Scenario #2 - Wednesday April 18

[Sentry18]

It is 6:51pm on a Wednesday. You just had dinner and are watching television with whomever you normally watch television with. Suddenly an alert comes across the screen advising to take shelter immediately. You also receive an alert on your phone / tablet / computer indicating 'missiles are inbound - take shelter'. If you are in a community you also hear alert sirens sounding. You do not know if this is real or a false alarm. You do not know if these missiles are nuclear or otherwise. You do not know if your area is being specifically targeted. Suddenly there is loud panicky knocking at your door. Two people in their early 20's, one male and one female, that you do not know but seem distressed, are pleading to shelter with you. They heard the alert on the radio and are more than an hours drive from their destination.

- What is your first move?
- What do you do with the 2 unknown persons?
- What communication resources do you have for info gathering?
- Do you have an adequate 'worst case scenario' shelter?
- Are you staying put or bugging out?
- What steps will you take to protect yourself and loved ones?
- What comes next?

 

[The Lazy L]

- What is your first move?

Wife will be in a panic state. I've learned from a previous confirmed tornado siting she will not go to the basement unless I go with her, a fear she has of facing a crisis alone.

- What do you do with the 2 unknown persons?

Ignore them. Pretend no one is home. I'm not set up (for what could possibly be long term) to provide for two strangers with unknown qualities.

- What communication resources do you have for info gathering?

Ham radio, CB SBB, FRS, GMRS and programmable scanner. All AC powered with battery power backup.

- Do you have an adequate 'worst case scenario' shelter?

Well...sort of. Basement has a small utility room that can be adequately used. Three of the walls are poured concrete. Dependent on the angle of the radiation, north or west we should be OK 75% of the time, east and south 100% of the time. Utility room also has our communications equipment, redundant power supplies, food storage and a water supply. Restroom facilitates are lacking. As long as whomever launched the missile(s) has quality guidance systems...

- Are you staying put or bugging out?

Staying put.

- What steps will you take to protect yourself and loved ones?

Prior to any missile strike(s):
1. Any and all person(s) entering my house without my expressed permission and threaten me or mine will be dealt with in a quick and expedient fashion.
2. Nonthreatening unauthorized entry(s) will be bound and confined with the intent of turning them over to the proper law enforcement officials at the first opportune time.

After any confirmed local missile hits:
1. Any and all person(s) entering my house without my expressed permission will be dealt with in a quick and expedient fashion.

- What comes next?

Trying (with limited anticipated success) in convincing the wife that we will not be retrieving her mother ( 30 minute car trip in normal times) or my mother (another 30 minute trip). That we need to stay in place (long term) and wait for our children's arrival (possibility is remote but hopefully enough of an excuse to keep the wife stable).

 

[Terri9630]

- What is your first move?
Tell the kids to grab their bags and dogs. Hubby would be gathering the weapons while I hooked up the truck/trailer and loaded animals. From experience I know that takes 20 min tops. Then we head out for our mtn place. We aren't in a target area but the small town will become very chaotic.

- What do you do with the 2 unknown persons?
Fire the dogs and and ask why they are so far from the hwy. Then leave them.

- What communication resources do you have for info gathering?

Cell phone, radio, cb radio.

- Do you have an adequate 'worst case scenario' shelter?
Working on it.

- Are you staying put or bugging out?
Were outa here!

- What steps will you take to protect yourself and loved ones?
Anything and everything necessary. NOTHING on earth comes before family.

- What comes next?
Go on with life as best we can.

 

[Woody]

I would not have answered the door without checking to see who it is first and not opened it if I did not know them. I make sure the door is double locked. I am suburban right now so there are lots of other houses to knock on their doors.



I grab my BOB and head to the basement. I try the 11-band solar/crank radio to see if I can find out anything. For better reception I can lean the antenna against the exposed plumbing. Most of my ‘disaster’ supplies are there, so I take stock while listening to the radio.



