>>The “burbs” are a death trap.<<
Agree, however, we are having a mild disagreement in my family - only those who are predisposed to prepping are included - whether to a)defend the castle or b)GTFOOD.
A little background - suburban area 7 miles from the city, upper middle class neighborhood, wooded subdivision, house at end of a “T”, my house on the downside of a hill, etc. The one thing I’m having difficulty in convincing the others is what circumstance(s) would have to occur when the best thing to do is GTFOOD. Right now, there are 8 people (only one child, aged 5)in the extended group.
You might be able to solve that arguement but I don’t know your circumstances.
Irresolable Problem No. 1: You have to have a place where water is available; the problem with the burbs, (or the cities for that matter) is that the water supplies are dependent upon electric powered pumping stations. When the power goes, the water goes. Within 24 hours of the emergency, (or less depending upon advance notice), all bottled water will be scarfed up. You can only survive for three days without water.
Irresovable problem no. 2 is that the denizens of the city will be streaming out of the Urban pits of despair, armed to the teeth and ready to kill for fun or profit and they’ll be streaming right to the burbs, going door to door, looking for.........food, water, money, bullets, booze and sex. They’ll kill you if you’re male, they’ll rape your women and kids and then kill them as well for the fun of it. And they may not kill them quick! See the story about the guy that set the old woman on fire with gasoline? And the problem is, most will be the “Government’s People”, Section 8 HUD types whose dope dealers have run out of “dope”; they’ll be looting the drug stores and killing indiscriminately. Dopers without dope are desperate people.
Irresolvable Problem No. 3: Assuming you did have a back up generator and a weeks worth of water, there won’t be any gasoline; store up gasoline, crank up the generator and some low life scum comes to kill you for your fuel.
Irresolvable Problem No. 4: Your trapped; the Government doesn’t much care if you live or die; but they won’t want the chaos and disease (there will be regardless because of the piles of dead bodies of people shot or starved to death), to spread. The so-called “First Responders”, cops, EMT and Fire folk will be the first people outa town. But a couple of weeks into the calamity, the Army/National Guard will encircle you to enforce a “DIP” plan, i.e., Die-In-Place, meaning, you won’t be able to leave.
So......the only option is to prepare a place, at least 80-150 miles from any major urban area and I’d stay away from the small towns as well. You need land; shelter, water, food stores, firearms, bullets and lots of them. But the further away from Cities/Suburbs-People you are, the better your chance of survival.