Despite advice to leave the cities, there are many of us who, for various reasons, just cannot do that. What then should we be doing to prepare (beyond the basic water, food, fuel, shelter issues)? Any special tips out there?

-- Libby Alexander (libbyalex@aol.com), November 17, 1998

Answers

Buy a 20 ga. shotgun and learn to use it. Keep your preperations to yourself. Find a place where you could escape to, if things get real bad in your city.

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), November 17, 1998.

Create community. Get others prepared. Grow food for all in the parks (with non-hybridized seeds). Figure out the alternate water supplies. Teach fire safety to adults and kids. Galvinaize the teachers and have classroom projects where the kids start using those latent and creative brains to figure out "unusual" solutions that tend to escape fixated adults. Start Farmer's Market's with food growers from outlying areas. Encourage adult education classes in soap making, candle making ... "the arts and crafts" of natural survival. Teach first aid to everyone. Encourage everybody to contribute to the whole from their talent or specialty. The list goes on, and on.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 17, 1998.

Oh, camping skills are useful and non-violent.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 17, 1998.

Bill, Libby lives in DC. I'm not sure of the laws regarding long gun purchases and storage, but I know they're nasty and favor the criminal element. Forget about legally owning any type of handgun.

After the obvious (food, fuel, shelter), my recommendation would be educational materials. Books on gardening, basic emergency medical care, etc.

Do you have a yard? Start converting it to use for a vegetable garden as soon as possible. Find out next year what grows well, and what doesn't. Killing off grass and improving the soil in parklands is going to be a royal pain - especially if you have to do it by hand.

Do you have time to take First Responder or wilderness survival classes? The city may not be exactly wilderness, but the skills will still be needed should the power and water be out for more than a few days.

-- Melinda Gierisch (gieriscm@hotmail.com), November 17, 1998.

As a former teacher, in the mid-70s, whose favorite book was Teaching As A Subversive Activity,( i.e teaching creativity), I observe that most kids still think outside the box. Tap that hidden talent and you just might find some impressive Y2K solutions, for the cities as well as the rest of the country. Besides, theyll be impacted by the choices all the adults make. Give them a chance to participate in creating their future.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 17, 1998.

IMHO...

Get a gun. Read "Tom's Take" (don't have the address, perhaps it's in the archives) and if you have time "Lucifer's Hammer" so that you will have some ideas about how the unprepared will react to all of this.

-- Squirreling Away for the Winter (ftb@ccd.com), November 17, 1998.

Now that other folks more knowledgeable about this issue have educated me on it:

Look around your house like you were going to burgle it. Notice where the weak spots are, such as sliding glass doors that can be lifted out (easily fixed with anti-lift out plates from the hardware store), or a front door that could be easily kicked in (btw, steel doors are more brittle and easier to kick in, says my DH, who did some study on the subject).

Look for things that you can implement easily, like a fence around your yard, a means of securing your garage doors against being pried up/open...a cross bar on your sliding glass doors (not just a piece of wood in the base, but this is a device that secures the door mid- way up)...a means of securing your windows so that they too can't be opened enough for someone trying to enter, but that you can easily defeat from the inside in case you need to exit quickly (fire considerations if nothing else).

-- Karen Cook (browsercat@hotmail.com), November 17, 1998.

Circumstances place each of us where we are: we always choose from all the pressures on us where to be. That said, each person lives in a community of acquaintences of about 500 to 600 people, even in cities. Treat those folks as your village, make them your community. 500 or 600 people are difficult to intimidate, one or two are easy. The lesson has already been stated, build community around you. Parcel the problems of security, food, shelter, heating among 500 to 600 and they become trivial, faced by one or two they are huge. Look at the geography of your community. Model the services and utilities in the community accurately so you know where the weak points are. Plan to establish gateways in and out of the community if required. Limit movement elsewhere. Keep a watchful eye on young folks. Take inventory of people skills and resources. Start records of folks and keep them accurate as a way of caring. Fill in the gaps based on the good advice here. Provide roles for all members. Practice working democracy. Avoid dependency on the state. Look after your retail stores. Consider setting up a barter centre and a warehouse/store for community commodities. Protect your neighbours against looting. Check out fire protection.... Apply your constitution, literally. Build community.

Good Luck.

-- Bob Barbour (r.barbour@waikato.ac.nz), November 17, 1998.

To Bob Barbour....wonderful, wonderful wonderful!!!!!!from one Californian to another, (even though I live in uncool S. Cal.)

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), November 17, 1998.

This site is a little extreme, even for me(!), but it is well worth trolling through, especially for city survival tips/strategies. The Author thinks you may paradoxically be safer in the city in a worst case scenario...

http://www.y2kchaos.com/

-- Andy (andy_rowland@msn.com), November 17, 1998.

Excellent thread! I applaud you all! Andy, this is a very low key, thought provoking BB, if you want to know what extreme is, there's several of them on the internet, I even shy away from them. Regarding fences, plant berry bushes around the perimieter of them. December is a good time to plant them because they are dormant and blackberries spread like wild fire. You need to get them planted now so they start producing for Y2K. They will also be a deterrent for those unwelcomed thugs. Community gardens are good idea, but hard to police, and you will have outsiders coming in pilfering your goods. If you plan to make soap or candles, you must have the materials layed away to do it, such as lard, lye, fuel, etc. After the raw materials run out, you must have another plan. If it's a community effort, who will be the chief, asst. chief, etc.? How will you protect your ASSests? If you do not plan to be armed (firearms) to protect your community, how do you plan to protect it? Mace, pepper spray, a bad dog? There's a whole lot of things to do to organize. Basically, you are setting up a self-governed community. It must be organized and planned. Not much time left to do that. I know one thing for sure, I wouldn't want to be the sheriff.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), November 17, 1998.

If you live in DC, get to know Cory Hamasaki. He does the DC weather report, maybe you can join him in the y2k retreat he has put together. Paul Milne is in Virgina, that is within a tank of gas. Get to know Paul, maybe he'll invite you to join him. DC should be ground zero for martial law, enjoy!

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), November 18, 1998.