Survivalist Truck Supplies

“Why what did you do NOW?”


“Nothin. It’s just that I thought the guy mowing the lawn was reaching for a weapon...”


“DID YOU SHOOT HIM?!”

“Kinda”

 

I haven't really thought about documents beyond the wallet in my back pocket. I know my fingerprints are on file in multiple locations if worse comes to worst.

 

Lost a house to a tornado.
Lost a house to flooding.
Lost most of s house to fire.

Make copies of everything somewhere. I keep copies in the house and the originals in a safety deposit box. Digital copies on an encrypted thumb drive on my keychain and a cloud account.

Your child’s shot and school records are a total ball ache to reproduce if the doctors office and the school are destroyed as well.

 

I did mention bug out bags along with firearms to grab and go.
Storage in a truck can end up with a loss depending on carry regulations state to state.or theft.

 

Pizza delivery bags scavenged from the corpses of surprise noogie/wedgie victims make great survival blankets. It’s all part of the SERE experience.

 

Wow, a dark cloud is following you...

Personally, I like to use my truck as a truck and if I load it up with all that crap, it becomes not as useful. I have a tow strap, tie downs, bungees... that kind of stuff. I do like the thumb drive on a key chain idea (encrypted, of course). You can keep all the keepsake photos there, as well.

 

My sister in law got wiped out during Katrina. Finally getting settled safely back in Texas she went to enroll her kids in school but had no paperwork from the now destroyed school. Not even a report card. The law in Texas, and in 40 something other states is that when you present a child for education you have to prove where they are in their education career. She’s was home schooling as best as she could until Louisiana finally got all of the data back.

I agree with the constant load being a nuisance. I’ve got mates that carry heaps of farkle around everywhere marching with the logic that “you never know.” I get it, but I also know every route I can take to my home and how many bridges I have to cross no matter how inconsequential they may seem. Our family plan is to go home. Home is where we will calmly evaluate what we know about the situation and what our perceived next move will be. We may opt to dig in, and we may opt to scoot. Depends on what we know, what we can predict, and how prepared we are to take that left or right turn.

Sidebar: anyone proposing short handled shovels is a glutton for physical misery or have never done much digging. Get a long handled spade if you plan to keep on in the car with you. If you’ve already got a short handled shovel, pass that to your passenger.

 

Silasvirus82....thank you! That's what I need to hear.

Today, at work, the base went on lockdown. Nothing stands the hair on the back of the neck up, like the press release that says, please do not come on base we are locked down for a security threat....and the rest of the city is doing business as usual. Like...um...should we be concerned that Luke AF base, home of the F35 is sending up their periscope? .....

 

Someone’s defendant shoplift at the exchange again? That’s the main reason our base gets locked down it seems.

 

It's an Air Force base.. They go into panic mode if the Starbucks runs out of soy milk for their lattes...

 

Ha, there’s a Starbucks at our exchange now too. Only see dependas and civilian employees there.

 

"Zombie Apocalypse" - Euphemism for you prepared well for your family, your neighbors didn't, and now they are coming for your shit. And make no mistake, if you prepared well and are suffering less than they are, they will come for your shit.

 

Didn't read all the pages, but I second a jet boil type stove, some dehydrated food and coffee, one of those 2 gal jugs of drinking water, and a Camelback type backpack. I live in a rural area, and don't believe bugging out is ever a good option except in extreme circumstances like nuclear fallout, which is the only real threat in my area due to nuclear power plants. No matter how small your house/apartment/whatever, you can store more supplies there than in a vehicle. A little off topic, but a regional/national catastrophy would not be like Mad Max or I am legend; not long term. It would be people dying of exposure, starvation and medical conditions we now see as inconveniences, like the flu.

 

Don't get me wrong, I have way more in my truck than what I quoted as "need" items. I was just trying to steer you clear of the mall ninjas and shopaholics that browse the internet all day looking for things to spend money on (myself included ).

Good luck on your journey.

 

Man it sounds like you live in a nice part of the country, nice neighbors! Remind me to avoid your area when the power goes out.

 

Everyone on this planet would do the same.

 

I live in the Big Thicket, a wonderful part of the country, especially for sheltering in place. Except for the humidity. Most everything we need is here. More bio-diversity than any other place in North America. It just needs to be harvested. My neighbors and our family look out for each other. For now. Things start running out? That's the definition of shit hitting the fan. They'll be coming like the Living Dead. They will be coming like the Living Dead where you live too. You are going to have to tell your unprepared neighbor "No" at some point. Even worse, it may turn out to be that your neighbor is going to have to tell you and your unprepared family "NO!" Are you ready for what will transpire then? I'm not, but I can see I am going to have to be ready at some point if I am to protect and provide for my family after that point. Those that know you best you will have to fear most.

I am not a prepper, but after living through the aftermath of Rita, Ike and Harvey we have some perspective on the subject to offer. We learned a lot about how things transpire, and most sobering, how quickly things turn third-world. From experience, here's how it goes down: Johnny Law shows up, bangs heavily on your door and orders you to evacuate your home, answering few questions, nor offering any information about if and when you will be able to return. Understandable, because he doesn't know and he certainly doesn't have time. Exhibiting headstrong attitudes, and cock-sure of themselves and their purpose, which is I guess what you have to be to get people to leave when they'd rather not. Still, the most civil-obedient among you will not appreciate the attitudes of the few.

