Bugging In - Not the Answer?

This was a comment posted on the "7 Day Warning to SHTF" post: "I don't believe "hoarding and stockpiling" are advantageous. It gives you a fixed position, which you must defend. I believe the better path is get as far away from urban areas as possible. Go where you know there's water. Where there is water there are animals. Get a field guide of Edible Plants of North America. Learn to use a bow. Chainsaws, cooking fires, and gunfire will draw unwanted attention eventually. "

UrbanMan's reply:  I agree that being away from the heavily populated areas, have a year round natural water source AND have a heavily stocked survival inventory is obviously the hands down best survival plan for the collapse.

I also agree that wilderness survival skills knowing how to survvie with basically nothing; identifying edible plants in your area; purifying water; building expdeient shelters; building fires; food procurement such as hunting , trapping and fishing, etc., are are basic and necessary skills for short term survival periods,....but it sounds like you are proposing surviving out of pack in the woods. I think the whole idea of survival prepping is not only to live but to live with some type of quality of live as close to normal as you can. Tjat means having stocks of food and supplies,...some sort of infrastructure even if it is just a cabin and a year round stream, and utilemtly a survival group were you can leverage everyone else's skills, expertise and security in numbers.

Some people will decide to Bug In for many diverse reasons:

1. Some people actually live in the big city and do not own their own transportation putting them in a great deficit when trying to Bug Out.
2. Others, maybe hedging their bets, think that although a collapse is unlikely, they prepare in some form or fashion but still think the Government will make things right in short order, so there is only a need to Bug In for a couple weeks. These people may run through their supplies and be left high and dry placing themselves at great risk when planning an impromptu, read unplanned or last minute, Bug Out.
3. Financial reasons plays a large part in what people will do. How much resources (time and money) you can devote to prepping; the need to have a job and bring in income sometimes dictates the location you live. 4. There will undoubtably be people who do not have nor cannot or are unwilling to develop the skills sets necessary to Bug Out.
5. Some people will decide that some things are more important in the short term such as living snormal a life as possible, being close to friends and family, etc. It is simply way too much past their comfort zone to leave behind their lives even when staying in place puts them at great risk. You see this time and time again in natural disasters such like Hurricane Sandy. Maybe something akin to the German Jews who were rounded up for slaughter thinking this cannot be happening. This denial is a key stage for people when death is imminient as in last stage cancer patients.

Bottom line for me is that I'll continue to better my survival chances. I have a chain saw. I have several hand saws to include camping bows. I am no stranger to building fires and using an axe and a wedge. I have quite a bit of experience in wilderness survival. Quite a bite of resources in identifying edible and poisonous plants. I have used many different techniques in fishing - nets, straight poles, flies, trolling, bow and arrow - water source with fish? No problem, here comes dinner.

And I will continue to build my survival stocks. More long range food. Enough ammunition as well. While the straight up Urban areas are going to be death traps in most all cases, there will be suburban areas, off refugee routes, that have a chance of organizing and maintaining a viable chance for survival. I'm planning on Bugging In, but several plans for Bugging Out as well. Good luck to you my friend.

Prepared for THE Storm

Received this via e-mail: "Urbanman, first time I have wrote. I am currently sitting pretty close to the center line of Hurricane Sandy. I thought huricane's would be a thing of the past for me when i moved north from he Orlando, Florida area. I am a long time prepper but i had to change my game since the last major storm and the earthquake hit this area. Hurricane's are one thing but if this storm knocks out the utilities for a week or longer like it has the potential for I am prepared for bunkering in. I have food for at least six months, water for at least a month and firearms to protect my family and me if the lights stay off for more than 3 days, maybe four days which will create desperate hungry people. I live about 2 miles from known gang area. Tomorrow I will walk my neighborhood to see who is staying and to distribute five of the six Talk About radios I have. This will give me some eyes around my house and maybe start to develop my neighborhhood survival watch team or whatever you call it. Out. Jeff. "

UrbanMan comments: Jeff, I don't envy you sitting in the storm path, but it sounds like you are planning well. Hope the rains don't flood you out.  The latest projections are calling for power outages of 7-10 days.

You may want to consider a base station FRS radio to go with your hand held talk about radios. While a gas powered generator may not be a great asset for long range survival when fuel supplies are out, for short term natural disasters they may come in handy. I hope you have a good supply of batteries as well.

