Survival Planning, Prepping and Bugging Out With a Handicapped Family Member

Urban Survival Skills received this request for advice concerning prepping and bug out with a disabled child. I edited the letter to provide some semblance of OPSEC for the writer but want to post this to reach a larger group for potential advice to this prepper with a special needs child.

I am a single parent of a severely disabled child. My child is wheelchair bound, tube fed, in diapers, and developmentally at a pre-schooler level. My child is on medication for seizures. I'm stockpiling Nutren, diapers, and feeding supplies at our family farm which is a fairly short drive away (approx. 28 miles) though a suburban area. I am very concerned about getting myself and my child to the famr as well as having meds for long term care in the case of disaster. Could you please give advice on:

1) How do I know when to bug out?
2) Bug out bags. My child is 80 lbs and I'm 115 lbs. I can put a bag on the wheelchair chair and carry a bug out bag myself, but what weight? What are top priority items?
3) I have a small 4 wheel drive vehicle if driving is an option. Any advice on choosing route, stopping for extra fuel, etc.?
4) I have safety concerns about walking alone with my child. Advice? I am still learning to shoot and getting a gun soon. I am in pretty good shape, but small.
5) What can I do to get seizure meds for long term?

We are working on getting the farm prepared with food, water systems, generators, etc. at the my relatives adjoining property. Getting there with my child safely is my biggest concern. Any advice you have is appreciated. Thank you!
Okay readers, lets help this person out. Here is my initial response:

When to Bug Out. This is an individual call and not a one size fits all protocol. It is based on how safe and prepared you are where you are currently at, and, how far you have to go and the associated risks involved with that movement. I can advise that it would be too late when there are riots in the streets over food, or lack of food; too late when mass of refugees flood the routes; too late when cell phone communications are down; and, too late when martial law and therefore freedom of movement is restricted.

  It may be time to Bug Out when utilities (water and electricity) are intermittent and there are long lines at gas stations and grocery stores with associated shortages. It may be time when your and instincts tell you things are not going to get better. I advise multiple means of communications between you and your family members or friends that are going to bug out and rally on the farm. Develop a brevity code as well so if and when you have comms (voice or text) you can minimize transmission times and therefore chances of misunderstandings or intermittent service cutting you off.

Bug Out Bags. I think the priority are all the meds and supplies necessary for your child. Food, water and all gear necessary to support a walk from your house to the Bug Out location (the farm). This may include food that does not have to be cooked. Depending upon where you live and the seasons, e.g..weather factors, you may need sleeping bags or cold weather gear and things like that. In your case a short walk to your Bug Out location (the farm) could be accomplished in one day, but if you are pushing a wheelchair this may turn into 2 maybe even 4 days depending again on factors outside your control such as weather, threat, etc.

If you have selected Bug Out routes you may elect to emplace a small cache or two to support the movement to your Bug Out location (the farm) as support in case you can't make the distance as planned or the threat is too much that it reduces your travel speed.         

Bug Out Vehicle. A 4x4 is ideal, especially one that's good on gas and has a short wheel base for mobility. If you never let your vehicle get below 1/2 tank of gas you'll have plenty to make the Bug Out movement, based on the travel distance you mentioned. But I would advise an extra 5 gallon fuel can or two. Keep these full and rotate fuel every month. Or you can just get them filed when you think the collapse is beginning and when fuel is till available. You should have several routes if possible. When you have to Bug Out, choose the route based on the current events and threats. You need to drive routes as a rehearsal. You should also look at several foot routes in case you have to move over land on foot. Look for routes that provide cover and concealment and will not be routes for the refugee traffic or obvious routes for anyone else.  This is going to be hard to move a wheel chair over.  Maybe you can look at an ATV with a small trailer to move your child with?    

