Let’s just assume that you want to escape the coming Collapse / Apocalypse ahead of time, leaving your current abode and fleeing to a place which conceivably might grant you a chance of survival. How to go about finding such a place?
Well, one group took a stab at finding a solution, and it makes for quite interesting reading because of the factors used to qualify/disqualify various areas around the Lower 48. Take a look [warning: it’s a long read, but worth it].
Anyway, for those who are too lazy or unwilling to actually study the matter, his choice for best place to escape the coming collapse is:
Well, okay. I’d be kinda loath to go anywhere in Colorado, simply because their state government is starting to rival that of California (from which most “Coloradans” have recently fled — the two factors are most definitely related). Also, Colorado real estate in general, and Hinsdale County itself is spendy as hell (because of the above invasion, and because private land is pretty damn scarce there) and to be perfectly frank, Hinsdale County is as cold as Hecate’s left tit for much of the year because Rocky Mountains.
In fact, your best bet might be to buy some of that scarce private land (e.g. here) and build something on it — goodbye, bank balance — with all the problems that this would contain.
This, plus the stony soil (which would make growing some kind of grain for food problematic) is a decided negative.
Frankly, while Hinsdale CO has much to recommend it, the negatives outweigh Preppgroup’s positives, in my opinion.
Just for fun, feel free to engage your mind on the problem, using whatever criteria you see fit. And send me emails rather than using Comments, so I can publish what I think are the best alternatives to the remotest county in the United States.
I’ll do the same, and do a future post on the topic.
I’m already in Idaho. if the SHTF, I’m staying. I have almost everything I need to sustain myself, and the bits I don’t have I can trade for.
That article only considers the USA, so is pretty poor.
And if the SHTF I’m toast. Probably literally as there’s a military base not too far away, so I won’t need to worry.
I don’t see us moving….
We’ve been in a red state for the past 18 years, on 7 acres, mostly wooded, with long term, like minded, local neighbors.
…my goal is to get our son and his fambly living here with us.
The rest of the world can go to hell if they so choose.
Much of the Red/Blue State difference resides at the State capital; towns outside the cities, with productively working populations, will be significantly more conservative if communications and transport begin to fail.
Just stay the hell away from the college towns and the wealth-dependent holiday retreats. Great Barrington. Sigh. .
Great Barrington MA? That is a liberal infested shithole. Berkshire’s and New York trash meet.
I am a mass hole but I can’t afford great barrfington and wouldn’t move there even if I had big money.
I’ve got 11 acres on Lake Koocanusa with a heavily insulated small house, a deep well producing lots of water, plenty of game, a sparse population, a nice climate, fertile soil. Drought would be an issue but for the well. I keep a good stock of fuel for the generator, dried and canned food, guns and ammo.
The problem is that it’s 200 miles away.
That mapping was done to achieve a pre-determined output and is almost ridiculously bad.
We moved from the Heart of the Hive™ (Murderapolis) to NW Wyoming after I retired, and it doesn’t get knocked out of the selection process on the basis of water or soil…whoever did this is apparently unaware that counties can be quite large and have varied terrain and conditions within them. Huge chunks of the area around us are basically barren desert sagebrush basins with terrible alkaline soil and no water. If you’ve got to go more than a mile to fetch raw (non-potable) water you’re gonna be SOL in jig time.
And while big game and hunting may play a role, here in WY if the S truly hits the F, you won’t be using any vehicles (short of a mountain bike) to get around since gasoline will at best be rationed, and at worst simply unavailable. After a couple of years whatever you have stored (regardless of treatment) will be essentially useless. If you can’t hike to your hunting area and then pack out your kill, it don’t mean nothin’. Heck, it was -7°F this morning with a couple of big mule deer bedded down next to our back yard and I had to yell and throw a rock at the big buck to get them to run away…that herd would be gone within milliseconds (well, within a year, easily) of things breaking down.
