Preparedness for when

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

Morning all.

Lyn, I think the difficlutly of hiding in the woods (or whatever terrain) in the modern era is that heat-seeking cameras on helicopters make you very very obvious even if you're as quiet as a mouse.

And like all things technology based the kit is becoming cheaper and more portable all the time. Its not just limited to official use.

Many towns and cities have abandoned tunnels and underground structures. Some completely faded from memory, others more well known. Perhaps its worth finding local urbexers (urban explorers) to increase your bug out options.

maryb

Morning all
Reading on my tablet (hate the blue format). So apologies for any predictive text skittishness on its part

Thank you all so much for the links and advice. I'm busy making notes. Grey Queen you mention you eat lots of chard - can I ask how do you eat it? Ashamed to say I have no clue. Is it mainly good in salads or do you steam it and eat it as a cooked veg? Those stems look very pretty but do you have to strip them like you do with spinach beet?

I do actually eat quite a lot of green veg, honest. But it's mainly broccoli and cabbage and I need to get more variety if I am to maintain my intake over the summer.

Interesting the discussion about how to get out of your home locality if something kicks off. Our local shopping centre was evacuated recently (if I recall correctly it was gang violence not a suspect device. - my dears, we are talking Bromley!!! What is the world coming to??).

If I had been on foot I would have been able to work round it no problem. As it was I had been to Rose Waites and had to drive round the ring road which goes past the park behind the shopping centre. Traffic was almost stationary and there was nothing I could do. Mind you, it doesn't take much for that road to get snarled up.

As for GMOs I agree I don't like the sound of eating food that has been sprayed with Roundup. I make my own bread, when I eat it which is not that often, and I am largely using organic flour these days because even though the wheat itself may not be genetically modified (hybridised into Frankenwheat, but that's a different equally big ball game) I don't like the idea of Roundup being used as a dessicant

GreyQueen

maryb, gotta be v.brief as just running out the door to work.

I eat my chard in salads, cut into strips, but pass on the thicker stems.

You can cook it in a steamer or stir-fry it. With large leaves for stir-fry, it's best to cut the spine out of the leaves and into sections and stir-fry that a little longer before adding the leafy bits close to the end as they take much less cooking.

Can't be more helpful now - am outta here for the day. GQ xx

thriftwizard

If I had been on foot I would have been able to work round it no problem. As it was I had been to Rose Waites and had to drive round the ring road which goes past the park behind the shopping centre. Traffic was almost stationary and there was nothing I could do. Mind you, it doesn't take much for that road to get snarled up.

Interesting! If push ever did come to shove around here, my instinct would be to stay off the roads, or at least the main roads. It doesn't take much for our one & only A road to seize up at the best of times, never mind in an emergency. We hardly ever go anywhere up or down that road on a bank holiday, for example, as we'd just be sitting in a traffic jam for hours, so we stay put & put our feet up in the garden instead. And whilst my van is well-equipped for a couple of days "camping" it's also hardly the most discreet vehicle...

So, if in those rooms and bullets started flying outside, the sensible reaction would be to throw oneself to the floor and squirm into the room with the smallest, highest window and the largest, massiest fittings (we call them bathrooms here).

For us, that'd be the utility room - the bathroom has a lovely big window, which is a mixed blessing at the best of times! I spent some time thinking about this when we returned from our trip to Oklahoma - nearly 10 years ago now - as our host's home (in Moore) has no storm shelter, so he has to drive right round the city to his son's house when a tornado warning is broadcast. Not that likely a scenario here! But once you start thinking about these things, it's hard to stop.

