# What have you seen?



## phxrising (Jun 24, 2012)

I prep for a whole host of reasons, but I wanted to share what I've seen first hand, on both sides of the pond, 10 years apart.

When 9/11 happened, I was living in Joplin, MO. By 2pm that afternoon, I went out to get a few things at Walmart and there was a line of cars going around the block getting gasoline, Walmart was heaving with people--like Christmas, long lines and shelves were emptying. I stood there witnessing people grabbing stuff off of shelves. Grabbing. Carts filled and overflowing.

This is a smallish town in the middle of the midwest, no likely chance of having one of those airliners crashing into Joplin, yet people were panicking. 

Ironic that it wasn't the 9/11 tragedy I had to immediately deal with like the people of New York did, it was the everyday people and neighbors around me that were the problem. 2000 miles away from the incident. THAT is precisely why I prep.

Then here in the UK, we had some riots in London last summer. We live over 15 miles away from where they were happening, yet same scenario--my husband stops for bread and there isn't any. People emptying shelves. 

Sometimes I think it's not the immediate threat itself, but the panicked nature of people that gives, or at least it gave me, a serious reality check of what will and can happen. And I have learned, you didn't even need to be in close proximity to the event.

Anyone else seen anything like this or had a similar experience?


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## valannb22 (Jan 6, 2012)

I live in Oklahoma and on 9/11 we had similar stuff happen. Lines at gas stations were backed up as far as I could see and people were making runs on all the grocery stores.


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## TheAnt (Jun 7, 2011)

BINGO Phxrising, you are correct. 

What is strange is that folks seem so easily freaked out to the point they all go to the store to stock up when something is happening 2000 miles away but they will laugh at you if you stock up when things are relatively good. Thing is that most of humanity and even the US (save for the last maybe 50 years) has always stocked up when times were good. Inevitably things take a turn for the worse and if you didnt stock up you would go hungry. What preppers do isnt really all that uncommon in history... what IS uncommon is to be so utterly dependant on the government and fragile systems for EVERYTHING as so many in the 1st world are.


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## Moby76065 (Jul 31, 2012)

During the 9/11 event I? lived in Laguna Hills CA.
We didn't notice much of a difference at all.


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## Zanazaz (Feb 14, 2012)

I'm not worried about whatever may happen. I'm more concerned with how people will react. Panic is never good. NEVER. Depending on the "event", panic will probably kill more people than the actual event.

Then again, I'm sure "normalcy bias" is going to take it's fair share of casualties as well. "Oh nothings going to happen..." That's got to be just about as bad as panic, or lawlessness.

Then there are the just plain stupid. A few months ago a funnel cloud/tornado went over a restaurant I was at. People went to the windows to look at it. I thought... WTF??? I yelled get away from the windows. The manager saw, and heard me, and he told everyone to get into the kitchen. Stupidity is probably going to kill the most people... and it doesn't even have to be TEOTWAWKI!


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

On 9/11, I witnessed United 93 fly over my head about 20 minutes before it went down.

I was already home. I called Mrs. ZoomZoom and told her to leave work, pick up our daughter at the daycare and come directly home. I didn't care if she got fired but I wasn't having her in an urban skyscraper when this was happening. She did note that the grocery store and bank parking lots were awfully full for that time of day.


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## 101airborne (Jan 29, 2010)

ZoomZoom said:


> On 9/11, I witnessed United 93 fly over my head about 20 minutes before it went down.
> 
> I was already home. I called Mrs. ZoomZoom and told her to leave work, pick up our daughter at the daycare and come directly home. I didn't care if she got fired but I wasn't having her in an urban skyscraper when this was happening. She did note that the grocery store and bank parking lots were awfully full for that time of day.


 I was just across the river in jersy when the second plane hit. I still dream about it. Called the wife at work and had her go home as well. Fastest trip out of jersey home I've ever made in a 18 wheeler.


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## cengasser (Mar 12, 2012)

Living in the south on 9/11 I didn't notice to much panic. People did go get kids out of school and some left work.
What we have learned is, if the weather forecast calls for the slightest snow flake. There goes the milk, eggs and bread. When we first moved here I thought it was amusing, now just annoying. So we learned to ALWAYS have those things on hand with spares. Since the store doesn't get any milk for days afterward. Have that extra frig for those items. 
Looking back I guess that's when we became "preppers" of sorts.


