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Cities – A Prepper’s Nightmare & Solutions
SHTF Plan ^ | 4/10/12 | Jessica Hooley

Posted on 04/10/2012 6:53:21 PM PDT by Kartographer

Is it a coincidence that all of my nightmares occur in big cities? While it may be a personality glitch, I find that considering the dangers you face in the event of an emergency while living in a city, my nightmares may be justified. If you live in a city – buckle up. As a prepper you will have to work extra hard to make your emergency plan viable. And while I make no judgments on city dwellers, I must say – MOVE! For your own safety – MOVE! Move, move, move, move, move. Okay. I think I got it all out.

Now I understand that not everyone can just pick up and move because some lady on the internet says so. So if you are in the situation where you must stay in the city here are a few things you MUST have in your emergency preparedness plan.

(Excerpt) Read more at shtfplan.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: preparedness; prepperping; preppers; preppersincities; selfreliance; shtf; survival; survivalping
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To: Kartographer

I reminded my college kid of this just today. Whether know-it-all kid acts on it quickly enough...


21 posted on 04/10/2012 7:56:08 PM PDT by bgill
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To: All

Yeah, I do see some problems with this article. Keeping a truck ? Yeah, it’s a good idea when things calm down, but with a few caveats:

When “things calm down” and there are no more cars on the road, it’s because there is no fuel either.
A truck is large, and difficult to hide. A small truck is no better than a station wagon - It’s open (Or easy to get opened) and the more capable it is, the larger it is.
They can make a lot of noise. When it’s quiet, just about any car can be heard for miles and miles.
It’s another desirable item that you’ll have to defend.

In the city, it’s all about foot traffic. Even a bicycle is an object that needs defending. Learn to dress in layers - look and act like a mentally unstable bum. Carry as much ammo and weapons as you can. And to get your family out of town, you may need multiple trips. (stage your supplies, and stage them very close. Make it from one building to another for one day. Have supplies there. Next day, another building. Glacial movements.)

Learn how to dress the women in your family as convincing boys. Learn, yourself, how to change race. Learn a foreign language with enough fluency to get through a block or two.

Stop and listen. Stop for days if you have to. Be patient. Moving about the urban (Or even suburban) landscape is glacial. In my area, there are Bilco doors to get into basements. A lot of these aren’t locked. Camp out during the day, move at night. Stay quiet.

I could go on and on.. But urban survival, or exodus, is not covered in this article.


22 posted on 04/10/2012 8:08:45 PM PDT by Celerity
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To: driftdiver

I also wonder whether people who think they’re going to live by hunting might have a nasty shock in store when hunters from the cities realize there’s no tags and the only limit is what they can carry off. Literally millions would be heading out to where the game is, probably in organized foraging parties. Could current game populations withstand that kind of pressure for any length of time? That’s the bitch about being out in the country. What do you do when 500 armed hungries descend on your farm? (My guess is you die.)


23 posted on 04/10/2012 8:09:59 PM PDT by Trod Upon (Obama: Making the Carter malaise look good. Misery Index in 3...2...1)
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To: basil

Ping to read tomorrow.......


24 posted on 04/10/2012 8:10:17 PM PDT by basil (It's time to rid the country of "gun free zones" aka "Killing Fields")
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To: MtnClimber

You will have to worry about your immediate neighbors as much as roving gangs.


25 posted on 04/10/2012 8:12:00 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Kartographer

My Sister-in-law was in Los Angeles during the Cuban Missile Crisis. She said people were grabbing things of the grocery shelves and trying to get out of town fast. Cars were overturned, no one paid any attention to stoplights. It was a mad house.

I remember the first power outage (1965)for NYC. Nothing happened. No looting. no crime.
12 years later under Jimmy Carter, during that power outage there was massive looting.

Same for the last power outage there. Massive looting.

So what happened since 1965?


26 posted on 04/10/2012 8:12:03 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Kartographer
You can survive in a city as well as anywhere if you use your wits, but it depends partly on the nature of the disaster. The one thing a person can count on is that whatever happens it will happen in ways unexpected. I believe a good small town is the ideal disaster survival environment, mutual defense and people to trade with.
27 posted on 04/10/2012 9:09:09 PM PDT by dog breath
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To: Kartographer
I don't begrudge preppers, but I am curious as to why so many actually think something is going to happen. My personal theory is that humans are creatures designed to overcome incredible difficulties, and our modern lives have virtually no difficulty, so most people sit around wondering about some imagined horror story. The U.S. has been incredibly stable for over 200 years and all of the West has been mostly stable with the exception of a few wars. I don't see the historical precedent for the prepping mindset.

I'm not saying don't prep at all. Of course, natural disasters and the like happen. In addition if you are in regular fear of urban rats you probably live in the wrong place regardless of exremental fans and whatnot. Having a few days or even weeks supply of essentials is reasonable but these people who live their lives preparing for doomsday seem to be missing the point of living, but to each his own.

28 posted on 04/10/2012 9:47:36 PM PDT by douginthearmy (Obamagebra: 1 job + 1 hope + 1 change = 0 jobs + 0 hope)
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To: Kartographer

Most folks better plan on holding up in your home.

“bugging out” is a tough proposition.
If you think you’re going to drive out, you better have a big head start, and a clear destination.

If you think you’re going to backpack out, you better get an idea of how far you can carry 50 lbs. and where you thing you might make camp.

Ya, don’t talk to me about being stuck in a downtown metro area.
Get out early, because only the most aggressive “animals” will survive 30 days.


29 posted on 04/10/2012 9:50:00 PM PDT by G Larry (We are NOT obliged to carry the snake in our pocket and then dismiss the bites as natural behavior.)
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To: douginthearmy

When Burger King closes and the entitlement class can’t get lunch, they’ll be coming to your house for dinner.
In case you haven’t noticed, the POTUS is trying his hardest to collapse the economy and start a race war. When that happens you will need weaponry to defend your home or you will lose it, quite possibly along with your life.


