I am from Texarkana, a twin city on the border of Texas and Arkansas. The population is around 70,000 and is spread out over a fairly large area so the population isn't as dense as in some larger metropolitan areas. Interstate 30 and US highway 59 intersect here so any freight or traffic coming from Houston, Austin, or Dallas come through here on its way to the North, North East. I am married and have a 5 year old who is with me every other weekend. I work about 30 minutes from town at a very large paper mill. My house is located near the city fair grounds close to the edge fo town where the housing starts to thin out.


I am an avid hunter, fisherman, and motorcyclist. My wife is a two time rodeo queen and has competed in barrel racing for 8 years.

My house is a single story, 1300 sq/ft house. The single car garage is on the north side of the house and has no windows. The south side of the house also has no windows.

The garage door will have to be screwed shut. I have plenty of self tapping screws and a screw gun to do this. I would then brace the door with 3/4 plyboard i keep in my attic. The attic access is in the garage so the garage would need to be sucured in case we have to retreat to the attic as a last resort.

There are two doors to travel in and out of the house. Both doors go into the living room. The front door has an entrance hallway. I would barricade this door with the couch and loveseat. I have plenty of camping chairs to use, but I really don't think there will be much leasure time anyways at first. The back door would be barricaded with the 250lb tv stand/storage chest in the living room. The other windows of the house would be boarded up with plyboard and 2 x 4s and baricaded with other non essential furniture (i.e. beds, couches, tables).

I would fill the bathtub and sink in the front bathroom with water. The sink in the back half bath can be used for washing.

I keep enough canned food and camping dried foods to last for around a week and whatever parishable food that would be cooked and eaten first. All meat would be cooked immediately if the power went out on my grill. We also keep around 48 bottles of water in the house at all times. If the outbreak is serious enough that this would not be sufficient, we would be moving to one of the BOL's.