Walking Alone/Security/Weapon Choice.   By all means learn how to shoot and buy a gun. Actually a handgun and a rifle would be good. Weight and bulk of ammunition is going to impact what you can carry overland on foot. Think about pre-positioning additional ammunition and firearms at the farm. But if you are planning on Bugging Out by yourself, driving or walking, you will need to protect yourself. A semi-auto, magazine fed rifle such as an M-1 carbine, Mini-14, M-4/AR-15 type clone - these are all lightweight (as they come) and would allow you the firepower to defend yourself against multiple bad guys. And here's a hint, almost everybody will be a bad guy.

I have recently been in contact with a lady who just could not afford a modern magazine fed rifle such as an M-4/AR-15 type.  She already had a .22 LR revolver, so she ended up buying a Ruger 10/22 semi-auto .22 LR rifle and a couple of large capacity magazines for it.   Certainly a person would not want to have their safety dependent upon a rimfire cartridge,....but the first rule of a gun fight is to have a, gun and ammo compatibility plus affordability was paramount to this lady.      

Lastly, Medications. I know this is a primary concern of yours. Medications have a shelf life, which is usually several years after the expiration date if you store it in a safe and controlled manner. Research what Vet (animal) meds could possibly be used to mitigate or treat your child's seizures.   Locate the nearest Vet. Many rural vets operate out of a truck with a refrigerator. Vets can also serve as make shift Doctors too in an emergency. You may be able to stock up some meds if you don't use them but continue to get scripts for them but be aware that this is likely illegal. 

You may need to have some silver in order to barter for some meds during a collapse.  Consider having a silver bullion in 1 ounce rounds of bars in case this is the case.  

You have tough conditions to work out, but I know you can do it as you have no other choice.  Get to know your neighbors around the farm (your Bug Out location).  If the houses are close enough you may be able to string a couple of TA-1 military phones and wire between to facilitate communications.  Make sure that stocking food, seeds and having a safe water source are taken care of at the farm as well. 

I hope readers will respond with some additional advice. Many, if not most, of the readers will have better ideas.  Good luck and be safe.       

Israeli Expert Predicts Coming Terrorist Attacks

This was sent to UrbanSurvivalSkills.com by a reader who said he read this article on the internationalforecaster.com. This is not a new article. There is a lot of debate over whether Juval Aviv is legitimate or not. His claims about being a Mossad agent cannot be determined and on-line fact checkers dispute his claims about predicting the 9-11 attackers. If he is exploiting 9-11 for his gain then he is simply a POS. But even shit can have it's uses,.....in the case of shit it can be used as fertilizer in some cases, and in the case of Juval Aviv, he gives us food for thought if we set aside the probability of him being a fraud.

A video is posted at the end of this article so you can see the judge Mr. Aviv yourself. One of the best things that can be gained from this article is the need for a no-comms plan. What are you going to do if the cellular and landline communications net goes down? Do you have planned actions such as link up times and locations and contingencies for no shows?

Enough from me, we'll let Juval Aviv have his say:

Do you know who Juval Aviv is? He was Golda Meir's bodyguard and the Israeli Agent upon whom the movie ' Munich ' was based. Golda Meir appointed him to track down and bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who took the Israeli athletes hostage and killed them during the Munich Olympic Games. In a lecture in New York City a few weeks ago, Aviv shared information that EVERY American needs to know, but that our government has not yet shared with us.

A little background: Aviv predicted the London subway bombing on the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox News, stating publicly that it would happen within a week. At the time, O'Reilly laughed and mocked him, saying that in a week he wanted Aviv back on the show. Unfortunately, within a week the terrorist attack had occurred. Juval Aviv also gave intelligence to the Bush Administration about 9/11 a month before it occurred. His report specifically said that they would use planes as bombs and target high profile buildings and monuments... I think we all know what happened, right? Congress has since hired him as a security consultant.

Aviv predicts that the next terrorist attack on the U.S. will occur within the next few months. Forget hijacking airplanes, because he says terrorists will NEVER try hijacking a plane again as they know the people on board will never go down quietly again. Aviv says that our airport security is a joke – that we have been reactionary rather than proactive in developing strategies that are truly effective.

