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RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

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    RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

    Assume the worst happens...peak oil, zombies, whatever...either way, if you needed to immediately leave and take refuge *somewhere*, somewhere without running water, electricity, access to food, shelter, etc...

    What are you going to do?

    This is the thread for real ideas and instruction and links on survival (hence, it is in the academics section...

    Things to think about: shelter (there is a public domain book called Shelters, Shacks and Shanties on this topic, for anyone interested), clean water, food, sanitation, clothing, foraging, farming, medicing, etc

    For example...one problem is cooking (and being able to boil water, essential for clean water and for sanitation incase of illness or injury). Anyone that has ever cooked over a fire can tell you that while somethings work really well and taste delicious, it takes a long time and uses alot of fuel. If one is in an extended survival situation, it then becomes necessary to have a way to efficiently and (relatively) quickly cook food.

    Since about 1/5 or 1/5 of the world still uses wood cookstoves, and in the interest of making them more efficient (because wood fuel has become increasingly hard to find in many of these places), there has been much (easy and cheap) innovation meant to increase the health and ease at which persons in developing countries cook (indoor smoke is a big health concern, if you didn't catch my post in the deforestation thread)...there happen to be quite a few resources on this matter:

    There is the the Wood Gas Stove (uses wood as fuel, converts wood to gas as its burned, leaves charcoal as a leftover), which is one of the most efficient stoves...

    But there is also the "'Hobo Stove", which is probably one of the easiest stoves...and made from punching/cutting some holes in a large tin can--there a a number of variations on this stove (one example, from mother earth news), or check out this awesome cook kit with hobo stove)
    Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
    sigpic

    #2
    Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

    I am 25 miles from my adopted family, some of whom live off the grid, the rest close enough, and all of them know what to do. I can walk 25 miles in one good day or 2 bad ones, if I have to. Assuming nothing has been raidoactively poisoned, water here is abundant and about as unpolluted as you can get these days.
    I maintain a pretty good supply of cans of tuna, beans, etc., and two manual can openers. (I actually know people who think they'd be fine, and then point to an ELECTRIC opener.....I just shake my head.)
    sigpic
    Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

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      #3
      Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

      My initial plan, get myself and my parents to grandma's house. That provides steady access to water, a small armory, decent amount of space, some home grown food, wood and a wood stove, finally heween dad, the uncle living with my grandmother and grandma herself I have access to people much more prepared to adapt under such conditions than I am.

      Hmm, my second plan is to mourn the loss of the internet.
      life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

      Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

      "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

      John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

      "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

      Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


      Comment


        #4
        Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

        Originally posted by MaskedOne View Post
        Hmm, my second plan is to mourn the loss of the internet.
        Oh yeah! That too!!
        sigpic
        Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

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          #5
          Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

          I have a fear of zombies (see Confessions thread ^_^) and so at some point, myself and my husband started making plans. We have written a short book with our plans that are specific to our location, including short and long-term plans, and I have our bug-out bags in my car.

          The short version is that we live away from town in the woods a bit, and across the road is my parents' house. It has a large basement with no windows and a two car garage, which would be our best bet for safety (the greatest downside to this plan is that the highway is not too far away to be walking distance through the woods). My mother is a hoarder and has food enough for 3-6 people for at least six months; should we need to stay longer, we've made plans to grow food on the roof and retrieve and purify water from a stream a short distance away or at worst the several ponds (full of catfish and other fish) that are within a mile from the location.

          When it comes to weapons, my parents keep way too many guns in the house, not to mention tools like machetes in the barns, so we should have a reasonable chance at surviving.

          Considering our plan could involve staying in a windowless, concrete basement for quite some time, my greatest fear is not the zombies but the state of mind at the camp. It's important to have things for entertainment to keep everyone from becoming depressed - books, games, and for as long as they are useful, stereos and TVs.

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            #6
            Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

            I like the fuel-saving straw stoves they've been working on in Africa & India:

            Fuel Saving Cooking

            I know there's a version that can be made using a metal barrel. The site also mentions solar stoves - which only work well if you're some place that gets direct sunlight. I don't think I'd be sticking around Vegas in the event of the inevitable ZA. I'd head for someplace with perma-frost - zombies have no method of thermoregulation. I may hate the cold, but they'd be frozen.
            The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

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              #7
              Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

              At least in extreme heat they would rot quicker!

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                #8
                Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

                Or turn into jerky...

                Mmm, zombie jerky.
                The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

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                  #9
                  Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

                  well, if it *too* hot (as long as its not humid), there is always the zeer--a clay pot-in-pot refrigerator which doesn't require electricity...and there is a variation revented by British student, Emily Cummins, which can be made from pretty much anything you can find (metal cans, barrels, etc)(see below for how it works, pic links to article)
                  Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                  sigpic

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                    #10
                    Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

                    Zombies scare me I actually do have a survival plan because even though it's really unlikely, every time I watch the Walking Dead (and I can't stop watching it because it's a really good show) I need to get to sleep somehow, and that 'somehow' is having a plan in case I wake up to zombie apocalypse.

                    Anyway my deal is that we don't have guns really in my country. You need to be part of a hunting association and go hunting for sport to even own one, and since I live in the middle of the city, that's almost no one. Even most of the police only carry tasers. So fighting the zombies probably isn't an option. I have two plans, both of which involve hiding it out as long as possible:

                    Scenario A, aka the ideal scenario. I hide in my apartment until they rot, freeze and/or get eaten by crows/foxes. I have a good stock of food in here all the time (I still shop like a north american and keep a pantry), and I also preserve food for the winter and keep a garden in the summer with lots growing in it. If push comes to shove I have a lot of seeds that will grow pretty fast. It rains lots here too so I can catch rain water. I'm really in the ideal spot too because I'm in the back building and there's a front door and downstairs door (which is glass, but I'd barricade it) between me and the street, thick, European concrete walls, and assuming you get past all that, I can make barricades all up and down the stairs. I live on the top floor. I even have a storage closet that locks from the inside that has no windows and only the one thick door, if it really got ugly. I keep food in there too (not because of zombies...but because I have space). To get into it you also have to get into the door of my bedroom, which also locks from the inside. Incidentally, this is also the plan in case of a much more realistic scenario- someone breaking into my home.

