So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Mongo

... When the thirty inch pipe exploded it instantly destroyed thirty five houses and left an asymmetric crater 167 feet (51*m) long, 26 feet (7.9*m) wide[15] and 40 feet (12*m) deep. It also set nearby houses on fire.

<snip>

If after the apocalypse no one thinks to safely bleed these systems they are little bombs just looking for a time to go off. ..., the initial explosion would be bad, the resulting fire would be worse. Without firefighters the fire would have continued to burn until it hit a natural fire break like an open field at a park or school, or a freeway or other wide road (assuming the fire is not hot enough to set the asphalt road on fire,) lake, or the wind pushed the fire back on it self. This could lead to entire sections of a town or city burning.

Am in the midst of planning an AtE campaign set in a dryish portion of SE Australia. The above could be responsible for a lot of derelict ghost towns. Bushfires... <shrug>

Originally Posted by Mongo

Lastly toilet paper, it will be gone quickly, doesn’t store well and is very useful in daily sanitation needs. After thirty years hopefully some enterprising person has started a cottage business making this most wonderful item. That or the bidet has made a comeback

LOL. It's the little things which highlight what aspects of civilisation survive, regardless of what's gone on before. Am so stealing requisitioning this.

[Dustin]

Originally Posted by Mongo

Lastly toilet paper, it will be gone quickly, doesn’t store well and is very useful in daily sanitation needs. After thirty years hopefully some enterprising person has started a cottage business making this most wonderful item. That or the bidet has made a comeback

Once TP gets scarce, every other piece of paper or unused cloth becomes fair game for those in need, just like they used to appreciate last years' Sears catalog on the farm for its nice thin paper in the outhouse. If junk mail and filing cabinets are factored in, it will be a while before they start raiding the libraries for wiping paper.

[Flyndaran]

Basic toilet paper has been around for centuries, but splinter free versions are much more recent inventions than most players may realize. 1930s.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Oh no. So after the apocalypse, the world may be left to Florida Man?

Post-Apocalypse Florida Man Is Dominant!


Haven't you seen Mad Max? After the apoc, everywhere gets its own Florida Men/Women.

[Mongo]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Check your locality, "darn near everywhere" isn't accurate. It's not at all everywhere in Florida, actually it's the opposite. Most places down here don't use natural gas and if they do, it's a single building usage and they buy their own tanks.

And it's probably hooked up to a stove... so it's on a slow bleed (pilot lights).

I’ve only been to Florida a couple of times and that was to Orlando and Miami, as a result I’m willing to bet you know your state far better than I do. So I have a question, are you referring to rural areas not having natural gas, or do your small and midsized town not use it also?


I found a nifty map that will show the major pipelines.
https://pvnpms.phmsa.dot.gov/PublicViewer/

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Mongo

I’ve only been to Florida a couple of times and that was to Orlando and Miami, as a result I’m willing to bet you know your state far better than I do. So I have a question, are you referring to rural areas not having natural gas, or do your small and midsized town not use it also?

Based on that nifty map you linked to and this (FPUC Service Area) Orange County is on propane and the pipelines mainly run outside of Orlando proper (with one that runs right through the middle)... and no pipelines run anywhere near where I've lived here (mostly North and East sides of the city).

So it looks to me like we have propane lines... though I've honestly never seen a business or residence that used propane outside of refillable tanks. It's possible that the city used to run off of propane... but these days we use this new fangled thing called e-lec-tricity.

Unlike when I lived up north and it was piped right into the homes (both Chicago and Colorado) and used as both heating and cooking.

I found a nifty map that will show the major pipelines.
https://pvnpms.phmsa.dot.gov/PublicViewer/

Very nice!

[dcarson]

That map is also county by county. I live a half hour commute from Baltimore and the denser populated part of the county has natural gas lines. My house is about three miles from where they end. So a county by county map from BGE would show Anne Arundel county having natural gas but the outer suburbs and rural parts don't. Pipelines are somewhat expensive so tend to be only where the population density is high enough.

[lwcamp]

When I lived in upstate New York, most of the heating was done with natural gas (as was a lot of the cooking). In the Pacific Northwest where I am now, electricity is so cheap that everyone uses electric heating (often electrically-powered heat pumps, but at least not gas). The OP specified New York City, which I'm guessing would be closer to upstate's way of doing things than what we have over here in the hydropower center of the country.

Luke