ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PREPPING OR NOT PREPPING FOR Civilization Collapse

Full Scale Simulation: New Study Reveals Where To Go When Civilization Collapses: “Head For The Hills”

The cities will be plagued with violence and supply shortages

by Mac Slavo | SHTFplan.com | February 27, 2015

Should the world as we know it ever fall apart as a result of an economic collapse, a massive natural disaster, cyber attack or widespread pandemic there will be millions of people looking for food, clean water and other essential resources.

The cities will be plagued with violence and supply shortages. Government officials will, as Homeland Security has previously admitted, not be able to provide any meaningful support. The masses will be left to fend for themselves.

But just because the whole system around us falls apart doesn’t mean there won’t be any safe havens.

According to researchers at Cornell University who recently published a study analyzing the spread of a deadly virus and how it would affect the population, if you want to improve your chances of survival you should head for the hills.

But the researchers warn that even this may not be enough, noting that we are likely “doomed” either way.

Researchers from Cornell University have now discovered that the correct thing to do should the dead start to walk the earth is to literally head for the hills.

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They found that cities would fall quickly, but it would take weeks for zombies to penetrate into less densely populated areas, and months to reach northern parts of the mountain-time zone.

Their advice is to head for the Rockies.

The research involved results from simulations the researchers wrote themselves, similar to modelling chemical reactions.

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The Cornell team are less optimistic about our prospects.

The abstract for their research ends with the line: ‘We build up to a full scale simulation of an outbreak in the United States, and discover that for “realistic” parameters, we are largely doomed.’

Daily Mail

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After a zombie outbreak, you might want to run for the Rocky Mountains, at least according to researchers at Cornell University.

The research team used statistical mechanics to figure out that this is the safest place to live during a zombie apocalypse.

However, the research wasn’t completely fictional. The models they used could also be applied to real-world disease outbreaks.

Tech Times

The study specifically models a viral outbreak, in this case, a zombie viral outbreak. But realistically speaking the statistical mechanics analysis suggest what many in the preparedness community already know: cities will be death zones and your best chance at survival will be sparsely populated areas.

James Rawles, founder of Survival Blog, has discussed the concept of the Golden Horde extensively in his writings. The Horde is best described as the masses of people who will be migrating from mega cities in search of food and other resources in the aftermath of a major collapse that results in supply breakdowns. And though a zombie virus may be fictional, the golden horde and a zombie horde would behave in much the same way, razing everything in their path.

As hordes spread out from major cities there will be a widespread die-off for a variety of reasons, namely the lack of sustenance. And, given that there will likely be no functioning gas pumps because of a lack of electricity there is a strong possibility that most people will never make it out of about a 300 mile radius of a major city simply because they will only be able to go as far as a single tank of gas will take them.

This means that those living in rural areas, especially mountainous rural areas, will have the best chance at surviving a zombie or any apocalypse. We recently published a map of the areas you want to avoid during an emergency. The map is based on population density, something that survival expert Joel Skousen says is the single biggest threat you’ll face in a collapse scenario:

The number one threat that I concentrate on. It’s not terrorism, it’s not natural disaster, it’s not even government or war.

The major threat is population density.

Because every crisis that threatens, even a local crisis, can turn exponential because of close proximity to people who cannot help themselves. Even good people panic in a crisis…

But the gut wrenching reality is that if something goes down and you find yourself in the middle of a major city and you have failed to plan ahead you’re going to have a serious problem.

Todd Savage of Strategic Relocation explains:

If we took a survey, probably more than 95% are not fully prepared. This is not good. Is it the end of the world if your family doesn’t own a retreat? Of course not, the reality is that most Preppers can’t afford a separate fully operational retreat, and that’s ok.

However, not having a pre-arranged destination of some kind, with pre-positioned supplies is absolutely not acceptable. This could be located at a fiends or relatives home in the country, or a group purchase of a retreat, even a small parcel with a stream and cached supplies is better than nothing.

Excerpt via: The Gut Wrenching Reality: One of the Best Bug-Out Strategy Guides You’ll Ever Read

Once a breakdown starts it will be unstoppable and it will completely overwhelm a city within just a few days, according to The Prepper’s Blueprint author Tess Pennington.

That means your best chance at surviving will be for you to have a preparedness plan in place before it happens.

• Have a secondary location outside of major cities.Whether you buy, rent or share a piece of land or a cabin out in the middle of nowhere,one of your first priorities should be a strategic relocation plan that puts you out of reach of densely populated areas. Consider the gas tank rule: Because most will people will not be able to tank up their vehicles, the farthest they can go will be about 300 miles. If you are this far outside of a major city you’ve just upped your chances. The other option, if you have no choice but to retreat to a location within the 300 mile radius, would be to find a location that is difficult for someone to reach by foot. A mountain range or wilderness might be your best bet.
• Food and Water.This is a no brainer of course, but keep in mind that you need to consider caloric intake and duration when planning your reserves. This can be done affordably with11 foods that last a lifetime and the25 survival foods to put in your pantry. Your emergency supplies should also include portable, high calorie foods like Meals-Ready-To-Eat and survival bars just in case you need to evacuate your secondary location.
• Guns and Self Defense.If the hordes are coming they won’t be asking for help nicely. You should prepare perimeter defense strategies like those recommended by special forces veteran Max Velocity in his book A Tactical Manual For Post Collapse Survival. This includes having the right armaments on hand to quell any threats that may present themselves.
• Medicine, Communications, Hardware Tools, Sustainability.All of these will be critical to survival and are often overlooked by those who stock preparedness supplies. For some ideas on how to position yourself properly consider reviewing the free online web series52 Weeks to Preparedness.

The idea of a zombie apocalypse is far-fetched and in the minds of many marginalizes the real threats posed to our civilization. Any number of events could lead to an apocalypse-level crisis that leaves millions dead. Even our government has warned about the possibility of long-term disasters. And the fact is that FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security have spent billions of dollars on the aforementioned supplies in anticipation of such an event.

But all of those supplies they are stockpiling will likely never find their way to the general public, as they are reserved for government officials and their families who will be transported to secure underground facilities in the mountains.

You on the other hand, will be left on your own. That means whatever preparedness plan you make today will be all that’s available to you  should the zombies start roaming the land.

 

 

How Horrific Will It Be For The Non-Prepper?

Be Informed
May 12th, 2012
SHTFplan

This article has been made available by regular SHTFplan contributor Be Informed.

Editor’s Note: You have no doubt had your own set of issues dealing with friends and family members that simply don’t see the writing on the wall. The following article may serve to assist you in convincing those who simply don’t know, don’t want to know, don’t care, or have never even thought to contemplate. Some of the scenarios outlined below may be frightening, as they should be, because when it hits the fan millions of people will be thrown into desperation with no hope of a solution. Be Informed provides a variety of point-by-point details that may (and hopefully will) convince the non-prepared individual to at least insulate themselves with the basic necessities. The consequences for not doing so, as you’ll see, are severe and often deadly.

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I have become personally so disenchanted with the way people fail to prep.  People still don’t understand how important it is to put away.  I have gotten into arguments over this and had cretins call me a fool because I put away food, water, and supplies.  I thought about this and the frustration that other preppers have with this laid back idiotic attitude that there is no need for preparation.  There are good people that just can’t/won’t start preparing. They have the money to do so, but just don’t want to.  Many have only seen what happens to non-preppers on TV, but it still doesn’t make an impact.

In this article I detail some hard core realities to show just how awful it will be for those that don’t prep. Every one of these scenarios is something that has occurred to the non-prepper throughout history.  While strong images come to mind, the purpose is to jar some people out of their inaction and into action before it is too late.

Preppers are good people and care much about those around them, and unless something does jar those around them that choose not to prep, their own survival chances could be reduced.  For every bit of food, water, ammunition, or supplies you sacrifice to the non-prepper, the fewer irreplaceable supplies are left for you and your family in a crisis situation.  It is hoped that the following can help certain people put into TRUE perspective just how horrific it will be for those that don’t prepare.

Here are the awful consequences for those refusing to prep.

As the world continues to decay at multiple facets, the common person has and continues to be lulled into a sense that everything is improving and will continue to for the distant future.  After all, to them unemployment has peaked out and will drop until everyone that wants to work will easily be able to find good paying work,  North Korea is no threat because all their long range “bottle rockets” fizz out,  sanctions will eventually make Iran give up their nuclear program, oil prices will start going down after June or so,  Europe will bail out Greece and Spain and everyone else,  and U.S. debt will eventually come under control.

After 2012 everyone that has prepared themselves will go back to more “sensible” lives.  “Good times are coming”, baseball season is here, let’s get back to watching some more crackerjack news.

It is amazing how people become good conversationalists with most others discussing all the gossip related news, while becoming mentally tranquilized into a totally deceptive state of denial of truly dangerous issues of the times.  It’s the blind leading the blind… right off the cliff.

Rather than dealing with harsh reality, people surround themselves with easy to digest material that can be talked about without directly influencing anyone’s lives.  Meaningless chatter.  Even for those unwilling to even think to prepare for a societal catastrophic event, there is also no desire to even face the extreme possibility of a sudden loss of one’s employment.  A personal SHTF.

Look at some of the terrible personal pain experienced in America right now – and it hasn’t even hit the fan on a grand scale. Those people who have lived it up on credit, who failed to put much of anything away for a rainy day, who’ve lost their job, and who eventually lost their unemployment benefits are experiencing the first level of collapse. This is happening to millions of people in our own country, all around us, as we speak.

These Americans, who once enjoyed the luxuries that modern living had to offer, are now at their wits end, with very little hope for a return to their previous lives. They are no longer able to pay most or any of their bills. Many have to humiliatingly turn to others for help to pay for food, or worse, to obtain old, unhealthy and poor tasting food from locally funded food banks. Their credit cards are totally worthless. Many have been evicted from their homes and have uprooted their families to live either on the street, in tent cities, with relatives, or have been forced to live at homeless shelters, They’ve have had their vehicles repossessed, or simply can’t afford the gasoline anymore. Their living conditions often make it difficult, if not impossible, to look presentable for job interviews. For many, the life of stability they knew just a short while ago is gone, replaced with fear and a constant stress to the point of nervous breakdown.

