I've never posted to a SHTF thread before, I have read many of them. Surviving the recent Hurricane Lili got me to thinking about how this was and still is, in some areas very close to my home, a real SHTF scenario. We were suddenly without power for days on end, the heat, and muggy conditions was terrible. Peoples homes were damaged, and in some areas situations are getting desparate. I've been hearing about stealing, rip-offs of poor innocent people, and broad daylight robberies in large store parking lots, etc.
I count myself and my family as among the lucky. We had made all the usual preparations. My biggest mistake was to stay and ride out the storm. If it hadn't weakened unexplainably by one third its strength before making landfall, things could have been much worse. Although I don't live in one of the mandatory evacuation parishes, my home is only two miles from the parish line from Vermilion Parish, one of the worst hit. To keep this gun related, I did load a shotgun, and put it in a more handy location in the aftermath of the storm, when we didn't have electricity for approximately 60 hrs. But, my neighborhood, like 99% of others around South Central Louisiana, didn't behave as is predicted in most of the SHTF scenarios that I read about here. We all immediately came together and helped each other out as best we could. Covering damaged roofs, cleaning up branches, leaves, shingles, etc. We had block "parties", bar-be-cuing or gas grilling food from our freezers which would have been lost.
I had plenty of time to think, the night before it hit, as I couldn't sleep, watching it come straight for us. I have two children and a wife, and realized just how helpless I was in such a natural disaster. When the storm is bearing down on you, spawning tornados, and gusting to 100mph, what are you gonna do? Loading your guns won't help you. If your roof goes, or your house is blown away by a tornado, who you gonna call? No one can come to help you until it is past, and this took hours in Lili's case. In the future, we're outa here for a catagory two or above hurricane.
With all of the stories of heroic acts, and good people helping people, it seems what we here more about now are the stories of people being ripped off, or the ones who use a situation like this to get as much as they can from the government, or insurance companies, by lying, cheating, and acting like they are owed something for their misfortunes. Thousands of volunteers are working very hard to help those still without power, food, water, ice, etc. But, for some it's never enough.
I count myself and my family as among the lucky. We had made all the usual preparations. My biggest mistake was to stay and ride out the storm. If it hadn't weakened unexplainably by one third its strength before making landfall, things could have been much worse. Although I don't live in one of the mandatory evacuation parishes, my home is only two miles from the parish line from Vermilion Parish, one of the worst hit. To keep this gun related, I did load a shotgun, and put it in a more handy location in the aftermath of the storm, when we didn't have electricity for approximately 60 hrs. But, my neighborhood, like 99% of others around South Central Louisiana, didn't behave as is predicted in most of the SHTF scenarios that I read about here. We all immediately came together and helped each other out as best we could. Covering damaged roofs, cleaning up branches, leaves, shingles, etc. We had block "parties", bar-be-cuing or gas grilling food from our freezers which would have been lost.
I had plenty of time to think, the night before it hit, as I couldn't sleep, watching it come straight for us. I have two children and a wife, and realized just how helpless I was in such a natural disaster. When the storm is bearing down on you, spawning tornados, and gusting to 100mph, what are you gonna do? Loading your guns won't help you. If your roof goes, or your house is blown away by a tornado, who you gonna call? No one can come to help you until it is past, and this took hours in Lili's case. In the future, we're outa here for a catagory two or above hurricane.
With all of the stories of heroic acts, and good people helping people, it seems what we here more about now are the stories of people being ripped off, or the ones who use a situation like this to get as much as they can from the government, or insurance companies, by lying, cheating, and acting like they are owed something for their misfortunes. Thousands of volunteers are working very hard to help those still without power, food, water, ice, etc. But, for some it's never enough.