One thing you may want to do is establish a couple times a day where people you give the radios to will come up on the net and give a status. If the weather forces everyone in doors, this will mitigate the feeling of isolation and since you are providing the communications capability, this will further your credibility with your neighbors.

However, be prepared for questions about general preparation. Be prepared to provide other aid to these people, which will be a two edged sword because it will expose your preps and intentions to these people.

I would start wargaming what you are willing to and going to do if one of your neighbors comes up on the FRS radio net and say's they have criminals on their property trying to get into their house.

You may want to develop an alternate audible signal to generate an alarm such as vehicle horns, a length of wire and a switch from the vehicle in your drive way into the house would make this a viable way to send an alert. Stay safe and good luck sitting out the storm.

Convincing Your Family to Prep

Dude 101 recently e-mailed UrbanMan and wrote "I have a family group of (more than 6 people) which I am the only one that has any survival preparations ready. I don't want to leave my family behind, but I can't provide for them all. I've tried to get them to think about prepping without success. Any suggestions would be appreciated please. Good luck and God bless."

UrbanMan's response: Dude, The easiest way to get someone to start prepping may be to draw a link to the rising costs of the food, deflating value of the dollar, higher gas prices and the fact that grocery stores are supplied by diesel powered tractor-trailers.

With a collapse of the dollar or interruption of fuel, those food supplies will dry up. 90% of the food will be gone off the shelves within the first 24-36 hours.

Ask your family what their plan is when this happens,.... Prepping first starts with recognizing the threat:

Threat: Interrupted Food Supply, Lack of food.
Cause: Dollar Collapse; fuel interruption; natural disaster.
Risk Mitigation: Stock more food. Ever time you go to the grocery store, buy an additional weeks worth.
Get organized in your pantry or storage solution - use first in, first out principle. Consider it family insurance against natural disaster if you will.

Threat: Interrupted or Contaminated Water supply.
Cause: Infrastructure or power utilities collapse. Bio attack on water supply.
Risk Mitigation: Buy or lease a water cooler with periodic water service. Stock an immediate 50-100 gallons ectra water, soley for drinking. Obtain water containers,..e.g..5 gallon cans, bathtub resoivers (called Bath Tub Bobs), and other storage solutions.

Threat: Lack of Government law enforcement or security forces to provide security against civil unrest and riots, criminal elements, etc.
Cause: Decayed infrastructure,....communications falures, large masses of un-fed desperate people, organized criminal groups exploiting the collapse.
Risk Mitigation: Procedures for safety, travel restrictions, short range communications and ultimatley the need to have firearms and the training to employ them.

NDAA Update: Indefinite Military Detention of American Citizens

This came from an article published by a European news source under the title "Totalitarian State Wins After All: Obama Reinstates NDAA Military Detention Provision" based on a decision by a lone appeals judge who bowed down to the Obama administration and reauthorized the White House's ability to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge or due process.

The US Justice Department had asked for an emergency stay on the previous stay order, and hours later US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Judge Raymond Lohier, agreed to intervene and place a hold on the injunction.

The stay will remain in effect through September and probably into October in order for a three-judge appeals court panel to address the issue.

I found a sister article on this at Zero Hedge. The implementation of the NDAA sets a very bad precedence for this country, basically invalidating the rights of habeas corpus or what we commonly refer to a "due process rights". The rights to confront your accuser; for legal representation; to appear in an initial hearing before a judge and to request bail; and the have your family notified of your incarceration. All these rights are gone.

It is scary that not only the President asked for this authority but also that the NDAA had bi-partisan support in Congress.

President Obama said "“The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it. In particular, I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists.”

The part in the NDAA that allows for the military to hold citizens, declared as "terrorism suspects", is not only a red flag for us, but sends chills through our spine.

Strangely enough the military appears not to have lobbied for this authority. I think the professional soldiers know that getting involved in operations inside the United States is a "lose - lose" situation.

In fact, the FBI, the CIA and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) did not support the military detention provisions of the NDAA either. In fact, FBI Director Robert Mueller said words to the effect that the NDAA may actually be a obstacle to FBI investigations and cooperation between the FBI and Military would make it harder to gain access to suspects, records and evidence.

The NDAA with the thought provoking images of military units arresting American citizens gives life to the concnerns of many freedom loving and responsible Americans. Frankly, I think that the military patience with martial law over, and detention of Americans will be finite unless the situation is very grave.