A personal economic meltdown is confined to the individual or family, or at worst a few families.  The human civilization remains intact and so do society’s safety nets.

With food assistance, rental assistance, homesless shelters, and family to turn to, even the most destitute are almost always able to find some sort of help – however menial.

It is no wonder with these known assistance programs, then, that people have forgotten or never thought to consider what happens IF and WHEN human civilization goes through a strong enough SHTF event.  If that happens on a mass scale what happens to everyone that needs help that has not prepared ahead of time?  What happens when governments are in such total disarray or destroyed altogether that they can’t help even if they wanted to?

The media and others have portrayed the good people that sacrifice much if not all “luxuries” of life to prepare themselves and their family and friends for extreme times, as chicken littles.  Those who have made the choice to store up emergency food, water, and other necessities to avoid extreme life threatening risks, including suffering horribly during and after a widespread SHTF event, are laughed at and ridiculed often for “wasting” their lives on delusional paranoia.

But who is delusional? Those who see the signs around them and understand how vulnerable the system is, or those who believe that things never change, that politicians have their best interests at heart, and that if the worst happens the government will be there to provide everything they may need?

How many have considered the dire consequences of their failure to prepare in the event that the infrastructure and everything a country’s people depend on totally collapses?

The misery from long term unemployment and lack of money is like a walk in the park compared to the severe anguish and dangerous conditions that await those who have failed to prepare for the aftermath of a large scale cataclysm.  The “minor” problems of unemployment that seem extremely major and painful to most today should serve as a wake up call to what life will be like when something much, much worse happens – when those proverbial safety nets are no longer there to catch us.

Many preppers have become deeply frustrated at those around them, especially those that truly mean something to them, because they simply refuse to put away anything at all for emergencies.  The prepper is usually a person that cares a lot and it is often difficult for them to take a tough stance towards the people that they care about.  However, unless someone changes the habits of those people that fail to get ready, decisions will need to be made, and they won’t be easy.

The choice of what the prepared prepper should do will boil down to either either adding these people to their own circle or survival group and reduce the group’s safety, supplies and self sufficiency, OR, they will have to let the non-prepper fend for themselves.  This is a very personal choice, and each of us will need to decide based on our own morals, ethics and personal relationships.

As a last ditch effort, discussing the following scenarios with the non-prepper may help them understand what life will be like without what has sustained them so comfortably for so long.

This is the hard reality the non prepper needs to understand:

• Without power the water company cannot get water to their faucets. Without water dehydration occurs within 24 hours. Dehydration causes much suffering before death.
• Toilets in homes, unless they have an incineration toilet that still need power to work, don’t flush without water.  Where will they go to the bathroom and then where will they dispose of human waste?
• There will be no clean water available anywhere, especially in major cities, and they cannot live more than about three days without it.
• Drinking dirty and polluted water will make them incredibly sick and accelerate the dehydration process.
• Polluted water must be purified and that means having a good filter, bleach or other disinfectant, or fuel and something to boil water with.
• Understand just how fragile the power and the infrastructure is that pumps water to the public. A breakdown in our power infrastructure or a cyber attack against utility systems will render them useless.
• A single event can rapidly lead to a cascade of other events that would certainly collapse almost, if not, everything. This is why major snow storms, hurricanes or solar events in the past have affected millions of people in an entire region all at once.
• A single, seemingly unimportant event may become quite terrible as its repercussions spread; this can include a far and away disaster.
• Understand that the economies of the world are so interwoven that when one major economy falls it affects everyone.
• Not having any food in the house means that if the stores are emptied suddenly in a bad enough situation that there will be no food available for a long period of time afterward. Recent history during disasters around the world has shown that stores can literally be emptied in minutes.
• Think about how totally horrible the feeling of being very hungry is and what circumstances would cause one to be desperate enough to eat anything.
• ALL stores can be closed instantly under martial law.
• Understand that you may not be able to purchase anything after it starts, especially with any credit cards.
• Understand the complexity of food and water distribution; breaks in these chains can stop anything from getting to the people.
• What life will be like if no toilet paper is stored?
• Understand that without light sources, the night will be pitch black, often with zero visibility.
• There will be no communications, other than probably martial law type of instructions over the radio, that is if they have batteries for the radio.
• Other than ham and shortwave radio, any information that is available will be sent out by the government as filtered propaganda that “they” want everyone to hear.
• Without power consider what it will be like to not have any heat to stay warm, or air conditioned air to stay cooler – with no way of alleviating the situation.
• Travelling will likely be by foot or bicycle, as their will be no fuel and roadways may be blocked.
• Realize that ANY travel outside of the home or neighborhood will be extremely dangerous as ANYONE who moves becomes a target
• Non preppers will be pushed way beyond their limit because of lack of supplies.
• The non prepper must realize their government does not really care about them individually, that they are a mere number and help will likely not come from them.
• They have to figure out somewhere to get food. This can mean wild plants which they must know how to identify as safe, or risk poisoning themselves.
• They have to understand that when we refer to “having no food” it doesn’t mean not having the food they are used to enjoying, it means no food to eat at all.
• They have to understand that if they are fortunate enough to have any running water, they will probably have to bathe in cold water for lack of stored fuel to heat water.
• They have to realize that the very strange and totally unexpected is going to be all around them, made that much worse because of lack of any reliable self defense stores or skills.
• They might have to remain on the run constantly because of looking for water and food.
• They must understand that bad will be magnified magnitudes to living misery because of lack of food, water, and other necessary items that they took for granted for so long.

Okay, now comes the “truly ugly and unthinkable” life that most, if not all, people that have failed and refused to prepare themselves will deal with.  Clear vivid visualization is key here for anyone that ho hums the idea of prepping.

What horrors they will likely face after a cave-in of their nation’s economy, war, geophysical upheaval, or whatever crisis is bad enough to disturb or stop their nation from working and functioning?  There are plenty of very potential SHTF events that are simply awaiting a catalyst to trigger them.

• The Non-Prepper (NP) has to realize right off the bat that 911 and other emergency calls in will be met with silence or some recording telling the caller not to panic.
• The (NP) that has no reliable self defense that can stop an attacker, will not get help from public services, and will become a victim of rape, assault, torture, or murder.
• The (NP) that has no reliable self defense and will not only be at the mercy of criminal elements, but also have to contend with many desperate animals, some with rabies.
• The (NP) that has no food will either have to find food or be ready to beg for food or worse, like sacrificing their bodies or other horrible acts or things to get a bite of food.
• The (NP) will have to go through the worst, most rancid conditions of garbage to just maybe find what they should have stored up.
• The (NP) will go through panic and near if not total psychosis looking for any water source right before their bodies begin shutting down during advanced stages of dehydration.
• The (NP) will go through unbearable trauma when their children and other people around them are crying, screaming, and suffering with intense hunger pains in their stomachs.
• The (NP) will have to deal with the awful stench of rotting wastes from many sources because they have not taken the effort to even store up waste disposal plastic bags.
• The (NP) will have disease and pathogens everywhere, not only because they have no trash disposal means, but because they haven’t prepared how to deal with trash and waste.
• The (NP) will have to live in very primitive conditions after things around them deteriorate rapidly, because they have neglected putting away anything to make life more bearable.
• The (NP) and those around them will likely develop all sorts of infective skin rashes from the lack of insight of storing up toilet paper.  Imagine the smell for a moment.
• The (NP) will have to handle biting insects and other vermin that will collect amongst the filth that will pile up.  No pest control stored up along with no other supplies.
• The (NP) will have no way of treating sickness certain to follow a SHTF event, no first aid and likely no training or knowledge about how to treat the ill on top of this.
• The (NP) will have sick and dying people around them because of not being able to treat minor injuries.  Didn’t even stock up on disinfectants.  Unsanitary conditions lead to infection.
• The (NP) and others around them will experience much grief as they watch helplessly as their family members literally die of starvation right in front of their eyes.
• The (NP) won’t believe how desperate hunger drives them and those that mean everything to them to “trying” to eat food that taste so bad it gags them and comes back up.
• The (NP) will likely have family and friends around them that have also not prepared committing suicide because they can’t take it any longer.
• The (NP) will witness some of those people around them lose any sense of civilized humanity in them and behave like wild animals after some time from lack of necessities.
• The (NP) and family members, maybe friends also, will at some point end up barbecuing or eating raw the family dog, cat, bird, any pet dear to everyone for food.
• The (NP) will likely get into physical fights with other family members over any scrap of food available as rational thoughts are lost to wanton hunger.
• The (NP) as many other (NP’s) will eventually go out of any safety of their home looking for food and or water, become disorientated and lost, and die a hard death somewhere.
• The (NP) that is “lucky” enough to find some government help will likely have to almost sell their soul, probably all their freedom, to get tiny rations – just enough to keep them alive.
• The (NP) will see widespread violence and barbarism that will shock them to the core and will wish that they had purchased some form of firearm and stocked up on ammunition.
• The (NP) better get used to attempting to explain the children and other adults why they wasted all that money on junk, and didn’t buy any emergency food and other supplies.
• The (NP), no matter how positive they are will drop quickly into depression and lose willpower as having nothing to hold on to does this, along with lack of any nutrition.
• The (NP) will feel the worst guilt imaginable as they hear their family moaning in anguish from lack of anything to eat, knowing they could have done something to prepare.
• The (NP) will most likely not see the rebuilding and recovery after A SHTF event. They will, like almost all NP’s, be statistics.  Some will die hours or a day before help arrives.
• The (NP) from lack of food, drinking bad water, no light at night, the horrid smells, no good self defense, the overall horror, will often be paralyzed with fear and despair, blank stare.
• The (NP) is totally helpless after SHTF, will have to rely totally on charity of those prepared to live.  They will take all sorts of desperate measures likely to get them shot.  They’ll attempt to eat hazardous foods like an animal trapped in a house will do, and get sick and suffer much before dying.  The (NP) will likely die (ugly and hard) as they lived, unprepared for anything.

If we were to use one single word to describe the torments that someone who “chooses” not to prepare will go through after a true you know what hits the fan it would be “PREVENTABLE”.

