Any survivalists/preppers/doomsdayplanners here?

[Captain Maltese]

Water has been one of my survival concerns. Under normal circumstances I have the luxury of living in a country full of fresh water resources and tap water, nation wide, is drinkable and often downright tasty without any filtering or additives. The water distributor desinfect the water primarily by adding chlorine or by UV light. Buying water on bottles is a very recent trend, and hardly affects the nationwide household water drinking - I actually buy a bottle myself some times while on trips, rather than going for something with sweetening and/or bubbles.

In an emergency scenario, easily accessible drinking water is not a given. I'm old enough to remember when Chernobyl fallout was coming down in this area rending water questionable, and something more local and violent would of course be a threat to all infrastructure. Even just a fuel truck accidentally crashing and rolling down into the local water supply source, a lake near a place where mining still happens. I have room for a bottle or two of water from tap or shop in my bug out bag, but a quarter gallon is literally nothing. And storing water indefinitely in a plastic bottle is not wise as both the plastic, the trapped air, and light can affect the purity.

So, I am carrying two items. One is a collapsible 3 gallon water tank. Fully collapsed the tank takes limited room and little weight. This allows me to store up water if I am leaving a safe area, and also it is well suited for cleaning. The tank is also well suited for rigging a shower, and a long number of other related and unrelated purposes like building a sand filter or transporting gas for a car.

The second item is a bit trickier. Water cleansing pills are not found in just any store here. I have a few old military purification pills in the bag but need more in my supply. Maybe I'll go check out the larger sports stores next time I am in that area.

[Oniya]

Or get a bottle of ordinary bleach (no additives) and a dropper.  The EPA says you can use 6 drops per gallon for emergency purification.  Mix well and let stand for 30 minutes.

If you want something dry (that won't eventually expire), look for calcium hypochlorite at your local swimming pool supply store.  The process takes an extra step, but a 1 lb bag will treat something like 10,000 gallons of water:

1) make a chlorine solution by dissolving 1/4 ounce (about a heaping teaspoon) of Ca(ClO)2 in 2 gallons of water.
2) Add this solution to your drinking supply at a ratio of 1 part to 100.
3) Mix well and let stand for 30 minutes.

This is probably best for once you've gotten your base of operations set up, to make water for multiple days at a time.  The liquid chlorine solution made in step 1 does degrade, and it's a little tricky to make in smaller quantities.  (That 2 gallons of treatment solution makes 200 gallons of potable water.)

[Captain Maltese]

Well, I have now been to one of the better general supply stores in the area. (Side note: what are these called in proper English nowadays anyway? Home depots? Tool shacks? Seriously?)

On the shelf for mostly pool cleaning products I eventually located this; I don't know why the text was in Swedish. We can read English just find here. It is possible the manufacturer is Swedish but I am not sure. It's called "BioCool Clean Water", cost 20 bucks which is a bit stiff imho but offers 250 little white pills. Main ingredient is sodium percarbonate. Each pill is capable of cleaning 5 liter or about 1.3 US gallon, so 3 pills in my 3 gallon collapsible tank should do nicely. After three hours the water is cleansed of bacterias. After 24 hours the water is also clean of parasites. The product specifically mentions being effective against E.coli, Salmonella and cryptosporidium. I could not find any references on its possible protection to water threats like cholera and Legionary Disease, but both of these are bacterias.

My bug out bag, which is a backpack geared for outdoor bad weather camping, is already heavy and bulging. I will probably just pour some of these pills into a rather smaller and lighter box and mark the contents well. Also I intend to test a few pills, for taste effects at least, and it that happens any time soon I will post the results.

The pills are maybe Swedish but I have a feeling there will be plenty of similar products on the market in bigger countries than mine. So far I have not seen any civilian alternatives but in all fairness I have not been looking for any until now.

-----

Ah, and I also looked for a drop counter thingie while I was in relevant stores today. Didn't locate any. Maybe I will have to try an apothecary next. The calcium hypochlorite I didn't even think about this time.

