biggest aid to survival if shtf, is to MOVE with the weather

Deb Stephens wrote:

Devin Lavign wrote:
5th If SHTF consider what that really means and think about all the toxic gick humans create. A lot of chemicals typically need to be maintained. But if SHTF a lot of places that need constant cold or heat or pressure etc... would be left unattended. This means large areas would be extremely hazardous to go through. Traveling into an area you don't know the potential toxic hazards is not really a good idea. Seriously there is a lot of toxic stuff out there that even people living near them don't know about. It is one of the big things I think a lot of preppers forget to think about. The factories and industrial plants that use and create this stuff are all over, and without constant monitoring and intervention these things will get out and be harmful.

I agree with most of this, but one thing that stands out for me is the 5th point above. I have long thought about the potential for nuclear reactor meltdowns when there is no one left to monitor those systems. (It is my main reason for being against nuclear power plants as cheap energy sources.) We don't need an all-out nuclear war to suffer from the effects of nuclear radiation. When these plants go -- and they will eventually when things fall apart -- we are in for some REALLY tough times.

Yes nuclear power plants, but those are the big extreme examples. I am also talking about volatile chemicals. I grew up in Bellingham WA, where the last N American chlorine plant was. That was super hazardous, and in SHTF a giant chlorine cloud could have taken the entire town out. It actually had 2 accidental releases over the years that thankfully were blown out over the bay instead of into town. This was a huge part of why they closed the plant as well as massive pressure due to tanker cars of chlorine from the plant derailing and hurting and killing people in other states. Thankfully there is no longer a chlorine plant in N America, but there are still vast tanks of it stored all over since industry still uses the stuff all over. Chlorine isn't the only worry though. There are countless chemicals all over the place used in factories and industry, often in very nondescript buildings and tanks. There is also the issue of more than one "mostly harmless" chemicals mixing and turning into something very harmful. As SHTF progresses you just don't know how things might mix and change as containment fails to keep things separate.

Robert Ray wrote:I'll see if I can't find the you tube video, a prime example of Devin's 5th. A you tube poster posted a video about camping in plain sight while passing through our little town. He was enamored by the lush field just yards from the highway just outside of the city proper. The field is our sewage treatment spray field and during applications the odor....well is kinda stinky. So there is an agronomic formula that governs the applications for max uptake of nitrates. Had he been there during or shortly after an application from the pivots he probably wouldn't have selected that site but he had no idea. He wasn't local just a traveler passing through, what you don't know just might end up resulting in a shitty nights sleep.

Good example of potential toxic issues that locals know but those traveling through would not.

Actually McCandles more than likely starved to death. Which proves how difficult foraging and hunting can be.  The plant he ate was probably not toxic.