Urban Survival – Recommendations for Midwest Senior Couple

UrbanSurvivalSkill.com received the following on e-mail.

“We are a senior couple in our early sixties living in the suburbs of (a large city in the Midwest ). My wife and I are both fit and healthy outdoors types, both retired and living off our Social Security, my small pension and some investment income. We see the value in being prepared for all sorts of collapse scenarios including anarchy in the streets as well as the value in re-locating to a safe place. We also see the logic in assuming that most people, including us, will probably wait too long in our urban locations before pulling out (bugging out as you call it) for our safe place.”


“I have a sister living on a 6,000 acre farm about 3 hours away from us. She is a widow, also retired (as a teacher) but supplements her income tutoring students. Other than having a 12 gauge shotgun and a .45 pistol from my Dad’s World War II service, camping equipment and our own small garden, we are relatively unprepared. I know we need to get better prepared for Urban Survival but I can’t see us running around in camouflage fatigues, etc. Any input would be appreciated.”

Urban Man Comments:

The first step is recognizing the need to be prepared. Second think about all different scenarios, e.g..hyper-inflation, economic collapse, bank closures, your social security checks and even pension checks stop coming, infrastructure collapse, and, all the problems that create. This is called Wargaming. This process will identify contingencies you need to plan for which in general would be: unavailability of food, water service stoppage, lack of medical care, security issues especially in an Urban/Suburban environment with groups of hungry desperate people.

Here is what I would consider doing:

Stockpile some food. Consider six months for two people minimum.

Prepare a couple of Bug Out Bags to support movement on foot from your home to your sister’s farm. 300 miles at even 20 miles a day (which is an unrealistic sustained movement rate) would take you 15 days. You won’t be able to carry 15 days of food and water, even not considering other essential Survival Gear and Equipment. Visit my posts on Bug Out Bags.

Your Bug Out plan would primarily be your vehicle. Ensure you have enough fuel to make the trip by keeping a couple empty fuel cans in your garage and filling them up when collapse indicators indicate a stepped up level of preparedness. Your Bug Out Bags would support you if your vehicle runs out of fuel or breaks down, or circumstances dictate you get off the road and move on foot.

I would get your sister on board and stockpile some food, clothing and extra Survival gear at her farm. Hopefully she has a water source other than County water there. Look at alternate methods of powering the pumps such as solar and wind. Buy some non-hybrid seeds and store at your sister. A good idea would be to store some at your home as well.

I’ll also bet that your sister knows how to can foods. You may want to buy a couple cases of canning jars and lids and take them to her to keep on hand.

Ensure you have an adequate amount of ammunition for your current firearms. A shotgun is great. Ensure you have birdshot, buckshot and slugs – probably at least several hundred shells each. Same for your excellent .45 pistol – extra magazines available almost anywhere and you should have several hundred rounds of this caliber on hand. Consider buying a rifle. If only one rifle, then I prefer an M4 carbine, but a decent .308 rifle would also be a good item to have. Again, need to have ammunition on hand before the crunch comes.

I’ll bet there are some firearms at your sister’s. Same goes for these guns as well. A .22 rifle and a thousand rounds is a cheap addition to your Urban Survival arsenal.

Lots of other great Survival gear and equipment to have as well. Among the priorities a good set of boots, sleeping bags, binoculars, several storm proof lighters, compass, maps, poncho or field expedient shelter material, flashlights, etc.

Survival during a collapse is going to be a team sport. With just you and your wife security in town is going to be difficult – I would advise you to plan to Bug Out before the situation gets bad. You, your wife and your sister at her farm is also problematic for security. Anticipate straphangers and other relatives showing up – be thinking about who and how you are going to integrate them, or, turn them away.

Hope this helps. UrbanMan