Almost every single person, even a very poor person, has the capacity to put away emergency food and supplies.  Even homeless people have stashes of something just in case things become so bad that the normal hand outs and thrown-away items dry up.  Many people with good sources of income don’t even have an extra can of food or any water put away at all. This is stupidity beyond words.

Every day lightweight disasters happen in all parts of the world that disturb services enough that people are confined to their homes for a certain amount of time.  While recovery is short, people are still uncomfortable during these times.  Look what happens after a power outage at night and you will be mystified at how many homes are completely dark for hours.  People have not even bought an extra couple of candles or any battery operated light sources.  Even in well-to-do neighborhoods you may hear only a lone generator going after a blackout.  This lack of preparedness is truly frightening and plays itself out again, again, and again every time services are disrupted for minor to major reasons.  It’s as if there is something wrong with storing extra food, water, and supplies.

Even after “lessons” played out to what happens to those non-prepared, most people still feel that it just cannot happen to them, or won’t ever happen to them again.  It should be proof enough to people what happens to those unprepared after disasters simply by looking at those that have gone through it firsthand.  The difference, though, comes in that these disasters have had recovery periods and help from others. Even Haiti received some help and conditions remain putrid over there.

After a TRUE SHTF, it is presumable that government help and others coming to the aid of those in need WON’T happen for long periods of time. During that time those that have chosen to not put food, water, and necessities away are going to be in life threatening positions.  Most people just don’t get that when the supermarket shelves are empty they will stay that way for an extended period.  When the utilities go down, especially water, it may be weeks, months, or longer before they come back, if ever.  Without what someone needs to survive each day, it is not going to magically appear, and depending on the goodwill of others to feed them and sacrifice their own family’s survival chances is a terrible choice.

People MUST know what life will be like after SHTF in mega fashion if they refuse to prepare.  This is NOT new. Terrible events have plunged people into the deepest levels of desperation and hopelessness, and they will happen again and again.

While the above consequences to the non-prepper are extremely abysmal for anyone to read, the simple fact of the matter is they have already happened time and time again to those that have nothing put away.  People have resorted to cannibalism and gone to levels of primitive savage behavior out of shear desperation and out of literally losing their minds to the physical depletion of food and water that keeps the physical body operating.  Sometimes showing the extreme severity and results of a person’s lack of action, such as failure of the simple act of putting away extra food, water, and supplies, can be the kick in the complacency that they need.

It’s really easy to put away food and supplies. All one has to do is add a little bit of extra food to the grocery cart for long-term storage. Over time this adds up to a well stocked pantry of supplies.

There is something that is in a can of food that everyone can eat and enjoy the taste of, so talk to family members about their nutritional preferences and start stocking up.  Toilet paper and other supplies that really don’t have any expiration date can be put away and forgotten about ’til needed.

There MUST be common sense and intelligence to see what happens IF they don’t stock up for the future.  There has to be the DESIRE to get started, and this is the real problem with so many.

Once started, however, prepping becomes a type of life saving routine or positive lifestyle habit.   It is easy and can and will save one from misery. It may save their life and the lives of their family from ruin when SHTF, which is almost inevitably going to happen someday.  Every month and year that goes by without a true SHTF event, makes it more likely that it will happen.  Basic statistical chance shows this to be the case, but people continue the same pattern of behavior that has led them to the same devastation countless time before.

For those preppers that have people around them that refuse to prepare, you can at least have some degree of solace knowing that you tried to show the non-prepping person(s) what not having anything will mean to them and their families.

All we can do is try. Once we’ve given it our best shot, all we can do is let those who have been warned about the direness of the possibilities live their lives the way that want to. They will, unfortunately, live in a world of regret and suffering if the nation and the world falls apart around them.

To every action there is an opposite equal reaction. Preppers will see their efforts have been more than worth it.  Objects that are motionless tend to remain motionless and non-preppers will find there are horrific consequences for their lack of effort and motion to put away “life insurance” preps for themselves and their families.

 

 

Map: Where You Don’t Want to Be When It Hits the Fan

Mac Slavo
September 5th, 2013
SHTFplan.com

When it hits the fan America’s population centers will explode in violence, looting, and total breakdown of law and order.

It’s a theory put forth by numerous survival and relocation specialists, and one that makes complete sense if you consider what happens in a truly serious collapse-like scenario.

Survival Blog founder James Rawles calls them the golden horde:

Because of the urbanization of the U.S. population, if the entire eastern or western power grid goes down for more than a week, the cities will rapidly become unlivable. I foresee that there will be an almost unstoppable chain of events:

Power -> water -> food distribution -> law and order -> arson fires -> full scale looting

In his recent documentary Strategic Relocation, retreat expert Joel Skousen echoes Rawles’ warnings:

The number one threat that I concentrate on. It’s not terrorism, it’s not natural disaster, it’s not even government or war.

The major threat is population density.

Because every crisis that threatens, even a local crisis, can turn exponential because of close proximity to people who cannot help themselves. Even good people panic in a crisis…

So, where should you be when it happens?

To find the answer, let’s consider where we shouldn’t be.

Recent U.S. census data indicates that out of the 3000 counties in the United States, fully 50% of the population lives in just 146.

If you want to have any chance of surviving a wide-spread catastrophic event by avoiding the hordes that will be searching for critical resources in its aftermath, then check out the following map to get a visual reference of the areas you want to stay away from.

(Click here for larger image)

(For a complete list of the counties highlighted on this map click here)

When considering your retreat locations or emergency evacuation routes, be familiar with the population densities of the area you’re headed to, as well as those counties in your immediate vicinity.

In his book Patriots, James Rawles specifically points out that Highway 80, running through California, will be one of the busiest evacuation routes in the country as millions of people pour out of major cities to flee disaster or in search of  food.

So, no matter where you are located, consider your proximity to high traffic thoroughfares going in and out of the city. During Hurricane Rita, which hit Houston several years ago, every major pipeline out of the city was jammed for hundreds of miles. Interstate 45 from Houston to Dallas was bumper to bumper traffic. Normally a 4 hour trip, those who didn’t evacuate in time were stuck on the highway without food, gas, sanitation, or potable water for upwards of 15 hours.

This is why Joel Skousen suggests that those looking for strategic retreat locations or homes outside of major cities consider highway proximity. Be at least 5 – 7 miles away from any major thoroughfare, which is generally outside the range people want to venture off familiar roads, and far enough away to make any ‘walkers’ too tired to attempt the trip without ample clean water and food.

If you have no choice but to be in a major metro area during a serious emergency situation, consider strategies that can help you remain sustainable in the city even in the midst of panic.

Hat tip Satori

 

 

When Real Disaster Strikes: These Are The People Who Will Loot, Pillage and Kill You For Your Food

Mac Slavo
January 27th, 2015
SHTFplan.com

(Panic In Northeast: Tens of thousands raid grocery stores in search of food and supplies)

Time and again we are reminded why it is prudent to have a back up plan just in case things go wrong. You’ve already got car insurance, house insurance, medical insurance and life insurance. But what about disaster insurance? And no, we’re not talking about a piece of paper guarantee issued by some behemoth corporation who you’re supposed to call when things go wrong.

Real disaster insurance in this context refers to your own personal and familial emergency reserve supplies and strategies, to be consumed and implemented when all hell breaks loose.

What’s happening in the North Eastern part of the United States right now – “Snowpacolypse” – should convince anyone who hasn’t done so yet to prepare themselves for short- and long-term calamities. They happen quite regularly all over the world. We’ve seen them hit time and again in both, first and third world nations in the form of storms, natural disasters and even economic meltdowns. Yet, despite the repeated media broadcasts of suffering and complete destitution often wrought by these events, millions of people still laugh at the notion that, as even the government recommends, you should have a two week emergency supply of food, water and other disaster gear.

It is these very people – the ones who call preppers crazy and snicker at their idea of prudent preparedness and self sustainability - who will be out in force to loot, pillage and kill for these critical lifesaving supplies when a widespread disaster or emergency strikes their area. And no, we’re not talking about a 3-day scenario like a snow storm, which is limited in scope and comes with warnings ahead of time, with supply lines being restocked soon after the storm passes.

Rather, we’re talking about any number of events that are capable of crippling our entire nation in one fell swoop for an extended period of time lasting two weeks or more. These may include national-scale disasters such as a cyber-attack on our utility infrastructure, a super electro-magnetic pulse weapon that takes down our power grid, or a massive financial collapse that locks credit markets and makes resupply of essentials like food, medicine and gas impossible.

All of these events and numerous others like them, though unlikely, remain a plausible and serious threat to our way of life because they are capable of literally sending us back into the middle ages overnight.

Should such a scenario ever become reality, then guess who’ll be coming over looking to take your supplies?

Here’s a hint. They’ve been lining up in droves at local super markets and clearing shelves all over the North East as a massive snowstorm approaches:

Store shelves are cleared within hours of people realizing that a disaster is in progress:

We know what you’re thinking, “it’s just a snow storm.” And you’re right. These short-term events are nothing to really worry about. Even if you got to a grocery store late and couldn’t get food or fresh water you can still go over to a friend’s house or perhaps knock on your neighbor’s door for some food to get you by.

But should the disaster facing the population be something more severe, when people have realized that no re-supply is coming because our just-in-time transportation system has shut down, then you can fully expect that frantic knocks on peoples’ doors will be ignored.

Then what?

The answer is simple. As The Prepper’s Blueprint author Tess Pennington notes in Anatomy of a Breakdown, you can expect widespread societal breakdown within 72 hours:

Have you ever heard the saying, “We’re three days away from anarchy?”

In the wake of a disaster, that’s all you have is three days to turn the crazy train around before crime, looting and chaos ensue.

…

Multiple factors contribute to societal breakdowns including failure of adequate government response, population density, citizens taking advantage of the grid being down and overwhelmed emergency response teams.