[Oniya]

I did some subcontracting work for the EPA for a while - mostly in the realm of reducing lab results into government-speak.  The products that the tests were done on were specifically disinfectants of various types (also sanitizers and sterilants), and there are certain standard bacteria that these products are tested against.  I used to refer to the big three as 'Steph, Sam, and Sue', being Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella choleraesuis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa  (I am proud to say that I spelled those correctly from memory.)  If you've got those three, you're talking a hospital-grade disinfectant.  'Steph' and 'Sam' are required testing on anything labelled 'disinfectant'.  If a product claims more organisms, it needed a certain kill-rate for those as well - which is important with some of the antibiotic resistant strains like MRSA.  For reference, you'll see 'Vibrio cholerae' if they've specifically tested for the cholera bacteria, or Legionella pneumophilia for Legionairre's. 

The reason that they test those specific bacteria is because they represent the major classifications of bacteria - S. aureus is 'Gram positive', S. choleraesuis is Gram negative (as are E. coli, P. aeruginosa, and L. pneumophila)  These refer to difference in the cell-wall structure, so a product that is able to affect one is predicted to be effective against others in that class.

Crypto is a particularly nasty one, since it has a protected 'spore' phase.  They would have tested that to get the 'free of parasites' claim.

[Captain Maltese]

Oniya, you keep impressing me with your skill sets. Happen to have a pilot's certificate or a whaling permit in there as well?  ;D Just kidding. But I am quite interested to hear what consumer-available products can do what the hospital grade ones achieve.

[RedRose]

I knew guys who were into youtube videos and all... They thought themselves ready, obviously it didn't go well for them  XD But thankfully, they all made it in decent condition. Had they attempted some place harsher, it might have been different.

[Oniya]

Oniya, you keep impressing me with your skill sets. Happen to have a pilot's certificate or a whaling permit in there as well?  ;D Just kidding. But I am quite interested to hear what consumer-available products can do what the hospital grade ones achieve.

My piloting experience is limited to a few hours playing MS Flight Simulator (which ended quite badly for all passengers and crew).  As for whaling, I read Moby Dick cover to cover - does that count for anything?  ;D  The basic differences that I recall between the hospital grade stuff and the stuff you can get over the counter are: concentration (hospital stuff is high-test), package size (because 5 one-gallon containers take up more room than 1 five-gallon container), and organisms that they counter (hospitals are very concerned about the antibiotic-resistant strains, and some buggies that are particular dangerous to immuno-compromised individuals, like newborns, the elderly, and transplant patients.)

One thing that most people don't know about is the significance of the EPA Reg. No. that you see on many pesticide/germicide products.  All of the products that went through testing have this down in a corner of the label near the use instructions.  The EPA has a database where you can look up information on the product, including accepted labels.  These are quite a bit more extensive than the labels you see on the bottle.  Ultra Clorox Bleach (EPA Reg No. 5813-50) has a 43-page PDF file.  Try cramming that on a gallon jug!  You'll find lists there of all the organisms that the product is able to claim efficacy against - not all of them will generally appear on a household label, because most homeowners don't care about some of them, but when a particular organism is making headlines (H1N1, anyone?) the disinfectant companies want to be able to advertise how well they work.

[Captain Maltese]

I started a thread that focuses on homemade MRE's. It's a narrow subject that I plan to pursue in detail so I thought I'd keep it off this thread.

https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=274126.0

[Captain Maltese]

Hurricanes, fires, floods, earthquakes.... 2017 has been a rough year for some people. I am reading about this in the news websites and see the odd short TV newsclip but since all of this happens very far away from me I don't get much in the way of details. If anyone here on E have been through any of this up close, I am very interested  in learning more. How did you deal with it? How did your local community and local authorities deal with it? Was there plundering or other crimes? Did any aid organizations turn up and what did they actually contribute? Was there a military presence? How was supplies of food, heating fuel, electricity, car fuel, drinking water? Did the neighborhood cooperate? Was there need for medical aid? Does insurance do its job? The last emergency I can recall getting real details on was the 2009 flooding of Louisiana.

[RedRose]

There are very few preppers in my country. I think we're too smug to think it would really happen, or something. Even last year when there was this flood, and people got evacuated in walking distance from my home, I didn't really think of "doing" anything except keep an eye on the lake nearby  ::) But now, I see more and more people actually wondering if they should be preparing in some way. I suppose the news did it.

[Captain Maltese]

I have a case study for you guys, so fresh it is still happening.
Place: Puerto Rico.
Disaster: Hurricane Maria and its aftermath
Time: right now.

