Oklahoma City Mutual Aid

SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM

• Perfect Storm
  • Economic irrationality
  • Peak Energy
  • Climate instability
• How could this happen?
  • Large weather disasters
  • Economic meltdown
  • Terrorist attacks
  • EMP
  • Climate disaster (long-term changes as opposed to discrete weather disaster events like a particular hurricane or tornado)
  • Resource exhaustion (peak oil, peak energy in general)
• Our purpose is to decide what it would take for an urban area like the OKC Metropolitan Statistical Area, with 1.1 million people in it, to survive a sudden collapse of our food and energy systems.
• Worst case scenario (except for nuke explosion)
  • No fossil fuels or other internal combustion available,
  • No electricity, not from the grid, not from small generators, not from batteries,
  • total electronic telecommunication failure - no radio, no TV, no cable, no internet, no "any communications/media that require electricity"
  • Complete collapse of the just-in-time inventory system,
  • Closure of the banking system, no credit cards, checks can't clear, funds can't be withdrawn.
  • Disappearance of the internet.
• Getting there the firstest with the mostest is critical to a positive response. Government likely to be in disarray, big danger is toxic/authoritarian/scapegoating responses will emerge..
• Some people will relocate (to family or friends in rural areas). This should be encouraged.
• Likely to be refugees also headed our way.

WATER

• In the absence of grid-distributed power, OKC Water estimates they could supply 50% of the average daily domestic water consumption with small gasoline and diesel pumps. Unanswered question: how much fuel would be on hand for these devices? What about water purification? Sewer system?.
• Rainwater harvesting
• Shallow wells
• Slow-sand filters
• Purification issues

FOOD

• Without regular supply, the area would be out of food very quickly. (Note the experience of hurricane areas where people run out of food apparently almost immediately.)
• Go over food scenarios.
• Basic ration of 2 lbs flour/day and 2 lbs dry soybeans per week, for 1.1 million people, must be hauled from grain elevators within 60 mile or so radius.
• biodiesel from cotton seed for diesel fuel for hauling food? (Cotton Seed Producers Oil Mill is close to downtown OKC.)
• Alcohol fuel for transportation?
• Bicycle carts capable of hauling 250 lbs each?
• Urban gardening
  • Containers/gardens on pavement such as sidewalks and streets.
  • Seed sources include:
    • Seeds from vegetables in stores, like pumpkins, winter squash.
    • Dried peas and beans.
    • Potatoes, sweet potatoes
    • Existing seed stocks
• Bring animals from rural areas into the city with cattle/hog drives.
• Import lots of chickens from the rural areas.
• Every yard a garden.
• Plant public spaces like parks and street medians.
• Container growing on sidewalks and streets
• Community kitchens and baking ovens
• Raising fish in barrels
• Compost humanure
• Collect urine for fertilizer.
• Aquaponics in solar sun porches
• Cold frames and other season extending devices.
• Other meat animals
  • Goats
  • Fish culture
  • Guinea pigs
  • Rabbits
• Why would farmers want to supply grain and beans to city populations?
  • Avoid wholesale evacuation of cities into the countryside.
  • Trade/barter
  • Help in time of need

SHELTER

• Combine households? The extended family, by birth or adoption or convenience or necessity, will make a big come-back.
• More hands will be needed for everything, plus building materials.
• On average, maybe 3 households link together as one.
• Each house needs:
  • Water harvesting structures.
  • Passive solar.
  • Solar hot water.
  • Greenhouse/season extending devices.

ENERGY

• Big risk of deforestation, because wood is the easiest non-fossil-fuel fuel..
• Home methane generation from human waste for cooking gas.
• Alcohol fuel for transportation, maybe some biodiesel.
• Biodiesel is iffy because oils will be in great shortage and in demand for cooking, access depends on where Cottonseed oil coop is in its annual production cycle when the crash occurs.
• Passive solar for winter heat.
• Extra insulation.
• If three households become one, scavenge materials from two houses to retrofit one.
• Solar cooking
• Expedient but efficient wood stoves (e.g. the rocket stove)

HUMAN WASTE AND TRASH DISPOSAL

• There is none in this scenario. Everything will have a use or be re-used/recycled on site or in neighborhoods, or sold through informal markets.