For example, because an idiot tried to light his shoe on fire, now everyone has to take off their shoes. Example 2: a group of idiots tried to bring aboard liquid explosives, and now we can't bring liquids on board. He says he's waiting for some suicidal maniac to pour liquid explosive on his underwear; government security will then have us all traveling naked! Last but not least, our airport security looks for metal, but the new explosives are made of plastic!

Currently, our government only focuses on security when people are heading to the gates. Aviv says that if a terrorist attack targets airports in the future, they will target busy times on the front end of the airport when/where people are checking in. For example, it would be easy for someone to take two suitcases of explosives, walk up to a busy check-in line, ask a person next to them to watch their bags for a minute while they run to the restroom, and then detonate the bags BEFORE security even gets involved. In Israel , security checks bags BEFORE people can even ENTER the airport.

Aviv says the next terrorist attack here in America is imminent and will involve suicide bombers and non-suicide bombers in places where large groups of people congregate, such as Disneyland, Las Vegas casinos, shopping malls, subways in rush hour, train stations, etc., as well as in rural America this time (Wyoming, Montana, etc.).

The attack will be characterized by simultaneous detonations around the country involving at least 5-8 cities, including rural areas. Aviv says terrorists won't need to use suicide bombers in many of the larger cities, because at places like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas , they can simply valet park a car loaded with explosives and walk away.

Aviv says all of the above is well known in intelligence circles, but that our U.S. Government does not want to 'alarm American citizens' with the facts. The world, however, is soon going to become 'a different place', Aviv says, where issues like 'global warming' and political correctness will have become totally irrelevant.

On an encouraging note, Aviv says that Americans don't have to be concerned about being nuked. He says the terrorists who want to destroy America will not use sophisticated weapons. Instead, they like to use suicide, as it's cheap, it's easy, and it's effective – and they have an infinite abundance of young, ignorant, fanatic militants more than willing to 'go see Allah'.

Aviv also says the next level of terrorists over which America should be most concerned will not be coming from abroad. They will instead be 'home grown' – meaning they will have attended and been educated in our own schools and universities right here in the U.S. These young terrorists will be most dangerous because they will know our language and will fully understand the habits of Americans; but that we Americans won't know/understand a thing about them.

So, what can America do to protect itself? From an intelligence perspective, Aviv says the U.S. needs to stop relying on satellites and technology for its intelligence. Instead, we need to follow Israel 's, Ireland 's and England 's hands-on examples of human intelligence, both from an infiltration perspective as well as to trust 'aware' citizens to help. We need to engage and educate ourselves as citizens; however, our U.S. Government continues to treat us, its citizens, 'like babies'. Our government thinks we can't handle the truth' and are concerned that we'll panic if we understand the realities of terrorism. Aviv says this is a deadly mistake.

Aviv recently created/executed a security test for Congress by placing an empty briefcase in five well-traveled spots in five major cities. The results? Not one person called 911 or sought a policeman to check it out. In fact, in Chicago , someone tried to steal the briefcase!

In comparison, Aviv says that citizens of Israel are so well 'trained' that an unattended bag or package would be reported in seconds by citizen(s) who know to publicly shout, 'Unattended Bag!' The area would be quickly & calmly cleared by the citizens themselves. But, unfortunately, America hasn't been 'hurt enough' yet by terrorism for their government to fully understand the need to educate its citizens or for the government to understand that it's the citizens who are, inevitably, the best first-line of defense against terrorism.

Aviv also was concerned about the high number of children who were in preschool and kindergarten after 9/11, children who were basically 'lost' without parents being able to pick them up, and schools that had no plan in place to best care for the students until their parents could get there .

He stresses the importance of having a plan that's agreed upon within your family, to respond to in the event of a terrorist emergency. He urges parents to contact their children's schools and demand that the schools, too, develop plans of actions, as they do in Israel . He says we should all have a plan that is easy enough for even our youngest children to remember and follow.

Does your family know what to do if you can't contact one another by phone? Where would you gather in an emergency? Aviv says that the U.S. Government has in force a plan that, in the event of another terrorist attack, will immediately cut-off EVERYONE's ability to use cell phones, as this is the preferred communication source used by terrorists and is often the way that their bombs are detonated. How will you communicate with your loved ones in the event you cannot use phones, internet? Bottom line, you need to have a plan!

