Wyoming Republican state legislator David Miller has introduced a bill to prepare his state for a doomsday scenario in which the nation's economy and social structure completely collapse. This story previously made national news.

The short article states:

"Things happen quickly sometimes — look at Libya , look at Egypt , look at those situations," Miller told the Star-Tribune. "We wouldn't have time to meet as a legislature or even in a special session to do anything to respond."

Miller's bill seeks to create a state-run continuity force that would study and prepare Wyoming for potential national or worldwide catastrophes. One specific component of the bill calls for the state to look into the possibility of issuing its own currency in the event the U.S. dollar collapses.

"If we continue down this course, this is the way any society ends up — with a valueless currency," Miller told the Star-Tribune.

Miller's original bill would have appropriated $32,000 for the task force, but the state's Joint Appropriations Committee has already cut the number in half. Six other states have attempted a similar currency creation effort in recent years — and all have failed. While Miller's bill may sound a bit extreme, there have been genuine concerns about the devaluation of U.S. currency in recent years. Last year, the International Monetary Fund predicted that China 's economy would overtake that of the U.S. in five years.

But there have been accusations that certain businesses are preying on fears of economic insecurity by plugging cash for gold programs, resulting in individuals selling their precious metals for less than market value.

The Star-Tribune notes that Wyoming 's Department of Homeland Security already has a statewide crisis management plan, but it does not include the so-called doomsday scenario. Miller's bill calls for coordination between Wyoming 's Homeland Security along with the state attorney general and National Guard adjutant general.

The doomsday bill is sure to inspire criticism and even ridicule from some corners, but Miller says his priority is Wyoming . "I don't represent people in Illinois or New Jersey ," he said. "I represent people in Wyoming . And I want them to be protected from any catastrophic events that may beset the rest of the country."

UrbanMan’s comments: I would think that rather than worrying about establishing another fiat currency, the commerce of using gold and silver plus barter will take care of most of the problems. It would behoove the Wyoming State government to put some of their surplus cash into physical gold and silver.

Another thing would be the preparation for refugee traffic by other states mainly on the Interstate highways and not necessarily coming from adjacent states but through these adjacent states. Interstate 80 from Utah; Interstate 25 from Colorado; I-80 from Nebraska; I-90 from South Dakota; and I-25 from Montana are the main lines of communications of high speed avenues of approach.

Some pre-SHTF coordination meetings with a like minded state legislators and possibly tentative support agreements with Montana , South and North Dakota and Nebraska as well as probably Utah and Colorado , could determine what type of mutual support not only in commerce but in security and defense would be possibly.

While Wyoming has several coal fired electrical plants as well as a smaller garbage fueled plants. Wyoming coal mines are the most productive and numerous in the nation. There are five in-Wyoming or adjacent Hydroelectric plants generating a total of 600,000 plus kilowatt hours.

The state is pretty well situated with water having 22 reservoirs for personal, agricultural and industrial use from any where from 20,000 acre feet of water up to around 300,000 acre feet of water.

So all in all, Wyoming is sitting pretty with resources. The planning aspects of how to manage and protect the state will be huge in the event of a societal or economic collapse.

Collapse in Europe Begins with Greece

There are several reason why the financial situation in Europe impact on the United States:  U.S. banks hold alot of European debt and the burden of a large national debt coupled with runaway government spending on basically itself spells hard times to come. Not necessarily a economic collapse, but a spiraling down of the standard of living and quality of life until there is no reversing it. The video below, although tounge in cheek, explains pretty well what is happening in Greece which of course is a model of what and where the U.S. could be very soon.

Bugging Out? To Where?

Received comment/question on Bugging In/Buggin Out,……”UrbanMan.....I read your blog and several others, and bugging out is all good and well but what if you have no place to bug to??? Is there any history of someone bugging out to some rural location without knowing anyone or having any property there?? How likely will you be accepted in the area? I'm in SoCal (Southern California) and there really aren't too many places to bug to, with water being the biggest issue! Any suggestions?”

UrbanMan’s reply: As far as history of someone bugging out to a rural location, going blind into an area they do not know anyone nor own property,….I have no idea. I would assume there are several cases of people getting stranded and surviving for a short term until recovered. Or the example of criminals hiding out in rural or remote America . But the whole basis for surviving a collapse, and I mean a bonafide collapse where infrastructure including the food supply, monetary system and security mechanisms are highly degraded or totally gone, is planning......again the foundation for your survival is planning. 

Planning begets Preparation. More succintly, Planning identifies the Preparation you need and will help identify essential preps, implied preps and secondary preps. Preparation without planning will most likely be a hit and miss affair.

Planning starts with information. Much like the military developing the battlefield through use of all means of intelligence, the survivalist planner should as well,....
In your case, not having a location to Bug Out to, surely you could approach this problem by identify possible locations based on basic needs:

* A location that it is feasible for you to get to by vehicle and by foot if vehicle transit is no longer an options,.e.g..lack of fuel, threat picture, mechanical problems, etc.

* A location probably devoid of large population centers and not an attractive target for armed gangs.

* Offers cover and concealment, maybe ideally next to large parks or forests where contingency safety is available and possibly animals for food procurement.

