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Rural vs Urban Survival

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#1 ·


For whatever reason, not everyone has the option to live in a rural setting or even to buy land to develop an alternative location to get to in a SHTF type if situation.

What can people in this situation do to help get themselves prepared?

What challenges will folks in the urban (or suburban) situations face vs. those in rural areas? Can those challenges be overcome? How?
 
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#41 ·
My BIL former ranger says that WROL that everything not occupied is free for his commandeering.

How long before that changes into " He's a threat and he has plenty of supplies he stole " ?

How long before that turns into " My kids are hungry " ?

How long before it turns into " I'm going to kill everyone on that farm and move my family in " ?

I suspect it would degrade rapidly and people justify anything and everything they want to.
 
#49 · (Edited)
charito;652114) I'm not saying it is better living in the city said:
No sugar-coating here, In a true national SHTF situation yes it does. In the large cities with no water and little food only the devious and super strong would survive.

I hope to never see it come to that.

Prepping for a few weeks in a major city will defiantly help if there is enough government to come to your rescue.

Rough but honest. natures way is "survival of the fittest" or those who can hide out for the long term.
 
#50 · (Edited)
I agree with you.

My assessment was given on the premise of a SHTF suddenly happening, and with people who weren't able to leave the city (for whatever reasons they may have) before it happened. If you survive that event (I think people in highrises will have a good chance of surviving that event), eventually you'll be forced to move out.

How long you can hold out will depend on how much you've prepped, and how secure your location is.
Will you wait till all your food supplies are gone? The longer you stay, the more dangerous it becomes (unless you've joined up with others).

You've got to have plans what to do next, and where you'd go. If you're alone, who will you go with?
Start assessing your neighbors and nearby acquaintances now. You may not be able to reach your friend across town.
This second stage should be planned in advance. Although, chances are things never happen as planned, it's better to have one than none at all. Should you suddenly find that what you've planned is no longer feasible, what's plan B?

I imagine some folks will end up forming their own bands, since they'll realize that there's safety in numbers. I suppose there'll be a lot of ragtag groups roaming and moving to other places.
A lot of city folks had come from rural places (and most likely will try to get back where they'd come from, to join up with mom and dad, and relatives).
 
#53 · (Edited)
Someone mentioned setting fire to a high rise or urban house.......the same threat of fire can also happen to a fortified cabin in the woods. They can lobby molotov cocktails from afar.

I think, if the marauders sees that a place is well-guarded, wouldn't that be a red flag that indicate the people in that place had prepped in advance? That means, there are tons of food in there.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's not any better to make prep and have ammos. But we're going to be dealing with all sorts of mentality in a SHTF scenario. Some of these people think they've got nothing to lose, and they can be suicidal in their action.

Unless we've had experience in the military - it'll be easy for us to make mistakes and make assumptions that could cost us dearly.
When do we start shooting? Do we give any warning before we do? What do we say when we give out the warning? etc.,
 
#54 ·
Someone mentioned setting fire to a high rise or urban house.......the same threat of fire can also happen to a fortified cabin in the woods. They can lobby molotov cocktails from afar.

I think, if the marauders sees that a place is well-guarded, wouldn't that be a red flag that indicate the people in that place had prepped in advance? That means, there are tons of food in there.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's not any better to make prep and have ammos. But we're going to be dealing with all sorts of mentality in a SHTF scenario. Some of these people think they've got nothing to lose, and they can be suicidal in their action.

Unless we've had experience in the military - it'll be easy for us to make mistakes and make assumptions that could cost us dearly.
When do we start shooting? Do we give any warning before we do? What do we say when we give out the warning? etc.,
Here at Slippy Lodge, we are prepared to put the "warning" shot directly on target...
 
#55 ·
The only warning given here when SHTF is when you see your marauding buddies fall dead to the pavement. There will be no shout out, there will be no warning shot.
 
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#59 ·
I don't know if people overlook the importance of having lime on hand or not. It's something I always have for the garden.

The last thing I intend to use water for is flushing a toilet.

I have a toilet seat that fits on a 5 gal bucket and line that with plastic bags when I camp. If I was hunkered down, the bag would be buried with probably a handful of lime over it.

