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Robbery/Looting post-Sandy

3K views 23 replies 15 participants last post by  Hopyard 
#1 ·
So, folks in Long Beach have signs saying "You loot, we shoot".

There are now stories of robberies going on in Rockaway.

Once this is over, its time for everyone who owns a home, to buy a shotgun.
 
#2 ·
So, folks in Long Beach have signs saying "You loot, we shoot".

There are now stories of robberies going on in Rockaway.

Once this is over, its time for everyone who owns a home, to buy a shotgun.
So if you rent, you're still left at the mercy of the BG's and a city government who doesn't care if your safe?
 
#9 ·
Bad flood damage on my parent's floor. Most of it will have to be replaced. Would have been REAL scary seeing the floors flooding, my parents would have had to evacuate their apartment. Still can't believe that much water got in through the closed windows and ACs.

they are staying with me till they get back heat/hot water.
 
#4 ·
Yes, you'll need it when the next "hundred-year storm" hits next year. Hindsight is sooooo accurate it's scary.
 
#7 · (Edited)
NRA-ILA | New York

There are asterisks in the "No" column which go to this phrase--* Except in New York City.

Those running out to illegally obtain shotguns or rifles for their NYC dwellings are making
a mistake.

Also please note: Hurricane Sandy drives down major crimes in New York City - but burglaries surge - NY Daily News

Surge is hardly a proper word here. Burglaries have gone up 3% as is stated in the story, from 267 to 271
over a 5 day period. The world isn't coming to an end even if you live in Coney Island.
 
#8 ·
From the article said:
“It’s cold in the house, no lights on,” he said. “Everything’s closed because people were stealing from stores. There’s no food. People are cooking on top of garbage cans."
And that's how quickly it turns, with zero prep. Welcome to the real world, where many of the desperate and the predatory don't give a damn about who's impacted by their thievery, looting and depredations. All they know is: they need, now, and you've got it.

30 days of water, 30 days of a dense food (energy/nutrition bar), vitamins/meds, sufficient blankets, a small and independent source of heat (camp stove/heater/propane), candles, a bicycle, spares, wastes into a large trash can/bags until the water/services come back. Most folks should be able to survive for awhile on just that much, ignoring bills/cash in the equation. But in the city, there aren't many who do this. I'm betting a few more will, now, once this situation has passed.
 
#12 ·
And that's how quickly it turns, with zero prep. Welcome to the real world, where many of the desperate and the predatory don't give a damn about who's impacted by their thievery, looting and depredations. All they know is: they need, now, and you've got it.

30 days of water, 30 days of a dense food (energy/nutrition bar), vitamins/meds, sufficient blankets, a small and independent source of heat (camp stove/heater/propane), candles, a bicycle, spares, wastes into a large trash can/bags until the water/services come back. Most folks should be able to survive for awhile on just that much, ignoring bills/cash in the equation. But in the city, there aren't many who do this. I'm betting a few more will, now, once this situation has passed.
Most officials say prep for at least 3 days (72 hours) of water, food, fuel, etc. But I agree with ccw9mm. For disasters such as this one, (especially if you live in a very densely populated urban hub) I think one should prep for at least one month minimum.

I think those who live in sparsely populated areas may be able to get by with less preps (although, I don't think it's wise to do so). But in rural areas with less people, it's so much easier for relief agencies to respond to and fulfill their needs.

But when the disaster affects large densely populated areas with millions of people devastated, those who can be self supportive for a month is going to be way ahead of the game. We are seeing major gaps in federal response in their response. I would venture to say, there are still pockets of people who have yet to see any kind of official relief efforts at this late date, post incident. FEMA running out of drinking water to hand out, still no gasoline in many areas is making for extreme hardship on many isolated neighborhoods.

Another important aspect is to make sure your survival preps are packaged and secured in such a way that they are protected from flood waters and storm surge (especially if you live where there are hurricane threats). It's not hard to figure out that storm surge strong enough to move houses off their foundations, can easily wash your food reserves out with the receding tide as the surge pulls back. It would really suck to spend thousands of dollars to have a months worth of food and survival supplies, only to see them washed away by massive flood currents, or spoiled by contaminated flood water. So you might reconsider just having your supplies simply stacked in a corner of your garage. You should take the time and make the effort to ensure your supplies are physically secured and protected from simply being washed away during the peak of the storm.
 
