Request for Information (RFI) – Weekly SITREP
I am going to make this a weekly post so that we can use this as a place to make any reports on unusual activity or localized hotspots of trouble. We did this a few times during COVID (here, here, here, and here) but I figured that, as our conditions continue to degrade around the country, it would be useful to bring this back as a regularly recurring topic of discussion.
Post your reports in the comments below.
REPORT DATE
General Location:
Food Price / Shortages:
Fuel Prices / Shortages:
Unusual Military Movement:
Civil Unrest / Crime:
Interesting Local News / Events:
Public Service Interruptions:
Changes in Patterns of Life:
Any additional observations or comments:
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About the Author: Patriotman
Patriotman currently ekes out a survivalist lifestyle in a suburban northeastern state as best as he can. He has varied experience in political science, public policy, biological sciences, and higher education. Proudly Catholic and an Eagle Scout, he has no military experience and thus offers a relatable perspective for the average suburban prepper who is preparing for troubled times on the horizon with less than ideal teams and in less than ideal locations.
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GUNS N GEAR
General Location: SW Missouri Ozarks
Food Price / Shortages: There seem to be more empty spaces in the shelves / a longer delay in restocking shelves at the local store.
Fuel Prices / Shortages: 3:69/gal for diesel.
Unusual Military Movement:None noted.
Civil Unrest / Crime: Nothing outside of the normal here.
Interesting Local News / Events: Nothing to note
Public Service Interruptions: No.
Changes in Patterns of Life: No.
Any additional observations or comments: This area is still mostly insulated from the rest of the country. It’s not uncommon for people to leave their car running with the AC on while grocery shopping, or having dinner somewhere; however at the local college I have begun to notice the standard issue college leftist. I suspect that the days of high trust in town will be coming to an end soon.
REPORT DATE 1 May
General Location: Upper New England
Food Price / Shortages: Elevated/ None
Fuel Prices / Shortages: Elevated, $3.35- $3.60 Gal Reg /None
Unusual Military Movement: Mil Airlift traffic trans Atlantic seems to have tapered off again.
Civil Unrest / Crime:
– Property crimes and petty civil infractions consistent with previous reports.
– The professional Left wing agitators who were very active in regional protests since the Gaza War started seem to be staying out of the current college campus unrest. For that matter, New England Colleges north of Boston have been very quiet in this respect. The reasons for this lack of activity are unknown.
– The new Maine 3 day gun purchase waiting period and Red Flag legislation have become law. The bump stock ban was vetoed. This is likely to cost many Gun stores business as Mainers have another good reason to drive to New Hampshire to make a sales tax free purchase.
-Raids on massive illegal CHICOM Cannibus operations in rural properties continue.
Interesting Local News / Events:
Public Service Interruptions: None
Changes in Patterns of Life: None
Any additional observations or comments:
General Location: Tristate Region of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin
Food Price / Shortages: Still up, no real noticeable shortages, plenty of milk at 3.69/gal for 2%; Ground Beef about $6/lb
Fuel Prices / Shortages: 87 octane 3.19 to 3.49/gal; add a buck for diesel.
Unusual Military Movement: Normal
Civil Unrest / Crime: Crime is up, no unrest
Interesting Local News / Events:
Public Service Interruptions: Everything normal
Changes in Patterns of Life: Nothing to report
Any additional observations or comments: No major crazy events at the smaller U. of Wisc. campuses. UW-Madison different story, as my one old professor would say, UW-Madison is called Big Red for a reason, its not because the school colors are cardinal and white.
REPORT DATE May 1, 2024
General Location: central NC
Food Price / Shortages: higher prices for most food products; harder to find non-GMO and some organics, at higher prices, of course across the board. Store bought veggies and fruits don’t last as long in refrigerator or out on counter as before. Related is much higher prices for buying garden plants from local stores/nurseries, approaching $5/plant now. Outrageous. Found a local retired couple selling their own small greenhouse grown veg/herb/flower plants for .50/plant and going back for more and bringing a close friend or two who gardens. Win-Win for both…
Fuel Prices / Shortages: prices for regular/ethanol now range in our area from $3.259 to $3.699. Red diesel for the farm tractor still affordable for now.
Unusual Military Movement: Occasional short convoys of weekend warriors coming to/from Ft. Liberty (Bragg) or nearby. Usual military Apache, Blackhawk, Osprey or other flyovers but nothing heavy.
Civil Unrest / Crime: Increase in shootings, stabbings reported in larger cities surrounding us in central NC, and also the national news of the four LEOs killed and four more shot/injured in US Marshal’s warrant service in Charlotte two days ago.