For whatever reason, 3-5 days following a disaster is the bewitching hour. During this short amount of time, the population slowly becomes a powder keg full of angry, desperate citizens. A good example is the chaos that ensued in New Orleans following the absence of action from the local government or a timely effective federal response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In such troubled times, people were forced to fend for themselves and their families, by any means necessary. This timeline of Hurricane Katrina effectively illustrates “the breakdown,” and within three days, the citizens of New Orleans descended into anarchy, looting and murder

The majority of the looting, and certainly the despair, can easily be prevented with basic preparedness strategies that include managing your own food supply and stockpiling key supplies. In her free 52 Weeks to Preparedness web series Pennington outlines scores of essentials that you won’t really know you need until you need them, including food supply lists, medical items, toiletries, alternative power sources, and home defense tools.

At the very least, every American should have a stockpile, even if just a couple of boxes that fit in your closet, containing the following:

• Meals Ready To Eat – These are full course meals that pack a caloric wallop and will suffice just fine for a period of two weeks or more. They are compact and easy to store, and given their relative low cost, are an excellent investment not just for emergencies in your home, but something to take hiking, camping or leave in your car in case you find yourself broken down in the middle of nowhere. High density emergency food bars are another option to diversify your reserves.
• Water Reserves – Expect water utility companies to be out of operation as employees stay home to care for their families. This happens in almost every major disaster, meaning that you either better have effective water filtration and treatment supplies, or have reserve water packets.
• Medicine – Basic first aid kits are an absolute must. A small cut can do serious damage over a two-week period when there is no doctor.
• Toiletries – You’ll want some reserve toilet paper, for obvious reasons. But also consider sanitation as a key preparedness strategy, because if your toilet doesn’t flush then things will get ugly very quickly.
• For an extensive list of preparedness considerations, supplies and strategies check out the free 52 Weeks To Preparedness web series.

At last count some 1% of Americans, roughly three out of our nation’s 300-plus million people, have taken any steps to prepare. It’s a sobering statistic to be sure, especially considering that the Department of Homeland Security has warned people to stockpile at least a two week supply of food and water rations just in case.

Most Americans, it seems, still think the government will be there to provide assistance when the worst happens. The problem, of course, is that despite the millions of meals-ready-to-eat they have stockpiled, they will not have the resources to deal with 300 million desperate people.

The following statement from one San Francisco resident hit by last year’s West Coast storm pretty much sums it all up:

“I couldn’t get my car out of the garage, I have no food, I have no cash, so I’m trying to forage for something.”

After the 72-hour mark this individual and others like him will have no choice but to go out “foraging” for food. They’ll likely be armed, operating in groups and they’ll be going door-to-door.

 

 

The Gut Wrenching Reality: One of the Best Bug-Out Strategy Guides You’ll Ever Read

Todd Savage
October 4th, 2014
Strategic Relocation

SHTFplan Editor’s Note: At some point in the future many of us will be faced with a life-altering decision: To bug-in at home or to bug-out and head for the hills. In the following strategy guide our friend Todd Savage explores the former and discusses some critical considerations that must be made once you and your family come to the determination that it’s time to get out of Dodge.

Todd knows a thing or two about survival retreats, perimeter defense strategies and what it will take to survive should the world around us collapse overnight. He is the founder of Survival Retreat Consulting and recently launched the Strategic Relocation For Sale By Owner web site which pairs like-minded people offering strategic properties with those looking for primary residence outside of densely populated areas or simply a back-up retreat in the event of an emergency.

He has generously agreed to share his insights and recommendations with our community and you’ll likely find, as we did, that his analysis is right on target. In fact, we believe you’ll significantly improve your chances of avoiding dangerous situations and surviving just by taking the time to understand all of the components involved with a successful bug-out strategy.

We all have ideas of how a worst-case scenario event may play out. Todd does too and he does an excellent job of filtering out the dream and focusing on the gut wrenching reality of what we’ll face. It will be a trying time for all involved, but success can be achieved if you a clear and concise strategy in place.

Update: Part 2 of this series is now available here: Strategic Relocation Guide: How To Position Yourself To Survive A Major TEOTWAWKI Event

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Bugging Out: Dreams vs. Reality [Part 1]
By Todd Savage | Strategic Relocation

Don’t be the Last Out without a Destination!

Solar storm, nuclear EMP, or a derivatives crash; any one of these could trigger a national or worldwide socio-economic collapse on a scale nobody has ever seen, with the subsequent destruction of life, liberty and property almost unimaginable. Out of the smoke and stench of the collapse, one nasty fact remains; not living full time at a retreat will require bugging out, it’s just a matter of time. The journey for most will be long and treacherous, may take weeks, months or even years and may result in injury or casualties to the group. However, only those who are prepped, trained, have an up to date evacuation plan with a viable destination will be successful. We will try and help you create a bug-out plan and cover the basics of retreat selection by using an easy outline that forces you to really think through this critical aspect of survival.

‘Bugging Out’ may be one of the most discussed topics in the Survival and Preparedness world topped only by everyone’s favorite genre; firearms. Everyday there are new articles about bugging out; the best bag, fire starter, communications gear, flashlight, compass, et cetera, but rarely does the topic of the evacuees route planning and destination come to the forefront of the discussions. Why? It’s just not exciting, probably because you can’t put an ACOG, Magpul furniture, sling and a 40 round Pmag on your ‘destination’ and most folks just think they can make up the route as they go. Not so.

Let’s take a look at what some Preppers dream about as they drift off to sleep at night…

The Bug Out Dream: Buy a small parcel of land halfway across the country with all your friends. Build the coolest bug out bags ever conceived and wait for the mushroom clouds to appear. One day, it happens! In a magnificently coordinated evacuation everyone rides off into the sunset arriving unscathed at the fully self-sustaining retreat a few days later having fought through several zombie roadblocks. The group survives the collapse and all ends well. You write a book about your adventure and become famous the world over. The end.

Now let’s wake up in a cold sweat when reality hits…

The Gut Wrenching Reality: The lights go out for good. Too much time passes before realizing it’s not just another rolling blackout. The time to go safely has passed. Group members are scattered all over the city, with several key members out of town on business unable to make it back. Stress and panic reign as 2000 pounds of equipment fail to fit into an ill-conceived bug-out vehicle and trailer because there isn’t a destination with pre-positioned supplies. One member breaks down and decides to ride it out in their basement. Your own children tell you your crazy and sit in the front yard in defiance because you won’t bring the PlayStation 4, fear then turns to anger and rage. The next morning travelling westward towards no-man’s-land the truck runs out of fuel on a lonely back road trying to circumvent the next chaotic metropolitan area. After abandoning the vehicle and walking for three days, a hastily constructed checkpoint appears a hundred meters past the turn in the road that was not correctly scouted. Unfortunately, a ruthless street gang has set it up and the Preppers demise is all but sealed. The REAL END.

It’s time to take stock of where you are right now. How many Preppers have built a bug-out or go-bag, retrofitted an EMP proof truck and have a basement full of supplies, a basic evacuation plan, yet no destination to strive to reach? If we took a survey, probably more than 95% are not fully prepared. This is not good. Is it the end of the world if your family doesn’t own a retreat? Of course not, the reality is that most Preppers can’t afford a separate fully operational retreat, and that’s ok. However, not having a pre-arranged destination of some kind, with pre-positioned supplies is absolutely not acceptable. This could be located at a fiends or relatives home in the country, or a group purchase of a retreat, even a small parcel with a stream and cached supplies is better than nothing.

There are several aspects to every successful bug-out, the first of course is actually leaving your current location on time and travelling to your destination. The second is the destination itself. This article will cover the Basic Bug-Out Plan in two parts. This week Part I will cover the Plan outline and the following week Part II will cover the destination and survival retreat search and acquisition.

PART I

The Bug-Out Plan

To cover the bug-out part we have coined an easy acronym. Use it so you’re never: LAST OUT.

L ocation

A lternative Routes

S upplies

T iming

O bservation

U niformity

T ransportation

Location

Location and communication with family or group members when the SHTF will be key. The Dream is that everyone is in the same location and ready to go when the balloon goes up. Reality dictates otherwise. It’s always best to assume that the family or group will be scattered across the city at best, at worst members are out of town with limited or no means of communication. These factors complicate and unravel any good bug-out plan. Even the most decorated combat veteran will feel the gut wrenching pain when they realize that loved ones are possibly far away and unreachable if a sudden event arises. Communication or a complete understanding of when and where to meet will be required to keep order. If funds dictate the purchase of small HAM hand held radios for each member, then by all means do so.

Alternative Routes

It’s critical that two distinct routes are mapped with different rally points on the way to the final destination. The first route will be for an early bug-out, when the timing is perfect and all the roads will still be open, as mass panic has not ensued. These should still detail driving around major cities (but not smaller towns), as there is no reason to drive right back into a possible hot zone you have just left. Although this is a plan that may not ever be used, having it in place is required.

The second route plan will detail how not only to avoid all major metropolitan areas but must circumvent smaller cities and towns, especially those with bridges (and tunnels) that cross key terrain (water, mountains and gorges). No matter where you live and your intended route, there will be at least one bridge. These might as well be brick walls. If the bridge is controlled and they turn you away (or ambush you) all bets are off. Do you have your route planned to cross over key terrain features well outside of town and have you driven your route at least once, all the way to your retreat? Planning this type of evac route may take days, maybe your entire vacation, twice, but not only would it be fun (unless you have young children screaming in the back seat) but will ensure you have a fighting chance. If you think you can pick the route as you go, good luck.

Rally Points: Which rally points will be used? There are many factors such as the type and location of the event, wind direction (w/ other factors) and public reaction that will dictate which direction and rally point to use. Multiple rally points are crucial and they can only be identified as you pre-drive your routes. Everyone must understand routes to the main jump off point as well as additional rally points if any area is compromised.

The best advice is to have pre-planned rally points and schedules vacuum sealed in a water tight packet and carried in either each vehicle, in purses or day bags wherever family or group members go. It’s much easier to open and read instructions during stressful events that were previously well thought out and arranged. Locations of cached supplies, rally points, times and step by step color coded flow charts directing certain actions will work well.

These plans may be ever changing as members travel for work or vacation and should be updated to fit the itineraries of those that travel far and wide. It may be as simple as these out of touch members’ rally point is actually the objective itself, the retreat. You’ll see them if they make it, maybe weeks or years later. Period. If the travel is localized in the region, say within 100 miles, then standard rotating or floating rally points can be pre-selected and used.

