Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is certainly a frightening thread for me to read - on my own, on disability, spouse passed last year, not retirement age but on disability for health issues, trying to hang onto the house until I can figure out what to do..... can anyone post anything positive?
I can post something positive.
Move to a small town or rural area where you know your neighbors. You'll live a safer and more pleasant life.
Last edited by Happy in Wyoming; 10-14-2015 at 09:42 AM..
People in New Orleans relied on government to help them after Hurricane Katrina. They were forced at gunpoint to abandon pets. Their own guns were confiscated. People were stuffed into a stadium to die. Gangs took over the city.
However, the rural areas outside the city experienced no problems of this sort although they suffered as much damage.
This is kind of revisionist history. What really happened is the poor people in New Orleans were the ones stuffed into the Dome. Anyone with any kind of assets got in their car and left the city.
We all see natural disasters hit trailer parks in rural flood zones all the time. Pretty much the same thing happens to those people that happened to the poor in New Orleans.
So poor people get F'ed any time there is a natural disaster. It doesn't matter if they live in a city or in a rural area.
Here's a shot of what's left of a friend's house in Vermont after Hurricane Irene flooding destroyed it. He's not poor. He's probably worth a couple million bucks. The state police knocked on his door at 2am. He moved his SUV with a trailer with a bunch of kayaks on it, a Corvette, and his dogs to high ground and watched his house and all his possessions wash away. I drove up a couple of days later with an SUV load of provisions, opened up my condo, and moved him in for a couple of months. He went out and bought a small mobile home to camp out in for 9 months while he lined up replacing his house. He got a small-ish insurance check and dumped about $300K out of his own pocket into rebuilding something that would survive a 500 year flood.
I know about 10 other people in town who declared bankruptcy when the flood wiped them out. They all have since moved out of town. If your house and/or business was wiped out by a flood, you need very deep pockets to recover.
I also know another guy who took his tiny FEMA check, got some friends together, and built another house in 60 days. A bunch of us chipped in on building supplies. A few people helped out with the excavation work at no charge. So I know one feel-good story and about 10 where people were completely wiped out.
Where I live I'm not concerned about the infrastructure. Missouri is not a wealthy state by any means but it manages what revenue it does get quite well and seems to take care of business. I'm quite comfortable with it.
Unless you live off the grid somewhere (in which you wouldn't be worrying about public services too much anyhow) I don't see there being anything to worry about.
If you saw certain property tax bills ... believe me, you would definitely worry.
People in New Orleans relied on government to help them after Hurricane Katrina. They were forced at gunpoint to abandon pets. Their own guns were confiscated. People were stuffed into a stadium to die. Gangs took over the city.
However, the rural areas outside the city experienced no problems of this sort although they suffered as much damage.
In NYC during a snowstorm people died with no ambulance service.
An insignificant rain storm in NYC brought the city to its knees. People who had brought generators from outside areas to sell were attacked. People who had generators and charged a dollar for a cell phone garge were attacked. Complicated infrastructure and services provide a breeding ground for savages.
And remember the blackouts in NYC.
It's amusing that people squeal and scream about their wonderful infrastructure. They live on the brink of the abyss.
In an emergency people are on their own. In reality, they're always on their own.
Now let's imagine a few suitcase nukes. That's very possible. Let's also consider race war. That continually looks more likely. How many people would like to be in their precious cities for these? I'll take my situation where I couldn't get to a hospital by ambulance within an hour. So far, hower, it's never mattered because I've never needed an ambulance. I may never.
Not everyone lives in or seeks to live in a megacity on the East Coast or a hurricane magnet built in a sinking delta region with crumbling levees. Many however would appreciate not having to travel across one or more mountain ranges to get to Cheyenne. You think you like that, fine. You may think twice if you end up being "that guy." What we are discussing here is a happy medium. To continue this example, living in Cheyenne instead of wherever you are at.
Where I live I'm not concerned about the infrastructure. Missouri is not a wealthy state by any means but it manages what revenue it does get quite well and seems to take care of business. I'm quite comfortable with it.
And your former state is generally an infrastructure debacle. Curiously, much higher revenue than MO (both gross and per capita).
Although we may find a niche to retire in here (perhaps one of the few communities that manages things well and meets our criteria at a decent cost) chances are, we are out of here at retirement if not before.
We were in our early twenties in our first house on a small hill near the river. It and another river joined together and flooded one spring. This is when we learned you are on your own in disasters and no one knows what is happening at the start of these events. The radio reports of river cresting levels were off by hours (they had already crested), the location for sandbags was not correct, we got there only to be told to go to another place. Not quite chaos but close enough. Our detached garage was an island and the ground water was so high water was coming into our basement that way, necessitating turning off the gas to the furnace.
We had elderly neighbor's on each side that kept us busy keeping their sump pumps going.
We borrowed a kerosene heater to stay warm.
We now always have a full pantry, extra water, a small generator, cash on hand and the car gas tanks are never close to empty.
It was a frightening episode learned early, but a life good lesson. I'm not a prepper but I've been prepared for minor events ever since that time.
Something good came out of prepping for FL hurricanes. We now have a Go box with all our important papers and some cash and can be ready in NY now in case of a derailment involving Bakken oil and other hazards being transported on the railways that run along the river near our NY house. Preparing for one disaster has us ready for another one if we need to evacuate.
you drink bottled water? Like always, as your main source of water?
Yes
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