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## kejmack (May 17, 2011)

My experience was just the opposite. On 9/11 I lived in Catlett, VA which is about 50 miles from Wash, DC. We did not have panic. There was no line at the gas station and there was almost no one at the store. Everyone stayed home. The streets were deserted. I went out in the evening to get a gallon of milk and I did not see another car. Except for the clerk, there was no one at the normally busy convenience store.


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## Salekdarling (Aug 15, 2010)

My father was in DC that day. I'll have to ask him what it was like in town after the plane hit the Pentagon. Myself, I was 12 years old. Our school was let out early. We lived two counties away from Somerset (Flight 93) so chances weren't taken with the schools in my area. I was too young to give a crap about whether we'd run out of food or gas. My Grandfather is a unnamed prepper anyway, so we would have been good for a bit.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

It could be dangerous to leave your house.Highjackings to take your vehicle or if it gets real bad just driving while black or white the way they have divided us or tried to.We are not the same as other times of collapse.


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## machinist (Jul 4, 2012)

Meerkat said: "We are not the same as other times of collapse. "

Amen to that. People are so dependent and emotionally-led by the TV it is disgusting. Best to stay the heck outa their way. 

Like kejmack, we had no problem on 9/11. Our small town was talking about it a lot, but nobody got scared. They got MAD. They all wanted a piece of whoever DID that! 

It's a small country town, a lot of farmers and small business people. I worked at a machine shop then and the owner's wife brought a TV into the shop so we could see what was going on. She said, "This is like Pearl Harbor. You guys need to see this." We did go ahead and work, but we took some time out to watch. 

The country folks are pretty well prepared, but there are more "townies" now, so we get a run on bread-milk-eggs when a storm is coming in. I ask 'em why they got a craving for French Toast?

Me? I got chickens, I grind our flour and my wife bakes our bread. There's a friend of mine just down the road who milks 200+ cows. No problem.


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## BillM (Dec 29, 2010)

I am 63 and i have seen two first grade classes with 64 kids in each class have to go to scool in two seperate shifts because we were "Baby Boomers".

I watched the country go from a agricultural country, to a manufactureing country and finally to a consumer country.

I watched our monitary system go from a Gold standard to a credit standard.

I watched our elected representitives go from statesmen to politicians to criminals.

We have one third of the people in the country on welfare. 

Once great American Corporations are fleeing over seas to communists countrys to escape the socialists that run the country here.

More and more of my generation are retireing or becoming disabled every day and many are totaly dependant on a social security system that can not mathmatically sustain them for another ten years at the most.

We are building debt like a man building a house of cards that can not stop.

He is doomed to continue to build until it topples, deck after ,deck after deck! 

Hyperinflation is around the corner. When it hits, it will make 911 seem like a sunday scool picknic.

That is what I have seen and what I see coming.


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## forluvofsmoke (Jan 27, 2012)

I remember 9/11...I was on the highway about 5 miles from home with a loaded truck when I got a cell call from our district manager. I didn't know a thing about it until he called. He said the company wanted everyone to be on high alert for possible high-jackers (I was hauling hazardous materials) as well as possible faked accidents, etc. Traffic on the highways the rest of the day was a literal crap-shoot...people were driving like there was no tomorrow (all the stupid things you see people do x 1,000), and I probably had more close calls/near misses with idiot drivers than I care to remember that day.

Anyway, when I got to town just after the phone call, the parking lot at the gas station just off the highway was total chaos...streets were littered with vehicles trying to get in/out...I just drove on by to go unload and go about the rest of my day. When I got home after work, everyone was talking about it, and there was definiotely a lot of tension in the air...some of the neighbors were standing outside chatting, and I quickly gathered that there was a strong anger towards the persons responsible for the attacks.

I am inclined to believe that our community is comprised mainly of people who live day by day, not thinking about "what if" and there are many who have little more than a few days supply of food in their house at any given time, so if they get a scare, they crap their pants and run for food and supplies. They have little or no means to provide for their families regarding daily needs if the utilities are cut off for any reason. We loose the electric grid here regularly, and at times for 1/2 a day or more, and none of them seem to have taken the hint yet that if they don't have what they need *now*, they may not be able to get it when they really need it. What will they do when they can't just drive down the street and buy any of these things? That's a scary thought to ponder...desperate times, desperate measures...


