So far, I have seen a lot of information regarding personal/family/household preparation, but what are we doing to inform our neighbors and get them ready? Their lack of planning will surely impact those of us who have prepared. So, what will you do when there is a knock on the door and your neighbor is asking for help? Can you help? Will you help? How wil you respond?
if this goes pandemic, really pandemic no one will make it that far onto the property to be knocking at my door. My close neighbors and friends know that already. If and when TSHTF the doors/gates etc are closed to all. The posted warning signs and flash bangs will convince the wanderers that proceeding is a bad idea.
Anonymous: Is there anyone living near you whom you would want to help?
I think about this just about every day. I live in a cul-de-sac and have known these people for years. Haven’t said anything to anyone yet. If it gets bad, sure I’ll give them some food. But…I just don’t know what I’d do.
One neighbor I would want to help is selling her house. A new neighbor and I are forging a relationship that could be a long friendship. If I get a dog or cat and go anywhere she has offered to care for them. Helps out in little things as I do for her. We aren’t chums, I’m almost never around, but the good will is there. I certainly would help her if need be. In a pinch there is no reason for me to be anything but helpful to anyone who asks. I have only my own skin to look out for. If I had others to protect my attitude might be different, but my life has been geered to be of service to others and you don’t change habits and attitudes of a lifetime.I can be cool or even cold if someone is not up to my standards as a human being, not a saint by any means, but not judgemental either. Just divide humanity into two camps. The wolves and takers of this world can take care of themselves.
i have done my best to educate my neighbors…some have prep’d others are electing not to.
those who have attempted to prep but run out of something - i’ll gladly help - but those who chose not to prep - i won’t.
Iohrewok:
I see three options here. You can turn them away, you can barter with them, or you can simply give them some of your food and supplies. Personally, I have acquired a stock of items that can be used for barter or as outright gifts. However, I have already given each of my neighbors a long essay on how to prepare for this event, but they do not all have enough money to prepare. Personally, it is not a big deal to set aside some rice & beans or some toilet paper for a day or two. Beyond that, I can not be expected to care for them. So, that is the problem. Do you give them anything? If so, at what point do you cut them off?
All of my family, friends and coworkers have been getting the best I can offer them for the last year to the point of being labeled a loon by some. I have one family member who is older and does not live with us that I have taken upon myself to prep for(buy supplies). Other than that, everyone else who means anything to us have been getting “help” for quite a while. The updates, suggestions, printouts, reminders,encouragement, tips, links, recipies etc have been ongoing. Once (if) we get to the point that we go to SIP mode. The doors are shut. Period. I have a commitment to myself and my family to make it through ANY disaster in one piece. What I may “want” comes a distant second to keeping that commitment.
What do I really think I could do to “help” someone who hasn’t prepped in the midst of a worse case scenario?! Give ‘em food or water for a few days?! a week?! that oughta make a big difference. Don’t mean to sound so sarcastic but for me its BLACK and WHITE. Either you are a survivor or you are asleep. And I ain’t the Sandman
The time to help is NOW
I’m planning to place flyers in newspaper boxes throughout my neighborhood over my fall break, which corresponds with Pandemic Awareness Week. I’ve forwarded information to our town mayor and spoken with him three times. He says he’s passing information on to the town’s Emergency Manager. I think he’s just tired of talking with me.
In a subdivision, I don’t feel comfortable telling people that I’m prepping. (I live with my daughter - we’re both petite females. I thought about buying a gun, but it bothered me that, for the same money, I could do meaningful things to help others, rather than just defending what I have. I also resolved that what I become in the face of a crisis is more important than what becomes of me.) I’m going to make a half dozen or so pandemic care packages so that I can do something for some, at least. My ex and his wife may be among these. I’ve tried to warn them;I’ve heard they just laugh. But my ex is my children’s father, and his little girls are my children’s siblings. I’m budgeting $50 each for these care packages.