I am staying put, no reason to go out until I find out what is going on. The folks at the door? I know nothing of them and have no obligation to invite them in, sorry. I would hunker down and wait. If 30 minutes goes by and no word on anything, I would head back upstairs to look around and check the **** tube if there was still electricity. I would still be a bit leery of any situation that would be broadcast to have me seek shelter immediately and just wait it out for the night.

 

[havasu]

Seems this just occurred in Hawaii recently, where many of my family live. My brother in law took two cigarettes and two beers, and walked up to the golf course and smoked and drank. After he was done, he walked back home and saw it was all a false alarm.

Me, I'd stay put, hunker down and keep my fingers crossed that the wind direction is favorable.

 

[Terri9630]

Being in/near a smallish, poor border town where common sense is becoming rare, I'm pretty sure that even a false alarm would cause trouble. You should have seen people fighting over plumbing parts a few years back when we had an extremely bad stretch that froze every pipe in the area.

 

[Amish Heart]

Staying put, but would be wishing I was at the farm. 10 hr drive, so I'd probably wait to go to see if it was a false alarm, or what. I'd ignore the door people. There are neighbors around, they could check with someone else. I'd be looking for our other kids to come, locking everything down, firearms handy, filling the bathtubs with extra water, checking the ham radio megalink to see if there's any new info. Playing a boardgame with the panicky ones.

 

[hiwall]

What is your first move?
Getting rid of those two people. They might be nice people but they would be leaving immediately.
What communication resources do you have for info gathering?
Just regular AM/FM radios.
- Do you have an adequate 'worst case scenario' shelter?
No but we are a couple hundred miles from any real target and wind patterns should be in our favor.
- Are you staying put or bugging out?
I'm stayin'
- What steps will you take to protect yourself and loved ones?
Make sure you yell real loud so I know its you Before you step on my land. And watch very carefully where you step.
- What comes next?
Go find Teri and Dr Prepper and Amish Heart

 

[Peanut]

What is your first move?
The two people wouldn’t have made it to my door. They’d have either been face down by a flower bed near the highway or running.
What communication resources do you have for info gathering?
Am/Fm/SW/LW multiband receiver I bought last month.
Do you have an adequate 'worst case scenario' shelter?
No but we are a long way from any target.
Are you staying put or bugging out?
I'm stayin'
What steps will you take to protect yourself and loved ones?
Make sure you yell real loud so I know it’s you. (perfect answer hiwall)
What comes next?
If necessary move the cattle away from the one pasture that can be seen from the road (all my neighbors cattle can be seen from the road, he can't hide them). Install a few dozen assembled trip wire traps around the property. It’s difficult for one person to protect a hundred acres. I’ll be concentrating on about 20 with plenty of outlying warnings. Screaming people are a great warning signal.

 

[TMT Tactical]

First move--- Start lock down procedures
The two unkown will be removed, they have been trespassing on posted property for the last 1/2 mile.
Worst case is concrete basement with full provisions, armory and defensive system control room.
Basic radio, sat Internet (won't help much)
Staying put.
Activating SHTF Perimeter alarms and defense systems. Alarms will notify us of intruders. Defense systems will eliminate threat from intruders.
Will stay put and maintain a war footing until proof of false alarm or return to semi-normal terms.
Hopefully sons find their way to the Home Front.
No neighbors to stop by, so all but family, are intruders.

 

[The Lazy L]

What is your first move?
The two people wouldn’t have made it to my door. They’d have either been face down by a flower bed near the highway or running....

And if the missile warning was false (like in the one in Hawaii) are you willing to be tried for murder?

 

[Rick]

It is 6:51pm on a Wednesday. You just had dinner and are watching television with whomever you normally watch television with. Suddenly an alert comes across the screen advising to take shelter immediately. You also receive an alert on your phone / tablet / computer indicating 'missiles are inbound - take shelter'. If you are in a community you also hear alert sirens sounding. You do not know if this is real or a false alarm. You do not know if these missiles are nuclear or otherwise. You do not know if your area is being specifically targeted. Suddenly there is loud panicky knocking at your door. Two people in their early 20's, one male and one female, that you do not know but seem distressed, are pleading to shelter with you. They heard the alert on the radio and are more than an hours drive from their destination.

