Posted on 05/04/2011 4:43:43 PM PDT by blam
Considerations For SHTF Living & Bug Out Locations
Mac Slavo
May 3rd, 2011
Editors note: If you are not yet in the location you want to be if the S were to hit the fan, and are currently looking for either a home or raw land, then we recommend that you also read What Is The Best Place To Live In The United States To Prepare For The Coming Economic Collapse. The opinions expressed below are a supplement to that article.
If insulating yourself from a worst-case scenario is your primary concern then the following considerations, some of which were mentioned in the article above, could help you to better decide what to do next:
* Stay out of the cities: This is without a doubt the top concern when looking at the possibility of an economic collapse or other disaster scenario. Youre likely better off taking your chances in the middle of the wilderness than you are staying in an urban center. Youll be dealing with packs of wild animals in both scenarios, but at least you would have a chance at acquiring some food, water and shelter.
Of course, were not recommending that you make the wilderness your bug-out plan, but rather, are pointing out that cities will be hit extremely hard, and millions of people will be in need of food, gas, clean water, medicine and other supplies. In an all-out collapse, similar to that described by James Rawles in his book Patriots, the grid would go down, transportation systems would come to a halt and urban areas, including suburban areas, would become war zones as individuals, gangs and clans would compete for the last remaining resources.
When you think major city and SHTF, think Hurricane Katrina, but on a regionalized scale affecting tens of millions of people.
* Dont plan on living in the wild: While the wilderness may seem like a much better option than the inner city or suburbia, youre not the only one whos thought of it. Only experienced outdoors men should even consider living in the wild as a primary back-up for a collapse event.
Like the cities, it will only be a matter of time before competition for resources reaches a boiling point. Unless youre one-hundred or more miles from any major human access points, youre going to come across others who are looking for food, water, shelter, clothing and supplies.
Depending on where you are in the country, the elements may become just as dangerous as gangs in the city. Without the proper equipment, youd probably have a better chance of surviving an inner city meltdown then you would freezing temperatures in the north / north-west part of the US.
If the wilderness is your plan, do you have a plan for staking and defending a piece of land for you and your family? And are you prepared to evade and/or deal with the golden horde that will eventually makes it way from the cities?
* How close is your support network? If you plan on relocating, are family members and like-minded friends within a tank of gas to your new location? While an SHTF location 400 miles outside of a major city is a great idea, if your plan is to have just you and your immediate family of 2 to 5 people defending the land you may run into problems. Regardless of how many guns or how much ammo you have, coordinated attacks by gangs or the possibility of being overrun by those who managed to make it to rural areas should be a consideration.
Also, looking at the location of your home town and the reality of coordinating with neighbors and city officials to stop non-residents from entering a particular area would be prudent. A support network on a familial and community level will be critical if you are near any population centers, even if your town is only made up of a few thousand people.
Primarily, your immediate team is of the most concern keeping 24 hour watch and working the land will be critical, and youre going to need more than just a few people to do this effectively.
* Is your new place to live capable of going off-grid for extended periods? Were not just talking about electricity but water and food as well. Electricity and gas power are important, but not as important as your immediate needs like food, water, shelter and defense. With the right people by your side, your defense capabilities should be significantly enhanced.
But if the grid goes down, how will you manage? Will there be fresh water available from a well or stream? What if someone dams your stream up river? Is there enough arable land to produce food and enough water to keep it alive?
Remember, the food you need will not be just for you, but for the animals you might be raising. Do you have reserve feed for those animals, or do you plan on feeding them off the land?
* Location. Location. Location. The above article pointed out that coastal areas could be deadly for a number of reasons. If youve read any historical doomsday theories, youre likely familiar with the statistic that some 90% of the worlds population lives within a hundred miles of an ocean. Bad news if the earth ever decides to sneeze. That, and the fact that those areas become major targets in the event of war or wide-scale terrorism.
The east coast of the US, especially, would be dangerous simply because of the number of people. Even if you arent directly on the coast, golden horde migrations will overrun hundreds of thousands of acres of land during evacuations or panics.
The west coast would experience similar effects. From the south, as the article mentions, there is the real possibility of mass migrations and violence its no secret that certain lines of thoughts suggest the southern US belongs to Mexico so be prepared for an onslaught if you are anywhere within several hundred miles of the southern border.
During any such mass migrations, any easy to traverse land masses will be subject to disturbances and only those in remote or difficult to reach locations will go unscathed. If it even exists, the SHTF protection zones, in general, seem to be the central United States regions this includes flat lands and mountainous regions, stretching from northern Texas up towards the Dakotas and west towards Idaho.
Parts of northern California, Oregon and Washington also qualify. There is, of course, the possibility that some natural events Yellowstone comes to mind could wreck havoc, but other than that, the right piece of property in these areas could be your best bet to survive a whole host of end of America scenarios.
This is not to say that areas outside of this zone are unsafe, as we are speaking more in regional generalities here. Ideally, you want to be out of the migration path of the horde, preferably on higher ground in the mountains, or a good distance from any major or high trafficked roadways if youre living on flat land.
One rule of thumb would be to look at how far away a major city is from your location. If tens of thousands of people live within a gas tank of that location, you can expect unfriendly visitors.
