One Hour Meltdown

[JohnyMac]

This was written in 2009 however many of the points are relative to today.

However, my personal opinion is that once the meltdown begins then in less than one-hour it will quickly escalate far beyond anyone's ability to control or manage it on a worldwide basis. The five basic assumptions that cause me to believe in my "one-hour meltdown theory" are as follows:

    Banks: The financial institutions around the world cannot withstand a full-scale worldwide bank run. Therefore, they have already made plans to immediately shut down the instant they are told to do so. Within minutes, all across the globe, all the ATM machines will be offline, all credit card and debit card verification transactions will be halted, and all banks will have their vaults locked and their doors locked and their building emptied of all personnel, except perhaps for some special security guards. All high-level bank executives will immediately disappear to a wide variety of remote safe unknown locations. All telephone call inquiries to any of the financial institutions will be automatically answered by a computer with a pre-recorded message similar to the following: "Our system is currently experiencing an extremely high call volume and therefore we are unable to answer your call at this time. Please try again later when our call volume returns to normal."

    Governments: The vast majority of our government leaders all over the world are relatively intelligent individuals. They completely understand the ramifications of a "bank holiday" in our computer controlled financial economy. Therefore, all government offices will also be immediately shut down, and they will empty their buildings and lock their doors. Any transaction in progress, including any trials in progress, will be immediately halted and postponed until some future date. All high-level government officials, including all judges and tax officials, will immediately disappear to a wide variety of remote safe unknown locations.

    Retail Businesses: Since they will be unable to process even simple transactions, all retail establishments, both large and small, will immediately lock their doors to prevent anyone else from entering. If possible, they will complete any transactions for customers already inside their building if those customers have enough cash to pay for their purchases. Any customers wishing to pay by check or credit card or debit card will be told that the verification system is down and their transaction can't be completed. All customers will then be immediately escorted to the doors and the doors will be briefly opened and then immediately locked after they exit. In addition, in a manner similar to what happened during the World Trade Center meltdown, each store's management may demand that their employees remain at their stations until further notice or they will lose their jobs for leaving without management's permission. But most of the more intelligent employees will leave at the same time as the store's last few remaining customers. The store's special security guards may or may not remain behind in order to protect the store with their lives. Since most of these special security guards are not paid exceptionally well, a large number of them may decide that they should return home and protect their own families instead.

    Criminals: Anyone and everyone who has any criminal tendencies and who has been patiently waiting for this to happen will immediately see it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to improve their financial situation. More than likely the vast majority of these criminals have already made very detailed plans that includes exactly which businesses they are going to rob first, second, third, and so on. Any business with a reasonable level of cash-on-hand will be very high on every criminal's list. Every jewelry store and pawn shop that has any type of silver or gold jewelry, or precious stones (diamonds, rubies, emeralds, etc.), will be very high on everyone's list. The warfare that breaks out at these establishments between competing criminals will not be pleasant.

    Normal People: Normal average people will begin looting. Grocery stores will be broken into and they will be completely emptied from wall-to-wall, including the rear storage area, in less than one-hour. Stores that have firearms, ammunition, appliances, clothing, shoes, or anything else needed by the average citizen will be emptied in less than one-hour. In skirmishes over the few remaining resources, normal average people will begin killing one another inside the stores, and in the parking lots outside the stores, and on the streets as these fully loaded vehicles try to escape with their loot.

The above events will all happen simultaneously during the first one-hour of the meltdown. After that first hour has passed, things will really begin to get nasty. Everyone will quickly realize there are not are not enough law enforcement personnel to protect everyone and everything. Although the military will probably be ordered to protect specific high priority establishments and resources, there will simply not be enough military personnel to protect individual civilians or businesses.

To read the whole article go to: http://www.grandpappy.info/honehour.htm

Show content

I am not in agreement that it could all come crashing down in one hour. I do believe it could all come crashing down within a 72-98 hour period though. The reason is that the average person is 1) going to be lulled into doing nothing by the government and 2) There is a minority of folks who are preparing.

