Are we prepared ?
- Thread starter BD1
- Start date
I think that at some point we have to come to grips with the idea that we live in a dangerous world, whether populated by toxic trains or T-Rex, and take what comes. There are too many possible life ending scenarios to guard against all of them. If we tried, that is all we could do, and I doubt that many would claim that longevity is the end all and be all of life.
Bernie
Bernie
Here in south Florida we go thru this every year. I don't mean get an actual hurricane (heaven forbid) but rather the preparedness required to survive one. Local TV and radio stations start telling folks to get thier kit together plus local newspapers are very good at including a hurricane preparedness section in the paper a little before the start of hurricane season. Needless to say a lot of folks do nothing until the last minute and find themselves up the proverbial creek sans propulsion device. Worse a lot of those clowns only stock up on beer and booze. The absolute last thing you need to do is have a hurricane party, get plastered, and have the house (literally) fall on you. They don't call folks like that statistics for nothing.
Ben
Ben
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William0d0
Active member
Having sold all of my firearms prior to moving to Philadelphia, I would say that I am no longer prepared.
Trying to get the supermarket, hardware store, Wally's, etc., to get these supplies beforehand will be impossible, and when you do get there, all the supermarket grazers will have wiped out the canned goods, water, lunch meats (why it'll spoil?), and anything else they can get their hands on anyway. This happens when there's only 1/2-inches of snow predicted!
And add to this the panic generation who will tie up traffic trying to get out of the storm's way. These idiots, instead of just driving, will creep along at 7 mph as they text each other and all their loved ones along the way. This is why people get stuck in traffic during storms. Heck, half of them have SUVs, super-sized trucks, and all-wheel-drive cars, but they've never used the 4WD options on their vehicles! During the super-bad snowstorms and rainstorms a few years ago, it took me upwards of 5-1/2 hours to get home because people were doing all of 7mph for the trip. At one point I was finally able to get around the clog of sh-- and did a nominal 45mph!
John
And add to this the panic generation who will tie up traffic trying to get out of the storm's way. These idiots, instead of just driving, will creep along at 7 mph as they text each other and all their loved ones along the way. This is why people get stuck in traffic during storms. Heck, half of them have SUVs, super-sized trucks, and all-wheel-drive cars, but they've never used the 4WD options on their vehicles! During the super-bad snowstorms and rainstorms a few years ago, it took me upwards of 5-1/2 hours to get home because people were doing all of 7mph for the trip. At one point I was finally able to get around the clog of sh-- and did a nominal 45mph!
John
Down here folks are encouraged to get thier kit together during the non-hurricane season so the stores are not jamb-packed with folks buying anything and eveything (a lot of which they don't need). My wife and I do that a little after new years. We buy all the items we need for our kit as listed in the newspapers hurricane survival guide, use up what we bought last year, then store the new kit. That way our kit is always fresh. Remember folks, even canned goods have outdates and can go bad if kept too long.
Ben
Ben
That's the logical way of doing things, but sadly that's because you live in a disaster prone area so people are going to be "smart" about things such as this. The people up in New England are lazy. We haven't had a "good" storm in decades up here. I think because there have now been at least 2-3 generations of people who have never seen more than 8-inches of snow at a time during a snowstorm except for two years ago, and have probably never seen a real hurricane, and I don't mean the remnants that have become a lot of rain. The big snowstorms we had a couple of years ago sent people into a snit and tizzy, saying that this was the most snow anyone had seen, etc. I remember snowstorms like those back in the 1960s and early 1970s when I was growing up. For me it was a normal winter.
The other problem with these nitwits too is they can never disrupt their daily routines. God forbid they can't drive the kids to daycare and do their Yuppy thing, so it's off to the races in the morning anyway, then causing major traffic jams, after all they have to go to the gym then it's to Dunkin Donuts and then off to work. The thing is many of these people drive Jeeps, Toyota 4-Runners, F150s and other 4wd vehicles, but never use, or know how to use the 4wd. As I said doing 5-7 mph on a highway is ridiculously slow. These storms were not slippery; it was just a lot of snow. If the people moved at 20-40 mph, and didn't tailgate like they normally do, then they could move along. It's not like I condone speeding in this kind of weather, but at least move along so you can climb hills, and we have a lot of them! There are of course the goofball jocks who think they can go 70mph in their Jeep Cherokees or Toyota pick-ups, and end up facing the wrong direction, but for the most part they are far and few between the slow ones. I also drive a Jeep and put mine in 4wd and stay steady on the gas, never jam the brakes on, and try oh so hard to keep my distance. When it came time to go up a hill, I was able to glide around the nitwits who were going so slow they had gotten stuck. Then again I have experience driving here, as I've done it for over 30 years now. I can say that people have gotten worse over the years.
One of my worst trips home took me over 5-1/2 hours. A good portion of the time was spent on Route 3 north. I had a 15 mile ride from Bedford to Lowell where I picked I-495 north. I had this huge Escalade in front of me going about 3-4 mph. At first I thought this lady had snowplow in front of her. She would randomly hit her brakes or stop dead like she was getting close to his rear. She appeared to be one of those tail-gating broads (not to sound sexist) because she raced around me like she had someplace to go quickly then the slowed down to a crawl. Eventually I was able to get around her. There was no one ahead of her. She was on her cell phone (Bluetooth thing), and she was doing paperwork. She was looking up and periodically hitting her brakes! I'm sure she was on her way to pick up her brats at the daycare and carry on her normal Yuppy schedule even in the really bad snowstorm.
I hate to say it, but me being out of work this winter is a blessing in disguise for me since I won't have to put up with the mess.
John
Engineerkenny
New member
its a engineers worst nightmare! 