Louisiana Survival Rehearsal

I talked to my friend, I'll call him William for the sake of this article, who is in Louisiana. We talked several times via cell phone before connectivity became problematic during Hurricane Isaac.

William's survival group of people consist of three families, who have the plan to consolidate at one location (Williams rural ranch style house, for any collapse,.. .....weather related, economic collapse, or you name it. They used this plan to wait out the extreme weather and other threats brought about by Hurricane Isaac.

At their Bug In House they have spent the years after Hurricane Katrina making this site more self sufficient. Trees around the house were cleared to give better visibility and, if necessary, fields of fire. All the wood was cut and stored giving them almost 5 cords of wood on hand to go with the wood burning oven that William said he installed in his living room, although unnecessary for this heating needs most of the year, especially during the warmer months of Hurricane season.

Tons of dirt were re-located or brought in to provide a raised donut around the house and sloping off to low ground to protect against the flooding brought about by heavy rains.

Two gasoline powered generators power the necessary appliances and lights after the power goes down. They have three refrigerators and have a rotation plan so they don't have to provide power to all of the refrigerators at the same time. When I talked to William he was in the process of ensuring the generators was positioned to run either the refrigerator in the house or the two refrigerators in the garage, as well as the light arrays he has in the house.

He said the days before the Hurricane he and his partner families were able to pickup some last minute items like fuel (for the generators), batteries, candles, some baked items and canned goods.

My friend's location, while I have not seen it, is described as a rural area with a small steam running close to the property line it providing an alternative access, both ingress and egress, to the property via a flat bottomed boat.

There is one long drive way from the house to a hardball road road. This hard ball road crosses a small river which in heavy rains floods out as I am told.

My friend called me to let me know that all three families, counting six adults, two teenagers and an 6 year old were on site doing last minute prep in a pretty heavy rain when a dark colored truck came down the road towards their house. While on the three people covered from the house, and one of the other adult males went to the back of the house to watch the rear, William went out to approach the truck. William was carrying an M-4 on a sling. William thought the people in the truck saw him with a slung weapon so they rapidly turned around and left. This was apparently the only excitement they had during this Hurricane/ Tropical Storm.

Three days later I e-mailed William as connectivity came back and asked him what his lessons learned were. This is the edited version of what he wrote back:

1. Develop a water catchment system. We had way too much rain (potential drinking water and for other uses) lost.
2. Solar Panels. They don't work in overcast or rainy weather, which is primarily why we don't have any. But are now thinking the need but would have to make it a priority to lay out solar panels when sunny conditions make it worthwhile.
3. Increase fuel storage for generators.
4. Look into a wind generator for additional power supply and battery re-charging.
5. Install early warning system, actually two - one mechanical and one electronic, for the drive way entrance. Did not like to discover a visitor (the truck) when it only 50 yards from the front door.
6.  Install a spot light so that approaching vehicles can be spot lighted, diminishing the occupants vision and helping protect an approach from the house.
7. Develop some obstacles along the river side so if anyone approached from that direction they would be channelized where more early warning systems could help detect them.

Well, if you don;t learn nothing - then at least learn from your mistakes.   Good point, William.   

Wargaming a Good Tool

I received this e-mail from "John": "Urbanman, like your info. me and my friends discuss prepping all the time. We have five of us in our hunting and survival group, but of course we expect to have all sorts of relatives bust our group when the time comes. That's cool, because we're ready for it. We have a farmhouse belonging to one of guy's grandmas about a mile and half out of town. That's our meeting point and security point. We plan on staying here as long as we can maybe forever because we have woods and two water ponds. After we hunt or shoot we have a practice of dicussing scenarios. The last one was two weeks after SHTF. If we go into town to see what is going on, or maybe look at a couple of spots where solar panels. It's a no brainer if we have cell phone service, but may not so we may have to go into town to look around and see what's available plus the solar panels would come in handy. What do you think? Call me John if you write this."