- What is your first move?
- What do you do with the 2 unknown persons?
- What communication resources do you have for info gathering?
- Do you have an adequate 'worst case scenario' shelter?
- Are you staying put or bugging out?
- What steps will you take to protect yourself and loved ones?
- What comes next?

-I would let them in put wear my gun at my hip w/ retention holster and keep a watch especially on the male at all times. But that that young couple looks like might influence my decsions greatly.. (methheads or gangbangers= No... nice normal couple = yes)
If we have a basement I would shelter in basement... but tisnce this is all hypothetical and I dont live in my proper house right now I would take shelter in bathroom which is the furthest away from windows.

-Time is of the essence.. you do not have multiple minutes but realistically just 1 or 2 IF the alert was sent quickly which it may not have been.
-I would not bother to run into kitchen.. if it is indeed nuclear my main mission is ot get away from windows into studiest part of this non sturdy house... I actually live very close right now to a major defense installation. So its a problem.. And my close I mean close. PPL ask me often "I live only 10 miles away from a nuclear target what should I do" and such.. and thats of course Zero immediate effects... but I live close as in a 3 hundred yards from the fence.
- Ballistic missiles inbound are plausibly only nuclear not chemical. Why? Because in the USA if u get a ballistic missile it will be intercontinental.. those are so expensive and only built by technologically competent players (nation states) it is not plausisble for them to have a warhead thats not nuclear.
- I dont have a very good shelter but will make do. If its a nuke and if it hits post ... if its a small one say 20 kt like from NoKo and hits middle of post I might still be 1000 yards away.. thats far enough this house will not blow over at a small caliber...even though it is not particularly sturdy.. but wood frame houses while no comparition to concrete can stay standing depending on caliber and distance function.

Once the Nuke is over I will usually recommend people stay put.. But I am so close to ground zero there will be a lot of debris and fires. If the roads are passable I will bug out.
But the combination of this scenario and my current location really lowers my chances tremendously. I would give myself less than 50% if post gets hit by a nuke since I am so close.

if I had just 4 or 5 miles distance this scenario it would be a different ballgame

 

[Peanut]

And if the missile warning was false (like in the one in Hawaii) would are willing to be tried for murder?

No but my large german sheppard might be... nobody walks up to my door, strangers sit in their car and blow the horn.

 

[Terri9630]

What is your first move?
Getting rid of those two people. They might be nice people but they would be leaving immediately.
What communication resources do you have for info gathering?
Just regular AM/FM radios.
- Do you have an adequate 'worst case scenario' shelter?
No but we are a couple hundred miles from any real target and wind patterns should be in our favor.
- Are you staying put or bugging out?
I'm stayin'
- What steps will you take to protect yourself and loved ones?
Make sure you yell real loud so I know its you Before you step on my land. And watch very carefully where you step.
- What comes next?
Go find Teri and Dr Prepper and Amish Heart

I think Amish Heart is the furthest away from you.

 

[hiwall]

I think Amish Heart is the furthest away from you.

I would go get TMT but he lives the wrong direction.

 

[Sentry18]

My first move is to muster the family and get them all into the man cave, which is as close to a proper shelter as we have. I would then put the house into lock down mode and switch the security system from passive to protective. Then I would utilize my communications resources to contact my PD and see if they have any more information. We would likely have some additional data but not near enough. It is possible I would hear the people knocking at my door and could observe them on the video surveillance system, but it is unlikely I would answer. It is also unlikely that those two people who choose my house to come up to. My neighbors homes are much more inviting / welcoming in appearance and have less warning signs and security measures. I would not completely rule out letting two people in under very specific circumstances, but they would find themselves in handcuffs and thoroughly searched as we wait out the 'event' to determine what has happened. I would essentially stay put as I am not in a high risk area for direct targeting and my bug out location is only 40 miles away, so it would likely be no better when it comes to fallout. I would then deploy some related preps and begin a rottweiler escorted patrol of my home to ensure the safety and security of my family. I would also make sure prayer was on the priority list.