30 posted on 04/10/2012 10:00:39 PM PDT by TsonicTsunami08
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To: douginthearmy

For many different reasons. Whatever you realistically believe is a potential threat/disaster that could occur you will have to deal with. A lot of people are boy scouts when it comes to life.

Right now this country is very polarized, and more so on purpose by the Kenya-resident. It is Makers vs Takers simply put. The taking is increasing and they are to the point they demand it and expect it and believe they are morally entitled to it. The other side is greedy, they are not. What’s theirs has been taken/kept from them.

At the same time government continues to be a bigger brother everyday and the constitution is an obstacle and a joke to these people. Both sides have totally opposite ideas of governing the country and there is no middle ground on most of the issues.

We have a 16.5 trillion dollar national debt that’s increased 45% the last 3 1/2 years. The country is slated to go down the tubes.


31 posted on 04/10/2012 10:08:27 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: G Larry

I keep telling people just driving somewhere is not going to be as easy as they think.

They will be ambushed on the roads. Country folks and small town people aren’t going to let strangers in to their areas to create havoc or form a bunch of tent cities that will start begging locals for supplies.

They will be ambushed on roads, there will be roadblocks and checkpoints, and there is a chance that they will need YOUR supplies and vehicle and relieve you of them.

It’s not a panacea that way either. bullets go through typical car doors and windows real easy.


32 posted on 04/10/2012 10:12:06 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: TsonicTsunami08

Half are too stupid to know where to go. They will go down to city hall and tear those people apart, if they don’t get mowed down.

They will do what they always do, take each other out. It won’t change all of a sudden that they will stop attacking each other, if anything they will escalate attacking each other.


33 posted on 04/10/2012 10:15:43 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: douginthearmy
Having a few days or even weeks supply of essentials is reasonable but these people who live their lives preparing for doomsday seem to be missing the point of living, but to each his own.

It has been my experience that when someone's view of another makes them look more like a cartoon character than a live, flesh and blood person, their view probably IS of a cartoon character.

As goofy as it sounds, you would be amazed at the number of secular people who really believe all those folks go to church every Sunday in the hope of sitting on a cloud, plucking a harp after they die.

34 posted on 04/10/2012 11:16:19 PM PDT by papertyger ("And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if..."))
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To: Kartographer

Seems to me that the key is to GOOD BEFORE TSHTF. Leaving too soon may incur needless cost and inconvenience. Leave too late and you will be trapped. The proper time to bug out is hard to gauge, so I’m looking for warning signs. However, that only works for things like financial collapse, pandemics or civil unrest. Natural disasters may be predictable (hurricanes, snow storms, etc.) while others may not (tsunami, EMP, etc.) Terrorist attacks will come without warning. All we can do is hope that we get SOME warning.

Saw a statistic on “Doomsday preppers” last night that said that 75% of Americans think they could evacuate their homes in less than an hour. I think that is too optomistic. If you are leaving with the clothes on your back, a bugout bag, a pistol, a rifle and/or a shotgun plus ammo - maybe. Proper loading to include food and water, first aid and tools is going to take longer.


35 posted on 04/11/2012 2:09:18 AM PDT by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners)
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To: NTHockey

Most people could evacuate in less than an hour. However they wouldn’t have many supplies and probably a half tank of gas.

Unless there is a cat 5 hurricane or an invasion I’m staying in my house.


36 posted on 04/11/2012 4:03:03 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: G Larry; Kartographer; All

I posted this here a while back on the same theme.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2843624/posts

Some good comments on bugging in and hiding in the thread.


37 posted on 04/11/2012 5:37:41 AM PDT by EnglishCon (Gingrich/Santorum 2012.)
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To: douginthearmy

Why prep for one reason it’s much easier explaining why I prep than explaining to my children and loved ones why I didn’t.

Secondly in those two hundred years name a time that we had a government that was so hostile to such a large potion of it’s population? The only time I can think of was during the Civil War and I can’t imagine that you could find very many Southerners from that time who didn’t wish they had been able to put back something for what was coming.

One last thing it’s only been in the last fifty years or so that prep wasn’t seen as the ‘norm’. I remember my Grandmother’s pantry and root cellar and my Grandfather’s garden. We now live in a time where there is only three days worth of food readily available at our local outlets. That means if something happens and the trucks don’t roll there well be a lot of hungry people.

You might like to read:

Just In Time: When the Trucks Stop, America Will Stop

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2867265/posts

Lastly something to think about:

“There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger.

Underestimation can be fatal.”


38 posted on 04/11/2012 7:01:26 AM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: Kartographer

Something interesting just came to me the other day. Every Spring I do my ammo reloading. The boxes I use are 50 rounds. The cost to me is less than $20 per 50 round box. The retail cost is between $50 and $75 per 50 round box, depending on sales, etc. Imagine during SHTF what the cost per box might become after supplies, especially ammo, cease.

This dovetails with the city issue in that cities will no doubt experience supply issues right off the bat. If something like ammo can go from $50 a box to perhaps many times that due to being in short supply, imagine what all kind of things might cost once the supply chain is a trickle. Cities will be hit the worst as they simply try to feed themselves much less supply non life giving items like food.


39 posted on 04/11/2012 8:17:56 AM PDT by CodeToad (I'm so right-wing if I lifted my left leg I'd go into a spin.)
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To: CodeToad

“non life giving items like food.”

Should be, “non life giving items other than food.”


40 posted on 04/11/2012 8:22:07 AM PDT by CodeToad (I'm so right-wing if I lifted my left leg I'd go into a spin.)
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