Supplies

Your supplies will both hinder your movement and provide the means to keep moving. A certain pragmatic duality. Always pack your bug-out bag for dismounted travel. There are only eight basic mandatory items to cover in your bug-out bag to be ready. Remember, these packs are built light to allow you move RAPIDLY towards your rally points and then to the final destination where hopefully all your preps are waiting. You will have to modify these to fit your own unique situation, just ensure you pack them in dive bags to keep supplies dry and to use your go-bag as a flotation device if needed;

1. Water Purification Equipment (w/ extra filters)
2. Clothing for the anticipated environment
3. Shelter for the anticipated environment
4. Fire starter (reliable)
5. Food rations (dehydrated) and game processing tools
6. Personal Medical Kits (w/ Colloidal Silver)
7. Communications (HAM) and Energy creation equipment (small Solar charger packs)
8. Defensive equipment (lightweight and the ability to break down to hide in the pack)

Your own needs will dictate how incredibly light, or heavy and burdensome this pack will be in the end. The Myth says you can carry an 80-pound pack and an M1a rifle with a full battle load from Florida to your retreat in Montana. Reality says your better off with a 25-pound pack and a lightweight carbine. You decide, either way you’ll likely walk to your retreat in almost any scenario, so tread lightly, very lightly. Water is heavy, but the purification equipment is much lighter, so carry less water between rally points / bivouac sites and fill up when you’re unsure of the lay of the land. Topographical maps of your entire route on paper will allow planned water recovery breaks and less of a load. For more information about what to include in a pack please refer to this article.

Timing

Timing as they say is EVERYTHING. Timing will dictate who arrives to leave with you, the routes you choose on your way out, and of course if you can leave at all. Timing from the start of the event to ascertain when full public knowledge will hit causing the breakdown of local order is paramount. How many people sat and watched a few blocks away as the Towers fell on 9-11 and ultimately died because they were too close to the destruction and were hit by debris? How many more will perish in the next local, regional or national disaster by watching the events unfold, too in shock to move? Remember, it’s better to be a few minutes, hours or even years too early, than a second too late.

Living in Baltimore and own a retreat in Montana? Congratulations! You better leave early, or be a pilot. Storing up sick and vacation days that can be used at the last minute can be key. There may be times that the handwriting is appearing on the wall, and those days are used several times over a few years on events that don’t materialize, thus allowing a return to life as normal without quitting a job after acting in haste. First, its great training and dry runs always pay off later. One day, it’ll pay off as the collapse deepens quickly and you’re a day ahead of the stagnate freeways filled with zombies, rather than seconds too late. One day, the event may be upon us in a spit second, but all that training pays off in a well executed bug-out mission. One never knows, but that’s half the fun of being a Prepper, right?

Observation and Intel

In conjunction with timing is observing your surroundings and intelligence gathering. It can be very hard to keep the big picture in mind, as the world appears to be crumbling before ones eyes. Step away from the here and now, relax and take a moment to ‘see’ the world around you. Observing everything from traffic flow to the actions of people on the street will help determine if this is ‘the event’ that requires activation and implementation of the bug out plan. In such, accurate intelligence from any inside sources working in various sectors of our society will be invaluable. Are members of the group law enforcement offices, firefighter/paramedics, ER doctors, on active duty, in the financial business or in other jobs that may receive inside information early on about certain unfolding threats? If not members of the group or close outside friends are there neighbors who may feel an obligation to let ‘inside information’ and warnings slip out? Are these neighbors quietly packing up and leaving?

Pride in your network, group and plans that have been created can lead one to miss finite details that would otherwise warn of impending doom, keeping eyes and ears open so the boots can move fast when the intel points to the green light is key when living in perilous times and locales.  Remember, you’re not as good as you think you are, especially when the first bullet rips past your head. As you move along your evacuation route obtaining intel will be key, so try and converse with anyone that may look like they have information, if it’s safe to do so.

What’s to be learned here: Fast and accurate situational observation/awareness and intelligence gathering is key to activating the evacuation plan and bugging out before the golden horde realizes what’s happening. The sooner one leaves the farther the final destination can be. Again, the sooner one leaves the farther the final destination can be. If only one fact from this article is remembered let it be that.

Uniformity of Preps

For the few readers out there that have ever felt that comforting feeling when a teammate throws a spare magazine over while pinned down under fire, understanding uniformity of preps is easy. However, getting two or more Preppers to agree to go to a Group Standard system of preps, as coined by James Wesley, Rawles in his first book ‘Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse’, especially when it comes to firearms, is akin to paddling upstream. It’s sad that this has to be mentioned, but the reality of this very serious key criteria is that it will be both the undoing of many small Prepper groups during peaceful times and the death of many more when the Schumer Hits The Fan.

The best advice is for everyone in a small group to be willing to swallow their pride and make a change to a group standard list of preps. This should include Water purification equipment, Fire Starters, Medical kits, Communications gear, Energy creation equipment and finally, of course, Defensive tools. Utilizing the same style of packs with markers or tags to identify one another can also be of benefit. These can be sewn into the pack with IR reflective tape (with a cover) to use if everyone has NV gear. One of the most overlooked, but expensive preps, is the Thermal Monocular. Preferably a dual purpose so it can be quickly placed on a rifle for combat operations. These units can be a lifesaver, especially bugging out in urban environments, unsure of immediate threats. Then, in the countryside, seeing hidden ambushes or roadblocks may prove invaluable.

Transportation

How many of us have thought about multiple different and/or redundant modes of transportation, each with it’s own unique and targeted task in the overall bug-out plan? Each person is different, and we could spend hundreds of pages going through each unique bug-out plan, but for now we will focus on individuals or groups without young children, as these plans are the hardest to develop and even harder to execute successfully.

Ground Vehicles: Don’t fool yourself. You’re probably not going to get far in a vehicle, at least not if you’re leaving from the depths of a big city, especially a few minutes too late. If you don’t have children to protect, then the motorcycle may be the best ground based vehicle to outfit. Maneuverable both on and off road with fantastic gas mileage, the only caveat is storage for gear and gas. If you can modify a dirt bike with saddlebags and an extra 5-gallon can as well as wear your bug-out bag on your back with your rifle in a scabbard, then you may be in good shape.

For example, we will look at a group of friends that all have jobs in and around a very large metropolitan center in excess of a 500,000-population range. Let’s assume they have completed a group purchase of a small retreat property located in a small town about 800 miles from their location.

Each person has access to a storage unit that allows vehicle storage with a bug out motorcycle at the ready. Since the roadways in most events will come to a screeching halt within minutes or hours depending upon the disaster event profile, having well equipped motorcycles fast at hand to quickly leave the city will be key for this group.

Upon mutual agreement that they should ‘call it a day’ in the large metro area, due to an event such as the looming financial collapse or a Massive Causality Incident (MCI), the group members dawn their gear and utilize the motorcycles to move in and out of the standstill traffic on metro Interstate and then veer off on county roads for approximately 200 miles. This is the groups first rally point and well within a tank of gas for modified Enduro dirt bike carrying additional supplies. There they have stashed several mid seventies vintage 4×4 pickup trucks (EMP proof), each with the ability to carry a dirt bike or two in the beds, so they can bring them as back up transportation. The vehicles carry enough extra fuel and supplies to make the final 600-mile drive to the retreat location.

Although the aforementioned example is bordering on a script for a survivalist novel, the bottom line is that thinking outside the box will ultimately provide what anyone in a survival situation requires, OPTIONS, especially in the transportation aspect of a bug-out plan. The more options the better, and of course half the fun of being a Prepper is thinking through your own unique situation and working with your family or group to put these plans on paper and work towards the goal of making them a reality.

Boats: This is a widely overlooked transportation means for the Prepper, along with the Aircraft. Depending upon start and end points on the bug-out route a boat may be a key element of the escape. There are many retreats that are built on small islands on freshwater lakes not only in the U.S., but also around the world. Some are fairly inexpensive and are within reasonable affordability for most survival property buyers. A boat may be a necessary initial bug-out mode of transport to get over a small body of water such as a bay or across a lake that a large metro area is built on or nearby, especially in the Southeastern U.S.. I’m sure one may be hard pressed to hide a speed boat to leave Manhattan, but a small kayak might be the answer, who knows, just remember this is just another option in a world of chaos. The ability to have the bug-out gear all packed in separate waterproof storage bags (dive bags) in the backpack is also a great way to keep the gear dry and serviceable and to have a built in life preserver to swim or float across bodies of water if needed.

Aircraft:If there ever were a mode of transportation that could get a Prepper out of a jam, it would be air travel. Of course, it helps to be a pilot. There are several types of aviators out there; the novice, private, commercial, airline transport and the military pilot. The novice will account for most of the potential Prepper ‘pilots’ today, including myself.

A novice would fall into the first and easiest category; with fewer than fifty hours of training they could fly ultra-light platforms such as powered parachutes, gliders, trikes and small fixed wings (3-axis). The downside to these is their lack of an acceptable payload. It’s a great day just to bring along a small go bag with your rifle and one battle load of magazines and ammo. However, these types of ultra-lights can be stored very discreetly and enable the owner to leave the area of engagement extremely fast, hopefully not under fire.

Utilizing these small units where no pilots’ license is required to own or operate is a realistic answer to making a fast and short evacuation. However, the fuel capacity and limited range will quickly show their drawbacks. These units require many fuel stops and landing near a freeway off ramp to get gas may bring undue attention. If the landing was successful, who will guard the plane while you barter for fuel? If you own a two-seat rig is it better to take another person of 150 pounds of gear?

Planning for refueling will be a bit more technical than caching for your motorcycle or bug-out truck, and nightfall will certainly come at the worst time as well during your flight out of an affected area. For those of you that are pilots and reading this, you’re sure to be nodding in agreement. Being a proficient pilot (novice or licensed) is just the beginning of a huge learning curve that’s sure to provide more than a few ‘come to Jesus’ moments, so to speak. Thinking of using night vision goggles? Sure, until you realize it takes many hours of training to use them while flying. Being prepared means TRAINING!