[Deleted User]

OK I can see the problems of trying to do a runner and appreciate that heat sensitive cameras and all the other technical apparatus that has been developed would find us and that there could be difficulties in establishing ourselves as civilians who were taking cover instead of terrorists. We don't have a cellar, we don't have brick outhouses or any concrete structure to be able to shelter in and most of the land here is very flat so other than going to another house it would be difficult to do anything BUT hide in the woods. Scenario I'm imagining is terrorists having attacked the local hostelries and shops which are all open until late in the evening then, because of no readily available police presence, they presumably are en route but perhaps 30 miles away, doing door to door in the village because there was no hindrance to this and methodically eliminating those who are inside. Where would you go under those circumstances? I know this is an extreme situation to envisage but if the terrorists encounter no opposition would they keep killing until they did? I still think the only option for us would be to at least try to put some distance between us and the village and hope we could convince any police/armed forces/rescue force that we weren't the bad guys. I'd at least like to go out trying and not just be a sitting Canard!

nuatha

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Scenario I'm imagining is terrorists having attacked the local hostelries and shops which are all open until late in the evening then, because of no readily available police presence, they presumably are en route but perhaps 30 miles away, doing door to door in the village because there was no hindrance to this and methodically eliminating those who are inside. Where would you go under those circumstances? I know this is an extreme situation to envisage but if the terrorists encounter no opposition would they keep killing until they did? I still think the only option for us would be to at least try to put some distance between us and the village and hope we could convince any police/armed forces/rescue force that we weren't the bad guys. I'd at least like to go out trying and not just be a sitting Canard!

Bugging in would give me two options.
The loft/attic - fairly discrete but no protection against a few rounds fired through the ceilings of the rooms below - and the garage, single skin brick wall with a thin steel roller shutter door at one end, and a wood single door at the other. Single skin brick walls will take a fair amount of small arms fire before becoming useless. Far less so either of the doors, but there is a fair amount of heavy woodworking machinery and similar that would afford some protection.

Possibly this is the difference between urban and more rural. Last I checked the population hereabouts was over 35,000 that's a lot of munitions and manpower needed to suppress/subdue and there's not many useful targets for a live attack (as opposed to a remote attack such as a bomb, we have a shopping centre for example).

Karmacat

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Scenario I'm imagining is terrorists having attacked the local hostelries and shops which are all open until late in the evening then, because of no readily available police presence, they presumably are en route but perhaps 30 miles away, doing door to door in the village because there was no hindrance to this and methodically eliminating those who are inside. Where would you go under those circumstances? I know this is an extreme situation to envisage but if the terrorists encounter no opposition would they keep killing until they did? I still think the only option for us would be to at least try to put some distance between us and the village and hope we could convince any police/armed forces/rescue force that we weren't the bad guys. I'd at least like to go out trying and not just be a sitting Canard!

That's a frightening scenario, absolutely. I can think of a few responses, but it would have to be life or death to play them out, you're right

Getting up into the loft, I agree that thats one - you'd have to be able to pull the ladder up after you, and put the loft hatch in place. It would certainly help if some of the loft floor had been boarded over, for you to lay on.

Do you have wheelie bins? Could you hide behind them, or even *in* them?

In that situation, I wonder if the terrorists would be checking underneath the vehicles? Rolling underneath could be a possibility, especially in an unlit area.

If you *were* to go hide in the woods because of indiscriminate shooting of civilians, hiding your infra-red profile from someone on the ground might mean, e.g., ducking behind a big fallen tree, or getting into a ditch. Hiding infra red from a drone (and they can be bought for much, much less than £100) .... what about a waterproof tarp? Even a pvc tablecloth would do for a little while?

Started me thinking now ....

[Deleted User]

Would a tarpaulin or PVC tablecloth actually block body heat from an infra red camera? I ask as I really don't know? if so I'm covered as I've got both! Wheelie bins are beside the house so we'd probably be safer indoors, we have a lamp post at the bottom of the drive so we'd be very visible under the car, our drive slopes up from the road and the house is some 10 feet above it so we'd be easily visible from street level. Loft we could do but whether we'd be able to get the ladder up is another matter, it's a metal sliding one that 'locks' half way down for rigidity and anyhow there is only as Nuatha says ceiling board as protection. If we were forced to stay in the only place that might be shelter would be the understairs cupboard as that's 3 sides brick but only wood on the other two.

mardatha

In the unlikely event of that happening here - homicidal armed sheep for instance - we luckily have a wee hatch under the hall carpet that lets you down into the foundations. And being on a hillside, at the lower end there's over 5ft headroom down there. The problem would be pulling the carpet back over the hatch... but with sheep we'd be ok cos they aren't that smart.

[Deleted User]

Baaaaaaaa humbug???