If you have a place to go leave sooner than later. If you don't get what you can get and then hunker down in your present location.

I know I get teased at times for my attempts to predict when "it" will happen, however I hope to see the coming thunderstorm before it hits and I have to close the windows not unlike looking at the darkening clouds coming towards me.

[Well-Prepared Witch]

I remember last year, I think it was, when there was a big DNS attack on several major banks.  Before we knew what was going on, all we were hearing was that people couldn't use their ATM/check cards and that some branches of the major banks were closing early.  My brother and I both work in the financial industry, at the time we both worked for large banks (I'm now with a much, much smaller company).  We were texting each other basically going, "is this it? Is the financial balloon going up?"  Thankfully the answer turned out to be no, but I have to agree with the quote's idea that it will happen very fast.  People were starting to panic just as the problem got fixed - imagine if it hadn't been?

[JohnyMac]

I keep writing...Have at least one months worth of cash expenditures on hand. I am adding this one mantra keep your vehicles full of fuel or as my brother does...A half empty tank to him = empty. He never goes below half full in all of his vehicles. 

[Currahee]

I don't like to think to much about "the colapse" is going to happen THIS way or THAT way.  I have no idea, but I do like to read intelligent people talking about what it would be like this way (or that way slow, fast alien invasion whatever.)

[APX808]

Sorry but I think this article is total non-sense.
For starters he never defines what he consider as "meltdown", he just refers to it as an inflection point in history since when everything gets fucked up worldwide.
How long does it takes to build up that "meltdown"?

There is no such thing as world wide bank run, economies are related but an economic crisis in one country will take some time to affect other economies. In 1 hour you don't even have time for the stock traders to do their calls.

The government closing all their agencies and dependencies and running away like bitches? Non sense again, the gov will deploy all the alphabet agencies and will try to gain control, not just giving it away.

A lot of business will continue operating on cash if electronic media goes down.

Normal people in the worst case will be trying to get to their homes fast to check on their families, so there is no way "normal people" will start looting so soon, a lot of people travel 1 hour when public transportation works, without it it will take even more.

1 hour isn't enough for anything, the analysis that guy did is retarded.
The only part that holds true in there is where he says "nobody can predict the future, and that includes myself".

You want to know how shit hits the fan? Read history books, you'll see things go south for a long time, then in matter of days things start to get really ugly, and government for sure doesn't go home, they'll push stronger than ever.

[RONSERESURPLUS]

Yes, More likely an event than most folks SHTF scenarios's a  slow or steady erosion of what we have and all we do?


Ron L

[Well-Prepared Witch]

I think slow & steady deterioration is the most likely scenario, however, with our global banking system can you imagine what runs on the banks would look like today?  When Twitter starts exploding with "I can't use my ATM card" and "the bank just locked its doors" I think things would go downhill in a matter of a couple hours. 

[JohnyMac]

I am no sociologist, however, if the banks go down and nobody can use their cards I do think SHTF will take longer than an hour. With that said, I do think all hell will break out within 72 hours though. Mainly in high per-capita locals like:

> Chicago
> LA
> Philly
> Atlanta
> NYC
> DC

...to name a few.

I suspect the businesses would be first to be attacked and then once they are wiped out the wolves will focus on the weak.

If you have to go somewhere to your BOL, I would suggest you leave as soon after the digital cash goes down though. The reason being, a limited Martial Law would probably be implemented within 12-24 hours which would probably include travel restrictions. Keep people in their homes for their safety and such.

   

[Well-Prepared Witch]

If you have to go somewhere to your BOL, I would suggest you leave as soon after the digital cash goes down though. The reason being, a limited Martial Law would probably be implemented within 12-24 hours which would probably include travel restrictions. Keep people in their homes for their safety and such.

I agree - it's been put in place with the stock market.  If things drop precipitously, they freeze trading nearly immediately.   I'd be shocked if something similar wasn't in place for banks