Most of my preps will be hidden throughout the house, so that it looks as if we have only a few days’ worth of supplies left, in case I face desperate people looting for food. What I dread most is a hungry child at the door. I don’t have a good plan for that. I don’t really have a good plan at all. I just have some options that are consistent with who I want to be and some that aren’t. I’m still working on the ethical implications of a pandemic.
What I dread most is a hungry child at the door.
Define “door”.
Door. That means of entrance and egress that stands at the foot of the stairs and has a big oval glass in it so that I see out and a visitor sees in - under normal circumstances, that is.
“What I dread most is a hungry child at the door.”
I’d like to be the hero who saves lives but not at the risk of my kids survival. Can we share? Do we have enough? Will stores ever be restocked? Even with the food we do have, will I still see my kids starve to death? Will there be more waves? Will 50 angry, hungry people be at my door if I feed one hungry person first? Will someone die because I didn’t feed them and then have food supplies show up a week later? Questions, questions, questions… What does the future hold? I wear these thoughts like a heavy jacket.
The neighbor is out of food and has a sick child. What are your options?
lohrewok-19:04-I also live in a cul-de -sac, and have not said a word to my neighbors about this. We have known each other for years. Funny if we are in the same cul-de-sac.LOL I have alot of extra tuna and rice, toilet paper. I hope to share a little. I also have the mindset that it won’t be the worst case situation, so hopefully we will help each other.
DR. Dave. Leave food for them outside my door. I couldn’t turn away a child or a friend. We’d make due.
What would you do to feed your children if you were out of food. What lenghths would you go to? Would you take food from someone else if it meant saving your children’s lives?
What would you do to feed your children if you were out of food. What lenghths would you go to? Would you take food from someone else if it meant saving your children’s lives?
Will someone try to take all my food from my family to feed theirs?
How desperate will people get?
Spok - precisely - all of this. I’m going to give away only what I’ve set aside to give away, no more. I’m going to hope I have enough otherwise, to keep me and my family alive.
Dr. Dave - I won’t actually open the door. I’ll likely communicate, if the neighbor is someone I know, from a second story window. My nightmare “child at the door” is cold and hungry and his or her family is sick or dying. (My neighborhood is filled with young children.) I would like to have options. I know I am going to have to accept the fact that I cannot save a world and will be lucky to save my own family.
I would not take food by force from someone else to feed me or my family. I’m prepping so I don’t have to. I didn’t fault people in New Orleans who broke into stores for food, though, when they were hungry and there was no help.
OK…this is a topic that has driven me to my current state of affairs.
I was prepared to lock the door for 3 months or more. No one in, no one out. Ecpecting the simple knock with the question… “do u know why the store is closed?”…… 2 days later… “do you have any milk we can borrow?”… 2 more days… louder knock “any bread or soup?”….. 1 week later… Bang on the door… I look out to see my neighbor cradling his straving 8 year old daughter in his arms, tears streaming down his face… you see, she was swimming in my pool with my kids on labor day weekend.
Am I going to let them starve? and i going to shoot them? hhow about my brother and my neice and his wife (i’ll have to think about the wife LOL) brother in law? father in law? best friend with wife in tow? my kids friends and family (u know the kids have blabbed).
Take all the trees away from around you and you will see people… lots of people… just like you and me… with kids and families.
Can I turn them away? in my fantasy of utter survival i said yes…
But after looking in Dr. Nabarro’s eyes, and having dinner with my neighbor Bill, I know i will not. BUT it will mean the lives of MY children.
This is a major catch 22.
I have reached a conclusion. This must not happen. These people must not NEED to come to my door. THEY need to prep.
It’s just that simple. How?
We who know must lead the way. Every home in this country must be prepped. It is the only way we will survive.
I have gone to Town Hall and was received with open arms. I will make a difference.
Can you make that leap of understanding? Can you take the risk….. of NOT getting others to prep?
Your life and the lives of your children hang in the balance by what YOU DO.
We cannot survive alone. It will not work. All must prep. There is no choice. We have been “chosen” to lead the way.
I wish I had answers but all I have is questions. We can guess but no one knows what we are in store for.