I am basing this post on various media information and interviews.

Puerto Rico is in Latin America, but under American rule - for instance it no longer has an army of its own. The 3.5 million citizens have American passports. The capital and main city is San Juan.

As this is posted, the hurricane itself ended about seven days ago. It was bad; destroying homes and infrastructure, but the loss of lives during the hurricane was low.

The reason I am making this one a case study is the aftermath. Because something has gone horribly wrong in a place run by American governing. Electricity has not been restored. The hospitals ran on gas generators - until gas ran out as well. Hospital life support units no longer operate and several people on life support died when power ran out. Gas is now very scarce and restricted to a couple of gallon each where fuel can still be optained at all. Food is running out. What planes on the airport are still able to lift have no passengers on board, because the computers running the boarding systems have no power any more and no country will allow air passengers to just arrive without a proper departure checkin.

There is emergency staff in Puerto Rico. But they are holed up in a convention center, maybe the only large remaining building in San Juan still with air condition, wondering what they should do but not doing anything but having a convention while they wait for someone, anyone, to take charge. And the hurricane was a week ago.

Some relief work is happening. By small random groups grabbing shovels trying to save people or fix the blocked roads. FEMA has shown up with a group of experts, with document cases but bringing neither food, water, medicines or tools or machinery. The US Navy is now sending one emergency ship, the USN Comfort, to see what they can do. EST: nine days from now.

I will report further as I find more information or need to correct anything. The death numbers WILL rise, once cell phones can find the juice to start working again and make reports from the non-central areas, and once anyone starts receiving calls in the government buildings again. Evidently, it may take some time.

[Vekseid]

Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, taken from Spain in the Spanish-American war (which my great-great grandfather fought in) along with Cuba and the Philippines. They are United States citizens. Like Cuba and the Philippines, they have been royally dicked around from a variety of policies.

A part of this debacle is it took the executive branch (read: Trump) until this morning to grant a Jones act exemption for the island. This prevented foreign shipping from providing aid. For Texas and Florida, this took two days.

The major issue, however, is the complete annihilation of the communication infrastructure. It is basically gone. This has paralyzed the island. Aid groups are bringing in Ham Radio operators.

The Comfort is specifically a medical ship. The Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group was already present in the region due to the effort in the US Virgin Islands, and is assisting Puerto Rico as well. The Comfort should have been activated immediately, of course, but still.

[Captain Maltese]

Always a honor to have your input, Veks.

I had not heard about Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group before. I checked out their website briefly and it appears to be a unit of US Marines specializing in light amphibious landings that is especially assigned to support emergency teams. That makes me a little wary because while they are clearly proficient at arriving at places and rescuing people during a disaster, they do not seem to be equipped for actually repairing infrastructure. They have ships and marines and guns, but not really any engineer units. They need emergency teams to cooperate with. Of course the US Marines have a plentiful supply of engineers and heavy equipment but if this group has them on their three ships, it was not mentioned. What groups do they normally cooperate with; FEMA?

I am very interested in hearing about which aid organizations have arrived at Puerto Rico as yet. I will admit right away that I have a difficult relationship with the big aid NGOs, as I equally do with the government ones, and that probably stems from seeing them in their worst days rather than the best because media reports the bad stuff more eagerly. So I saw FEMA during the 2009 floodings, I saw American Red Cross during the previous Haiti rebuild, I have seen UN 'help' over and over, I have seen what various religious charities do with the money they have collected, and how they deal with undesirables like staff that gets pregnant out of wedlock. I have seen the 'aid' given to the half drowned refugees in Greece. Or how foreign aid funds the pockets of corrupt leaders and lying officials in the countries they are supposed to help. If I give more detailed examples I will be here all night. I guess I am good at picking up the bad stuff. So I will be more than happy to hear what aid organizations are doing of good things in Puerto Rico. It would be nice to trust someone again.

The ham radios mentioned; are we talking about the old truck radio systems, or the Baofeng class UHF/VHF radios?

[Vekseid]

The US Army Corps of Engineers handles engineering, and they began moving in Sunday. Kearsarge is largely focusing on supply drops and medical evacuations.

And to be perfectly frank, I am honestly not sure. The biggest reason I haven't sounded a site-wide horn about this is because I honestly do not know what aid groups to reliably point people to.

