Are there people actually preparing for a Z-day?

13spanner

It's always something to think about. If sh*t went down, what would I do? But are there people out there seriously preparing themselves for a crisis?

OutsiderAkuma

Personally I'm not, though mentally I'm preparing. Plus I walk by somewhere that looks decent, I instinctfully think of ways to defend it lol

ScumLord

Where I live there's no point in stock piling food or water, I have access to spring water and there's just enough food industry to tide us over, at worst the whole country has enough milk to feed half of Europe so Ireland won't starve.

I have my weapon/tool in my fubar and I have access to the people that have the skills to survive as a group. That's all that's really need, people with skills, natural resources and organisation.

Calling it an apocalypse isn't really accurate, it's a crisis. Humans have faced down many crisis's and been on the brink of extinction many times. All people really need to do is survive the outbreak and living in a low density town in Ireland is about the best place to do that.

And by all accounts it's rich pickings for those that survive crisis like these.

Grizzly 45

When you think about it..This has been the greatest trick pulled on the Western World to get people thinking about prepardness for a disaster situation..Whoever thought this up had a brilliant understanding of Psyops.

If you think back to the 80s when in the USA and to certain part the UK,had the Survivalist movement.But for actual political reasoning in the end of the Cold war era,it was degenirated by the media and politicians into a hateful,despicable ,lunatic fringe of people wearing cammo and toting full auto weaponary and waiting for the bombs to fall ,to rebuild civilisation.Or to duke it out with the invading Russians into the post nuked USA.[How that was going to happen was anyones guess,most of all the Russians themselves,as they had no plan to do this in the first place,and werent insane enough to want to try!!]

Without going into lengthy explanations and the history of this and boring the pants off everyone.Suffice to say the Survivalist movement was painted as a gun obsessed,bunch of cammo wearing nutters willing to shoot it out with anyone daring to try and take their guns and supplies.The US Govt and media got their wish ,more or less under the Clinton dictatorship with Waco and Randy Weaver in Idaho.Although they were more a break away religious group and a white seperatist family that in both cases the Feds tried to fit up for crimes they didnt comit.It suited the media to paint them as survivalists.

So we lived quite happily,proably chuckling at the idiots who thought the Y2k bug would happen,as they dumped all their "survival supplies" onto the markets and swop meets until 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina happened,and shattered the belif that nothing nasty was going to happen,ever and that a benevelont powerful govt could protect us and save us in no time from anything man made or natural.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Anyone not notice then,that this was the dawn [no pun intended]of the Zombie survival movement??And the end of the "vampire" and meteor type thing fad?
After all who could belive in creatures that are allergic to sun light,crucifixs,water and garlic.Not to mind their boss generally dress like a head waiter in a resturant??:D

To call it survivalism,had too many nasty connotations,prepardness was good but too vauge,as alot of people would just do the basics and still rely on the Govt to help them out.And prepare for what specific disaster??

Zombie survival OTOH gave everyone somthing else to think about.Like supposing it is a plauge,natural or man made,that hit us?Or how would you cope in a terrorist attack[replace Zombies with terrorists] on a building in a street situation etc?How would people react if somone started showing odd symptoms of a disease in public.you can replace the Zombie with whatever govt or other horror you care to imagine that would scare people,it actually has been a brilliant way to get people to think outside the box on how they would survive if somthing were to happen.

Of course we do have the odd pot boiler thrown in as well from the media industry.Like 28 days later,28 weeks later,a remake of the dawn of the dead,and of course the walking dead seris.
Sure they are cashing in again on a craze,but think of it like this...Apart from watching it for the entertainment value...doesnt it get you thinking..I would have done X in this situation,or Y here??

TBH somone could do a great thesis on this..Is the zombie survival movement,a Govt plant to get us thinking about the unthinkable in a fun way??Without scaring us too much??:D

Gandalph

Aw man the hassle of preparing for it when I know I'll end up dead anyway

superfish

when it happens il deal with it il be one of the lucky ones as I live in the middle of nowhere so will have plenty of time to prepare unlike the poor city dwellers

DjFlin

I had a plan up until recently, when someone pointed out that all the worlds nuclear power stations would fall into disrepair, which would kill me if the zombies didnt.

The only way to win at Zombies is not to play

Grizzly 45

Last thing you would ned to be worried about are the nuke plants falling into disrepair.Maybe in 100 years or so..Or they have built them in earthquake zones,and you are living next dor to them.It could be argued too for chemical plants,oil refineries etc,they can blow up just as quick[and are more likely to] than nuke plants.

krissovo

I am not preparing for "Z" day as such but I am constantly preparing for general emergencies and as a result I would be somewhat prepared should "Z's" be that emergency.

I have bug out bags for the family, my home could easily become self sufficient, in the process for obtaining a gun license, mobile options (2 vans, 1 camper, 1 panel), lastly and probably most importantly I have survival experience.

GavRedKing

DjFlin wrote: »

I had a plan up until recently, when someone pointed out that all the worlds nuclear power stations would fall into disrepair, which would kill me if the zombies didnt.

The only way to win at Zombies is not to play

Even in a worldwide outbreak I'd seriously doubt many of the nuclear plants would fall victim to neglect.

First off most of them are in the middle of nowhere or located close to small towns where the workers live.

Hopefully any Z outbreak that does oocur will be dealt with in a matter of weeks, any Nuclear Plant that will be abandoned wont be a time bomb, they will come offline and the safety procedures to do so would be implemented by a goverment.