You refuse. Only because they are under time constraints to complete their street-to-street recon and inform/enforce of mandatory evacuation do you not go to jail. They note your refusal and document all souls to remain, then formally inform you that because you disregarded their direct order to evacuate they are leaving and are no longer responsible to protect you, and under no circumstances will they be back to assist you, regardless of the reason that you give to 911. You have a heart attack? You die right there. Nobody is coming. Cut a leg with that chainsaw? Better have some trauma nurses living on your block.

Then they offer you a big permanent marker with which to write your social security number on yourself, recommending that you do it in several places as a way to identify your body. One of my friends said he was standing in shin-deep water in his house when the Coast Guard came by during Harvey. They offered to write it on his upper back for him so that it would be visible in the event he is found floating face down, citing that in the event they couldn't reach his body, they would at least know who. After it got to 7 feet during the night he and his cats stayed on top of his truck in the garage so the snakes couldn't get in to them. (Killed two in his house six days later after the water went down.) The same officer came back to check on him the next morning as they continued pulling people out. Offered him the marker again, or a ride in the airboat. He and the cats took the airboat.

I can't leave. I have no choice. I have to stay because of what I do. So even before it hits, when they drive off it is on. From then on it's the wild, wild West again and you are on your own until further notice. From a crime standpoint this may be the most dangerous time. SOBERING. It's just you and a few of your neighbors in a hastily-assembled neighborhood militia against whatever may come. You learn some things real fast. Number one is, when the law leaves the bad guys move in fast, before the hurricane. Easier pickings then. So if you leave don't expect any of your stuff you left to be there when you get back. Criminals don't leave, and they have action plans to make your stuff their stuff. So much for bugging out. You muster at the end of your street, set up contact with your buds who stayed and are now mustered on the end of their streets, and nobody gets in that you don't know. No exceptions. Number two is, the meal I gave to feed my neighbor just now, I might need it down the road to feed my family if these had gone on not for 2-3 weeks, but for three months. These hurricanes were a window into what a real WTSHTF situation would be like. They gave me pause to consider just when do you tell the neighbors you love, "No"? It's going to be right up front, that's when. Pretty quick. Maybe not day one, but shortly after. Family first. That is how it will end up as a triangulation between the bad guys, you and your unprepared neighbors. So you guys who are romancing an ill-considered bug-out, you go ahead and leave with only what you can pack into that Taco. Shortly after that Taco is empty it's going to be you on somebody's porch begging for food at the end of their gun. You, eventually, will BECOME the problem. Stay home where you may have more put back and a little more survivability. So much for bugging out. Country boy can survive out here, but you urban guys are just SOL long-term. You don't have to prep for Armageddon now, but at least make a plan now on how to prep quickly when the need becomes apparent.

Fear most a pandemic, like H5N1 Avian Bird Flu (69% mortality) or the fungus Candida Auris (61% mortality). The first has not yet made the mutation to be able to be spread from human to human. Not yet. The second one is already in many of our hospitals and information about it is not being distributed for fear of causing panic, almost being suppressed. This one, for now, you catch in the hospital. Comparatively, it makes antibiotic-resistant Staph look like a case of poison ivy. There have already been reports of hospital staff sequestering a victim of a nosocomial (hospital-related) Candida infection into strict isolation and refusing to re-enter the room. It's that virulent. Research it. Bug out and risk contamination in any pandemic? No. Better to prepare to be sheltering in place for at least two years for either of these two. It's going to take 8-16 months to develop an anti-vaccine in the case of a virus, and unless you are in the government, the military or are a first responder, you are not first in line to get it, hence prep for two years. As history has shown pandemics are probable every couple of centuries or so (1918 Flu), but bugging out for one is a bad choice when you can stay home and use social distancing as a weapon to fight one. (You're already doing that now with Facebook, etc so get over it.)

And before you paint me a lunatic, I make my living identifying risk and helping people and companies develop strategies to avoid it.

And the next guy on here is probably going to say "Ya'll read way too many prepper mazagines." I have never read one. Have no curiosity to read one.

 

Ya'll read way too many prepper magazines. If shit seriously got so bad that people were killing other people for supplies, your preps don't really matter anymore. I don't care how many guns and how much ammo you have stashed at your house, if you're not in tight with your neighbors and community as a whole, your dead. But first of all, that scenario will never play out in our lifetime here in the US. The whole prepper culture seems to be in vogue right now and it's turned into another corporate opportunity of consumerism. Prepping should be planning for the most likely obstacles like kitchen fires, hurricanes, maybe tornadoes, power outages, etc. Keeping a years worth of freeze dried food in your basement along with all the other gadgetry is a total waste of money. Prepping for retirement is far more important, and that $20,000 worth of shit in your basement could be $100,000 when your 65.

 

I run a podcast about prepping among other topics, we started talking about gear to keep on your vehicle, but I’d welcome any criticism regarding things we missed.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matter-of-facts/id1146270198?i=1000436562569