[Captain Maltese]

I am not letting go of the Puerto Rico case, and will post further info as I get it, but there is another story coming up now that is of a very different magnitude. Crazy as the whole thing is, US authorities are now starting to calculate on the possible event and ramifications of North Korea hitting western USA with nuclear missiles. Not just Hawaii - but California. That is a lot of people. And US authorities are not sounding confident about dealing with it.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/09/25/california-is-already-preparing-for-a-north-korean-nuclear-attack/amp/

I got this link through a respectable Norwegian website, but don't know how reputable they are. But at least it is in English.

One key info is that the first warning will only arrive minutes before the actual strike. 15 minutes for Hawaii, a little more for California. But the alarm system is not even in place yet.

There is a document from intelligence in Los Angeles, 16 pages, on how authorities SHOULD prepare, and how individuals should react to a sudden blast. I don't have the link, sorry. But the story mentioning it says that the document warns that NO federal response should be expected within the nearest 24 to 72 hours. In Hawaii, the citizens are advised to stock at least 10 days' worth of food.

I am not an American. But I am a child of the Cold War. I remember the fear. These days they still run the emergency warning loudspeaker signal once a year, but the bunkers are gone - there is nowhere to run. Not that we ever had much of a system. I remember being told by a teacher, when I was a kind, that the entire are and its civil defence possessed a grand total of two ABC suits. He had one of them; his job was to go out there and count bodies. 30 years later there still are about two ABC suits in town. I have them, and they are my private property. Where the nearest remaining civil defense unit is today, I do not know.

I don't want to maximise fear and panic. In all likelihood the North Korean situation will blow over. The world has seen so many dire threats vaporize before. But there is an ill wind blowing these days. At least considering our what-if options seems wise.

[Oniya]

Not that we ever had much of a system. I remember being told by a teacher, when I was a kind, that the entire are and its civil defence possessed a grand total of two ABC suits. He had one of them; his job was to go out there and count bodies. 30 years later there still are about two ABC suits in town. I have them, and they are my private property. Where the nearest remaining civil defense unit is today, I do not know.

We were told to duck under our desks - as if sheet metal and particle board were going to protect you from anything, much less a bomb drop.

[Captain Maltese]

We were told to duck under our desks - as if sheet metal and particle board were going to protect you from anything, much less a bomb drop.

The desk is not entirely foolish mind you; it will protect a little from window glass shards, and if the roof starts disintegrating - and it WILL, the lower chalk plates and the metal supporters at least - you get a little protection from that too. But I would rather run to the nearest cellar.

When I was in the army, in 1988, we were given two brushes. One black for our boots, and one blue. The blue was the 'atomic' one. Once the blast of the atomic bomb had passed and returned, we were supposed to calmly stand up and brush the nuclear dust off our uniforms. Good as new!

[Captain Maltese]

Continuing on the Puerto Rico case. Some news, at least of yesterday:
- the military has arrived and are working to restore electricity.
- the roads are slowly becoming accessible again.
- the mayor of the capital San Juan has made a passionate plea for supplies. I am not sure of the date of this speech.

Since there are political elements to this story I want to make a couple of personal things clear. I am a Norwegian and I live in Norway. But I cherish USA, I cherish Americans; we have a lot in common on many levels and most of my friends live there. Yet, if I was forcibly turned into an American citizen, sent through a time machine and pushed kicking and screaming into a voting booth during the last election, my vote would be blank. I see good things and good people in both parties but I am not a fan of either and I did not like any of the presidential candidates. I have no political interest in criticizing or piling blame on anyone. If I go into the actions of Trump, Obama, Bush II, Clinton or Bush I it is because I see it as relevant.

Another thing, before I delve into Puerto Rico and its crisis management. Politicians must be held responsible for initiating, funding and overseeing the systems that protect and support the the citizens of the country they are part of. But the systems themselves are - or are supposed to be - built up not by politicians, but by professional administrators. By specialists, bureaucrats and by the experiences of the field staff. Once a disaster strikes and the system is needed, it should not matter which political party is currently in charge. The plans should already have been written and tested, the stores should be full, the trucks should be ready to drive out. And of course, this is how things should be locally as well a nationally. The politicians of the state, county or municipality has no less obligation to keep their own citizens safe though good and tested plans.

