How to Survive Societal Collapse in Suburbia

New York Times ^ | 11-16-12 | KEITH O’BRIEN

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On a clear morning in May, Ron Douglas left his home in exurban Denver, eased into his Toyota pickup truck and drove to a business meeting at a Starbucks. Douglas, a bearded bear of a man, ordered a venti double-chocolate-chip Frappuccino — “the girliest drink ever,” he called it — and then sat down to discuss the future of the growing survivalist industry.

The fact that Douglas not only told me where he lives but also invited me to visit him would be considered a huge mistake by many in the prepping world. Revealing your location runs the risk of compromising your Opsec, or “operations security,” an abbreviation coined by the military and adopted by survivalists. “I don’t even mention what state I live in,” James Wesley Rawles, the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, a popular prepping Web site, told me. “All I’m at liberty to discuss, with consent of my wife, is that I live somewhere west of the Rockies.”

For Rawles and others, it’s a matter of security. Revealing your location gives the Unprepared a road map to the stockpiles of the Prepared, in the event of Teotwawki. “I don’t want to wake up and find out that I’m the go-to guy — literally,” Rawles says.

If civilization breaks down, Douglas’s house is definitely where you want to be. In his home office — the de facto headquarters for Red Shed’s six shareholders and two independent contractors — he keeps not only his iPad and his MacBook but also a ham radio and a C.B. radio. In his basement, there is roughly a year’s supply of wheat, rice and other staples. And outside, he tries to keep a year’s supply of chopped wood and, in his garage, 375 gallons of water.

[editor-surveyor]

>> “FerFal has written about the strategy of the abandoned home.” <<

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I seem to remember him speaking of a “home” within another building, and with a circuitous and well hidden entrance.

[JRandomFreeper]

Amateurs discuss tactics. Professionals discuss logistics. ;)

/johnny

[PA Engineer]

I seem to remember him speaking of a “home” within another building, and with a circuitous and well hidden entrance.

I think that was Selco. Ferfal was from Argentina and lived through an economic collapse. He had a much different take on making the home appear to be abandoned. When the home appears abandoned, looters will have no fear entering. His concern was individuals pretending to be utility workers or any other non-threatening person. These were the ones that would come to the home and murder families to get to the belongings.

[editor-surveyor]

U R right, my bad.

[editor-surveyor]

>> “The final survivors will be the cannibals.” <<

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The final survivors will be God’s elect.

[editor-surveyor]

>> “and of course killing and burying everyone is not possible” <<

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That is what manholes are for.

[One Name]

You got it, FRiend!

We were raised right and will exist to the last like snappin’ turtles!