 

[CrackbottomLouis]

Put wife and dog in our "shelter closet" where we keep preps, mopp gear, Bob's, and water. Ignore people at door unless they look like a very nice couple/have a kid/etc. Lock down house, close all curtains, turn off main breaker to house, ground the jeep, go to closet. Note: closet no where close to "proper shelter" but best I've got till we move. Help wife get into mopp suit minus mask then me. Check wind up weather radio for news keeping portable ham in faraday box for time being. Check here and some local forums for news if cell service available. Pray.

 

[fteter]

Sentry18, this scenario is a dandy! If alerts and alarms are going off, I figure I have 15 minutes to impact. So my answers are based on that.
What is your first move?
Tell my wife to start grabbing the food from the pantry and chucking it into the basement. Then we fill the water bob in the basement bathtub. That will keep her productively busy while I deal with the two out front.
What do you do with the 2 unknown persons?
Tell them to strip naked while I want 'em undress through the peephole in the door; if they show no sign of being a threat, I'll let 'em in - if my kids were in that position, I'd want somebody to help them. And, yeah, I do believe that I have an obligation to help others when I can. I've extra socked away to care for extra people in the short term. If they decline to strip, I'll tell them to leave the property before I shoot them.
What communication resources do you have for info gathering?
VHF/UHF ham radio in the basement for local communication. Shortwave receiver for world-wide info. Have backups in a small Faraday cage in case, which might come in handy if the missiles are nukes.
Do you have an adequate 'worst case scenario' shelter?
Maybe. Depends on how close the missiles hit and whether they're nukes. The bigger and closer the bomb, the less likely my shelter is adequate.
Are you staying put or bugging out?
Staying put. No time to bug out.
What steps will you take to protect yourself and loved ones?
The guns will be broken out. The dogs will be in the basement with us. The basement window wells will be covered and filled with sandbags. In short order, fire up the ham radio and try to connect with the local family.
What comes next?
Depends on the state of my home and the area around me after the missile strike. But hopefully, we'll have caught the spirit of Hawaii and the alert will be a mistake. If not, then it's time to hook up with the neighborhood emergency prep group. And, at some point shortly after the missiles hit, I'll have to strike out to gather in any local loved ones who haven't made it here. Hoping the truck will be running, but I can hoof it to each local in about two hours each way if needed.

 

[TMT Tactical]

I would go get TMT but he lives the wrong direction.

Well just for remembering me, if we get a nuclear winter, you all can come down South and stay warm. Always nice to have friends in multiple directions, to add to the part about "What comes Next".

 

[DrPrepper]

- What comes next?
Go find Teri and Dr Prepper and Amish Heart

Yep, we are all close enough to probably help each other. Doubtful any missiles would strike around here- there is nothing of any strategic, tactical, or economic importance..... unless someone just wants to blow up juniper trees and lots of dust, right?

 

[DrPrepper]

- What is your first move?
The chance of missile strikes in this remote area is pretty slim, and we are far enough away from the Phoenix metro area that we would be safe from fallout. So, first steps would be for us to secure our home. While we are doing that (not a lot to secure), we would also be filling the water bob and making sure the other water containers were full. Would be expecting a couple of neighbors to be showing up (planned).
- What do you do with the 2 unknown persons?
Tell them to run up the road to Walmart- good place for them to try to shelter (right across from the hospital) since it can offer them food and shelter and only takes them 3 minutes to get there.
- What communication resources do you have for info gathering?
Radio, CB, walkies, cell phone, land line, internet (if it is working),
- Do you have an adequate 'worst case scenario' shelter?
For radiation, not really. For anything else, probably.
- Are you staying put or bugging out?
Staying put if I can.
- What steps will you take to protect yourself and loved ones?
Whatever it takes!
- What comes next?
Keep on trying to live a good life-AmishHeart, Terri, Hiwall, and TMT, come on up to the mountains!