These small, portable and easily hidden in plain site aircraft will be great to make those first 100 to 200 miles, albeit most likely alone of course, but it gets you out. There may be a scenario where this is used to get from a highly densely populated downtown area (in place of a motorcycle) to your home in the suburbs where the family is waiting with the bug-out vehicle, who knows, but it’s an option for sure. Typically anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000 buys one of these novice units, so they are affordable.

When planning for this contingency don’t think for a minute that after taking a few lessons that you’ll just fly off into the sunset with your gear. If you don’t own a Cessna or similar type aircraft it’s highly doubtful that you’ll be able to run to the nearest airport to rent one. The owners will be using those aircraft themselves to get out of dodge, or the airspace may likely already be grounded, like on 9-11-2001. Remember ‘Timing’ as noted in this article.

One last bit of advice from this ‘novice’; Keep paper maps at hand, as the GPS units and other navigation gear may be unserviceable. Always think about not having any sort of technology during the bug-out. For those professional or aspiring licensed pilots out there looking for a spectacular ‘destination’ in the American Redoubt, look no further than this Bug-Out Pilot property.

Dismount on Foot: For those out there that are not in shape, the word ‘dismounted travel’ should scare the hell out of you. For many, if they make it out of the city, death will find them on foot, and only in a matter of hours or days. No more fantasy survival novel about walking from Miami to Montana, good luck. It’s time for another reality check. If you can grab your bug-out bag, rifle and vest and walk out the door to complete the following, then you might have a chance;

5-mile walk with 100-yard sprints in between each mile

100 sit-ups

10 pull-ups

This is not a Special Forces test; it’s a wake up call. Stop buying cases of ammo and new guns, save your cash and buy a treadmill. Seriously, if it takes such a wake up call to bring ‘Tactical Fitness’ and ‘Mission Readiness’ back into the limelight, then so be it. Ask yourself if the SHTF right now if you could defend your family AFTER a massive physical endeavor like the one above, plus ad the psychological impact of a societal collapse happening around you. If you’ve never been in combat, go find someone and ask him or her what it’s like. You’ll be surprised at what they tell you. Whatever it takes, get in shape, the success of your bug-out plan is riding on it.

In The End

In Part I we have covered the basics of how to formulate a better bug-out plan by thinking about options. The hardest part of the entire evacuation / bug-out operation will be deciding when to go. This may seem easy on the surface but indecisiveness in the group will ruin friendships if the order is given even once without the event propagating into ‘the one’. If you happen to make the right call and it really is time to go, did you start soon enough? Your entire life and the lives of your family and/or group will depend on Timing. The Right Event, Right Time, Right Routes, Right Supplies, Right Transportation and Communication and of course the Right Destination. Whatever you do as the mushroom clouds rise, don’t panic and never be the LAST OUT!

Next week we’ll cover Part II, The Destination, the cornerstone of any true Prepper Bug-Out Plan, where we will take a close look at how to find the right Survival Retreat covering such topics as the correct Locale, Location of the Property, Land Attributes, Home criteria and of course Water, Food, Energy and Defense.

Bugging Out: Dreams vs. Reality [Part 2]
By Todd Savage | Strategic Relocation
Also Read Part I: The Gut Wrenching Reality

How to Position yourself to Survive a major TEOTWAWKI event

Many folks believe that the crash will be an instant in time, and the world will fall apart in hours. That may be so for local or regional events, or if you’re at ground zero of an event, but it’s more likely that an event that affects the entire nation or world unfolds over time, from weeks to months, maybe over a year, as we are seeing with the possible Ebola ‘Pandemic’ unfolding. It started last year on December 6^th, 2013, in the village of Meliandou, Guéckédou Prefecture, Guinea and NOT last week. Maybe a military bio weapon inside job, maybe not, but that won’t matter when you get the ‘fever’, will it?

Where will it be in the near future as it possibly mutates to an airborne strain and goes ‘viral’ during the winter, like a bad Britney Spears video? Nobody knows, but right now is the time to start thinking logically about getting yourself into position to deal with what may come, now or in the future.

Most of us have experienced what it’s like to be ‘out of position’, that empty feeling combined with a sharp pain deep in your gut when you know it’s already too late. Maybe it was the red and blue lights when you knew you should have slowed down, or the moment you realized you were never going to make it to your plane on-time, and of course the proverbial flat tire without a spare, jack or of course a lug nut wrench. Yes, we’ve all done it.

Let’s paint a picture with current events that will demonstrate the perfect storm catching you ‘out of position’.

It’s late January 2015, there are now several thousand cases in the larger cities like Los Angels, Dallas, Atlanta, New York City et cetera. FEMA finally decides that they must act, and the President orders a shut down and ‘preemptive isolation’ as they will call it of these cities. In reality Martial law has been declared with 25 mile no travel zones surrounding each city with all transportation stopped, except for approved food and supply shipments. Panic grips the nation as the sheeple realize that Ebola has now gone airborne, and mutated well past any ‘vaccine’ they may have created. Now smaller cities enact their own ‘self isolation’ blocking travel through on all roadways, leaving only the main US interstate system (in between major cities) for folks to flee and go ‘somewhere’.

The problem is that almost nobody knows where to go, and in haste will actually pack vehicles laden with furniture, TV’s, computers, family heirlooms and bring the interstates to a standstill. Then FEMA decides to order a full transportation shutdown, no air, ground or even sea travel allowed without inspections, permits and escorts, for any reason.

Now is NOT the time to be out of position.

A Transportation shut down = the end of your chances to bug out early effectively. What will you do when the thugs show up? Is this picture below what you want to see as you beg to be allowed to pass the checkpoint and bug-out to your retreat? Good luck. Even worse, think you’ll be able to fight past these jackbooted goons with your family in tow? You’re wrong and you’re family will die alongside you in a vain attempt to ‘secure your freedom’.

As we covered in Part I of The Bug-Out Plan, it’s important that you are prepared to leave early, once an event is identified as a possible threat. Remember, the farther your retreat, the earlier you must leave!

Now in Part II, we will cover in detail how to first decide where your location should be and then how to select the right property using a few basic criteria that all survival properties should have. Joel Skousen does an excellent job in his book ‘Strategic Relocation: North American Guide to Safe Places’, covering where these safe regions are in each state, and is perfect to use after you know the ‘why’ and ‘what’ you’re seeking to shelter yourself from.

The locale location is a very personal/individual selection based upon your own threat analysis and mitigation plans. However, one fact is universal when bugging out; You MUST have some sort of destination, where you know that fresh supplies and a new start are waiting. This is what we call ‘Being In Position’.

Before we cover basic criteria and how to secure your survival property / bug-out location, we need to understand what we’re up against here. The reality is that very few of us have a real understanding (combat veterans, maybe) of what life will be like after the lights go out.

What is life like in the middle of a civil war, socio economic crash or pandemic? I won’t profess to know, but realize that the woefully unprepared will be dead, and those that think they are prepared will be in for a heck of a journey, filled with massive psychological and physiological impacts which will govern their daily activities and decisions ultimately affecting their survival.

Foreign Invasion? Well, of Course.

In addition to dealing with ‘post collapse disorder’ (I’m sure Big Pharma would love to poison us with another pill for this), there is a good chance for a foreign occupation soon after. If you’re new to the Prepper world, and are on the fence about what may happen should we see a major event take place that affects the continental United States, do be warned that under no circumstances will another superpower let the opportunity pass to swiftly invade and create a stronghold by which to complete an occupation of this still great country.

Seriously, don’t stick your head in the sand. There is no reason to argue about who will actually invade and occupy us (although a joint Chinese/Russian ‘Peacekeeping Force’ will be a reasonable assumption), just know that it will happen and be prepared. Period. This may also affect your choice of locale for your bug out property.

If you think this man is scary, wait until ‘President’ Hillary reaches down and unlocks the door to gun confiscation, using UN troops to quell a socio-economic collapse that was years in the making, in thanks to Obama for giving her health care legislation the nod. A nice bait and switch eh?

Every country falls, no need for a history lesson here and so will America. If it’s within your lifetime it’s really going to be bad, very bad. Worse than any book or movie can portray. Why? Because it’ll be your new reality, forget all the preps you purchased, even the property you built for survival, the fact is that of those that make it that far in prepping, half will not make the grade for one simple reason; Mental conditioning.

If you survive the initial lights out event and make it to your retreat, then you’ll need to be prepared to live as sustainably as possible, during a prolonged foreign occupation and subsequent guerrilla war.

The New World As We Know It

Everyone is focused on surviving TEOTWAWKI, when we need to prepare for what the new world will be like afterwards. You survive TEOTWAWKI by preparing your plans and making a successful bug out and subsequent journey to your survival retreat property. Then, all your preps and hard work pay off to help you THRIVE in the ‘New World As We Know It’ (NWAWKI).

No, it’s not meant to replace the pillar of the Prepper world acronym; ‘The End Of The World As We Know It’. As TEOTWAWKI is the event that facilitates the initial rapid change such as a socio economic crash via solar or man made EMP (nuclear), pandemic, foreign invasion or civil war in these ‘united States’; NWAWKI is actually the term for a society forever changed, never to return to pre-event status.

Do you think the world will return to ‘normal’ after hundreds of millions die worldwide from a pandemic like Ebola? Well, there will surely be some fine real estate to buy, for pennies on the dollar. But think about how many years it will take to restore food production operations, transportation and the economy after such an event?

Longer than any of us can imagine.

Are you ready to turn back the clocks to the 1800’s for up to 10 years? Are you ready to literally sweat it out 12 hours a day just to eat? Sound far-fetched? No, it’s just time to refocus on the future, well past the crash.

Before beginning your search it’s very important to self assess your level of commitment to finding that safe haven. This does not entail how much money you have; this means do you have the ability to really make a positive change to your current situation. Do you understand what your personal threat analysis is, and the probability factor of these events taking place? And finally, are you willing to do something about them? This may seem easy, but for some it’s an overwhelming process, especially to those that may be new to the Prepping genre.

Don’t become overwhelmed.