MEDICAL CARE AND PUBLIC HEALTH

• Authorities will raise a big stink about composting humanure.
• Many medically fragile people will die quickly.
• Hospitals and nursing homes would have to be evacuated if/when their generators fail.
• New medical practices located in neighborhoods, nurses/midwives empowered..
• Epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder?
• Epidemic disease (water born diseases in particular will be a big problem).
• Addiction recovery issues?

COMMUNITY

• Governance
  • Neighborhood councils.
  • Elected by all residents.
• Security
• Neighborhood patrols.
• Civil Society

MITIGATION STRATEGIES

• Community organization
• Pre-planned strategies for collapse situations.
• Household preparations
• Super-insulation
• Insulated window shutters
• Slow sand filters
• Food storage
• Edible landscaping
• Grain grinder
• Wood stoves
• Solar hot water
• Passive solar
• Tools for production (alcohol stills, for example)

MUTUAL AID

• Info banks for research
• Pre-printed and pre-positioned literature in neighborhoods describing strategies/tactics/info/tools to meet the new situation.
• Get there the firstest with the mostest.
• No one needs the permission of the government to acquire food or supply other necessities.

PERFECT STORM

• Economic Irrationality
• Climate
• Energy

WATER

• OKC water can supply 50% of winter domestic demand without grid power.
• Conserve
• Oklahoma River
• Lakes
• Rain
• Wells
• Ponds

FOOD SOURCES

• Gardens
• Fruit and nut trees
• Grain elevators in rural areas (wheat and soybeans, some oats, barley)
• Feed mills
• Livestock - feedlots, mother cow herd, stocker cattle, pigs, sheep
• Rabbits, squirrels, pets
• Insects
• Weeds
• Food storage
• Market gardens
• Mushrooms
• Fish
• Cotton seed oil mills

SHELTER

Necessary retrofits and issues

• Water harvesting structures
• Food production
• Insulation
• Passive solar
• Wood stoves
• Sleeping issues
• Cooking areas
• Ventilation
• Human waste
• Cellars
• Kids
• Elderly
• community
• Lighting
• Hygiene issues
• Hand washing
• Safety/Security
• Fire
• If 3 households moved in together, they could scavenge materials from 2 houses to fix up one central living house.
• If financial system has collapsed, mortgages will be meaningless.

ENERGY (General Ideas)

• Wood/biomass/cow chips
• Solar
• Wind
• Hydro
• Biodiesel
• Alcohol
• Human/animal traction
• Methane
• Producer Wood Gas
• Propane
• Wind alternators
• Bike generating
• Compost
• Geo-thermal
• Conservation

MEDICAL CARE/PUBLIC HEALTH

• Natural/folk medicine
• Empower nurses, EMTs, physicians assistants, midwives
• Breast feed babies for much longer periods
• More manual labor
• Medically fragile at grave risk
• Death/dying ministries, urban graveyards (parking lots of churches?)
• Addiction issues
• Suicide increase
• Post traumatic stress disorder
• Cats and small dogs for rat control
• Pressure cooker = autoclave
• Ultraviolet disinfection
• Cloth pads/menstrual cups
• Natural family planning
• Water borne illness danger
• Epidemic disease
• Secure food storage
• Some positive aspects (more work + less fat + less sugar = less obesity, less heart disease, less type 2 diabetes)

HUMANURE AND TRASH

• This scenario has no trash, except maybe disposable diapers
• Reuse, recycle, repair, reinvent
• Compost humanure
• Collect urine separately and use as liquid fertilizer (1 part urine to 10 parts water)
• Moldering toilets
• Methane generatoin

COMMUNITY

• Security
• Neighborhood Patrol
• Red-Green-Yellow flags on houses -
  • red = NEED HELP;
  • green = ALL OK HERE;
  • yellow = HAVE RESOURCES OR EXPERTISE TO SHARE
• Noisemakers - whistles, bells, gongs
• Buddy system
• Devolve to new urban villages based on existing neighborhoods
• New urban villages promote solidarity, honor, NO ANONYMITY
• Build community now

MITIGATION

• Community organizing
  • Seed bank
• Support local farmers
• Preserve railroads and tracks
• Household work
  • Superinsulate
  • Water harvesting
  • Edible landscaping
  • Slow sand filters
  • Food storage
  • Useful equipment
  • Passive solar
  • Tools for production
  • Window shutters
  • Information
  • First aid supplies
  • Medicinal gardens
  • Learn to garden