The slow burn collapse school makes more sense to me than the sudden cataclysm mode, just based on what we are seeing all around us. The combination of gross incompetence with gradual and constant squeezing seems to be heading us toward a controlled collapse. Even still, there is a case to be made for a sudden tipping point pushing things over the edge. Whether that is systemic or just local remains to be seen.
We got a little reminder of this the last couple of days when this happened.
Cell service is now fully restored for users across Northeast Indiana.
Leaders with a company called Zayo told ABC21 the outage was caused by a fiber cut.
“We can confirm the fiber cut and that cell service should be back up,” Zayo leaders said. “The fiber cut should be fully resolved shortly.”
From midday Friday until about late afternoon yesterday, our cell reception was spotty as hell. This also means that things that run off of data were pretty sketchy, like Google maps. I stopped using a stand-alone GPS a few years ago and mostly use my phone now and of course yesterday I had a number of places I needed to deliver items that I was unfamiliar with. No Google Maps meant I had to do it the old fashioned way, knowing where the roads are and then figuring out if I was headed the right way based on mailboxes or needing to turn around. They were all on roads I am very familiar with so I didn’t need to get a map out but if I did, I realized I don’t even have a local road map in my vehicle. Oops. I ordered a free map from the state of Indiana right away for me and one for my wife, I probably should get an updated Delorme atlas and gazetteer one of these days, one for Indiana at least and probably one for Ohio since we are so close to the border. Back in the day we used to do a ton of exploring using the Delorme atlas and we still have several but they are out of date. Duly noted.
The gist is pretty powerful. Lots can go sideways, like from this is fine to completely sideways, in just a matter of 72 hours. The author lists a few examples that might seem extreme but makes the point that we are just a single significant event away from complete chaos. Something like the Colonial Pipeline Attack can lead to gas lines in a very short time. Are you prepared for that? We don’t have a stand-alone fuel tank but we do have a spare huge van we rarely drive and that bitch has a nearly 30 gallon fuel tank. Step one, make sure it is full and step two, have a way to get the gas out (and it keep it stabilized). Added to my Amazon cart, one fuel siphon and one bottle of Sta-bil. A dedicated fuel tank would be better but those are pretty expensive. Something for a different day but if things go bad, our solitary more fuel efficient vehicle can run a long time on 30 gallons of gas plus whatever we have in our other big vehicles.
Food and water we are pretty good on right now for the short term, 72 hours give or take, kind of crisis. Take stock for yourself. If something sudden and unexpected, because it will be unexpected, happens and you are on your own for 72 hours, are you ready? If you are honest with yourself, you will almost certainly find some weak spots pretty quickly. Work on getting those shored up now because when it happens, it will be too late to fix.
when we loose the reserve currency status the usd will be worthless. the fusa will have a very ugly drop after that.
We have a 250 gallon Propane tank that fuels our range/oven and one wall heater. We have enough staples to keep us going for a good long while, plus as long as we still have power, have a couple of freezers full of meat and frozen vegetables. If the power goes out for an extended period, reckon I'll be cooking my ass off. We also have a portable generator that can run the freezer and fridge until we run out of gas. ( The generator is also necessary to run my wife's CPAP machine and oxygen generator.
That is a good start, our propane is only heat so our over is only electric and that is an issue.
Behind the scenes they are desperately holding things together knowing that we don't have it in us to weather a serious crisis.
Yup, heat is our Achilles heel here. We have emergency propane, but I'd prefer to have a wood source. Maybe after Pugsley goes to college . . . ?
We also have a wood stove in one of our storage buildings, that we used several years ago when we lived in a different house. As a last resort, I would set it up and use it. Even though it's small…think Fisher Baby Bear…it throws out the heat.
72 hours is just about the extent of anyone's fresh water availability, should the city system go out. After that, its treat-your-water-if-you-can. If you can't then say hello to cholera, dysentery, and other nasty stuff within the next week.