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

In the small town in Minnesota where I was the gas stations were all a mob scene. Seems like everyone wants to prep only after the fact.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

cengasser said:


> Living in the south on 9/11 I didn't notice to much panic. People did go get kids out of school and some left work.
> What we have learned is, if the weather forecast calls for the slightest snow flake. There goes the milk, eggs and bread. When we first moved here I thought it was amusing, now just annoying. So we learned to ALWAYS have those things on hand with spares. Since the store doesn't get any milk for days afterward. Have that extra frig for those items.


Same here.

We had to evacuate due to wildfires last year. Thank God we were prepared & had a plan instead of running around crazy trying to decide what to take & how to load it in vehicles. We had the 5th wheeler loaded, hooked up, & ready to head out in under 10 minutes. We adjusted our plans after this incident, but at least we had a plan.

We really started prepping in 2009 when hubby's business slowed to a crawl. We had a good amount of cash in savings & my job was secure but we never knew what it would be like to actually have to dip into savings to live & have to wonder what would happen after it was gone. My sister & her family of four moved in with us at that time & my mother required assistance as well. Before that time, we'd never considered the possibility that our bad time would coincide with bad times with the extended family, most of whom live paycheck to paycheck.


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## BlueShoe (Aug 7, 2010)

How much was gas in 2001? Oil was approximately $20 or $22 per bbl. on Jan 20th 2001. I went to Hawai'i that summer and gas was HIGH at $1.75 IIRC. I do remember everyone running to the gas station to fill up. They did that when Desert Storm started too.

I remember thinking it was the time to load a bunch of money into the stock market when it opened the following Monday. I did. I do remember credit being laxed and everyone buying toys with easy home equity money. I remember losing my job in Nov. 2001. And even with no job and listing NONE on my credit application for an $11K truck I got the loan with no questions asked in 2004. I also opened a HELOC by listing NONE under occupation._ "How come you only want to list your home value at $50K instead of double it's true value like most people try to do?"_


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## bahramthered (Mar 10, 2012)

9-11 for me was weird. I was living at home and had gotten onto a hobby board and got someone who's who's new thread was "Can you believe this is happening?!" I spent a couple minutes looking around for some weird hobby news before I turned on the TV. After that it just a nightmare, I got to watch both towers fall before my canine came over and requested a bathroom break. No one even seemed to care as I did our usual route, people just going business as usual. Only one person I found had the radio on. Week later these people where crazy.

The day after the Auroa shooting I stopped by Bass Pro for some new fishing stuff. Man the people scary arguing about who's turn it was to buy guys, and over ammo.


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## ContinualHarvest (Feb 19, 2012)

i was on my way to work... at an airport. The shuttle never made it to the ramp. Humvees and guardsman had the ramp blocked off. Called the boss and we all had the next few days off. When things opened back up there were armed guardsman up and down the terminals with m-16s locked and loaded.


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## pixieduster (Mar 28, 2012)

I worked all night and was sound asleep. My intuition woke me up and I stared at the TV which was always on, no sound. I was horrified. On high alert but calm. 9/11 was not my preping epiphany though. Hurricane was my turning point. That's when I started to physically prep. Although 9/11 was when I started mentally preparing for a whole host "things gunna get ugly around here".


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## Jaspar (Feb 3, 2010)

phxrising said:


> I prep for a whole host of reasons, but I wanted to share what I've seen first hand, on both sides of the pond, 10 years apart.
> 
> When 9/11 happened, I was living in Joplin, MO. By 2pm that afternoon, I went out to get a few things at Walmart and there was a line of cars going around the block getting gasoline, Walmart was heaving with people--like Christmas, long lines and shelves were emptying. I stood there witnessing people grabbing stuff off of shelves. Grabbing. Carts filled and overflowing.
> 
> ...


On 9/11 I was 23 and living with my parents while recovering from a life threatening illness/major surgery, and remember waking up and turning on CNN. Couldn't believe what I was watching. I also had a follow up appointment with my doctor that day, and left the doctor's office with very little gas in my tank. Yeah right. The lines in our town (about 13,000 people) were half a mile long at every station (about 12 or so). I was weak as hell from surgery (drove myself that day), no gas, and frankly, a little scared. Remember listening to Congress singing "God Bless America" on the radio while I was in line for that precious gas. Can't believe it was 11 years ago.


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