Tier IIA Safehouse

[Tamara]

As I am (forced) to narrow down how I want my ranch house, I come back to the underlying notion to design it to the philosophy of a Tier IIA Safehouse. It's an imaginary concept, as far as I know, and runs something like this:

Tier III: Unpowered storage depot with food, emergency medical supplies, maybe ammo/weapons. There would be several located in a province.

Tier II: Has power, water, food, ammo/weapons. Computer/communications. Limited medical facilities. There would be a few located in a province.

Tier I: Capacity, capability to take care of a large group of people for 6 months to a year. There would be one, perhaps two located in a province.

A Tier IIA is a private residence that can be made a Tier II. So, one might be doing emergency surgery but it may be on the dining room table or the deer butchery.

Given the consideration of what a Tier II might be, what would you want in such a place? (Got to run, take the dog to the Vet, but I wanted to "get this on the table".

[SteveDaPirate]

I would want an underground storage area such as a root cellar or basement. Living in tornado alley, betting on anything above ground surviving in the event of a disaster is foolish. I would also like to have a 50 watt dual band amateur radio hooked up to a car battery. Food/ammo/weapons/medical supplies all seem relatively straight forward as they can be kept for years without any work on your part.

Power and water are the tricky ones in my mind. In my area, disruption of utilities usually coincidences with ice storms in winter. This means that travel is a non-starter, and a cistern or rainwater collection system isn't too helpful. My preferred method is to keep empty 2-Liter bottles, clean them out, and fill them with water before stacking them in my tornado shelter area. I also like to keep a supply of chlorine tablets on hand (tastes better than iodine). For electrical power I think the best bet is a generator with enough juice to run your essential things. Yet generators are limited to the amount of fuel you have on hand, and that has to be rotated regularly.

Sounds like an interesting project, good luck!

[zraver]

my plan is simple, get my son to family and then charge towards the sound of the guns. As a rescuer I have to bug in, not bug out.

[snapper]

I, like zraver, don't believe you can help by sitting in hole or I'd have gone to Monastery long ago (and probably have got bored to death). But if it ever DID come down heavy for me personally that made my presence a hindrance rather a help I would take to a yacht. Why? Wind powered and wind rechargeable batteries and mobile. Easy food source available 24/7 just below the hull etc etc... People can be dug out of holes if they stay put, catching them at sea is an altogether impossible task.

[Gun Grape]

my plan is simple, get my son to family and then charge towards the sound of the guns. As a rescuer I have to bug in, not bug out.

I admire your gung-ho attitude, But, even the rescuers come to a point where they have to hunker down.

I know you deal mostly with tornadoes, I do S&R locally, We deal with hurricanes. We work until the winds get to 65MPH/just before the storm surge hits then pull back and go to shelter till after the storm passes.

Have learned the hard way (Opel, Andrew......) that you need teams after the storm. It does no good if you vehicles are wrecked and teams are out of the game because of injuries sustained during the storm. Or when the rescuers themselves need rescuing.

[zraver]

I admire your gung-ho attitude, But, even the rescuers come to a point where they have to hunker down.

I know you deal mostly with tornadoes, I do S&R locally, We deal with hurricanes. We work until the winds get to 65MPH/just before the storm surge hits then pull back and go to shelter till after the storm passes.

Have learned the hard way (Opel, Andrew......) that you need teams after the storm. It does no good if you vehicles are wrecked and teams are out of the game because of injuries sustained during the storm. Or when the rescuers themselves need rescuing.

Tornadoes are what I post about. I am also a NASAR SARTECH II and do wilderness rescue, am a R3 certified swift water rescue tech and I am a local emergency medical responder. I don't post those stories because they could be traceable to a patient. And yes during a Hurricane I'd hunker down- did so during Isaac just outside of Gulf Port. But for the end of the world prepper scenarios,the storm won't pass any time soon if no one mans the ramparts of civilization. That is my big problem with so many preppers- these sheep think they ate going to turn themselves into moles in a hole and then emerge from their earthly cocoons as lions fit to rule the world. I think the answer isn't to run, but to support your neighbors ad community.

[Tamara]

Actually, I'm not thinking apocolyptically. If the big one does happen be it Brimstone, Zombies, Supervolcano, or missile exchange, I'd rather not be survive the first pass.

I'm just trying to see things to make my ranch house as capable as possible, like Jean-Pierre's place in "Ronin".......or the safe houses in Underworld.....but not so much in the latter.

I am planning on having a safe room.....but that seems the standard smart thing to do these days.

So, back to the question.........

[Gun Grape]

I'm just trying to see things to make my ranch house as capable as possible, like Jean-Pierre's place in "Ronin".......or the safe houses in Underworld.....but not so much in the latter.

I am planning on having a safe room.....but that seems the standard smart thing to do these days.

So, back to the question.........

That is the part we are not getting. Capable for what? A group of hired assassins to hide/reequip?

Or capable for you to ride out a major storm/interruption of utilities for a week/month?

Its when you start posting about the capability to do surgery that you lose most of us.