We moved out here because of the culture. Open carry isn’t unusual, and while “technically” legal in MN will get you immediately arrested for disturbing the peace or some other BS. People tend to take responsibility for their actions. We were also hoping to avoid the inevitable riots and civil disturbance we could see coming for decades, and got out just before it hit. Heck, our old house was only a block-and-a-half away from some of the looted and burned out businesses after St. George of Fentanyl died of his overdose.
But we have no anticipation of hunkering down…we’re both on life-supporting medications and have never been able to put together more than about a 3-month surplus supply. Which is okay, since they have a limited shelf life. If the SHTF we’ll be dead (I’ll be brain-dead in 6 month, since my thyroids completely crapped out) in less than half a year, so there’s no point to us stocking more than 6 months of anything. The idea that specialty pharmaceuticals would still be available for senior life support is laughable when the supply chains are shattered.
If civil war breaks out (which appears to be the Dem-wing goal) we’ll just be speed-bumps on the road to the next United States; we’re resigned to that. As Heinlein once noted, “Your status in hell is determined by the size of the bodyguard you take with you”, but I’m hoping there won’t be many active targets out here.
The current regime isn’t really relevant when planning where to set up shop after the current regime collapses.
At worst it can make preparations for the move harder, which is something that’s rarely considered by people who write things like this.
My best friend and her staunchly redneck extended family live somewhere in the mountains of Georgia. Several thousand acres of mountainsides and valleys, wooded with a good sprinkling of creeks and streams, and both natural and man made caverns (some of which have already been turned into nuclear proof bomb shelters, convenient).
Few nearby airfields capable of taking a mid sized business jet, ideal bugout place.
Getting there might take me some time, unless they can send one of said business jets to pick me out of Europe, but it’s the best option I have as nowhere in Europe is going to be liveable at all.
Most people will never get out of the planning phase of this, treating it as a thought exercise. The few that might, will likely undersell the effort necessary to make it happen. It’s an expensive proposition to set up a redoubt or bunker. A true survivable landing spot will not come ready-made–it needs to be lived in, the land farmed, the ponds and streams kept clean, neighbors known, that sort of thing. Fewer than 3% of the population can sustain two livable homes simultaneously, so most believe their primary choices are to flee (to what, they have no idea) or hunker down and wait for FedCo and the Military to rescue them.
Just after Katrina, the NDMSA (and a few other agencies) got serious about planning for a major disaster that would cause people to shift their assess elsewhere. I took a 16-week training course split between Ft. Meade and San Antonio back in the late 90’s on medical response to disaster management and it was eye-opening to say the least. I worked on the Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham, DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia scenarios and no matter how many times they ran the simulation, the outcome was virtually the same–you are fucked.
There are too many “ifs” to give the full picture, but generally, if you are not force-evacuated, if you are fully prepped and not in the inner city, you should hunker down for at least the first 3-10 days. If you are prepped, and you don’t live in the inner city, ride it out. I don’t agree with bugging out unless you a) have somewhere to go that’s significantly more fortified and supported than where you’re at; and b) you can get there on the gas you have in your car within 1-4 hours of when SHTF. The devil is in the details. If you live in a suburban area that’s beyond walking distance from a major egress route, if you have access to potable water, and the means to defend yourself, then I’d hunker down. If you don’t, you’ll probably have to take your chances with the several million people that DON’T have a secure destination and the lawful means to get there. I live in the Northern Virginia/DC suburbs and have family enclaves in West Virginia and Eastern TN that I could get to in about 4 hours and one full tank of gas. I’d have to weigh the odds of getting there before the hoards leaving the metro area clog up the highways, and who are going to wind up scared, tired, hungry and out of gas in a place where they have no kith nor kin. If I had to make that choice based on my current prep situation, I’m hunkering down.
Regardless of the circumstances, you must have the means and the mental wherewithal to defend you and yours with deadly force. If you live in Central Virginia and have a hidey-hole in Vernal, Utah, the odds of you making it there during a SHTF scenario are not zero, but definitely zero adjacent.
