He doubted that would happen. He wasn’t aware of any creek or pond nearby.
“You need to start rationing water and food now. This neighborhood has enough people in it to either trade with each other, or simply band together and work as one big team. We have a doctor here. You never know when you or families may need one. Put him in charge of health and accidents. Pitch in to give him some supplies. I doubt the hospitals are open.”
Jake looked around at the crowd, trying to remember what everyone else did for a living. He felt confident there were skills here that could help, but he just couldn’t remember them right now. If this kept on though, they’d discover who could do what eventually. Until then, everyone just needed to pitch in.
“You’ve got strong men and boys. Some can do the latrine digging and someone’s gonna have to re-cover them up when they get too full and dig another. Going to need a lot of cooks for this many people, too, if you band together as a community, which I think you should if the power is not on in a week.
If that happens, y’all need to designate one family that you trust to hold and inventory all the food. Someone else can work with them to plan meals for the community. Help each other. Form teams. Food team to cook. Laundry team. Firewood chopping team. Water treatment and carry team—you can use pool shock or chlorine to treat water for drinking or cooking with. Or Bleach. Or you can boil it.
If you all work together and share the food and water, I’d make it a rule that if you don’t work, you don’t eat. Because you’re going to find there’s work to do all the time. Unless you’re physically unable to work at all. And the doctor needs to be the final word on that. I think most everyone can do something, though. Also, one of the most important things that needs to be done right now is to designate a security team. If all hell is breaking loose in town, it’ll be coming this way soon. Y’all asked for my opinion and I’m going to tell you, Tucker is your guy for that. Not only is he a martial arts specialist, but he’s smart, he knows how to shoot and fight, and he has his own guns. Let him pick his own team. Let him train them. If you want to keep what food you have, and keep this community safe, then give all your guns and ammo to the team to protect you.
If the power comes back on, everyone agrees to give it all back and go back to their regular lives. I truly hope it goes that way soon. Until then, maybe put someone in charge of all the teams. Or put together a board to share that responsibility, a small group that can vote on big issues.”
Curt stepped up in front of the crowd. “As the HOA president, I’ll be in charge. I’ll be sending the secretary and a team of a few people with carts to collect all the food to bring to one location.”
The group went wild and tempers flared again.
Jake cleared his throat and waved them silent. “With all due respect, Curt. This isn’t an HOA situation. This is a real-life situation. If you’re put in charge, I think you should be voted into that position fairly. In a democratic way. Every house gets one vote.”
Curt grit his teeth and glared at first Jake, and then Tucker. “Look how that worked out for our country, huh?”
Tucker tried to hide a grin. Curt hated President Trump, and several of the guys had tortured him by sneaking Trump for President signs in his yard at night for a solid year before Trump was elected. Jake had been a part of it; all in good fun.
Someone in the crowd yelled out, “I think Jake should be in charge.”
Several people audibly agreed.
Jake shook his head. “Thank you, but I can’t. My wife isn’t home. She’s out of town. When she comes home, she’ll be going to her sister’s house first. That’s where I’m headed later. I may be back soon, but I don’t want that responsibility. There’s people here who are probably more than qualified to manage everything. I’d suggest you all sit down and decide what teams you need. Then take volunteers. Have the volunteers sign up and list any experience they have. If you’ve got a stay-at-home mom who’s volunteered in the school cafeteria, or maybe even a caterer, they’ve got experience cooking for crowds. And someone here might be over inventory at their company. They’d be your food and supply manager. Any law enforcement here? Retired military? They’d be an asset to the security team. Use your assets.”
“Any other advice?” Tucker asked.
Jake looked up into the air, thinking. “Empty your freezers and refrigerators now. First thing. Cook all the meat before it goes bad. You can cook it on the grill or over a fire, or some people might have camp-stoves. Cook it to eat just what you need. For the rest, you can smoke it, or dehydrate it to make jerky that will keep longer. You can also salt the pork and fish if you have enough salt—that’ll keep your meat good for a really long time, and don’t forget to use the salt you have on hand from your water softener systems.”
He looked around the group for the few elderly couples that lived there. They didn’t socialize much but they were old enough that they might know a few things about long-term food preparation from watching their parents or grandparents.
“There’s hunters in here, and elderly, which probably know how to salt meat for keeping long-term. Salt as much as you can to save it in case of hard times. Ration it. If you have vegetables that are going to go bad, collect all the canning jars you can find from the neighborhood. You’ll need lids and rings too. The meat can also be canned but it needs to be pressure-canned. If you have someone who knows how to safely ‘can’ the food for long-term storage, you can put all that up for later, just in case. Try to save the seeds from your veggies and produce if they’re heirloom to plant for more food. No one knows how long this will last. If you’re not sure what seeds to save, save them all. Nominate a garden specialist and have them take a look at what you got.
If this keeps on, pick one good community gathering spot. Somewhere that has shade and plenty of space, and maybe near one of the swimming pools. Drag as many tables and chairs there as you can. Make it your community center. You’ll probably need three fires going all the time. Have someone rig some racks to hang the pots. One fire to constantly boil water for cooking and drinking. One fire for actually cooking over, and one fire for a laundry pot or hot water for sponge-baths for the kids.”
A moan rolled through the crowd as people realized showers or full baths with hot water would be rare and a good bit of trouble for the near future.
Jake was tapped out. He couldn’t think of anything else to suggest.
“I’ve got to roll. I want to see my wife, and I aim to be there before she is. I wish you all luck and please, don’t fight each other anymore. Act like grown-ups, at least in front of the kids.”
The next ten minutes was filled with the families that considered Jake and Gabby friends saying good bye and good luck to him. Soon, several people had sat down in a large circle, surrounded by the other neighbors standing behind them, and were writing down ideas that were being thrown at them for the different teams. Everyone seemed to be getting along fine.
So far.
Jake was ready to go.
Tucker shook his hand. “Thanks, man. That was really helpful. I think we just needed someone everyone would listen to, to settle things down and get us started with a plan. I know there’s a lot of people who know this stuff but they’re afraid to speak up, or if they do speak up, Curt is going to argue with them. I’m glad you put him in his place.”
Jake shrugged. “I wasn’t trying to do that. I was just stating a fact. This isn’t HOA business. First step for y’all is going to be to nominate someone to be in charge and vote on that. After that, everything’s on that guy. Or lady. Or board, I guess. Now, can I get that four-wheeler?”