The post on cascading failures generated about three times more comments than the typical post.
One recurring theme was that the "grasshoppers" will home-in on the "ants" and attempt to steal or destroy the "ants" preparations. To be very specific, those who are not prepared and have a strong entitlement mentality will follow the sound of a generator to its source and steal the generator and possibly kill those who object to that act.
One complication, as a person who strives to be prepared, is that society will have one foot on the dock while the other foot in the canoe as we teeter on the brink. Cold, rational countermeasures to the scenario described above will be perceived as "booby traps" and will cause endless pain for the person trying to protect their property and their family's security.
Suppose a fella wrote fiction, what would his hero do?
Well, I suppose he might record the sound of a generator running on a cheap smartphone. He might play it on a loop and he might plant that cheap smartphone in the middle of a natural hazard. They call that "baiting" in the hunting biz.
Quicksand is hard to come by in most places but thickets of vicious thorn-scrub is commonplace nearly everywhere. Boggy-swamps can be found in many places. Old sheds infested with yellow-jackets are a seasonal opportunity but can be entertaining. Many old farms have a steep-sided "dump" filled with old tangles of barbed wire, broken glass and boards with rusty 16d nails protruding from them. Running wires up-and-out of the decoy site is a nice touch.
As the target of looters, I am not creating a booby-trap. I am putting bait in one that already exists...bait that can be quickly removed. It is a subtle distinction but it could be an important one.
This essay is offered for entertainment and mental stimulation purposes only.
Hiding the generator is one thing, but you also have to hide the fact you still have power available. Light at night is a giveaway, and can you guarantee your blackout drapes will never have a gap? No? Then lighting circuits at your breaker box should be deenergized and marked DO NOT TURN ON. No artificial light at night until grid services are restored. And, no need to run the genny 24x7, you just need it long enough to keep the food cool and recharge any battery systems you have for silent power.
ReplyDeletePower for appliances at night is fine but even go so far as to take the lightbulb out of your stove and refrigerator/freezer. Don't use a microwave unless you can mute or remove the buzzer.
I'm not convinced generator sounds from a cell phone speaker will have enough volume to work (or enough bass to be convincing either) so I'm leery of decoys.
This is one of the places a properly sized Solar system with a battery can shine. As long as the sun is out during the day to recharge you have continuous power available without any noise.
A good idea. BUT there will be people looking for solar panels, so make sure they are hidden but still usable.
DeleteIt would not surprise me if enterprising people go to county or city records (assuming they still exist) to see who has a transfer switch or a solar system.
IF I get a solar system, it will be something that doesn't have to be recorded or require a building permit.
Also, getting to the county permitting system or records anonymously assumes the Internet is still functioning and THEIR equipment is turned on. I'm sure a clerk would remember someone coming in asking for "all the solar system permits for Easton" when it requires a paper search...
DeleteRick beat me to the issue that a genset is FAR louder than a small speaker can generate. Far better is an old lawnmower used for the bait.
ReplyDeleteProblem with bait is it's not fishing; it's Chumming FOR SHARKS. Do YOU have a big enough boat or are you going to be the Center of a shark packs angry attention?
Unlike those paper targets we train with, those sharks can return the blessings. So as much avoidance as possible and savage response when needed seems prudent.
Sort of like what old Remus said "Stay away from crowds".
Noise and lights attract from far farther than you might realize. This early morning, I can see across the valley to houses lights.
Going dark until the initial smoke from the fires dissipates is my plan. Solar and batteries and THANK YOU Rick for reminding me to remove the bulb out of my fridge.
Figure out how to survive without electricity for a while. My family did it until I was 10 years old.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Even if you have it, there are times it will be far better to not stand out by using it.
DeleteYou also should be able to live without it in case it breaks.
For urban/sub-urban dwellers, blending in with all of the surroundings is another way to avoid attention. Do not stand out, do not be remarkable, do not look, sound, or smell any different than those around you.
ReplyDeleteIn complete agreement with your and others' recommendations not to stand out, I'm passing this suggestion on from somebody smarter than I am... Another probably **necessary** part of not standing out, whether urban, sub-urban or rural, is to look hungry, because you ARE hungry. Everyone except infants, nursing mothers and toddlers (who need adequate nourishment for brain development) goes on short rations. 4000 calorie/day diets are for working men and teenagers AFTER things calm down.
DeleteTour your house late at night without any lights on and you will see all the widgets with indicators (tvs, monitors, stove clock, networking gear). All will need to be powered off or covered to completely black out your house so even entering at night isn't a giveaway you still have power.
ReplyDeleteElectrical tape is a must have for anyone that uses computers a lot. In a light discipline scenario, lights can be disconnected internally for pretty much every device, either by unplugging, or simply snipping one of the wires.
Delete- Arc
A quiet walk around your neighborhood in the evening will show you a lot about how noisy and lit up we are.
ReplyDeleteNow go home, do a "Blackout drill" and walk around the house.
Are you really blacked out? Can your kids playing be heard outside?
And that's WITH normal background noises and light. Once grid goes down all noises and lights REALLY stand out.
Michael, Thanks for your thoughts. On Cascading Failures you asked about "Indian Country" by "Braken". Do you mean Matt Bracken? "Indian Country" is a novel by Kurt Schlichter.
DeleteDaniel I remember reading it on WRShooters and Matt was mentioned.