At the suggestion of Dark Raven and Vekseid's comments, I have looked into Puerto Rico's (PR in short)politics and administration. Wikipedia is my friend for this.
Geographically: Caribbean island
History: booty taken from Spain as part of the end of the US-Spanish war in 1898
Sovereignty: unincorporated territory of the United States. All citizens are natural-born US citizens. As the island is not a state or part of the state, citizens cannot vote in US elections.
Population: 3.4 millions (as of 2016). By comparison Norway has 5 million citizens.
Government: The island has a governor, elected by the local citizens.
Economy: current debt is by August 2017 above 72 billion USD, and the island is struggling to cover payments. The administration has filed for restructuring. The poverty rate, which I understand to be the percentage of the population living in poverty, is at 45%.
International politics: The UN have been pushing for an end to what they call colonial rule over the island, for many decades.
Main politics: Quoting Wikipedia directly: "Puerto Rico has 8 senatorial districts, 40 representative districts and 78 municipalities. It has a republican form of government with separation of powers subject to the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United States.[140][141] Its current powers are all delegated by the United States Congress and lack full protection under the United States Constitution.[142] Puerto Rico's head of state is the President of the United States."
Leadership: Current governor is Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevare, who with his party works to make PR a US state. He is considered a centrist. His education is solid, he has a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, but he is also the son of a former governor.
Administration: There are no first-order administrative divisions. The municipalities are the key governing structure, each divided further into barrios with separate mayors.
Crime: overall crime rate is low. Most violence appear to be between drug cartels.
Military: PR has a national guard, modeled on the US national guard. The quotes for this part-time unit ranges from 7200 to 8900. I have not heard mention yet of them being deployed in this emergency, and obviously they should have been, so I wonder what the reality of this force is. In addition to the locals, USA have had a long number of small and big military installation on this and related nearby mini-islands. Again I have problems estimating what are left of them and who it would be natural to call on.
Infrastructure: Roads, bus services, and a metro system I am not sure of the range of. Three international airports, nine ports. There is a single, government owned, power company for the whole island. Lots of media including tv stations, cable tv, internet and radio.
Health: surprisingly good coverage of public services; many hospitals and treatment plans. Their biggest problem is that many doctors emigrate to the US mainland because this greatly increases their potential income - the usual problem in lower income countries.

All in all I see a modern 'country' in Puerto Rico. Debt and lower incomes are serious issues but most of Latin America would be joyous to be doing this well. If I am going to pinpoint one reason for them being in deep dodo right now I am picking the decentralized nature of their administration: A town mayor will not be planning for electricity plant problems, or keeping the roads open, beyond his town limits. The top guys will have been fighting the usual stabbetystab on which municipality gets the most money for social costs etc. But I just can't see anyone charged with the nationwide problems. Defense? The Americans will take care of that. Keeping the wheels running on a daily basis? The Mayors, because it is in their direct interest. But once a problem gets big enough to cross the local borders, noone are there to deal with it. Maybe this current emergency's problems are as simple as that.

[Captain Maltese]

Vekseid has made a thread about Puerto Rico's post-hurricane issues.

As mentioned earlier, the mayor of the capital San Juan made a passionate plea for help the other day. It has resulted in a media argument between her and Trump which is helpful only in that it keeps attention on the issue. I find some of her claims interesting. For instance, she claims that the FEMA lets those afflicted ask for help - on a web page. On an island where many has not had access to electricity for their computers and their cell phones for nine days. Is this true? Are there no other ways to pass the word? Also she claims that FEMA officials are there, asking what they can do for her city, what they need, giving her forms to fill. There are almost 300.000 people in San Juan alone and they have no food, water, electricity, medicines - and the FEMA don't see what they need to do?

On another matter. To the best of my knowledge, Trump - the president of Puerto Rico - has not visited the island yet nor planned a visit. I am in two minds about this and leaning a little on past events in Norway too. Having the head of state visit an area of emergency has no practical value, and the cost is enormous. And the civilian airports are out of work - although the local US military ones are probably fine. But it does have moral value, showing the locals they have not been forgotten. So worldwide, national leaders normally do swoop in.