Lime is also handy for decomposing animals or people.
 
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#65 ·
I live in a city of 14,000 in a rural surrounding area. Thanks for those who followed the spirit of the original post and offered insights and tips. My first plan, depending on the incident, is to head home to Louisiana. My parents are about as rural as it gets, in the land time (and Internet) forgot. :vs_bananasplit:

Retirement for me is at least 2 years away (I would be retiring early), and I see no sense in selling my current house for a more rural location around here when I know I don't plan to stay in this state after retirement. I have put serious thought into buying my retirement home before retirement so I have a solid bug out location if things go south before retirement. Since I'm starting late, all I can do is hope this crazy world (country) holds together a little longer. I'm not sure that's possible, but here's to hope...

No sense in arguing among ourselves. We all have at least one thing in common.
 
#71 ·
I don't have high blood pressure or diabetes. But I've noticed that a lot of city people look down on the rurals as hillbillies, and a lot of rurals look upon city folks as condescending yuppies that sniff their own flatulence, mistaking the odor for fresh bloomed roses.

Usually, in my humble opinion borne of living in both environments, each would be limited in their capabilities when roles and locations were reversed. So, let's leave the intramural trash talking and learn from each other.
 
#73 ·
Hey 6, go to the gear grab thread. I done axed you a kwestshun.
 
#75 ·
Bottom line is that if there was a major nation wide power outage for any reason (something I believe is very possible) for over 2 weeks people in rural areas who are accustomed to doing without power for several days will do much better than people in densely populated areas, especially for the 1st week. After the 2nd week when even hospitals have run out of propane to run their generators and the city sewer systems have crated a bacteria nightmare with no "sanitized" water, living in a urban area will pure hell. People dying from heart attacks as they attempt to dig an outhouse pit to deal with the diarrhea from water borne illness ect.

After that 2 week period while life will be very hard in rural areas they have a much higher chance of actually having food and the knowledge and ability to grow more food. It takes at least 1 1/2 acres of good soil to grow enough to live on and 5+ acres if the soil isn't as good.

I have two friends who work as engineers for two different local power companies. They both are currently switching their companies' transformers from mechanical switching to computer controlled switching, a several year project. They are both concerned about the lost ability to reroute power manually if something took out the home base computers and how this would kick the generators offline. If there was a major power outage across several states taking the generators offline it would take weeks to months to slowly bring the generators back online as they balanced loads against generators.

Then there is the EMP potential, and yes it is real; instant and total.

NotTooProudToHide, I suspect that you may be more trusting in our utility grid and it's ability to recover rapidly than I am.
@NotTooProudToHide
 
#77 ·
People are remarkably adaptable and survivable whether city or rural. It would depend on the nature of the crisis. Food and sanitation are serious early threats that rural people are generally more prepared for. Urban folks have an advantage in available manpower and knowledge (from so many people).


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#79 ·
Urban folks have an advantage in available manpower and knowledge (from so many people).
I am sure it will be easier to gather of a group of people in the city to go raid the local walmart.

I am just freaking amazed that people do not get that dangers of a city post shtf. (I am not talking about a big snow storm or a local flood)

1. in the event of a national emergency... who is going to respond.... fema can not handle 1 area flooded, can you imagine them trying to help out during a EMP, a pandemic, or other national event

2. too many people in too little of a space competing for ever shrinking resources

3. History wise.. come SHTF think Aleppo, or Leningrad or Berlin... when supplies get cut off.... and lets remember supplies flow into the cities not out from... cut off the food and water and you have days

4. The water supply close to me will not have 1.5 million people pissing in it

4a - dead bodies historically are horrible disease centers. Hospitals will be overwhelmed and killers

4b - pandemics travel fast through tight packed population centers. stay away from hospitals

5. waste disposal from a high rise will be problematic...

6. heating will be fun and entertaining and also will alert the local folks to your continued presence

7. getting enough water up 5, 10, 15 floors will be neat trick

8 Knowledge... As Hank said.. I had a good friend in new york city his family taught him to be a business man... mine taught me to live off the land.

9. Hank agrees with me

10. I think that from the basics Water, Food, Shelter, Security, Medical.... the first 4 are clearly better in the country...

