Sorry to hear this is happening.
First thing is first, the situation they are in is the one they are in and they can come out of it ok. It is their compound so those within it have a vested interest in it now too. They should give out tasks and set the daily routines and order of business.
The walls and perimeter needs to be inspected and patrolled throughout the day on rotations, but they need to ensure that there is some randomness to the inspections so that one area is not left for any length of time at a specific interval. Walls are attractive and if it’s defensible then they need to ensure they defend it because others may have had an eye on it before this happened and will certainly have an eye on it now.
The walls may be high, but a quadcopter could go over them, they should setup covers in open spaces for people to go under and ensure that they are within 20 paces minimum of some form of cover from above.
The other things you’ve listed are all good, I would make sure they don’t have any hot food that has strong smells though, even on windy days the smells will carry. They should have as bland a food items as they can stand that are hot, such as rice and pasta’s.
Their Bug out bags and items must be placed in a convenient yet secure location and food highest in calories and need little or no preparation placed with them. Being within the walls and more sedentary (apart from patrols of the perimeter) the lower calorie bland stuff can be had first that there is the largest supply of and leave the more exotic food with the high energy in it, for when they will need it.
More people means more waste, how is there waste system and where is it going? Disease could be a real threat. All those within the walls need to ensure that the systems in place to sustain them are used correctly and everyone needs to know what they can touch and what they CAN’T!
The food aspect, they have more mouths than expected, they need to ration and cut that down immediately. They are in their location so they can cut to the bare minimum right now or even skip a day. Humans can go 3 weeks with no food, but that is extreme, they need to ensure their energy levels are high enough to conduct daily business with extra in reserve. So they need to discipline those within the walls now and make the sacrifice now or there could be tension and worse problems later. Ensure children get a decent meal at regular times if there is any there. A disgruntled hungry child is a noisy child. If people there are overweight or fat then they have a store on them their body can use for many days or weeks, they do not need full rations.
Keep noise to a minimum, no metal objects moved, picked up or even touched if possible that can clang together and make a lot of noise unless there is a place within a structure that could dampen this noise. Place towels between plates so they don’t make noise stacking them, or just don’t stack plates at all. Make sure nobody starts doing any ‘DIY’ and constructing anything that will create loud banging. Generators are good but noisy, hopefully they have them surrounded by things to dampen the noise or can perhaps do without them entirely for now as generators need fuel. Turn mobile phones to silent with vibrate turned OFF.
Rodents, if they see rodents then others will see the rodents too and where there are rodents there are people. This and other indicators should always make them consider that even though they may think nobody knows they are there that people might know, they are just too pre-occupied with other things and have supplies themselves for now. Once people run low on items then comes ransacking and thieving. Hopefully their OPSEC before things was good enough that nobody local knows exactly what it is they have in there.
Any Radio’s, Wi-Fi signals, Bluetooth etc should be turned off and nothing broadcast. Modern Wi-Fi goes a long way and just using another electronic device within 100m of somewhere will detect anything. Ensure that electronic equipment is only turned on when needed and never at the same time during day or night to minimise being discovered.
I will post anything else I can think of as I think of it.
Thanks! They have been locked down and blacked out for over a month. Their neighbors are friends, and are there to support them. I told them to dig a hole for the generators. The noise goes up, and location is hard. They only use them randomly to recharge their batteries. She is a Nurse, so she is tough on clean and waste disposal!
Food is the real risk, they have been rationing and foraging for a while now. Unfortunately, there is no where to bug out too. Outside the compound they are shooting people. BOTH sides!
You are right on the rodents! I would eat them.