During the 2005 flooding of Louisiana, FEMA was revealed to have a leader, appointed by his personal friend Bush II, whose entire prior management turned out to be a horse riding school for girls. Since 2003, FEMA has been sorting under the Department Of Homeland Safety. I skimmed through their website, and Wikipedias, but could not find how many people work there now. The 2017 budget is however 14 billion USD. If you guys can tell me who is actually in charge and how effective the organization is, I would be quite interested.

One more thing. Trump claimed that there are now 10.000 federal workers on Puerto Rico. Who do they sort under; are they the already present stationed military personnel which would mean they are mostly part time national guards, or all newly arrived helping personnel?

[SINless]

https://www.fema.gov/leadership

[Captain Maltese]

https://www.fema.gov/leadership

Interesting! So the chief has been there since this June and his assistant since the last two weeks? Does this mean they were appointed as part of the presidential change of guards, or is it just a coincidence? If we disregard the Puerto Rico issue, how have they been handling the other hurricanes, floods and fires on their shift?

I know that discussing FEMA is more than a few notches above packing our bug out bags. But regardless of what country we live in, the emergency response structure greatly affects our own options for what we can and should do of personal preparations. Some can always count on being safely evacuated if they want to be. Others cannot.

[Captain Maltese]

Nicely timed, I found a Fox news interview from today with FEMA director Brock Long. He claims that, regarding Puerto Rico:
- 700 out of 1100 gas stations has petroleum available again
- 11 major highways (out of X) are open for traffic again
- 300 pharmacies are open
- only 16 people are dead, as compared to 1800 during hurricane Katrina in 2005
- a third of telecommunications are now up and running. He did not specify further,
- the military have been focusing on getting electricity back up, saying "there will be multiple months before the grid is up and running again".

I am not the best judge of people. And I know the scene was carefully set for the interview, with his FEMA shirt instead of a suit and a backdrop showing a video from an operations room he was not in. We all know where we have Fox News. None the less I felt he seemed to know what he was talking about, and careful not to get political even though the interviewer tried to nudge him there.

[Oniya]

The official FEMA site about Maria is probably a better place to analyze their stats than whatever talking heads choose to show on Fox News.  This is where you'll find the official federal updates.

[Captain Maltese]

I checked out the FEMA page again. Puerto Rico has completely vanished from my country's news, which isn't odd. According to the FEMA status, this is the current situation (my comments in black):
- hospitals are all running again, and the USN Comfort medical ship is assisting as needed.
- airports and ports are fully operational again
- 60% of population has drinking water; the rest is getting water supplied.
- 75% of grocery stores are open again.
- 392 miles of Puerto Rico's 5,073 miles of roads are open, allowing for passage through the outer ring of the island. Um, they have some work left there.
- 60% of waste water treatment plants are working on generator power in Puerto Rico. It does not detail whether this means the other 40% are not working at all, or working on normal power.
- San Juan financial district is back on the electrical grid -- 15% of customers have electricity. I can't find further information on this. Is it 15% in San Juan, or 15% of Puerto Rico?

Some stuff I have not found information on at all as yet, is what impact the hurricane has had on crime levels. Are police operational? What tasks do the PR National Guard perform in this situation? Are there reports of plundering, black market sales, are there reports of increased violence? I don't really expect FEMA to report this kind of stuff but I don't know where else to go for information.

[Captain Maltese]

I located an NBC newsstory from the 8th October. It claims that 85% of Puerto Ricans still have no power 19 days after the hurricane (note previous post), and that the death count is now 39. It was 16 just a few days ago? Also, FEMA states that although they provide food and water to the stricken municipalities the local distribution is up to the mayors and their administrations. In the municipalities that were struck hard enough to leave them without roads or means of transportation, that one is going to be a challenge. FEMA do however visit the municipalities to help citizens fill in paper forms to apply for help.

We are not in Puerto Rico. But personally I would be in trouble by now if power was still out. I'd still have food and warmth because I have stores of food and firewood. But if the stores did not have electricity and online access I would not be able to shop food or fuel or meds with my bank card, nor would the ATM machines work - they only keep cash reserves for a couple of normal days anyway and with an impending hurricane the 'out of cash' sign would come up pretty soon. I would have no money available - it's not as if the physical banks keep cash on hand any more. Turns out we don't need to worry about the actual apocalypse. Broken infrastructure is clearly challenging enough.