by St. Funogas, Survival Blog:
(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.)
STAGE 2: SURVIVAL MODE
The survival phase is the intermediate period between the very short-term emergency phase and the time when things finally settle down to the New Normal phase.
Once everyone is finally gathered together at the homestead, defenses set up, the freezer contents are canned, freeze dried, smoked, or those blueberries made into cobbler as a comfort food during those first few stressful days, and once we’ve got meals back to some sort of a schedule, chores divvied out, watch times established, and water and propane conservation rules tacked to the wall, we can begin to relax just a little as we transition into survival mode.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
The more quickly we can move from emergency mode to survival mode, the better off we’ll be. While some in our group naturally worry more than others, the majority of the group will be calmly approaching what lies ahead. We know we have enough supplies and preps to take care of our basic needs. Now our biggest concern will be to ensure our group’s survival by defending it all.
We’ll need to be ready defense-wise from the first hour of Day One. Not necessarily because we’ll have to be defending our homesteads that early in the game, but to begin transitioning over to a defense mindset which most of us have never been in before. No later than the end of the second week, things will be likely be serious enough that we’ll have to actually start physically defending our homesteads and pantries even if it’s just with some warning shots. We’ll be defending them with deadly force from that day on until the majority of the unprepared have dwindled away. Some will die from starvation, others at the hands hungry neighbors, and many by small groups of local undesirables who’ve banded together to take by force whatever they need to survive.
I don’t picture, as some do, hordes of people heading to the country because they think farmers all have big gardens and lots of food. I picture this only happening in large commercial agricultural areas where there are silos full of grains and soybeans, potato-storage warehouses, etc. I picture the multitudes concentrating on distribution warehouses full of foods waiting to head to grocery stores.
The biggest problem food-wise in my area, will be preserving small cattle and goat herds, mostly from locals at first. Unless cattle farmers team up with their neighbors, they’ll be unable to defend their herds by themselves. If some sort of a round-the-clock watch isn’t set up, cattle will be taken, then mostly wasted as the majority of the meat will go to waste when thieves don’t know how to preserve it. With neighbors banding together to protect cattle herds, the meat can be butchered as needed and conserved in a manner that will best ensure the longest-term food source possible.
The local game such as deer and elk, will mostly go to waste. In my county I’d expect 98% of the deer and turkeys to be gone in less than 30 days. People won’t want to band together and harvest game as needed, everyone will worried about getting their share before it’s all gone. Even in my area with a hunting culture and the use of game bags, I would expect much of the meat to go to waste without refrigeration. Most will have no practical experience in preserving meat the old-fashioned way by smoking, drying for jerky, salting, etc. Few will have time to get it all preserved quickly enough and much of it will go to waste. The feces hitting the fan in the wintertime will help delay meat spoilage in many parts of the country.
HOW LONG WILL THE SURVIVAL STAGE LAST?
How long the survival phase would last is the million-dollar question and anyone’s guess. No two areas will be the same. It would depend on a variety of factors such as what kind of event caused the Schumer to hit the fan in the first place, whether it’s slow-motion or a sudden event, and perhaps most importantly, what time of year it happens. Anything that could be called a TEOTWAWKI event would almost certainly result in a grid-down world.
It would take a book-length article to discuss all the possibilities and variables, but if the post-SHTF situation is anything like the ones depicted in the movies and literature, minus the impossibility of the military showing up to save the day, in my opinion I don’t think the survival phase would last very long, most likely 4-6 months at best, and much less if the SHTF during the winter. Whatever the time frame, some estimates are as high as 90% of the US population would die during the first year of a grid-down world. I lean toward the 90% figure for reasons outlined in my next article “A Realistic Top-10 Prepping List.” The die-off rate would be best graphed as a reverse hockey stick with a heavy die-off in the beginning.
TYPES OF PEOPLE WANTING OUR FOOD
Of those who’ve done little or nothing to prepare, I picture three kinds of people.
First, “decent people” who would run out of food, then ask friends and neighbors for some, then lay down to peacefully die after they have no more food options. The second group, the “nice people,” would ask for food, then eventually get nasty about it when people say no. When they get to that point they’ll do whatever it takes to survive. The third group consists of that small minority of scoundrels down the road who, once they started getting hungry, would ask nicely just one time, then take by force whatever we have if we’re not willing to share. Some members of these two groups will form into bands of rovers of one sort or another. These bands of desperadoes would make it necessary for us to do whatever it takes to protect our families and supplies, and will unquestionably require the use of deadly force.