#11 ·
The thin line that separates paranoia from preparation is usually in the form of some disaster.

Good luck and stay safe up there.
 
#13 ·
A few things I have been thinking about. Folks in the city proper may not have a lot of room to prep. Thinking apartments and condos here. Then there are the folks who's houses just got destroyed. There goes a lot of the preps too. Those of us with some square footage and a bit of property have an easier time of it. But that also assumes my house is and stays intact.
 
#16 ·
A few things I have been thinking about. Folks in the city proper may not have a lot of room to prep. Thinking apartments and condos here.
~90 nutrition/energy type bars per person (30 days' worth) don't take up all that much space. The big space-taking problem is, IMO, water. Even a small-ish row of 5gal jugs can run out fairly quickly with a small family, even using it strictly for drinking. Which can be partly compensated for by having one of those tiny portable water purifying units. Imperfect, but it'll do in a pinch.

Dealing with cold/exposure doesn't help, either. Good thing this didn't happen in January.

And you're right, that all of the prep in the world can be for naught if the house is blown away (ie, tsunami, hurricane, tornado).
 
#14 ·
I just got back from a wedding in New Jersey. None of my family has power - it's been 6 days.

One neice and her husband bought a generator after Irene and an early snow that knocked out power last year. He wired it into his house and it runs the furnace. That's a key here. The rest are cold in their homes at night. You need either a generator wired in to run the furnace or an independent heating unit that is safe to run in a house. It's hitting freezing back there this time of year.

Batteries are also needed. There were none to be found, and I brought a pile with me in my carry-on on the plane for them.

Gas is the another key. My neice and her husband have a small stash - enough to run their generator off and on for up to 2 weeks. But filling up the cars is the problem - waits up to 5 hours at some stations. Some of their friends waited 2 or 3 hours just to have the station run out before they got to the head of the line. I heard that 80% of the gas stations in North Jersay either don't have gas or don't have power to pump the gas (or both). I didn't try to take any gasoline in my carry-on. :)

My family lives in various towns across North Jersey. The damage to trees is horrendous everywhere, and with overhead power lines, well, that's why the power is out everywhere. We saw power lines on the ground all over the place - we would see 6 places with downed lines just taking the dog for a short walk in the neighborhood. Not to mention the main roads that are closed due to downed wires. It will likely take several weeks to get it all working again. I'll never believe the 72-hour myth again. You need to be self-sufficient for 3-4 weeks.

One family member is on a well, so when the power went out, so did their water. She was kicking herself for not filling up the tub before the storm. It would have been useful even if it was only used to flush the toilet.

Cash is king. No power means either no credit card machines or no internet (or both), so most establishments are running on a cash-only basis right now. Oh, and many of the ATMs either don't have power or can't connect to the bank to give out money.

All in all, an interesting few days I had back there. Made me think a little differently about the preparations I should be doing.
 
#15 ·
Thanks for the 'on the scene' report.

Yep, cash and ammo.

It will be very interesting to see if this horrible situation sways the people of NYC and NJ to start demanding better 2A rights! They would be stupid not to. FL gets hit all the time (by tropical weather events) but at least in FL, they can defend themselves.
 
#17 ·
I hadn't thought about going strictly with nutrition bars. Don't really need elaborate meals in an emergency just sustenance.

Water isn't such a big issue for me. 17,000 gallos in the pool and iMovie on a lake. I have filtration devices and some jug water but the reserves are there if needed.
 
#18 ·
ElkSniper,*
Thanks for sharing what you saw. I'm sure the supplies such as batteries you brought will be put to good use.*

One thing that bugs me... And it may be different up there than from my experiances in Miami. In Miami... There were lines blocks and blocks long when a gas station would open. It seemed to me people would drive their cars and sitting in lines for hours to get a couple gallons of gas. But I always wondered how much gas they were wasting from sitting in line for hours. It just seems so counterproductive especially when gas stations started rationing gas. There were also the times the government would give out ice. People would line there cars for hours to get ice, playing music in cars while they wait. Is this what your seeing up there?*
It just seemed so counterproductive. And I'm guessing most of these people in lines... Are the ones that did not go fill up their*
vehicles and any gas cans....*
I can only hope... That the people that wernt prepared or didn't know how to prepare will learn from this.*

I wonder with the burglaries and stuff if people that didn't care about the RKBA will see the light now....
 