Interesting Local News / Events: Continued pro-Palestinian protests and pro-Israeli counter protests at local UNC-CH campus, with some pepper spray and arrests. Protestors’ camp routed in early morning a couple days ago on UNC campus, no buildings taken over as yet.
Public Service Interruptions: usual Duke Energy Progress outages here in boonies as they rebuild/rewire their powerlines for heavier capacity and the coming rate increases. We are at the end of a long electric service line and we get outages from 2 hrs. to 1 day and longer several times a year.
Changes in Patterns of Life: Enlarging our rural garden raised beds and putting in fencing to deter deer and other predators. We are locking our farm gate more often at night unless circumstances dictate otherwise. We keep our farm implements out of sight and locked up as necessary now. Finally got a standby generator installed in January after 25 yrs. to help with the outages, esp. when summer rolls around. Getting to know our neighbors in countryside here better and trying to be better neighbors and invite to church when they are receptive.
Any additional observations or comments: Local sheriff and PDs have gone encrypted in our county though we can still hear fire and ems and surrounding counties LEOs and more on digital scanner and when traveling. Listening around the edges is more important than ever. Also carry scanner when traveling our usual routes around NC to avoid hazards and blockages.
General Location: Travel through 4 upper midwestern states – Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin
Food Price / Shortages: We live remote and take advantage of trips to the “big city” to buy staples at lower prices. We were shocked to see prices in the big city are just as high. We also noted the shelf space for staples and our regular purchases seem to be shrinking – except in the booze section.
Fuel Prices / Shortages: Super unleaded prices ranged from $2.959 to $3.399 – even within the same metro area. Could not discern a pattern.
Unusual Military Movement: None noted.
Civil Unrest / Crime: We stay in the same hotels as we travel. We’ve noted they are now having “residents” instead of guests and this seems to be reflected in cleanliness, lack of repairs/upkeep. Had police at the hotel the last day of our trip.
In the larger metro area, we noted more stores had inventory locked up and those that had before had added more types of items to their locked up inventory.
Local reservation now has 2 black helicopters.
Interesting Local News / Events: Just missed the tornado in Nebraska on Friday. I want to recognize the people in Elkhorn Nebraska for self-organizing their clean-up and support for the displaced and responders. There were private citizens lined up in pickups and trucks to haul downed trees and branches for those affected. Some interviewed just said it was the right thing to do. I saw NO DEMANDS for government to help – although the state governors did visit the damage and provide a response.
Public Service Interruptions: We have been suffering numerous daily disruptions in radio and TV signals in our remote location. I am trying to see if there is a pattern in relation to sun activity. We have noticed the one Fox News show we watch – The Five – seems to freeze up daily.
Changes in Patterns of Life: This trip was for a funeral and we had been traveling every 3 months to visit this relative. With her passing, these trips are over. We are always ready to get back to the woods on these trips, but our angst began at the end of the driveway when we left. Not planning on any major travel in the future. Interestingly I had a conversation with a very liberal educator who is moving his family to rural Nebraska in the near future. Homesteader or hippy lifestyle seems to be a trend.
Any additional observations or comments: One overall observation was the lack of workers. Many businesses closed, reducing hours, reducing services, or providing poor service because they lack workers.
The lack of construction workers in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota is most certainly evident. Every contractor and engineering firm I know of is short staff for infrastructure work and maintenance.
AO: southern greece
fuel prices: slightly higher in recent weeks , gasoline EUR 2.10-2.40/liter, diesel 1.80-1.95/l , kerosene EUR 60/18liter can, propane.lpg EUR33 15 kilo refill.
shortages etc: nothing seems to have changed in the past month or two on this front. prices tick up a few percent on various items, seems about the next time one buys something it’s always a few cents higher than the last time. availability seems typical.
observations: in GR the only firearms that are typically allowed are shotguns (smoothbores only, no rifled slug guns either), for which one must still go through an onerous process both to initially acquire, but also to renew the ‘ownership license’ (per weapon, not per person) which must be renewed every 10 years. among the requirements is getting a clean report from both a regular doctor for being ‘of sound body to own a gun’ and also a psychiatrist for being ‘of sound mind’ etc. Going through this process recently led to small talk with the doc who mentioned that recently there seems to be a much greater interest in people coming to that doc’s office as part of getting the ‘acquisition’ license than the doc has ever seen before. Only anecdotal but could be a datapoint. We’re in a pretty rural location where this is the only doc qualified to give the relevant paperwork within a several hours trip or more so it’s not a matter of a different doc being on holiday or retiring and the business moving elsewhere. could be a datapoint on more people gaining an interest in armaments in a country that’s been disarmed for about 75 years now.