Also, a government might easily decide that nuclear power is needed and send a small teams of armed personnal and technicans and scienctist to run the place, dont forget they are fairly safe sites as they dont want just anybody turning up and walking in.

ScumLord

gavredking wrote: »

Even in a worldwide outbreak I'd seriously doubt many of the nuclear plants would fall victim to neglect.

It's only really the old ones that people need to worry about but I wouldn't be surprised if most automatically shut down as the demand for electricity dropped.

These are also highly secure locations and will have plenty of time to shut down reactors as needed.

ChaseThisLight

I'm not fortifying my house for the inevitable, but I'm preparing, as I would for any disaster. This means making sure I have the proper supplies, know where to get more; I have a gun and will be getting a shotgun as well (not just for zeds, for those that might think I'm crazy - a cougar stole one of our chickens! :mad:). I also live in the middle of nowhere, so I have the low density population going for me.

socky2011

i'd go find a hard to reach area like the church on the reek bringing enough supplies to last 6 months and a dog so i can have some decent conversation once i go mad

RiderOnTheStorm

I am preparing for it. But like some of the others, its mostly a mental thing. I am keeping track of potential safe houses, supplies of timber / metal fences / etc, and always looking out for stuff that will be usefull when it all kicks off.

Thats was the 'mostly' part. The things I am actually doing is collecting first aid supplies (antibiotics, suture kits, etc) and going on courses whenever I can (first aid, vhf radio, etc). I am giving serious thought to replacing my car with a 4x4 when its time (or at least an AWD). I also make sure to buy a few extra cans of food / dry-goods etc , so that I always have a few weeks of food in the house (it might not be nice, but we will live long enough to be able to find more). I do keep a file of usefull information (like how to make bio-diesel, purify water, slaughter & preserve meat, etc) for reference after the day.

On the subject of Zombies .... It might not be a Z-war. It could be something else, like plain old plague of SARS, or it might be massive tsunami , or global brain washing .... or it just might be a wierd virus that make people like animals and try to eat me .... but I am still trying to prepare for it, and think my way into (and out) of it. Its a form of survivalist, I guess, but like Grizzly says, its not the camo-wearing damn-the-bomb type. I think its just being reasonably prepared. If the day comes when you see me build a bunker in my basement, then its time to worry (about me and the apocolypse)!

Sticky_Fingers

I'm not preparing for Z-day as such more some unforeseen disaster that could be rather unpleasant to live through if I didn't have to foresight to plan ahead. I wonder how many people would have it a little bit easier if after losing their job they didn't have to make the choice between paying the mortgage or putting food on the table if they had a few months of preps to fall back on until they (hopefully) get back on their feet.

krissovo

In the last 2 years I have built my home, to a certain extent much of the plans in the house did cover some key survival elements. It added about €20k to build costs.

Construction - Solid concrete walls (6" thick) and heavily insulated, triple glazed toughened glass, south facing aspect with massive solar gain. I even have a panic room which during normal use is a walk in wardrobe but solid concrete and heavy blast door.

Heating - Solar gain, German stove with back boiler that heats radiators and hot water. 10.8 sq meters of solar panels. No need for electricity to heat my home. Heavily insulated and is a "passive house" so I do not need much fuel to heat the home.

Water - 1200 ltr fresh water tank connected to mains, 1200 ltr rainwater harvesting tank connected to gutters. I have a well bored but not main source of water, can be switched.

Electricity - Diesel generator, truck battery farm in atic, push bike powered generator. Produces enough to power solar panels and rain water pumps.

So the basics are covered, I have heat and water. The "off grid heat" has been tested during power cuts last year, also during a bad cold spell last year we had no heating oil for 4 days when it was -15 outside. We survived on solar gain during the day (19 deg) and at night lit the stove to get 21 deg.

paulmclaughlin

^ Coolest plan ever ^

krissovo

Part two of my preparations.......Vehicles

I have two potential bug out vehicles dependent of the situation. The first would be most likely.

Nissan Vanette - I have a 01 Vanette with a common/very reliable 2.4 diesel engine that would run on virtually any fuel oil (Home heating, veg oil, diesel) and is actually quite economical. Its a innocent looking and tired old panel van which mechanically is very reliable and has plenty more miles in her. Its not 4x4 but I have lots of off road experience and I am confident it could go through most surfaces that would be needed when bugging out plus I have sand ladders on board which would get me out of trouble with a bit of effort.

The van is equipped with a bug out kit, 300 ltrs of water (changed monthly), water purification kit, a blow up mattress (from Lidl) and 4 season sleeping bags, chemical toilet (from Lidl), rations for 1 month of 3 meals a day for 4, books & documentation to cover survival guides, survival recipes, Haynes manual for the van, 80 ltrs of additional diesel, gas cooker plus gas for 1 month. I also have prefabricated metal grills that would cover the windows if the situation dictates so the van could be secured from inside if required.

Cost was minimal, the van was a freebie as it failed the DOE test (easy fuel leak fix). About €200 for fuel cans, water cans, food, water purification etc.

My second vehicle is the family camper van - Its a classic 70's VW camper with good facilities (beds, cooking & water storage) that I would use if it was a domestic temporary situation like gas evacuation, water contamination or social collapse. Its reliable despite its age and simple mechanics which I would easily rely on to escape up to a safe area in within Ireland or offshore. The van is the smaller than the average modern MPV so would fit on a ferry classed as a car and would not be turned away in the event of a mass country evacuation like the bigger camper vans.