TPTB do not want us to die.
they need our votes next time round… and for the most part they are decent hard working folks that at some point in their lives fought for the good of all of us.
They do not have the info.The read MSM. They get reports fro FED that they are on their own… but they just dont know what to do.
Show them the real deal… and what it means to the lives of their kids. They will listen.
Show them a plan… a plan to educate and prep every home in your town. Tell them YOU want the responsibility. They will gladly give it to you. Go to the local paper - they just love a story about untruthful gov and how an ordinary citizen is trying to save lives… and change the world. Go to your school board. present it to them. Involve them and the kids. Its a family project to prep for this.
I live a bit in the country although not far off a highway. my one neighbor is preppin and I don’t worry about them. my other neighbor always has excuses about needing the money for other things like going on vacation or going shopping and getting a new car…..you get the general idea. they have laughed at me and said things. so I’m preppin quietly and if things get really bad, I will load my truck and go out the my mom’s farm. I will board up my house and take all the food and things I will need and just leave, cause if I didn’t , more than likely they will come down and take all that I have. they are that kind of people. I am preppin for a bit extra for handing out to people that really need it but I can’t support everyone on my disability check , and like others have said, I won’t turn away a hungry child, but we can’t save the world, no matter how much we want too. and I pray for the children.
Goju, I have laid awake at nights , I have cried, I have worried how to get them to listen, but they won’t, and I can’t make them. I am preppin for my sisters and brothers and their families as much as I can. they are doin the same too. we will probably all end up out at the farm together, more than likely. I just don’t know what else to do. I’ve tried but it’s like beating your head on the wall. and I can’t drive, and can’t walk too far , but I do what I can.
Putting up a state-centric Web site with links to resources and advice on what to prep, including advice on “best practices” as seen on Flu Wiki. Running ads and distributing press releases to coincide with Wiki’s pandemic awareness week, putting tools on Web site for people to print out and distribute to others, using viral marketing tools on site so visitors can “tell a friend.”
New Canaan Flu Website
InKy – at 19:24
What I dread most is a hungry child at the door
Probably hungry infected child. (If they’ve been out and about scavageing)
all it takes is ONE exposure and all the preps in the world won’t help you
a hungry child at my door-
I have preps for one extra and one extra Christmas present ready. I have gone through the foster/adoptive course and home study so that I can take in ONE child in case of emergencies. (I recommend it to anyone that truely cares about the “hungry child at the door”. The county/Child Youth and Family knows it, the local police know it. I am designated as an emergency care provider. I will have to turn all others away, but I can take in ONE. That is about all I can do. There is a limit that any one person can do. I think you need to know it and prepare for it but be willing to do what you can do. We would like to save the entire neighborhood, state,… but one individual cannot. Just do what you can do. The idea is to not only survive but to help “civilization” survive as well.
However, I can/will fill water jugs if the neighbors leave empties with their names on them. (but I will spray the jugs with Cl 2/water first)
you can’t feed just one.
everyone must prep
OH I should add. I only am willing to accept the “hungry child at the door” because I no longer have children here at home and I am a senior citizen now. If I had to protect my family- it would be a much harder choice.
I don’t even know most of my neighbors. I just moved into post Katrina/Rita east Texas. These people just do not trust newcomers so most have ignored us like we had the plague. One I got to know after I had to complain about them parking on our lawn (I’m not even allowed to do that) and playing loud music late one night. We came to an understanding and the wife seems nice enough but she also made it clear she does not want to get to know her neighbors. The other we got to know when they ran to us to call the fire department when they had a fire (ours were the only lights on). The rest of them seem like they would as soon shoot me as talk to me. What they don’t know is I not only shoot back but I’m probably better armed that they are. So…given the reception my family has gotten in this neighborhood…I have very little concern for the entire lot of them. Apparently since I last visited Texas most of the Texans I have met have lost their manners. My father, who grew up near where I now live, would be so ashamed of them all. Would I help them? Maybe. It would depend on the situation and if I had the means to do so. I’m still working on meeting my own family’s needs.
