A couple of years ago the Discovery Channel came out with a program series called “The Colony”. It was an “off the grid” reality show that was an experiment to see how people could survive without electricity, water, public services, or communication with the outside world. Preppers would call this a SHTF (Shit Hits The Fan) event or TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It).
The premise of the show was that LA was devastated by a nuclear event where most of the population did not survive and all public services failed to exist. Ten volunteers who were strangers to each other and were not actors came from different backgrounds and lifestyles were given an abandoned factory building and a small amount of food. The building and the yard surrounding it contained a lot of materials, supplies and non-running vehicles that could be used by the survivors. Camera crews followed them around without being involved and other “friendly and unfriendly survivors” were directed to interact with them.
The ten “survivors” consisted of men and women who had a variety of backgrounds and skills that were probably too skilled overall to be called an average group of survivors. There was a computer science engineer, a mechanical engineer, a machinist, a handyman, a medical doctor, an ER nurse, a marine biologist, an ex-convict contractor, a self defense instructor, and an aeronautical engineer.
If you will, consider this program to be an unscripted, reality version of Gilligan’s Island. Because of the highly skilled and talented people involved, they designed and built an amazing number of machines and devices. For instance they made a generator out of a power washer, pulleys from an old fan and a car alternator and using old batteries and a power inverter they created electrical power. When they ran out of gasoline, they built a gasifier to make wood gas to power their generator. They took water from the LA River and filtered it with sand and charcoal. Then they built a device to purify the water with ozone (O3). During the two month experiment, they built a radio transmitter and receiver, a solar heated shower, an electric vehicle, a washing machine, they scavenged solar panels and created solar power, and built a variety of defense weapons.
It was an interesting and educational series, but in my opinion, highly unlikely in a real situation because of the unusual abundance of materials they had access to and the unlikely skills and resourcefulness of the participants. The outsiders harassed them but were not allowed to harm them physically. In a real situation, violence and the threat of violence would be a bigger factor.
I enjoyed “The Colony” for it’s entertainment and enlightenment, and best of all – NO ZOMBIES!
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