[Tamara]

That is the part we are not getting. Capable for what? A group of hired assassins to hide/reequip?

Or capable for you to ride out a major storm/interruption of utilities for a week/month?

Its when you start posting about the capability to do surgery that you lose most of us.

Didn't Heinlein say "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Would one rather that another set their leg on the dining room table or a cramped closet?

I suppose in this mass media world of this or that show of preppers and doom soothsayers, it is easy to see every question about preparation as looking only in that direction.

I came to the field mess to ask people who have been around for a while that how would they design something to live in be able to be a backup as an emergency shelter. What would they want, what would they hope they had, what could they afford at the time of building.

Sure, I suppose we would all want an OV-10 on a catapult so we could bug out.........but that's just not the case. (You know, those things are never on surplus sale?).

It's going to be a ranch house. It sits, in Texas Hill Country things do sit and are not dug in, on 10 acres of land. What might one want, what might one want in their house out in the country.

[DOR]

One more thing to worry about:

Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of July 2012

July 23, 2014: If an asteroid big enough to knock modern civilization back to the 18th century appeared out of deep space and buzzed the Earth-Moon system, the near-miss would be instant worldwide headline news.

Two years ago, Earth experienced a close shave just as perilous, but most newspapers didn't mention it. The "impactor" was an extreme solar storm, the most powerful in as much as 150+ years.

"If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces," says Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado.

Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of July 2012 - NASA Science

[Tamara]

One more thing to worry about:

Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of July 2012

July 23, 2014: If an asteroid big enough to knock modern civilization back to the 18th century appeared out of deep space and buzzed the Earth-Moon system, the near-miss would be instant worldwide headline news.

Two years ago, Earth experienced a close shave just as perilous, but most newspapers didn't mention it. The "impactor" was an extreme solar storm, the most powerful in as much as 150+ years.

"If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces," says Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado.

Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of July 2012 - NASA Science

Well, that's a different set of calculations but it is a thought in the back of the mind of how to design things to be without electrical power. Long story short, though, the unfortunate thing is those "equations" only have a chance to "work" if the rest of the world, at least the majority of it that knows the electric life, still has electricity. If the whole place gets kicked back to 1776, we-ll....................

Looking at on the surface, there are three ways at looking at it. First, there are the electrical systems that aren't on the main lines. My well is like that. It's pumping comes from a solar panel. Having a windmill for power generation would be another.

Secondly, those systems that do what you want done without using electricity at all. Construction to make the most of natural circulation, using a windmill to grind one's flour, things like that. That usually takes a lot of thinking and practice to how one might else do things, how one might alternately live. Part of my kitchen "plans" is to have a larder/pantry but that comes more from how I've had to cook (galley kitchen) for over the past quarter of a century than wanting to live life without refrigeration.......not that I'm ready to live without refrigeration.

Then we come to the third angle. What's the use of having all these alternate electrical systems if their wiring gets fried in some kind EMP incident? Again, that's one of those major severe incidents that I don't think I want to survive through especially if the majority of the planet is involved. The bad part about that kind of disaster is that death isn't so quick. So if that happens and the hordes come around to my place, I hope for their sake they don't burn/trash the place.......because in a powerless world, my book library could be useful.

But stepping away from the gloom and doom of it.............I want to do "non electrical calculations" not for a desperate need but because it's fun!

But when it becomes an issue of survival, it's not fun at all.

[DOR]

I'm very unsure of myself on this one, perhaps someone with more technical knowledge might weigh in. But, here goes.

Consider the solar powered water pump's fate in the event of this kind of solar flare. Is it just a bit more juice? Does it over-load the batteries? Or, might it be -- I'm really guessing -- like an nuke's electromagnetic pulse, and the system is reset to "Stone Age" ?

[Officer of Engineers]

But when it becomes an issue of survival, it's not fun at all.

So when are you actually enjoy your home?

Consider the solar powered water pump's fate in the event of this kind of solar flare. Is it just a bit more juice? Does it over-load the batteries? Or, might it be -- I'm really guessing -- like an nuke's electromagnetic pulse, and the system is reset to "Stone Age" ?

Hand pump. A hell of a lot easier to use and maintain.

[SteveDaPirate]

That is my big problem with so many preppers- these sheep think they ate going to turn themselves into moles in a hole and then emerge from their earthly cocoons as lions fit to rule the world. I think the answer isn't to run, but to support your neighbors ad community.

I'm amazed at how many people are so enamored of the idea of the "rugged individual" that they don't understand the power of an organized group. 10,000 years ago human society consisted of small bands of 20-100 people. This wasn't an accidental occurrence.

When the going gets tough, you need people who can specialize in specific tasks, people who can work in shifts, and people who can help those who get injured or sick. The lone survivalist who breaks his leg out hunting is fucked, the man in the hunting party gets carried back and patched up.

[Officer of Engineers]

I'm amazed at how many people are so enamored of the idea of the "rugged individual" that they don't understand the power of an organized group.

Actually, you are completely right. Tamara, what you want is called a Regiment which you ain't qualified for, Lieutenant.