 

[The Lazy L]

...I figure I have 15 minutes to impact. So my answers are based on that....Tell them to strip naked...guns will be broken out...basement window wells will be covered and filled with sandbags. ...fire up the ham radio and try to connect with the local family...

My nature (and one of my responsibility at work) is to analysis plans and find any areas that may need to have another look at.

The way I read your post is that within 15 minutes you will be able to convince two strangers (one of them a female) to strip naked or hit the road, get stored firearms and hand them out, fill sand bags and place them over the basement windows AND connect with family by radio? All of this within 15 minutes?

 

[dademoss]

- What is your first move? : Get into the storage room, (best room I have for shelter, and has a lot of the gear inside.)
- What do you do with the 2 unknown persons? Send them to the elementary school up the street (it had a fallout shelter in the 60's)
- What communication resources do you have for info gathering? Dual band HT and HF rig in the shack, Dual band and HF in an ammo box in the storeroom, along with spare antenna. AM/FM/shortwave portables, If the internet is up I can log into the local EOC.
- Do you have an adequate 'worst case scenario' shelter? I have the house, and if it disappears and we survive, I have a tent
- Are you staying put or bugging out? Staying put, no BOL
- What steps will you take to protect yourself and loved ones? Response depends on the threat and conditions.
- What comes next? We pray and wait to see the results and what needs to be done.

Anything over 300 kt, it's mostly is a moot point.

 

[Terri9630]

- What is your first move?
The chance of missile strikes in this remote area is pretty slim, and we are far enough away from the Phoenix metro area that we would be safe from fallout. So, first steps would be for us to secure our home. While we are doing that (not a lot to secure), we would also be filling the water bob and making sure the other water containers were full. Would be expecting a couple of neighbors to be showing up (planned).
- What do you do with the 2 unknown persons?
Tell them to run up the road to Walmart- good place for them to try to shelter (right across from the hospital) since it can offer them food and shelter and only takes them 3 minutes to get there.
- What communication resources do you have for info gathering?
Radio, CB, walkies, cell phone, land line, internet (if it is working),
- Do you have an adequate 'worst case scenario' shelter?
For radiation, not really. For anything else, probably.
- Are you staying put or bugging out?
Staying put if I can.
- What steps will you take to protect yourself and loved ones?
Whatever it takes!
- What comes next?
Keep on trying to live a good life-AmishHeart, Terri, Hiwall, and TMT, come on up to the mountains!

I'll be there in 1yr, 5 months and 27 days.

 

[Caribou]

What is your first move?
Check wind speed and direction. Close the blinds on the south side of the house. Flip the main breaker to disconnect us from the grid. Fire up the generator and switch from grid to alternate power, this now gives me two broken switches between the grid and my system. Fill the WaterBob and everything else that will hold water.
What do you do with the 2 unknown persons?
If they are two young healthy people and pass a cursory examination I count my blessings. First they help with the generator and next they start moving the firewood into the attached garage. They will be told that when the firewood is gone that so are they if any is left outside.
What communication resources do you have for info gathering?
AM/FM/SSB/FRS
Do you have an adequate 'worst case scenario' shelter?
Probably not, I do have a crawl space that is 4'-5' high and I can start covering the guest room floor with ammo cans and books to improve my survivability.
Are you staying put or bugging out?
Staying put. All my assets are here and trying to move and drag everything would be impossible in the time frame available.
What steps will you take to protect yourself and loved ones?
Enough guns are already out. KIO3 and a calcium pill for everyone within minutes of the flash.
What comes next?
If the wind is from the north I'm in good shape. If the wind is from the south I've got at least four hours unless it is storming and then it will be more like two hours for the fallout to reach me. Finish as much outside preparation as possible then get a shower for everyone then switch from the generator to the batteries. Kill all the vampire loads and settle in with a good book.

 

[OBG 57]

No but my large german sheppard might be... nobody walks up to my door, strangers sit in their car and blow the horn.

View attachment 6164

Mine when he's off duty