  - AlbertCory 3y ago
    .. and your experience is what, again?
thatfrenchguy 3y ago
> In a major earthquake these people are going to be desperate and many people will die. The city will be broken and if you rely on emergency services - you are going to be lucky to survive. The nice thing about a earthquake is that it's gonna be fairly localized and not a "entire country event", so the feds can react pretty quickly. I still have a week's food at home though...
- starkparker 3y ago
  As someone who firsthand saw the government response to gulf coast hurricanes in the 2000s-10s, the feds are absolutely not always able (or willing, or competently managed or resourced enough) to act quickly
rsync 3y ago
Advice: instead of a transfer switch just buy a breaker interlock: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MV05P2K/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MV05P2K/ There may be no need for the complexity and space usage of a transfer switch. I would install a male 50amp receptacle (NEMA SS2-50P ?) next to your main panel and connect it to a breaker next to your main utility breaker. Then you install the little metal interlock between them to make it impossible to use both breakers simultaneously ... ... and then you just buy a big extension cord. The 50amp receptacle is nice because it is code compliant for residential and it allows you to connect other power sources in the future.
- LiquidPolymer 3y ago
  Appreciate the tip. I'm going to ask the electrician about this.
anonuser123456 3y ago
Your emergency disaster kit should include an AR-15 or similar battle rifle. Civilization will decay considerably in such an event and it may take a good week or two to get the national guard deployed.
- Nevermark 3y ago
  > Civilization will decay […] I used to sing a twisted version of a children’s song with my kids. (No psych damage I know of!) “We are going to eat, eat, eat, peoples & baneenees!” Hopefully food drops happen very quickly!
- emptysongglass 3y ago
  It's at this point when preparedness turns into weird, fringe thinking that's also dangerous. A battle rifle can be used to hurt people. Assuming others will try to hurt you in an emergency event is the basis for what people think of when they imagine "peppers": basically, people who believe the world and everything in it is out to get them. It doesn't hurt to be prepared but spending a significant part of your life crafting your post-apocalyptic future informs more about your stance toward living and toward people than it does healthy relations with the world.
  - mgarfias 3y ago
    https://hwfo.substack.com/p/the-surprisingly-solid-mathematical https://hwfo.substack.com/p/the-surprisingly-solid-mathemati...
    - emptysongglass 3y ago
      Many words spent to justify owning a battle rifle that boils down to > So if you ask someone else on the opposite side of a culture war argument, “Why would you want to own one of those things, anyway?” please don’t be surprised if they simply respond, “Why wouldn’t you?” They also admit the sample size of a few hundred years for the US is poor before then going on to compare the US to autocratic countries like Russia. Let's say you now own a battle rifle. Now what? Well, you can't just have a battle rifle lying around the house. So you buy a battle rifle safe. Now what? Well, you can't just own a battle rifle and now know what to do with it in case all Hell breaks loose can you? So now you have to go down to the shooting range and learn how to shoot the thing. Now what? The heavily armed squads that are going to be raiding your block are probably really good shooters so you better buy a few more and buy lessons for the whole family. See where I'm going with this? A prepper's mind geared up for such a man-on-man scenario of doomsday violence will never be satisfied.

blueprint 3y ago

this is virtually my strategy too - but keep in mind when the event happens, chances are you won't be able to drive super far without going off road, and even then, you may end up blocked. roads and highways are expected to have massive damage. people dont realize that e.g the entire valley zone of Oregon will have no restoration of infrastructure until potentially more than a year after the event (coming straight from a study I could cite if needed). we're talking no hospitals, no police, no water, no sewer... for more than a year...

ramenbytes 3y ago
Cite for curious folks?
- blueprint 3y ago
  https://www.oregon.gov/oem/Documents/01_ORP_Cascadia.pdf https://www.oregon.gov/oem/Documents/01_ORP_Cascadia.pdf looks like I slightly exaggerated a couple figures and understated others. 3 years to restore healthcare in the valley zone.
7952 3y ago
Yeah I think people overestimate the effectiveness of four wheel vehicles on uneven ground. It is very easy to get bogged down, tip into a ditch, run out of clearence on one side or have major technical issues. And the routes that do exist can get blocked very easily. A pair of boots, a trail bike, or a mountain bike are in a different league on that kind of terrain. You can always get off and push. Obviously a vehicle is good but may just be phase 1 of bugging out. Best to pack the bike, sleeping bag and water purifier.
- LiquidPolymer 3y ago
  Good points. My comment about the mobility of the truck camper applies only if we can in fact, find passable surfaces. The point for us is to be prepared to the best of our ability and I think we have done a good job in the regard. We will have a potential survival advantage. My biggest worry are other, extremely desperate people whom I would be very inclined to help. But this would have limits and things might get gnarly leading into an area I hate to think about - using lethal force to protect my family. Hopefully, simply being visibly armed would be a deterrent, but its hard to game out how bad it might get. My larger point is really about how ill-prepared most of my neighbors are. The recent storm simply highlighted this problem. We were all very comfortable because we had a generator and alternate, heated shelter. I spent a lot of time helping neighbors. I also had the only vehicle (Outback with all wheel drive with blizzak tires - just amazing on ice) on my sloped street that could successfully navigate ice so I was out buying cat food for my elderly neighbor, and buying groceries for our other neighbors with a new baby.