Purchasing a retreat not only comes down to factual search criteria that can be easily vetted with a few spreadsheets, but requires a level of psychological preparedness before moving forward.

Threat Assessment

Not everyone will prepare for the same threats. Some folks think that a nuclear exchange is imminent, others a socio-economic collapse, maybe an EMP (Solar) or, a pandemic like Ebola.

Your threat assessment will help you decide to either relocate permanently to a rural homestead or acquire a bug out property. This list should encompass the full spectrum of threats (i.e., natural, economic, criminal, terrorist, and outright warfare and occupation).

These reasons must be agreed upon by all family or group members to enable a successful property purchase and retrofit.

Everyone’s assessment will be different, and this information will directly impact the selected regions for your possible retreat location.

Rural Homestead or Bug Out Property?

What’s the difference between a rural homestead and a bug out property? The rural homestead is a part-time or full-time residence and is working year round, possibly with a caretaker involved while the owners are away in the big city. The bug out property is sealed shut, hidden and ready for activation upon arrival of the group members.

After you have completed the threat assessment, and understand distance and travel times now it’s time to decide; To live or not to live at your retreat? Both James Wesley Rawles and Joel Skousen highly recommend that you live full time at your retreat, and I concur. However, this is not feasible for most folks. If you’re blessed enough to have the capital to make this move and can obtain new employment or take your job with you (internet workers, small business owners, or retirees) then great! Have at it. But for the rest of the Preppers the bug out property is your best logical bet to make it through a major event.

It’s important to understand that having a safe haven will not fully mitigate any threat, but it will help you minimize those threats based upon the seven basic criteria, Locale, Location, Water, Energy, Food, Defense and Safe Storage of Supplies. Even millions of dollars will not fully mitigate all threats, but a few wise decisions during the retreat search can greatly enhance both the minimization of all basic threats as well as provide a higher level of ‘thrive ability’. The ability to thrive and not just survive is paramount.

We all have seen Doomsday Preppers and other ‘reality’ shows portraying fellow well meaning Preppers racing to pack a basement full of preps into a trailer and bug out to the woods…

Stop the Madness!

They are already dead and don’t know it. Period.

A general rule of thumb is to have about 20% of the total preps at your home (along with the Bug Out Provisions) in the suburbs, to last about 3 months. Not that you would EVER stick around if the event was that long, but in the rare case when you were completely cut off and couldn’t leave for some reason, at least those preps are there to be used. If you can evacuate hastily, then those preps could be given away as charity, with a note left at the door. Probably best not to alert the neighbors of course, as they may want to tag along.

The other 80% of your preps should be at the destination property, with a few pre-positioned resupply cache spots along the intended bug-out route. The word ‘Intended’ is used very lightly, as that route will surely change and those supplies will be lost. How to pre-position caches along several routes will be covered in another article.

The point of a bug out property is to minimize as many immediate threats as possible, such as Dehydration, Starvation, Hypothermia and threats of violence. Bug out properties may be rudimentary and very functional but still must meet the seven primary criteria below.

Survival Property Key Criteria

The key elements of any retreat property search are;

Locale

Location

Water

Food

Energy

Defense

Safe Storage

After the retreat is built then you’ll need to properly stock it with Preps (pre-positioned supplies).

Retreat Locale

Before we dive into the fun side of the Survival Property search and criteria, the most important aspect to consider is the retreat locale. This single decision, normally the very first in the search, and in accordance with your threat assessment, will often be responsible for your long-term success and happiness.

The locale should fit you as well. Questions such as; Who are you? What are your beliefs? What activities do you enjoy? Are you single? Married? Children? How old are they now? Does the locale offer all that the children may need as they grow up? And of course the most important question, “is the locale of ‘like-minded’ people?” Will you want to get to know and work with these locals hand-in-hand to build a new town after the collapse?

We are not talking about joining the local Militia (Leaderless Resistance cells are key, never join a group, ever). What we are talking about is purchasing a property with a ‘No Regrets’ platform. This means if TEOTWAWKI happens that the property serves the needs of its’ inhabitants, but if you end up on your front porch 25 years from now sipping tea with your significant other holding hands watching the sunset over the mountains, you’ll have no regrets!

These are but a few of the real questions that you need to ask yourself before even thinking about where to purchase that retreat property. Sound silly? No, these are not off the wall questions, as from them come the wise answers to your long-term happiness.

Location and Vulnerability Test

The actual property location within the locale will be very important. Joel Skousen recommends being about 5 miles from a small town and 2 miles off the main road. This is an excellent base to work from, however, remember that many properties will be missed if this is a non-negotiable criterion. From my experience the actual town will dictate these distances, as well as the subject property’s attributes. For example, in some places in the American Redoubt, if you follow the 5/2 rule, you’ll be standing in the National Forest. That’s not all bad of course, but please allow the actual town and its’ characteristics/demographics create the rule for you on distance and location from the city limits.

This is where you’ll want to turn back to your original Threat Assessment, in order to screen the final properties on your list through a Vulnerability test.

How does each property stand up to the threats you wish to shield yourself from? Is the property within the Red or Yellow risk zones? Such risks may be too close to a main road, Fields of Fire are limited due to the terrain, a disproportionate amount of low lying land near a water source and a risk for flooding, maybe the property lacks a secondary source of water as a back-up or simply cannot sustain renewable energy and food production levels set due to north facing slopes and rocky terrain. The list can go on forever, but only you can make the final determination of the properties worthiness.

Examples of Vulnerability Factors (very basic list for examples only)

Red Zone (EXTREME)

1. Wells over 600 feet deep or very low static level in comparison to depth
2. Well production under 1 gallon per minute (1440 gallons per day)
3. Water must be hauled in and stored (like outside Flagstaff, AZ)
4. Rural Parcels smaller than 1 acre and/or neighbors very close
5. Rural large tract subdivisions with restrictive CC&R’s
6. Locales with wood burning restrictions for heat (like outside Missoula, MT)
7. Very steep and unusable terrain (unless that’s on your list for defensibility)
8. Only Northern exposure

Yellow Zone (High) Possibly Mitigated

1. Community Water system (needs a private well drilled after purchase)
2. No basement
3. Direct access from main roads with lack of cover/concealment
4. Direct visual from main roads (county)
5. The property is very heavily wooded with Fields of Fire issues

Green Zone (Medium) Typical rural property issues;

1. On-Grid and needs a full alternative energy system w/ backup installed
2. Lacks a garden and greenhouse
3. Water source is not gravity fed
4. Little or no secure storage or safe room(s)

The bottom line is that a property with a Red zone risk attribute should be discarded. Yellow zone risk factors may well be able to be mitigated with physical changes to the property or dwelling and Green zone attributes are typical upgrades that will be necessary to bring the property to a self-sufficient status.

Too Far Out? Having worked with many clients in the American Redoubt, those that chose to put fear aside as they worked with to complete their retreat search and acquisition are the happiest. The few that didn’t purchased properties so far out in the boonies that over half have since sold them and moved closer to small towns in their chosen locale. It’s almost impossible to survive and thrive at the same time, without a small community to integrate into and create a new and simpler life.

Overlooked Threats

There is one threat that retreat owners almost always overlooked, and is the number one killer of rural homes; FIRE.

Wild land and Structural fires, statistically speaking, are the number one threat, both now and during TEOTWAWKI.

Sure, we all can think about and plan for a raging firefight with UN forces, but the reality is that a simple kitchen fire or slash pile burn that gets out of control will bring disaster upon you and your family, destroying the home and all of your preps. This is why two key improvements are a MUST to consider during your retreat search.

1. Firefighting capability (Wild land, Structural and Tactical)
2. Safe room storage construction (theft and fireproof)

These improvements don’t have to be in place when looking for a home or property, but the MUST be able to be constructed and/or retrofitted to minimize these overlooked threats.

Firefighting Capability Checklist

Water: Regardless of how good the well is it’ll never keep up with firefighting requirements. A cistern must hold a minimum of 2500 gallons, however, this should be sized based upon the exact design requirements and what systems are in use. For a Wild land system alone, a minimum of 20,000 gallons (or more) may be needed since there may be a point where you’ll turn on the sprinklers and evacuate the property. Foam and gel systems that cover the home are now on the market and use minimal water, but are expensive though. There are no drawbacks to having massive amounts of water in reserve on the property, as it can be used for domestic use once filtered.

Energy: First, any electrical system running the water/foam pumps must be run off a dedicated generator system, and located away from the home with buried lines, even if the property is on the grid. Why? Electrical power will be compromised during a fire. The tanks should be buried and the generator located in a small fireproof, concrete shed if possible. If the pumps don’t have electricity, you’re out of luck.

Wild land Firefighting: Of all the fire threats, this is on of the scariest. A house fire is preventable and can be minimized and stopped if caught early. A wild land fire is very dangerous, unpredictable and very hard to fight, as they can grow is size exponentially and require hundreds or thousands of firefighters depending upon the terrain and weather. Choosing a location that is not susceptible to large wild fires is a good choice when looking for a locale. One tactic is to have either preset (buried) sprinklers, or the ability to deploy them around the defensible space on the property, as well as lines that spray the home. Having a steel roof will help immensely, and any retreat should be upgraded as soon as possible after purchase.

Structural: Many structural fires in rural areas are caused by carelessness with wood stoves or cooking stoves and that the owner panicked and fled, instead of using tools to fight the fire such as a fire extinguisher or a fire resistant blanket. For about $100.00 you can save your home. More importantly, having several pre-connected interior fire hoses (similar to what you see in high rises and hotels) are a great way to fight a fire in a tactical situation, or when you know that the volunteer department is not close by. Remember that a fire can double in size every two minutes, so time is of the essence.

Tactical: There may be a possibility of utilizing the Wild land sprinklers prepositioned around the property to confuse and delay an attacker, and the internal systems to stop a fire caused by such threat.

Safe Room Storage:  All of your preps MUST be stored in a fireproof concrete, reinforced room(s). Call it a safe room, bunker, shelter, the name matters not, but it must prevent theft and fire at a minimum.

Vacant Land or Home?

