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Comment by LiquidPolymer | Hacker News Reader

This article keeps coming back up. I know so many people in Oregon who freaked out about this and started prepping go-bags and family emergency plans. Yet nobody really thinks about it much now. Such is human nature.

A while back on this forum I explained how I have my truck camper fully fueled, stocked with water, foo, and propane. Its electrical system is solar charged but it also has a built-in generator. It’s in this “ready mode” as an emergency shelter for my family. We don’t get much warning with an earthquake.

I was ridiculed by a few folks who seemed to suggest I was a paranoid prepper. But this article and its message have never left my mind.

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I’m very curious about your setup and have a few questions.

If the big one hits, do you think you’ll be able to drive anywhere, or will the roads be so destroyed and traffic so bad you’ll just get gridlocked in?

Where do you plan to drive to?

Once you run out of food, water and gas what are your plans?

I’ve driven through some of the least developed and most dangerous countries on earth (DRC, Sudan, Mali, etc) in my personal vehicles and I’m always curious if people have really thought it through, or just surface level

i.e. everyone says gas vehicles are better than EVs in a disaster, because you don’t rely on the power grid. I’ve waited days in a line to buy gasoline because there was no power to pump it out of the ground.

I love the idea of an RV disaster escape/survival vehicle. Which we'd use regularly for recreation, but (without telling any kids) with the fun secretly doubling as improving our disaster survival skills, and refining our supplies and gear.

I'd also secretly train kids for rapid escape: "Surprise trip! Let's see how fast we can get in the van! Gogogo!" After that, secretly train for not-unlikely exceptions, like the road is blocked, between us and higher ground or our bugout location.

The older I get, the more I get more interested in the tidal flows of information

It's both misunderstood and understood.

Ex. Given a 9 year old article, we jump from "so many people freaked out" to "nobody cares about it now." --- nobody cares is easy falsified --- but then we confirm it and attribute it to "human nature". (which much like astrology, people will fill in that gap with any time they perceived others as not-caring about something they care about it)

But, we also recognize the article is reposted and on the front page again, indicating it is novel to a large subset of people. Despite the fact it has been posted no less than 25 times.

You might consider adding a starlink mini in your emergency kit, if not already. As terrestrial communications would be affected in the area.

I think we need to find some ethical and sustainable alternatives to emergency communications. HAM radio is still very much around along with alternative satellite communications. There's also been some DIY efforts in using LoraWAN-based messengers and such.

Saying this in light of:

- how many satellites are in orbit - this chart showing the change over recent years: https://astrodon.social/@Astromeg/111164811749991554

- this thread a while back speculating about starlink: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1563158073694310401.html

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