Urban Survivalism

Is survivalism for you? I'd say just about 100% of liberals, as well as ANYONE living in the city would probably say no to that question. The word always brings to mind visions of a Mad Max post apocalyptic world with no law and insane people murdering everything they see.

Hardcore survivalists prepare for this by stockpiling years of food, guns, ammo and other supplies. They may live in a remote area, or have a hideaway shelter in such an area they think they can get to if they feel things are about to go bad.

This really isn't for most people, liberals HAAATE guns so they are not going to be able to protect anything they've stockpiled if things went sour, which they obviously feel is not likely, and probably isn't. For others it's just not practical; how are you going to get to work from your remote location? If you have a separate hideaway place it will be tough to get there post disaster. Nuke event, well you get about 8 minutes warning for that, so forget it, you ain't makin' it to the hideaway shelter. Even if you DO make it to that shelter if others have found it they aren't leaving and it's unlikely they will let you in, even if you show them the paperwork proving you are the owner.

So, for the above reasons, hardcore survivalism just does not suit Joe Sixpack, even conservative Joe Sixpack who may not be adverse to the concept. But people should think about survivalism. Not a cataclysm such as post nuke or complete societal collapse, which as I already mentioned most people CAN'T prepare for and is unlikely anyway. But they should prepare for another enemy.

Mother Nature. She IS a bitch. For weather disasters, even in the city you CAN practice some basic "urban survivalism". What got me thinking about this was a recent, freak snowstorm in October. It wasn't that bad, and the snow melted quickly but it DID take out the power in part of the Northeast U.S. Power companies in some areas were SLOW to restore power, some people didn't get it back for over a week. If you don't have gas this means no hot food for that time period. It means after a day or so, when what you had in the fridge is eaten or spoiled what you can eat is limited to what is in a can. Do you have enough canned food for a week? You are already cold, maybe even freezing, does frosty cold canned food sound yummy to you? This is where, for want of a better word, what I call "urban survivalism" comes in.

The goal here is not to be prepared for years of post apocalyptic misery, but to be prepared to survive for two weeks. So ya want hot food with no 'lectricity, waddaya do? The answer to that is pretty simple. Get a camping stove. It's a VERY cheap investment, I've seen them go from $10.00 to $40 bucks. I'm sure you can pay more, but part of my urban survival philosophy is NOT breaking your bank account. The stove not only allows you to heat up canned food, but to prepare freeze dried food like ramen, knorr etc, stuff that does NOT take up a lot of space, is cheap, and lasts forever. Hot coco powder isn't a bad thing to have either.

UPDATED info - 10/19/2022
After doing more research at a later date I found out that the gas camping stoves are a bad idea, as they can cause co2, and/or fume issues. I didn't find any other posts about "flareups" from alcohol stoves, so those are OK. Conclusion, stick with alcohol or Sterno for indoor emergency stoves.

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There may be more(I'm NOT an expert on this, do your OWN research!!!) but from my research there seem to be three basic types. Alcohol, propane/butane and fuel cans(sterno). From what I read I DO NOT recommend the alcohol, as they do NOT work when it gets too cold, and a reviewer wrote about a "flareup" if you vary the height of your cooking utensil above it. The goal here is hot food, NOT burning your place down!!

I'm not sure which of the remaining two, propane/butane or fuel cans is better, like I said before I'm NOT an expert. The advantage of the gas units is they burn hotter, reviews state most seem to take only a few minutes to boil water. If you get one of these be sure to get the RIGHT fuel bottle, most of them seem to use a squat gas cannister that does NOT have the same threads as the small propane bottles you see sold everywhere.

I bought this stove which uses fuel cans(sterno). I opted for this because I like the absolute simplicity. No mechanism to fiddle with, possibly break, throw a match into the fuel can and you are ready to go. A reviewer wrote that the design has "been around since the 30's" so it has certainly withstood the test of time. It came well reviewed overall. I'm not saying it's better than the butane/propane stoves, if you like those buy one. It is certainly better than NO stove when the power goes out and you don't have gas. (note, sometimes gas lines DO break, so even if you have gas the $20 - $50 bucks a camping stove will cost won't break you).

Whatever stove you buy, make sure you have enough fuel for it to cook 2 meals a day for two weeks. Don't assume you can "buy more" as panic buyers during weather disasters have been known to clean stores out. The same goes for food, make sure you have two weeks worth. It doesn't have to be expensive, cheap ramen and knorr freeze dried stuff will keep you going, throw in some cans of chili, stew, and whatever else appeals to you to break it up.

Water, water WATER, without it you will shrivel up and die, not to mention NOT being able to use any of that freeze dried food I advised you to buy. Hopefully it won't happen, but sometimes during a weather event water pipes burst. Someone in a small apartment doesn't have the space to keep 5 gallons of water on hand regularly, but if you KNOW a storm is coming then fill up some gallon jugs. I don't know if it's practical to keep two weeks worth, this may be an item you will wind up having to scrounge for if the pipes don't get fixed soon enough, hopefully not. In any event, store up as much as you can when you hear the shit is about to go down.

Blankies!!!! Bad shit tends to happen in winter, where in much of the country it's FREEZING COLD. What you have with the heat on probably will NOT be enough with no heat. Can't go wrong with some extra wool blankets and or comforters, a sleeping bag rated for extreme cold may even be a better idea if you have the space for it. Have to admit I'm not well prepared in this area. Don't be me.

No power = no light, so of course be sure to have a decent supply of stuff people DO think of, batteries, slow burning candles, matches, etc..

Well, can't think of anything else, if I missed anything feel free to add it in a comment.