Nuclear War/TEOTWAWKI Plans

Quote: Nareed

You should read "Lucifer's Hammer" and "Footfall" By Niven and, I think, Pournelle.

The first is about a comet strike, the second is about an alien invasion which includes an asteroid strike.

I have read the former, still own my 1st ED paperback from 77 or 78. Great stuff.
Ice Cream Sunday anyone?

Now, the OP was more TEOTW, more so that global calamity. and it depends upon HOW that comes about, no one preparedness answer fits all scenarios.
Natural (say Yellowstone super-volcano) or Nuke Winter IS TEOTW. We're talking YEARS without enough sunlight for crops. Virus/disease/biochem , "Limited Exchange Nuke", "Tactical Comm/Power Warfare" has various modes and dependencies.

Quote: slyther

I assume the machines will unplug me from the Matrix and that will be it.

You unplug date is Nov 12, 2012. Please settle your affairs before that date.

Due to calendar "our" Calandar changes, has the Mayan Calandar already ended?

Quote: 98Clubs

Natural (say Yellowstone super-volcano) or Nuke Winter IS TEOTW. We're talking YEARS without enough sunlight for crops. Virus/disease/biochem , "Limited Exchange Nuke", "Tactical Comm/Power Warfare" has various modes and dependencies.

The nuclear winter theory has been largely dismissed. It's still a real possibility, but the "experiments" in Iraq in 1991 and 2003 have demonstrated that the amount of ash raised is lower and the fallout rate is higher than previously estimated. Plus, all modern nukes are airburst.

In a realistic nuclear exchange today, if performed as intended (not specifically to raise debris), the ash veil should mostly fall out within a year. That's a lot of damage, particularly to the third world, but, even if only with considerably reduced populace, it's survivable.

Read "One Second After" by Forstchen

It involves an EMP knocking out all electricity in America, and the effect is mass starvation, religious hysteria, and society returning to the 19th century. It is an excellent book.


If an EMP hit, the first places to raid are local pharmacies. You want to grab anything that can be used as a form of barter. Any grocery stores are good, too. Grab all the non-perishable food you can for storage, eat anything that is perishable now. That might give you a few months.

Quote: 98Clubs

I have read the former, still own my 1st ED paperback from 77 or 78. Great stuff.
Ice Cream Sunday anyone?

That's one of a few good books I never intend to re-read. As end of the world fantasies go, "Lucifer's Hammer" is actually optimistic. But the descriptions of devastation, savagery and suffering that ensue are too detaield and too extensive.

Have you read Niven's short "Inconstant Moon"?

" But the descriptions of devastation, savagery and suffering that ensue are too detaield and too extensive. "

That's why i quit reading the bible.

Quote: SACR

Any grocery stores are good, too. Grab all the non-perishable food you can for storage, eat anything that is perishable now. That might give you a few months.

Ever see how much canned food a grocery store keeps on hand?
The first 3 people in the soup section, for instance, will wipe them
out. Much better to stockpile ahead of time. My wifes parents have
two hundred cans of food in their basement and they ignore
the EXP dates. They eat soup and veggies and everything else that
expired 15 or 20 years ago. They've never gotten sick and think
nothing of it. Somebody found some canned food in a cellar awhile
back from the 1860's, Civil War era. It was tesed at a lab and it
was fine, they could have eaten it.

Quote: EvenBob

My wifes parents have two hundred cans of food in their basement and they ignore
the EXP dates. They eat soup and veggies and everything else that expired 15 or 20 years ago.
They've never gotten sick and think nothing of it.

Shelf life depends very strongly on storage temperature. Canned food is specified to be stored at room temperature, and so its shelf life is stated at about 80 degrees. If it's just kept at 60 and under, you can safely store it times longer. At 40 and under, it can last nearly forever, if there are no chemical issues with it. Conversely, 100-degree heat can get even canned foods.


Also, just recalled a remarkable moment of dumb. In Jericho (it's a TV series about a small town after a very mild nuclear war scenario - recommended if you don't mind somewhat slow pacing), there's a scene where chickens in their store's freezers start thawing. Finally, someone suggests, "Let's cook it all!" I almost jump up, not expecting a TV show to be that intelligent.
...of course, they just cook it and stuff themselves sick with it: TV shows don't get that intelligent.

For short-term storage, in absence of refrigeration, highly perishable foods can have their storage life extended by cooking. Cooking kills the microorganisms, and, if done right, the food can store for at least an extra week at moderate temperature. Repeated cooking can reset the timer, although it reduces the palatability. For longer-term storage, heat can be better used to dry the food.

Quote: EvenBob

Ever see how much canned food a grocery store keeps on hand?
The first 3 people in the soup section, for instance, will wipe them
out. Much better to stockpile ahead of time.

And if you're stockpiling, there are better solutions anyway.
Lots of survival supplies with 25-year shelf life, and offering a better balanced diet.

They are often expensive or overpriced though.
This guy looking like a bum tells how to prepare a year's supply for just a couple hundred - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GruRLyIDIYg
If that's too cheap, there are other videos and articles around. The point being, long shelf life survival food is actually cheap. Cereals are the cheapest source of nutrition, and they're dry, so they store.

Quote: s2dbaker

I plan on dying. We are all going to die eventually. If it's in a global cataclysm or getting hit by a bus, it really doesn't matter.

The new TV series about all the electricity and batteries stopping will premier this September.
It's all going to turn off, and it will never ever turn back on!

Although this TV series is likely to be shlocky, I doubt that more than 10% of the world's population could survive such a scenario. Although the population of the world before commercial electricity was probably 20% of what it is today, I think the return to that pre-electric state of mankind would cut the population to well below a billion people.

World population was roughly 310 million a thousand years ago, about the same as present day USA.