This issue just kills me.What about the neighbors.Many of mine have new houses and SUVs.I don’t.Never had a car newer than 1996.I have followed this thing for about a year closely and longer from afar.If people dont know about the need to prep by now,then I can only assume they choose to ignore it or be in denial or having a severe adjustment reaction.Whatever it may be. I came out as a prepper last February when I went to the local meetings and spoke about the threat.Also in April at my church,Service was on preparedness.But these same people who I love will be the ones to bring me and mine flu cause they wouldn’t listen or pay heed.But they know I did.I was at a church meeting today and I was tired.Looked a mess,and barely on time from canning pears from 7 am to nearly 7 pm.I told the pastors wife what I had been doing and she replied “She sure knew where she would go if there was ever a food shortage”She can afford to go buy food for her home.I told her she should go shopping and look at fluwikie.I wish I could move to my dream farm,but hey I’m poor.I am where I am and I have prepared it.I hope it is right and enough.It is sad so many of us will pay the ultimate price for trying to do the right thing.If I had an ounce of energy left I would go refill the dehydrator but I fear it will have to wait until tommorrow.
Most of my neighbors have a lot of acreage with a whole lot of cattle, goats, chickens, ponds, etc, on it. If anything, I hope to be in a situation to barter with them. I am forging bartering relationships at this point. For example, I am getting chummy with a nurse up the road (within my 12 mile quarrantine radius). She isn’t prepping, doesn’t think there is a pandemic coming… but we do talk about stuff… like she keeps IV’s, & the works, at home for her animals. And, I pointly inject stuff I know she will be impressed with … so we banter. We have been exchanging little gift tokens… a can of special soup that is hard to come by, a special book on something we have been discussing, etc. Where I live, folks don’t come meddling. That’s why we live where we live. However, we do get people jumping off trains, or who mosey down the road trying to find a secluded spot to smoke dope or neck or whatever. Occassionally, somebody just ends up out here because they get lost. There is one person, one neighbor, I am concerned about and have included him in my preps. This is a 90+ year old man who is still spry. (The only hitch, he has a worthless mooching son living with him.) I have discussed the potential of a nasty flu coming, and he just blows it off… in a way that a seasoned cowboy would. (This man swam his horses out of hurricane Carla and TS Claudette!)
I’m not really worried about my neighbors… except the old man. I am more worried about my town and community… and Houston. Will I turn them away? IF they make it past my dogs…
I’ve said this before on another thread, but I’ll try again. Like some, my only near neighbours decided against being friendly some time back. I’ve done my bit for them in the past and they’re just rich scroungers. The story about BF and the implications has been out there for all to heed. Bad luck for them but I’ll just continue their policy of avoidance and maintain the integrity of my boundary with the not inconsiderable means at my disposal. Heck, they can alsways take their chances at the ATM, shops and whatever soup lines the government provides.
I will be 48 in October, and I live in a senior citizens complex…my mom, 74, also lives here in another apt.
As for our neighbors; none of us have kids at home, and very few of us have a spouse…we basically, all live alone,..the majority are on disability or Social Security.
As far as I know, my mom & I are the only preppers here. I have had to pound it into my mom’s head; to KEEP HER MOUTH SHUT… She’s one of these who tells ANYbody, EVERYthing. :-(
She has housekeepers come in, so In her apt; I have turned her boxes of preps into covered end tables, coffee tables, stuck boxes under her covered sewing table, kitchen table, under the bed, . Filled the high places in her cabinets, with stuff, and re-arranged and filled her closets. So far, her preps are hidden from view; but with the next items, we will have to “decorate” them in a different way.
In my apt; I have closed off the dining area with floor to ceiling curtains, and filled it up to the ceiling. All my closets are bursting, the cat has many “covered perches” to lounge on; and NO ONE comes inside to visit. NO ONE.
When someone comes to the door; I step outside and we sit down on the porch to visit. Someone asked me about that once, and I just blamed it on me being “a VERY private person” who liked my personal space.