* Hideaway, safe room, bunker. We may be getting into tin-foil prepping here, but well mention it anyway. Mass migrations are going to be of critical concern in ANY collapse scenario. Even those in a fairly poor location can still have a back up plan. Our advice: If you have the ability to do so, do what the government plans on doing, and go underground.
Find property with a basement, or an old mine or cave, anything that is out of sight. If the horde comes your way this would become your new bug-out location. In such a scenario, one may need to disappear for an extended period, so quick-food considerations, water storage, and sanitation become important.
Plan on 15 30 days at a minimum if youve got to go underground. Theres no sense in fighting if you can get out of the way and let the horde Tsunami pass over you and eventually recede.
As preppers, we all want to say were prepared for anything, but a good prepper knows his or her limitations. It is impossible to plan for every potential scenario, but staying flexible and open-minded is going to be critical for survival. A willingness to admit, contemplate and act on weaknesses in your preparedness plan is of utmost importance.
Plus it has been really rainy this year here in Pittsburgh.
I am not sure what you are asking, the next Civil war (for lack of better words) is not going to be a medieval battle field where we charge at each other with swords or a Vietnam type guerrilla offensive where we have to run up and down a Ho-Chin-Min trail. So how many of what age & shape isn't going to matter as much as you think.
What's going to happen is some kind of spark in one or more of the major cities, maybe it will be a Rodney King or a Crown Heights type of incident, maybe there will be a scorching couple of days in the summer which causes regional blackouts, or maybe another Katrina or other natural disaster.
Whatever the spark, this time once the rioting and looting starts it's not going to stop, and it's going to spread to other cities. Obama is not strong enough to put it down even if he wanted to(See Cloward + Piven).
The Cities will be in flames and "No-Go" zones, while life will initially go on in the country relatively normal. There's plenty of stuff to loot in the cities, there's no reason for them to come out right away, they will kill each other fighting over their resources first.
City people are not self reliant, especially city Liberals, for example ask them why they don't own gun and they will tell you "I don't need one, I'll just call the police" and White city Liberals have been so feminized they will be lambs to the slaughter. They are all going to die waiting for Obama to come save them.
You'll have some squatters camps of refugees in many of the rest areas on the interstates on the outskirts of the cities, but full coordinated attacks on small towns dozens or 100s of miles away, it's not going to happen.
My economic situation hasn't been the best the last few years, so buying land and relocating isn't an option for me right now. But I do live on the edge of the Sierra Nevada foothills. If things get really bad, in two hours I can load my SUV with a goodly supply of rice, dried beans, and canned food, camping,prospecting, hunting, and fishing gear, and be at some very remote stream deep in a national forest, camping out and sluicing gold.
I’ve seen your pictures - the area is drop-dead beautiful... you’re lucky to live there.
interesting..along what I was thinking about lately.
People over 25lbs overweight will likely last longer than those who are already underweight, or regular weight...when food is scarce...depending upon which of them has stored some rations....I’m 60....and probably in better shape than many 45 year olds....(and a few pounds overweight)....PLUS older people, in many cases, have better mental acuity for problem solving....IMHO
I grew up in a rural community with lots of fresh water, farm land, fish and game. A perfect place to survive a melt-down. But that was years ago and if I went back in a SHTF situation, I would probably be seen as an outsider and not welcomed. I certainly would not be welcomed trying to homestead someone’s property. I have decided that I can survive in my suburban situation for quite a while - at least until the smoke settles, and then find an isolated area in the back country.
I do have a spot picked out, with several alternate locations.
When TSHTF, and things do really get out of control, we have plans to block the road ways and begin defending our rural neighborhoods and towns....I just don't know how much 'moving-around' you'll be able to do.
Anyone approaching our boundries will be viewed with suspicion and treated as an unwanted 'wanderer.'
Thank you..I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be considering such a thing...this country has changed so much that in many ways, I would welcome living in a more remote, less urban area.
The roadway would be physically blocked and enforced with armed guards. If you're not identifable as a resident or it's necessary for you to proceed, you'll be turned back. We have Black residents, so don't start with that. A carload of young males, White or Black, will be turned back. (Unwanted wanderers)
We have a core group of friends and neighbors that are preparing/prepared and discussing these sort of things on a regular basis not in a meeting but as we're together (one on one) on a weekly basis
I live on a road that leads to beautiful white beaches and then dead-ends there. Only the people living on dead-end roads will be allowed to pass.
The boundries will be defined by easy to defend check points...a stream/creek with a bridge over it..you can't go around, etc. We have neighbors with bull dozers, back hoes and etc. My neighbor has a large landscaping company with large fuel tanks, 1,000 gallons of diesel and regular gasoline, he keeps those full these days.
I don't know what we'll do with obviously 'good' people in desperate need (especially with children) who show up begging. I've already been told that I won't be manning a blockade..."you're to soft hearted, Bill."
Now, mind you, this all assumes that law enforcement has broken down or has been overwhelmed which we worry will happen at some point...any government agency that maintains/restores law and order will be obeyed...we don't plan to fight the government unless they come to confisticate (bullies) our supplies for re-distribution. We define 'bullies' as anyone with designs on our supplies or contrary to our well-being.
Flexability and mature judgement are necessary skills.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.