Everyone has a different idea of what constitutes the perfect property. The most important advice for this part of the search is to remember that the land can really never be changed. Sure, a bulldozer, an excavator and other heavy equipment can do wonders to a property, but you can’t buy a year round stream at Home Depot.

The land must meet your criteria, since it will dictate how self-sufficient your property will ultimately become. For many, money is an option, and the budget is fairly low. The best advice is to find the best land in your price range, period. Don’t overbuy and put yourself in a position where the land robs you of the capital that otherwise would have been used to make improvements and bring it to its’ highest and best use, Prepper style of course.

For those that have the capital and/or skill sets to build the retreat of their dreams, great, then the land will surely win. But, those that must or want to purchase a home the search instantly becomes harder.

We have all seen the perfect home, sitting in the worst location on land that was nowhere near close to qualifying as a sustainable property. Yes, the home is very important, but one day you’ll wake up and regret that beautiful home if the property as a whole won’t sustain you and your family or group.

What to look for in your future Safe Haven

Now that the locale has been identified and you’ve decided on vacant land or a rural homestead comes the fun part, the criteria that will provide you the ability to become self-sufficient before, during and after the collapse. First, all property should have good sun exposure, hopefully Southern, of course then we can work on the big four.

Property Attributes and Criteria

There are four distinct and primary property aspects that must be considered which all work towards the goal of becoming self-sufficient;

Abundant year round water + Alternative Energy + Sustainable Food Production =  a property worth Defending.

It’s that simple.

Water

This attribute, like oxygen to live, must be number one, every time. Secondary water is most critical and should be sought after. Not everyone will end up with this attribute, but keeping it on the top of the list, no matter the budget, is paramount.

Most rural properties will have either drilled water well or a hand dug well with a cistern. A few will utilize surface water such as a creek/stream/brook and sometimes spring fed ponds or lakes for the domestic water source.

Hydro Power: If you find a property in your price range that has the ability to install hydroelectric power, and it meets all the other criteria on the list, BUY IT. Hydropower is the most sought after power source for most Preppers, although it generates less power each hour, it creates this power 24 hours a day. Plus, you may be able to divert part of the penstock water flow for a gravity fed system for the home, and use the tail water from the hydro system to feed a stocked pond.

Surface Water vs Well Water: Gravity fed spring or diverted stream water into a cistern storage tank is perfect if your budget is constrained. It’s better to have a year round surface water source (in an area of deep wells) as you can save cash for building the home or safe storage facility, by simply hauling and filtering the water (never haul water from off site); even integrate it into an Earthship or other alternative building style along with rain catchment.

Wells:  A shallow well (under 400 feet is best) that produces over 2-3 gallons per minute will be sufficient for almost all retreats. An artesian flowing well is very sought after and should be highly coveted if found.

Community Systems: Although much less acceptable, some properties have a small community water system fed from large producing wells nearby. These are done primarily due to the local well depths, sometimes 700 to over 1000 feet deep, and at cost over $30.00 a foot, it’s sometimes cheaper to hook up to the local private water district. It’s ok to buy these properties if you plan to drill a well at some point, or have secondary year round water. Even a large pond filled with seasonal run off would work if done properly for emergency water and firefighting, coupled with rain catchment for very conservative homes or retreats.

No matter how spectacular the property, make sure there is some type of primary water available. Most vacant land will not have a well drilled by the seller, so be sure to check neighboring parcels for the depths of those completed wells and speak with the neighbors and a local driller before completing the purchase. This information will at least give an idea of what to expect.

Energy

After your property is purchased and you have ensured a year round water source has been completed, the power must go on.

For many Preppers they narrow the property search right away to only off the grid type properties. This is a mistake. Very few buyers find a fully functioning and ready to go retreat. Why? Because, alternative energy is not and will not be very popular with the mainstream crowd for sometime due to the lack of education about the viability of the systems.

Today, especially in the past 48 months the advances in technology and manufacturing of Solar Cells, Nickel Iron Batteries and upgraded charge control equipment have brought the prices down considerably to the point that its economically feasible to be completely off the power grid, which is the point of being a Prepper, right? Does it really matter what the pay back time is on an alternative energy system is when the lights really go out?

Most retreats will have Solar power with some sort of generator backup source (gas, diesel, propane) and on rare occasions will have hydropower. No matter the power source the batteries will be the heart and soul of the system. Most folks will use a lead acid battery that is susceptible to discharge issues and freezing, and they last between 8 and 20 years. By far the best batteries were invented by Edison over a century ago and are made of Nickel-Iron. They last upwards of 30 years or 11,000 cycles. These US made batteries are from Iron Edison. Be sure to check them out, they are well worth the extra soon to be worthless fiat currency.

Food

In many retreat areas in the world, other than the tropical regions, year round food production can be a real threat to the life of a Prepper. During a major TEOTWAWKI event, fresh meat from wild animals will quickly become scarce for several years, combined with the lack of live enzymes from nutrient dense fresh garden foods will only increase the death toll from sickness that could have been prevented or cured by healthy immune systems.

This leads us to the next task; how to grow this fresh food in the winter? For those that are able to bring alternative power of some kind to the retreat, then growing food is as easy as pie, well sort of. Construction of a standard or walipini style greenhouse heated by either a wood stove, wood fired boiler or a rocket mass stove is best. Then simply use LED grow lights and you’re off and running. In addition, the property should meet your own specific needs relating to animal production, from grazing pasture to ponds stocked with fish, the sky is the limit.

One last note of sustainable food production; A rural homestead, up and running, with food production already in place when the crash happens will be a valuable asset. Arriving at a sealed bug out property, with only dehydrated food and a properly stored seed bank, will be a major task to get up and running knowing that it could be up to three months to the first harvest. If it’s winter, the greenhouse will need to be constructed or taken out of mothballs, so to speak, and the seeds started, while trying to maintain proper heat either in the greenhouse, or the home, bunker, et cetera and provide the light needed. No small task, even for those of us that grow year round, it’s a challenge.

Defense

Now that we have a property with abundant Water, alternative Energy creation and sustainable Food production we can talk about defending the assets you have in place. There is no way to cover actual defensive plans as they are specific to the actual property, location et cetera, but we’ll cover a few areas that most overlook. It’s not all about guns and ammo; it’s more about food and billeting.

First though, understanding what it takes to really defend a property all comes down to one nasty aspect; the willingness of the defender to take another human life. There is no need to push out our chests and spew macho talk, we all agree that protecting our family is what we are called to do, and we plan to do it, hence our genre of Prepping. However, if you’ve never seen combat or been involved in a life threatening situation that resulted in the loss of life to someone, in front of your eyes, then seek out somebody that has. We should seek out those with knowledge in areas we lack in to help us prepare, and this is an important area to gain knowledge in. No amount of preparation can teach you the ‘gravity of the moment’ you’re looking at a threat through a rifle optic with your finger on the trigger, but it may help.

Moving on. What to expect once you make it to the retreat and everyone is settled in may be different than you think. Here are a few thoughts and tips on overall defense of the property.

1. OP/LP posts must be manned 24 hours a day.
   1. Don’t forget about tactical communications

2. Manned posts will take more retreat members to cover the property 24/7
   1. Make friends with neighbors and have a mini-local plan w/ them.

3. You must feed these members, whether they are original retreat members or they were hired on after the collapse.
   1. Over build your food production systems

4. Store, pre-build or retrofit for extra billeting such as;
   1. GP Tents or Yurts
   2. Extra rooms in the retreat
   3. Personal shelters w/ appropriate weather sleeping gear
   4. Sanitation: privy and/or larger septic system

5. Group Standard Equipment (thanks to JWR)
   1. Buy or require members to have standard
      1. Camouflage patterns on clothes and gear
         1. Identifying marker (day and night)
   2. Weapons that take the same
      1. Caliber and Magazines
   3. Night vision and Thermal devices
   4. Medical
      1. Initial Ballistic Trauma kits (Quick Clot, et ceterah)

6. Caffeine
   1. Yes, forget to store and rotate coffee beans, or buy them in bulk as the hordes empty the shelves? I hope not. You’ll need them!

When searching for the right parcel of land or rural homestead, if you put the defensibility factor first, there is a good chance that the property will not be very self-sufficient. Living on the top of a mountain top, in a fire look out, sounds really cool and defensible, and it surely is, but the year round stream for hydro power and secondary water is not going to appear out of the air and the rocky terrain will not grow your food, so choose wisely.

Simply remember that a property with water, alternative energy and food production is worthy of defending. Talk to any combat veteran and they’ll tell you that almost any specific area or property can be defended, it’s just a matter of personnel and equipment, and at what cost.

As a retreat owner, this equates to: Do you have enough friends now, or can you make enough friends in the locale, and can you feed and billet them all? A very simplistic task on paper, but a logistical nightmare to implement in real time.

After your purchase and getting to know the property enough to where you can walk it in the dark, you’ll then be in a position to really sit down and think through a realistic plan of engagement for defensive operations. If you can afford it, and the property is big enough, seek professional help from those with actual combat experience to help you design your defensive plans.

Safe Storage of Supplies

Finally, the property and/or the home must have options for secure storage of supplies; otherwise, what’s the point in bugging out to a great retreat with nothing left after a theft or fire? It’s not imperative to have the best soil for building basements, however, it certainly costs much less to make improvements without boulders of granite, but it can be done.

I’m a proponent of having two separate storage facilities, one underground, built to be fire, flood and theft proof, outside the home along with a safe room(s) in the home for easy access. Joel Skousen is a master of this area and has written a fantastic book called the Secure Home, and should be consulted whenever ready to make such improvements.

In Conclusion

It’s time to get you and your family into ‘Position’ to survive. Stay within your financial means to find, secure and stock a rural homestead or bug out property that is within reach of your current location based upon a realistic capability to reach that point in a worst-case scenario.

Owning a survival property is an attainable goal to strive for so work hard, think and act decisively so your family will survive the coming collapse.

If you have questions about finding a retreat property please contact Todd Savage at strategicrelocationgroup@gmail.com or call 406-241-1795.

Todd Savage is the CEO of the Strategic Relocation Group that operates Survival Retreat Consulting, Strategic Relocation Realty, Strategic Relocation FSBO and Strategic Relocation Blog.