Everyone here goes to bed with the chickens; and I am a nightowl;…so I head to Walmart & the grocery stores, in the dead of night… I may hit the Dollar Stores in the daylight; but it doesn’t get unloaded until the wee hours of the morning….about the only thing they have seen me carry in en mass, are cases of Coke, or empty canning jars. I tell them I am addicted to the Coke, and I’m getting the jars for my sister , down on the farm.
Keeping in mind, I have TRIED to talk to these people & family, about prepping;
would I help any of the neighbors ?? No.
Would I shoot ANYone to keep what I have ? Yes.
Would I help any other family ? Only 1
Every family member is prepping but my older sister, ( the Nurse ! ) so I have let her know that I will meet her halfway ( 2 hours ) to pick up her 9 year old son, and bring him here for the duration…SHE and her, lazy, ignorant husband are on their own. All of her grown sons think like I do. She is living on a farm, for crying out loud, that I’d KILL FOR, in todays’ circumstances….and they have done NOTHING… I told her they need to turn it into an Ostrich Farm….and she missed the point, of course.
We will all, no doubt, be faced with that “starving child on the doorstep” when TSHTF; but the Survival Instinct will kick in; and when it does, it is the strongest emotion there is…you WILL not open that door; because to do so, would put YOUR family at risk, in many ways…
And it’s the children WHO SURVIVE, that will be the worlds’ “new people”…we have to protect our own. It will be a gut-wrenching choice for any of us; but it will have to be made.
Dr Dave – at 18:40
For some reason, I have it stuck in my mind that preppers are not wealthy. Maybe it’s because I’m not done prepping and it’s partially due to a lack of funding.
If you’ve got the cash, you have plenty of storage space and you are done prepping yourself, then I bet we can come up with a lot of good ideas for you. I would love to be able to save a neighborhood. You can band together and protect each other. You’ll have the food and they will have things to contribute too.
If you have the money and you love your neighbors, you can do awesome things. It doesn’t seem like anyone has it that good :)
All the material preparations in the world won’t keep you comfortable or even alive if you havn’t taken the time to patiently assimilate (←sp?), review and practice all the information presented here. There is a lot more to survival than food and ammo stores.
Spok,
No, I do not really have the cash to invest in prepping, but I’m doing it anyway. I also have a freshman in college to support for the next several years, so it has taken an awful lot of scrimping and bargain hunting to become this prepared.
Can I SIP and turn away my neighbors? Yes, I can do that, but only because they have already been warned repeatedly. I have given each of my neighbors a rather lengthy essay on preparation, and I have made follow-up visits with each one to see how they are progressing. For those who are actively prepping, I offer words of support and tips on local sale items. For those who have chosen not to prepare, I have made it quite clear that it will be each family for itself. Will I still share? Yes, but only up to the limits I have established. I have set aside 250 pounds of rice and beans for a cost of $80. After that is gone, I will have no recourse but to turn them away and take care of my own family. They were warned repeatedly, and I will remind them of that fact when the time comes to decline their requests for assistance.
Although it has been difficult to work my preparation efforts into the family budget, I can easily see room for it in the budgets of so many other people. For example, the guy next door put in an ornamental fountain this summer, but he says he can’t afford to prep. My nephew continues to buy accessories for his off-road vehicles, but he says he can’t afford to prep. One neighbor couple recently went on a cruise, but they say they can’t afford to prep. Another guy plays golf every week, but he says he can’t afford to prep. O.K., folks, you have made your choices and I can see your priorities. It is obvious that you just don’t care, so I will just leave you to your fate.