UrbanMan replies: John, thanks for writing. It's a good routine to get into talking about scenarios with your group. It can help identify areas where you disagree and need to come to a resolution about plans and protocols. It can also help identify equipment, material and even skill sets gaps that can be fixed before you are doing it for real.

This game of "what if'ing" is called wargamming. If you were leaving your secure site to conduct a patrol into town, you would need to have clear cut objectives,...a mission if you will. Such as making contact with selected town residents to get an situational update; procure any needed items, especially food and fuel. And even if you are only going 1.5 miles, you need to plan at least the primary route using the terrain to your advantage for cover and concealment.

Some principles from which to plan your patrols, be it the scenario into town or a longer security or forage type patrols:

Control. Sometimes simplicity is the key to controlling a patrol and the actions. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for patrolling, arm and hand signals, reaction drills, crossing danger areas, and more, helps the patrol operate as one team and make control easier.

Security. During a patrol, security is achieved through choosing routes that provide the least chance of contact with bad guys, as well as give you cover and concealment, especially on approach to the target or the tentative observation/ listening post. Good employment of light, noise and litter discipline also helps the patrol stay undetected.

Communications. This covers radio communications to visual signals. Consider recongition signals and distress or duress signals, and code words. Use brvity codes for radio communications. Have scheduled communications contacts or windows, however even at only a mile and a half, FRS/GMRS type radios will not have the range.

Planning. Contingencies,......contingencies,........contingencies,......use PACE planning. Ensure everyone, even the guys remaining, know all contingency plans,...situations like if the patrol is ambushed or the secure site is attacked.....where you emergency rally point is,.......this list is endless but needs to be considered so the patrol operates with backup plans. As far as the solar panels. I am not advocating conspiracy to commit theft, but in a very decayed world without law enforcement or order of any type, I too would consider "requisitioning" available solar panels to hook into my home power grid.

Conversation between Survivalists

I spent a couple hours this past weekend talking with another like-minded survivalist,…I’ll call him “Greg”. We call ourselves that, rather than the term "preppers", as we are both getting on in years and the term survivalists is an older term. I was actually introduced to the concept circa 1979.

Greg stopped by to show me his surplus 7x57mm Mauser that he had just bought and also bought some 500 odd surplus rounds for it. I was a little surprised as I know him to own several modern rifles including M4 variants, M1A1 types and even a semi-auto AK or two. He said if for nothing more, he can use it for barter or trade, or equip any strap-hangers who he absorbs into his group. He also bought $150 worth of dehydrated food this month.

I asked him if something was telling him to step up his preparations and he said he may be compensating because both his daughter and son are going off to college and he may be trying to quiet his anxiety with them being gone by stocking more. We spent some time discussing potential for a collapse coming from economic collapse, terrorist attack, natural disasters including disease pandemics and general off shoots that would occur such as violence and anarchy initially along economically divided groups which may degenerate into violence along racial lines, sadly enough.

One of Greg’s points is that the population shifts on relative small economic factors. The media is fomenting a notion that the economy is getting better,…gas prices dropped a little,….and among the sheep population there is very little of a foreboding sense. What people fail to comprehend is the effects of the global economy on the U.S. Greece is having a hard time putting together a coalition government to address debt and spending reform. France just hired a socialist who vowed to tax the wealthy at 75%. The economies of Spain and Portugal are tanking and now even Germany is having problems. We may see the Euro go the way of the dinosaur.

All in all a depressing day actually. But one that caused me to re-visit the fact that I haven't done too much in the past couple of months, but caused me to head down to a hardware store on Monday afternoon and buy a 550 gallon hard impact plastic water blivet which looks strange as hell in the corner of my suburban back yard, but not as strange as the looks of one of my neighbors when a friend of mine and me off loaded it and worked it into the back yard over my fence. I plan to fill it with a garden hose and always keep it full, re-filling it as I use it for the garden, which incidentally I planted early because of the early Spring. I have egg plant, cucumber and squash all coming up now.