#19 ·
Really interesting discussion. Pythius, I'm sorry that your parents have had a lot of damage but really glad they are ok. I remember one time we had a bad fire in our house. Everyone got out ok but the damage was horrible. Yes, the most important thing is your lives but losing your things is really, really bad too.

We only lost power for 12 hours but it really woke me up to what we need. I bought several of those LED lanterns and they were good to have, but I need about 3 more. I need more candles, and "D" cell batteries, extra gallons of drinking water.

We're lucky because we converted our wood burning fireplace into a propane gas log. We have a big propane tank and it's full so we were ok with heat. We have a gas stove so ok there too. I did remember to fill our tub up so we'd be able to flush the toilets...we have a well so no water if no electricity.

I live in a subdivision that is out in the country on 2 acre lots. Probably 80% of my neighbors have guns and are very protective of each other. So, I'm probably in a pretty ideal situation and I've very greatful for that. Short term crisis...ok, long term crisis...I have a long way to go for preparation.

My heart really goes out to you people that are dealing with this terrible situation in NY/NJ. The pictures are shocking.The article that Rawah posted is amazing (in a bad way).
 
#20 ·
I truly hope for the best for everyone up there. I have a few aquaintenaces effected myself as do many of us I'm sure. This is one reason (and I saw another poster say this in another thread) why everyone should have at least a propane stove and a warm sleeping bag. I lived off mostly saltine crackers and peanut butter durring Wilma for around two weeks. My girlfriend at the time thought I was nuts for buying so many saltines. But she was glad to have them once all the meat and perishables went bad. We both filled our vehicles up before each hurricane. That was plenty of gas for a couple weeks. We even drove across alligator alley to get supplies and stuff we needed after a week or two. But we were only able to do this because we filled up our vehicles before. The power to the gas stations come on one at a time generally and when one gets power so the pumps work... Word spreads fast and within minutes there were lines that you could sit in all day.
A good warm zero degree rated sleeping bag, a propane stove, along with some non perishable food will go a long way. I remember making coffee every morning for some of the neighbors because they had no way to even boil water. The people in the neighborhood... even ones that were never friendly really came together to help each other out. After Wilma which was a huge slow moving hurricane (5mph if I remember correctly was how fast it moved) I couldn't even open my door for 30+ hours. Then the neighbors had to help cut a tree apart that had fallen against my condo trapping us in which took another 5-6 hours just to get out. We had hand saws which was one reason.

I think the best advice I could give anyone... Is even if you don't camp or hike... Look at the stuff people who do go spend long periods of time hiking and camping... And look what they take to provide what they need. It can all be carried in a bag and ready in case you ever need it. People asked me why I took some of the stuff I use to ice fish in Colorado like my mr buddy heater.... It is because... I'd rather have it just in case I do need it cause you never know. It's the same reason I carry a gun. I hope I never have to use it...

Again... If you don't camp or hike that's fine... But what the people who do bring and use to survive... Could be something anyone could use in a crisis like this. You can fit everything you need into one pack. Two if you have 3-4 people in the group. I've used stuff I use in the sticks many times just from power outages.

They one thing I see different from Florida and other southern states that have been through this is the weather. We didn't have to worry about being cold. And after years in the mountains of Colorado... I know how deadly cold weather can be. Hopefully they have blankets and enough to stay warm through this.

I truly wonder if the inability to protect themselves and their loved ones from the criminals taking advantage of the situation will see the importance of being able to lawfully own and carry now and we may have a few more that didn't think the RKBA was important can now see why it is.
 
#23 ·
I still believe when the bad things happen most people will do the right thing,but I am a realist as there going to be some two legged preditor looking for the easy way out.Of course we'll have a few that just want to hurt people who are down and out!!
The Great equalizer ;firearms pick your poision: handguns ,shotguns,ak-47 and course good old standbuy ar-15
 
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