With the really cold weather here now is a good time to think about SHTF in real winter time conditions and bugging out.
I just finished 5 days being snowed in at the cabin....plows didn't get here for that long....the temperatures were in the -20C. Now I managed just fine but I am prepared for this sort of weather to happen, even if I were to lose power. But for the folks that are planning to bug out or bug in and then lose power, how would you fair in this kind of weather? Do you the equipment, clothing to keep you warm in the -15C plus colder weather for a long period of time? Where would you go or use of shelter? Heat? Cooking food...have to keep your core warm? Transportation? Big difference in the winter than in the summer. Just some things I was thinking about while I was sitting here in my cabin.
I watched a show about earthquakes and the experts say that because the plates out here in the pacific rim by Vancouver Island slide under each other not rub together we will more than likely get the "big" one up to 9 in the Rictor(sp?) scale.
As for the masses in the states coming up here into Canada, I think that the folks in the northern states will be heading south not north to warmer weather.
Well I think regarding the earth quakes, we are forwarned all of our lives of the risk and that risk may actually be increasing as there is a lot of seismic plate movement being attributed to the weight distribution of the ocean plates as ice melts . I am no expert and that may even be in our favour if the pacific plate begins sliding more easily under the continental plate . And we do have a thrid plate interacting in the Cascadia zone that has a slip fault I believe, site of the 1700 megathrust quake they estimate was a 9.0 . Nothing I can do but be prepared and organized for such an event.
Migration of people is one we have to be very careful of assumptions . Jetstreams may be becoming more erratic, ocean currents can stall or deviate , nuclear problems, oil spills, fracking and other contamination, lack of water (drought) , crop failures , ocean acidification, extreme weather catastrophes and rising ocean levels , economics and concentration of populations and I am sure a thousand other factors will be influences in a time perhaps shifting from all we have known before creating new demographics ? Even with all the research, nothing is definitive . Much is speculative when we do risk assessments and make educated guesses. I prep, like others for the weather and conditions of the day but have always looked 5 -10 and 20 years down the road . With the general consensus I see on the forum about bugging out, you are quite right , I sure think I need to give it a lot more thought .
I didn't realize you had that much snow. Here, NW of Prince George we barely had any snow but it did hit -25 for a couple days.
I have the trailer parked on the edge of town for the winter so I didn't even bother trying to start the truck. I just walked to the stores when I needed something, but I'm used to a northern winter so it's easier to cope with the conditions. Someone who wasn't prepared for it would have a difficult time.
In reality, temperatures in the -20's isn't at all unusual. I've experienced enough winters in the -40's in the past, and back in either '91 or '92 it was unofficially -60 in Prince George and northward. I think the official temp was -58 or -59. That's just plain damn cold.
I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming in terror like his passengers.