                    Scenario B- for some reason hiding in my apartment isn't going to work. Maybe I'm out when hell breaks loose...dunno. Anyway plan B involves hiding out in one of the most fortified places in teh city I know of- the German Historical Museum. Added benefit of iron enforced doors and windows. Full suits of metal armour and medieval weaponry inside. And a bunch of creepy nazi stuff that might come in use (they made a lot of weapons and such!) Plus there's a canteen, so, food.

                    And I just thought of a scenario c, just now. American embassy....another of the more fortified places in the city. And they have guns.

                    Anyway waiting it out is one of the better plans in a city with few weapons and, well, being a city. Winter will come eventually and with our frozen temperatures, they'd freeze.

                    -------------------------------------

                    Assuming it's not a zombie apocalypse, it's not too bad. There is LOADS of wood here, and loads of cheap ikea furniture to burn (I'm not particularly attached to mine). I have a lot of matches. And since it rains a lot here, finding water isn't really an issue (plus if push comes to shove, the city is surrounded by lakes).
                    I actually think a lot of European towns and cities would do ok in an apocalypse. Most of them built up long before any gas, heat, or electricity and are situated in places with natural resources, and farmland is built up around them.The worst part is getting through winter, but people did it for thousands of years before indoor heating, so I'm sure we'd eventually manage. A lot of people in Berlin don't even have central heating anyway. Because of East Germany being not so developed, a lot of unmodernized apartments are still heated by coal furnaces. My last apartment even had a functioning oven/stove that ran on coal (I used it as a countertop, but take all the stuff off it and it still worked). There are water pumps all over the city too...manual ones. I don't know why, but they're there. There's also the fact that Berlin pretty much had a pretty dire situation and people got through it on natural resources. The allied bombing in WWII left the city in rubble, and people had to burn trees for firewood and sleep on the streets. It was possible though. Scary but people did it.

                    Berlin is surrounded almost entirely by woodland, as we don't really have suburbs. A good chunk of the city is bordered by rivers, lakes and state forests. These are all teeming with wildlife. There are lots of fish and fowl, and an overpopulation of wild boar. quite a few deer, and in a pinch less desirable animals like pigeons. LOADS of people keep rabbits as pets too (and we know those are food in an apocalypse situation lol). The rest of the city that isn't bordered by wild lands is bordered by farmland. Lots growing. There are also fruit trees (real ones, that you can eat) growing all over the city. Like, hundreds and hundreds of them. In a pinch there's also the natural herbs and such growing in the forests as well...lots of nettle (which people even ate during the war when they lost their homes and rationing was too hard), dandelions, etc.
                    Last edited by DanieMarie; 04 Aug 2011, 12:00.

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                      #11
                      Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

                      I like the embassy plan. If they let you in then marine contingents are fun things to have around.

                      Hmm, that reminds me that I have secondary options around which pack more weapons than any of the relatives. They aren't particularly fortified against zombie hordes but they do pack lots of cool toys and convenient escape routes.
                      life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

                      Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

                      "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

                      John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

                      "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

                      Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

                        I don't know that they actually have a lot of Marines. The Americans don't really have any strong military presence in Berlin anymore, and most of the security at the Embassy is German police officers, but the Americans command some pretty hefty security (all the embassies have it, but the American seems to be the most hardcore about it, plus it's the closest one to me).

                        I also forgot...anywhere Jewish. Synagogues, the Jewish Museum...stuff like that. Part of the reparations for the Holocaust were 24 hour hefty security for any Jewish establishment. They're fortified and well-guarded and outfitted with security that includes weapons.

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                          #13
                          Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

                          I'm not expecting a large contingent though we do have an air base in Germany that might be able either boost the numbers or provide evac if Zombiepocalypse doesn't cripple it but internal security for the embassy is gonna be a handful of marines with accompanying toys. Marines far as I know tend to be our normal security force for embassies and the embassy site does mention them. Won't be anywhere near enough to try and influence the rest of the city but it should help keep zombies out.

                          There may also be some armed feds roaming around but I'm expecting the marines to have cooler toys.
                          life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

                          Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

                          "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

                          John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

                          "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

                          Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

                            Oh there is an American military presence in Germany still, it's just not in Berlin. Most of the largest centres are in the South of Germany, which is very, very far from here. The South of Germany was the American occupied part of the country and Berlin is in Brandenburg, which was Soviet....but Berlin was divided 4 ways as well. After the fall of the Berlin Wall (and the cold war) the foreign military left Berlin, but many still occupy a few of their bases in the areas they occupied in West Germany (actually I don't think the French do, but the British have a couple and the Americans are still fairly present in the South). Anyway good for those areas but over here we more have to rely on our own national security lol.

                            But you're right, there are some armed feds around Berlin...not just from the US but from many countries. Berlin is one of the largest capitals in europe and has the most foreign embassy presence (Paris and London are other good places for that).

                            EDIT if I could make it that far south, which is doubtful but if, it's pretty hefty still:
                            Last edited by DanieMarie; 04 Aug 2011, 12:52.

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                              #15
                              Re: RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (the survival thread)

                              ****, I knew we had forces there from the Cold War but that's a lot of installations.
                              life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

                              Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

                              "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

                              John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

                              "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

                              Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


                              Comment

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