DeleteIt was about a discussion about how settlers were too far apart to respond to sudden attacks by Indians and the article amended it to more antifa age.
A very thoughtful article, wish I had saved it.
We had a rather large ice storm in the counties north of us that left people without power for 30-45 days. Many people bought or borrowed generators to power and heat their homes. To the best of my knowledge none were stolen. The reason was simply people in rural KY will shoot your ass and stuff the body in a sinkhole under those circumstances. That is called true deterrence.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many of those who disappeared in big disasters (Katrina, Ike, etc) were because of this.
DeleteThanks for the advice that I would never ever ever use.
ReplyDeleteI saw a Ford six cylinder running a line shaft in a blacksmith shop in Castroville years ago. Very quiet. He ran the exhaust into a buried thirty - forty foot casing pipe laid horizontal out side the shop. The exit didn't have any grass growing near it, but it was whisper quiet. He said squirrels that were chased in there came out dazed, smoking and mostly bare.
ReplyDeleteDuring the hurricanes in Florida a Looter Favorite was exchange someone's running generator with an old lawnmower. The noise level was the same, and if the swappee was sleeping, and not using the gennie for air conditioning, they wouldn't learn about the exchange until morning.
ReplyDeleteSo, RE: the "diversion" concept - an empty house, abandoned by the residents but otherwise "looking normal" with a handle-less mower - deck and engine only - disguised in a plywood box painted up to look like a home center-type noisy generator (think: extension pipe through the side of the box to put a cheap muffler outside the box, but do leave box openings for cooling air). The Generator Looter Brigade works primarily at night and will be extremely cautious about using light so until they are right on top of a well-doctored fake it will probably not be noticed. A near-silent Method of Correction (a standard recurve bow of sufficient poundage would work, but recognize the Looter Brigade frequently work in pairs or triads, so simultaneous release of up to 3 bows might be necessary, and the vakue of 1 or 2 more as Extra Insurance should not be disregarded) should serve to reduce the Looter population. And, just as a reminder, really good hunting broadtips are extremely effective but rarely immediate (Hollywood lies, and remember "it's just entertainment, not a documentary"). The big problem will be disposal of the gross tonnage resulting from multi-night anti-looter operations. Not to mention the number of vehicles and volume of ancillary equipment the Brigade will no longer have a use for.
Reasonable efforts to channeling the Looter Brigade into the most desired path - eg., leading them to the Fatal Funnel - would produce the best results.
Consider it a Neighborhood Service Organization but most assuredly do not operate with any neighborhood coordination. Loose lips sink ships and all that.
Pro Tip: standard rotary lawnmowers depend on blade mass to supplement the engine flywheel so blade-less mowers are a bit harder to start, but can be started and will run fine without a blade.
Clean out their car trunk. Place body's in said trunk. Drive to "some" location. leave windows down and keys on dash. Walk away.
DeleteIf we are talking about the end of law and civilization, prep with 5 gallon buckets of non-iodized salt. Good protein for the dogs and to give to beggars And you don't have to dig any holes. Plan ahead, come out ahead.
DeleteA few notes:
Delete-You can run a Servel refrigerator for a long time on propane, or kerosene or diesel fuel. No noise at all, no electricity required. Not cheap, and not a lot of room, but it'll keep critical meds cold, and refrigerate that open #10 can or quart jars of canned stew. I always try to avoid a problem in the first place, and stay un-noticed if possible.
-Solar panels only work during daylight- why leave them outside on anything but a sunny day? If you are only charging batteries for comms and laptops, that takes very little power. A permanent 3 kw array you can spot from a long way away- a folding 100 watt array can be concealed pretty well and keep your weapon batteries, comm batteries etc charged with ease.
-A few panes of glass in your bramble patch might look a lot like solar panels to the untutored eye, too.
But what will Our Hypothetical Hero do with his uninvited feral party crashers?
-Thermal sights and a gas gun with a can have dealt with a lot of feral swine over the years shooting subsonic 300 BO loads. There are a lot of videos out showing what can be done with that sort of setup.
-Headshots don't squeal like a gutshot mammal, either. Out to 50 yards or so, subsonic 45 grain rimfire through a can on a manual .22 rifle is effective for temple or eye shots on most NA mammals, and almost completely silent even on a quiet night. If you want higher volume of fire in lieu of quiet, you can also get conversion kits that'll let you run 30 round mags of .22 rimfire from an AR. The action noise is louder than the report through a can, and even without one the report without a can isn't much louder than the action noise .
-Archery is not absolutely quiet either, even before the arrow hits your target- The smack of impact is surprisingly loud. A good archer can deliver 12 hits to a torso sized target at 30 or 40 yards in a minute, but a decent shot with a 300 BO can deliver 12 headshots in a minute out to 50 yards, and still have 18 rounds of ammo in the mag. Easier to get under cover with a rifle. Other folks may have NODs, too.
-Hogs are plenty dangerous, but people much more so. Having high volume of rapid fire may be important.
-Speaking of hogs, if you are in an area that has 4 legged feral swine roaming around, they'll take care of the mess pretty damned quick; pig farms will too.
-Sound powered ground motion detectors come in real handy for knowing when folks come on your place without permission.
Just a few things your hypothetical SHTF hero might have thought about ahead of time.
With regard to all who seek the Light,
Historian