Wise city survivors had best look at their own situations now, before the crisis. What essentials to your life do your central authorities provide? Can they arbitrarily and capriciously cut you off, forcing you into becoming a ward of the state?
Forms of government dependence are not all obvious and may vary in priority according to a person’s philosophy Service may vary from city to city, and from country to country. In Britain and Canada, for example, citizens must go hat in hand to the bureaucracy for permission to have a vasectomy; a hernia repair, or knee surgery A close friend flew his mother to the United States for a hip replacement because she was too old to receive one in Canada! Bypass surgery is not done in Cuba past the age of 50 because recipients do not have sufficient working life left to give to the state. The United States is headed in that direction. More distressing, some people really believe this is a good thing!
In Beirut, shortly after the very bleak days, private mail courier services sprang up. Again, we must keep our eye on the ball. Establishment of private medical care might be very important. But is mail delivery on our list of absolutes required to sustain life?
On one occasion a woman told my daughter, only half in jest, that she could not envision life without her daily soaps (low-grade melodramatic entertainment). Possession of a functional TV cable, satellite dish, or computer connection might possibly be a requirement for her life. That is certainly not a judgment I wish to make.
Like any other survivors, city survivors must start planning now if they hope to provide their own services. It’s very important to note that, on close inspection, we often find many of these services are provided by central authorities. Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl in World War II Holland, almost survived. She wrote that at times a chronic lack of sewage/waste disposal actually threatened their sanity, security, and immediate health.
Personal responsibility and self-reliance require great attention to detail. An unlicensed private nursery in Salem, Oregon, for example, was discovered and summarily shuttered when authorities were tipped off to its existence by the quantity of disposable diapers found in their trash. This is not city survival, but a down-home example of the length to which bureaucrats will go to maintain their control.
My list of vital services that may be controlled by the government and for which city survivors should make other arrangements includes the following:
• Sewage systems
• Garbage collection and disposal
• Communications including radio, television, phone, mail, and Internet access
• Fuel
• Medical services
• Utilities such as gas and electric power
• Transportation
• Water
• Food
• Self-defense/security
• Shelter
Of these, only food, water, shelter, and self-defense are definitely on the list of must-haves needed to survive. Others may also be there, depending on one’s personal circumstance. My advice is to never, never rely on people who don’t give a damn—such as government officials—for something really important.
Chapter 4
Water
“Successful city survivors will have to drink lots of brown and green water.”
After hearing this a second and third time from survivors of Berlin and Beirut, it was obvious that this was going to be a very nasty chapter.
It’s akin to the social structure in socialistic economies. Everyone is equal, but some comrades are more equal than all the others. Supplies of water are like that! All absolute elements of survival will lead to death when denied, but depending on weather, workload, and physical condition of the survivor, water is the most immediate. Without it you die quickly and cruelly.
The Rule of Threes is an iron rule in the case of city survivors and water.
But there is great cause for hope. In a very few cases, water continues to run from the pipe. It may not be usable without further treatment, but it is something to work with. For purposes of this chapter, though, tap water is not a consideration. Few experienced been there, done that city survivors mention using it.
It isn’t an accident of history that many cities in the world were built around natural waterways. Easier transportation using boats and barges in the early days led to that. Cities grew around profitable commerce. Securing adequate potable water may simply be a matter of laying in securely covered, easily filled and cleaned plastic buckets, a carrying yoke, filter racks, purification chemicals, and larger retreat-type storage tanks to be used to haul, treat, and store water from rivers and ponds running through or lying around our cities.
In real life it is seldom that easy. Survival is never particularly easy or convenient. It is not a game for lazy folks who cannot or will not plan ahead.
COLLECTING WATER
Getting to and from a pond, canal, swamp, lake, stream, spring, or any other natural water source may be dangerous. It may not be practical or even possible. Many city survivors recall hauling water over as much as 3 miles one way once a day. Figure that on your return trip, weighed down with water, it’ll take you twice as long to cover the same ground. On the return haul, slow-moving, heavily laden water carriers may fall under observation, suspicion, and perhaps enemy fire. Great care and extreme caution are definitely in order.
Cities, especially the shot-up variety, provide great opportunity for cover and concealment. At times, large numbers of people will be milling about, providing even greater confusion. This can be a type of cover and concealment itself. City survivors obligated to haul water from great distances had best pick their route and an emergency alternative, as well as time of day with care, lest they compromise themselves and all the others at the retreat. World War II city survivors in occupied countries were in constant danger of the Gestapo and many instances are on record of food or water gatherers simply disappearing. Like smoke in the wind, no trace was ever seen of them again.
How to keep out of enemy clutches? Here are some suggestions from our been there, done that folks: Plan to leave the retreat at a time of the day when surrounding activity is minimal. Travel by a route that does not cross enemy lines and is least likely to lead to exposure, even if this is a very long, circuitous route. Leave the retreat by a route hidden from view.
Humans can walk at a rate of from 3 to 4 miles an hour. Send two water carriers out together, allowing switching of the heavy return load while still maintaining maximum speed and alertness. When not carrying, the other should act as a slightly forward lookout. Survival is about not being lazy or inattentive to details. Don’t pick the shortest route unless it is also safe. Always pick the safest route. At the first sign of danger, abandon hauling equipment to run off and hide.
Undertake haulage in 4- to 5-gallon covered cans balanced on a shoulder pole assembly. Carrying heavy buckets long distances over rough terrain by using only hands and arms is not practical.
Precipitation
Collecting rain and its close cousins, snow and ice, is another good, practical, city-survival water-gathering technique. One observer said that he saw it often in Beirut and even in Karachi, Pakistan. I have personally observed many rainwater collection systems in several Yugoslavian cities.