I do not care where you live...just please do not pee down my back and tell me it is raining.

and that is all i have to say about that
 
#78 ·
Why do I see rural people driving into my area every Saturday morning to shop if they're so prepared, they're not buying anything special. Actually most of them are poor and are not prepared at all. That's just what I see, you guys may see better prepared people where you live.
 
#80 ·
The most heavily prepped people I know live in the city with alternate locations to move to if needed. IMO if your locked into one location that is a mistake. No matter how remote, SHTF might happen at your doorstep not giving you the choice to stay.

You can't wait out chemicals in the air or radiation, you leave or die.

Two is one and one is none, that's how I look at it. The more options the better.
 
#81 ·
Sanitation will not be existent in the city. How many people will go to all the trouble of burying their poop? Where?
When chutes are blocked, highrisers will most likely be throwing their poop and trash out the window.

Sickness of all sorts will start in the city. Most probably, even a plague.
 
#84 ·
@Maine-Marine

There is no doubt that city people will have more challenges in the beginning. And many will likely not survive. These are the same people who thrive on just in time groceries, think guns are evil and want to save all the evil people in the world. It won't take that long to loot the cities, then they will spread outside of the cities.

If there is an EMP, even the country people will be greatly affected. How many farmers do you know that don't rely on technology? How many of these people still have the equipment to do what they do without using technology?

What happens will depend on what the scenario is. Regardless, some in each area will survive. Will there be a govt left to assist anyone? Who knows?
 
#88 ·
A lot depends on your idea of "rural". There is rural as in living outside the city/suburbs, and rural living in an agricultural area.
Then, there are different types of agricultural areas, just like different types of urban environment. The urban environments here in NW Arkansas are a lot different than the urban environments of South Florida, for example.
 
#89 ·
If you live in the city and there is a EMP , do you really think a person will survive more then a week ?" Hell No ! " . Yes the farmers will feel it but they will be able to fin for them selves , just like we will have to do , " that's why we are prepping " . So my advice is , if you like in the city buy some land and get ready for what ever happens . jmho .
 
#90 ·
If there is a total shutdown, I can't imagine people existing in large cities for very long. Remember, all those people has got to go somewhere. I also don't think who owns what property is gonna matter much, meaning when you wake one morning, look out the window at your ten acres, don't be surprised to see a tent city. What's ya gonna do, run em all off?, yeah, good luck with that.
 
#91 ·
If we had a major event that caused nationwide problems then I think ultimately what would happen is the United States would be a redistribution of surviving population that would be similar 1800's/early 20th century. Your going to see a lot more small towns and communities with populations ranging from under 100 to under 100,000. The big cities will still exist but they'll be a lot emptier than they are today. People are going to die in the cities and in the country. Like I said in my previous post your best bet for survival is to get to know your area and figure out what supplies you need to get and figure out a plan to get out of dodge if you have too.
 
#92 ·
People are going to die in the cities and in the country.
it is statement like that that I want to battle. Because on the face, it is true....people will die in both places, but the underlining meaning or point made by the statement is that they are equal because people will die in both places - which I strongly disagree with

Pandemic, EMP, Civil war, etc.... Cities will see more death from more avoidable reasons - There will be more murders, more botulism, more typhus, more frost bite, more starvation, more crazy people without drugs, etc etc etc per capita
 
#99 ·
I just don't see the " preparedness " of the majority of " country people ". I'm not buying the " we hiding all our supplies " theory.

The majority of rural living people in my community are POOR and rely on a social security check to survive month to month.

We might be having a hoard of folks running TO the city.
Agree. Ride around out in the country just beyond the suburbs and you will see plenty of people/places that are no way prepared to survive. The meth-heads and welfare junkies with multiple kids and no provider except Uncle Sugar, what are they going to do? Or a better question, what we going to do when Meth-Head Mama walks up pulling three stinking multi-racial snot nosed brats in a wagon looking for a handout?
 
#100 ·
Land is cheaper in rural areas so you get a lot of lower income families living there. The older people are typically on various medications or they'd die in short order especially without climate control.

You can't shoot heart disease or diabetes with a M14.

Without modern conveniences the elderly people will have an even more difficult time. I predict a lot of mercy killing and mass suicides.
 
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