Steven420 3y ago

You are a prepper... And that's not a bad thing. Only stupid people think that being prepared for emergency situations is stupid

AlbertCory 3y ago

it's good you can live in the camper, but: the roads will all be out, or gridlocked in both directions, with criminals on foot robbing the cars. Or if you do get where you want to go, it'll be thronged with other urban escapees and they'll have even less food, water, and shelter. My own belief is, your house is unlikely to be really unhabitable. It's better to NOT bug out, and have your emergency supplies there. You'll get to know your neighbors, if you don't already know them. Of course, a tsunami cancels all that advice.

LiquidPolymer 3y ago
Oh I agree - the roads may very well be impassable and/or gridlocked. The plan is to stay in place and live off provisions. If leaving was possible, it would be a few days before we even tried to do so. My worries about a tsunami are tempered by the coastal mountains. This would send a surge of the Columbia River and likely take out the airport. But we live on high ground well-above any flood zone. In the absolute worst case scenario - we might all be toast.
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  See: Paradise, CA. Maui. HI.. Yeah, stay where you are . More support there,
asveikau 3y ago
> criminals on foot robbing the cars. You live in a paranoid universe. The vast majority of people will want to help strangers, and they will outnumber opportunistic criminals by far.
- woleium 3y ago
  To start, but if the situation does not improve in two weeks or so, roving gangs spontaneously arise (or so i have been told by someone who drops into disaster areas to provide aid)
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  .. and your experience is what, again?

thatfrenchguy 3y ago

> In a major earthquake these people are going to be desperate and many people will die. The city will be broken and if you rely on emergency services - you are going to be lucky to survive. The nice thing about a earthquake is that it's gonna be fairly localized and not a "entire country event", so the feds can react pretty quickly. I still have a week's food at home though...

starkparker 3y ago
As someone who firsthand saw the government response to gulf coast hurricanes in the 2000s-10s, the feds are absolutely not always able (or willing, or competently managed or resourced enough) to act quickly

rsync 3y ago

Advice: instead of a transfer switch just buy a breaker interlock: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MV05P2K/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MV05P2K/ There may be no need for the complexity and space usage of a transfer switch. I would install a male 50amp receptacle (NEMA SS2-50P ?) next to your main panel and connect it to a breaker next to your main utility breaker. Then you install the little metal interlock between them to make it impossible to use both breakers simultaneously ... ... and then you just buy a big extension cord. The 50amp receptacle is nice because it is code compliant for residential and it allows you to connect other power sources in the future.

LiquidPolymer 3y ago
Appreciate the tip. I'm going to ask the electrician about this.

anonuser123456 3y ago

Your emergency disaster kit should include an AR-15 or similar battle rifle. Civilization will decay considerably in such an event and it may take a good week or two to get the national guard deployed.

Nevermark 3y ago
> Civilization will decay […] I used to sing a twisted version of a children’s song with my kids. (No psych damage I know of!) “We are going to eat, eat, eat, peoples & baneenees!” Hopefully food drops happen very quickly!
emptysongglass 3y ago
It's at this point when preparedness turns into weird, fringe thinking that's also dangerous. A battle rifle can be used to hurt people. Assuming others will try to hurt you in an emergency event is the basis for what people think of when they imagine "peppers": basically, people who believe the world and everything in it is out to get them. It doesn't hurt to be prepared but spending a significant part of your life crafting your post-apocalyptic future informs more about your stance toward living and toward people than it does healthy relations with the world.
- mgarfias 3y ago
  https://hwfo.substack.com/p/the-surprisingly-solid-mathematical https://hwfo.substack.com/p/the-surprisingly-solid-mathemati...
  - emptysongglass 3y ago
    Many words spent to justify owning a battle rifle that boils down to > So if you ask someone else on the opposite side of a culture war argument, “Why would you want to own one of those things, anyway?” please don’t be surprised if they simply respond, “Why wouldn’t you?” They also admit the sample size of a few hundred years for the US is poor before then going on to compare the US to autocratic countries like Russia. Let's say you now own a battle rifle. Now what? Well, you can't just have a battle rifle lying around the house. So you buy a battle rifle safe. Now what? Well, you can't just own a battle rifle and now know what to do with it in case all Hell breaks loose can you? So now you have to go down to the shooting range and learn how to shoot the thing. Now what? The heavily armed squads that are going to be raiding your block are probably really good shooters so you better buy a few more and buy lessons for the whole family. See where I'm going with this? A prepper's mind geared up for such a man-on-man scenario of doomsday violence will never be satisfied.