Meanwhile, I look at my aging wardrobe and realize that the new shoes I need for work will just have to wait a little longer, because those $30 oxfords represent another week of food for my family. Prep goes on…
I look at my neighbors on my left side. They are renting the house. They have broken the back door off. There is trash piled up all along the side of the house. Both girls dropped out of high school. The oldest one is pregnant by an abusive punk, who just got out of jail and lives with them. At any given time there is 5 carloads of young people who just got out of jail too. Every other word is the f word, and it isn’t spoken it is screamed. The mother is just as bad, I cannot find it in my heart to feel sorry for her just because she has ms. She has been allowing this to happen. (I have ms also along with severe arthritis and I don’t act like that.) They have broken into my car, but I can’t prove it. I will have to get a gun I think to protect myself from them. The neighbors wife on the other side is a mentally ill alcholic who keeps having children they can’t afford. She is on her fourth one. They live in a tiny 2 bedroom house. I see people bringing them food every week. Yesterday I saw her youngest outside in a diaper only, with no one checking on him for at least thirty minutes. It was only 62 degrees here. Can I approach them, no. Can I afford to prepare for them, no. I am only able to put away alittle here and there for myself and my son. It will torture me to see those children suffer, but I have to put my son first.
I live in a rural area (i.e. completely isolated)and don’t really have much in the way of neighbours, but if anyone, especially a child either turned up here or came to my notice and were in need of food or care I would have to give it. I have 4 children and I know the arguments against giving help but I don’t think I could live with myself if I turned away a person in dire need. What would be the point of surviving if you lose your humanity and what would be the point of my children surviving if all they had learnt was to claw their way over anybody who gets in the way of their survival. That is not civilisation and it is not worth preserving. If we have come down to turning starving or sick children away then better that we go the way of all dust as soon as possible.
DebP - i feel for you. I understand there are many places where the people are very disfunctional and all arournd them will be in a constant position of threat.
If your entire neighborhood is like that you should try to find a safer place to SIP. I am under no illusion that we cannot get EVErY home prepped. there are just too many thick headed people out there , not to mention the constant terror alerts we get and the warnings from global warming to antrax attacks. People are on fear overload to be worried about the cuddly little bird flu some people “over there” may have caught.
But make no mistake about it… the more homes that are prepped around you, the safer you will be.
I have embraced that notion and am willing to put my butt on the line to make it so. Granted i do not live in an underprivledged area and that makes it easier to do… but privledge will not count when the man with the bucks shows up and is starving… ya cant eat a dollar bill.
There are lots of threads on trying to get others to prep. I gave all my neighbors, riends and some others informatoin about AF and pandemic flu in the hopes that it would motivate soem to prep. I converted a few, but the majorit didn’t even acknowledge it, let alone say thanks or ask any questions. Made me feel like a bit of freak to be honest. I am trying to build a stash of things to give to those in need, but as my own family’s supplies are still insufficient I can only do som much right now. Once our own stash is up to a level i am happy with I’ll do more. Also, I am sending more info to local papers, town offcials and board of ed members in the hopes that will get some discussions going and activity for our town/community.
LauraB – at 10:34
I’m right there with you. I have talked to the neighbors that I have a relationship with in general terms about a pandemic. I am also working with my Town Council to raise general awareness. Rice, beans and Ramen are cheap enough that I have put away extra for those neighbors who run short of food. No, I can’t provide everybody with a balanced diet. No, I can’t guarantee that they all have water and a means to cook, I will share what I can spare.
What I don’t see happening is somebody coming to my door when they are already starving. I plan to have conversations (at a distance of course) with my neighbors at regular intervals during an SIP. I would be leaving supplies at a halfway point between us long before they were that desperate.
This is a question that has been debated at great length many times before. Each person or family will have to make the best decision based on their circumstances. Let me just say that when you first start prepping, the common emotion is that you will protect what you have and chase away anybody who comes near. As more of your needs are met, it becomes easier to consider helping those around you.
I believe trying to get the people in your area one by one will lead to some sucess but end up in failure.
I believe IMHO, that you need to have lunch with the reporter from your local paper. You need to meet with your Town council. You need to talk with your church pastor, civic leaders and business leaders and school board. One meeting will give you ammo for setting up the next.
You need to get TPTB in your area onboard and cast a wider net than you can individually. It is the only way it will work.
You need to get the market in town to run a sale. Everyone loves to save $$$ and the stores love to make $$$
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