* Full year round, natural water source. Running river and streams. ...and lakes possibly. May also offer the chance to procure fish for supplemental food.

My assumption is that you cannot just pick a remote area, totally devoid of population, unless you have the resources (time, money and capability) to prepare a site like this. Most long term survival is simply going to require access to other people,…their skills and resources,….think larger team effort.

From your location in Southern California,.....Northern Minnesota would not be a good choice. Unless you move there pre-collapse. But certainly there are areas on the CA-NV border, and in western and northern Nevada and Arizona that may work for you and be realistic to get to. The idea is to Bug Out before the situation gets bad enough to expotenially increase your safety and security concerns.



You could do some weekend trips to possible locations to scout them out, just like you would if you were moving there for a job. Maybe make contact with locals, use the cover story that you are thinking about re-locating there….get a feel for the population. You probably wouldn't want to move to, say, a high percentage Mormon area if you worship animal Gods,....nor to a Southern Baptist enclave if you are a Muslim.  

Making contact, and multiple contact on subsequent trips, with the locals would also serve to diminsh your standing as a stranger. During a collapse, small rural communities are going to see refugees to some degree and may not so inclined to accept strangers….especially when the density of strangers starts to change the dynamics of the community.

In fact, there is a movement towards rural living and not just from the survivalist perspective. Many people are re-locating to rural America , either through early retirement and life style downsizing or through having businesses such as inter based business where location does not inhibit it’s operation. A article just came out recently about some of the fastest growing rural areas:


Your visits to potential Bug Out locations serve also a route reconnaissance, developing alternative routes and noting danger spots such as choke points or terain that can be affected by bad weather.

If you find a location that you think you can Bug Out to, the next step is to procure maps such as available from US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management or many on-line sources. You should rehearse movement and routes to the site, and you may even do preps such as cache emplacement.

I have an acquaintance who lives outside of New York City. He and his wife head into the Adirondack Mountains on vacation to hike and just get away for awhile. They have went out of their way to make and keep contact with many of the locals as their plan is to re-locate (Bug Out) to there as they are becoming less and less strangers and more and more like friends of the locals. The hope to capitalize on this as well as use their Survival skills and resources to secure a place in that community.

Hope this gives you some thoughts. Good luck and prepare well.

Urban Command and Control Center for SHTF

I received an e-mail from anonymous concerning set up and operation of a Command and control center during a collapse: “I’m living in a condo in basically downtown (city name removed) and am prepared well for SHTF. Guns, water and food are my main preps. Read all your posts now wondering what your thoughts are on setting up a command center for SHTF.”

UrbanMan replies: I removed the city you mentioned in your e-mail. My first advice would be to get out of that city. I know that one of the first rules of life is to have an income, but even a substantially lower income than what you have now, is better than staying where you are. The city and the state are bankrupt and there are plans for razing much of the city because of cost of maintaining all those local government and state owned buildings. You may be living in a urban wasteland in the near future.

Second of all, what do you have to command and/or control?

Command and control (C2) centers also called a Tactical Operations Center or TOC are necessary to Command (receive communications and give direction) and Control (deconflict primarily) by receiving information about current friendly operations (such as routes, locations and actions) and the threat (locations, strength and actions). Really un-necessary if you are a lone survivor. As a lone survivor type or even with a very small group you may just want a situation map posted so you can keep track of intel/info you gather through observation or actual one man patrols.

I read a story in a post-apocalypse city where survivors would mark buildings with chalk to represent if they searched it already and used coded marks to annotate if this building has a safe site and which floor it was located. A Situation Map would do largely the same thing, a way to annotate things and events so you could start analyzing trends and such, which would help your situational awareness and planning.

If you have a larger survival group, and especially if you have a large enough survival group to conduct multiple operations such as security patrols, procurement/foraging patrols, observation/listening post duties, etc., then a Command Post or TOC makes sense in order to have a single point of receptions of communications be it from radios, cell phones or even just from a returning debrief.

For instance, I have eight families currently, not counting the inevitably straphangers who will come, in my planned survival group. I have a large flat roof home. The primary Listening/Observation Post (LP/OP) that will be on top when SHTF will have FRS radio, TA-1 landline communications and a pull cord to a mechanical bell as a way to alert the survival member who is manning our TOC. Our TOC’s mission is to monitor the Weather band radio, monitor the scanner, monitor FRS and VHF radios for all of other team members an deployed patrols, and, serve as an alert for all members on crew rest (that means asleep since we will be running 24 hour operations).

As a deployed patrol radios into our TOC using brevity codes, the TOC will annotate that report and position on a map overlayed with thick plastic using a grease pencil or erasable marker. For any observations such as newly vacated houses, newly occupied houses, signs of activity, sighting of criminal or gang activity thing or any other information of importance, the patrol will re-enter the Base Camp (our Bug In location) and update the Situation Map (SITMAP).

The good thing about this process is that it is exportable in case we Bug Out to a different location. All male members of my survival group are comfortable and knowledgeable about this process and can rapidly terrain others that we absorb into the group.

If this doesn't answer your question, please get back with me. Prepare well.