I’ll share my personal scenario with Dr. Kim. Short version is a case of Irish Whisky, belt-fed machine guns and going out on a pile of brass.
I have many opinions that contradict the report…
First – I tend to agree with Kim about how the price of housing and land in the CO area mentioned in the report is the ideal spot were sky high. Most people can’t move there. For that matter, unless you are retired or wealthy, and have zero family to care for, you might not be able to move at all.
So the reality of this is, what can you do to increase your odds for survival?
I come at this from a practical perspective
First – Inflation – many things keep going up in cost. So the first part of this survival I think is missed by the report mentioned, keeping things you need that you can not make.
Most people will have to stockpile, fortify and get their current home or homestead ready for whatever may come at the drop of a hat.
1 – Hygiene. While you might be able to get soap or make it, buying it cheap is easy to do. Bars of soap cost more now than a few years ago, however keep in mind soap, toothpaste and other care items.
I know money is tight for many, but find a way to make this happen.
Go to Wally World, Dollar store etc, and buy extra toothpaste, bars of soap, bottles of shampoo, bottles of dishwashing liquid, extra paper towels, tissues and toilet paper. This stuff doesn’t go bad for a long time, and some doesn’t go bad at all. Cut out an extra meal out a week, or skimp on something to have this stuff available.
2 – Medicine. After SHTF you might not be able to find easily if any all medicine. Many over the counter stuff like ibuprofin and acetaminophen, stomach antacid etc.
If you have prescription meds, see if each time you get them if you can get a 90 day supply instead of 30. Typically less per unit this way.
And write down the prescriptions you have, along with the dosage you take and the Dr that prescribed them. Keep several copies of this list available with you and your family or caretakers. In times of SHTF this could save your life.
3 – Food storage – Perishable, short term, moderate term, long term.
I am not a perfect healthy eater. Get what you like to eat. I would make the suggestion to not buy what you think sounds good. You don’t want to get a bunch of food and find out after more food isn’t available that you don’t like what is stocked.
Make sure to have at least a weeks worth of perishable and short term foods at all times if you can afford it.
Then build up your canned, freeze dried or frozen foods. I suggest more canned and freeze dried as without power frozen foods must be eaten up quickly.
4 – Now that you have basics covered above, make sure your house, apartment, or mobile home or cabin in the woods whatever is in good order. Replace what you can afford. New water heater, windows, take down old trees etc. Get the place to a point where if you had to hunker down for a few years the place is livable without a need for major repairs right now.
5 – Keep your vehicle in reasonable working order. I know everyone can’t afford ferraris. But your car doesn’t have to be perfect or new. Could even have dents scratches etc.
Just make sure the fluids are clean and major repairs are taken care of.
Remember, if you need to evacuate your home, on short notice, do you have a vehicle you can rely on?
6 – Power. Generators, I like gas, but some people have to settle for those dildo battery powered boxes that share out stored power. Especially helpful if you have medicine that needs to be refrigerated, or if you live in a cold climate and need heat or if you are in a 100 degree sauna and need some AC.
Buy a generator and store some fuel (Gas or propane for the generator) or if you have a battery storage type generator, get one of those lefty solar panels to charge in case the grid is down.
Again I way prefer gas powered stuff. YMMV.
7 – PROTECTION – the above stuff is NO GOOD without a way to protect yourself. I, and many others, suggest guns. Too many options to list here. Get a gun that works for you.
If you don’t like guns (and you are wierd), or if you can’t own one, get some other means, like knives, bear spray, or even a baseball bat.
8 – Hobbies. Checkers, books, knitting. Find something to pass the time. If the power and cell towers and internet go down, you’ll be bored.
Try to see if you can work with neighbors. Not always possible. Always seems there is an asshole next to you or near you. But SHTF will be easier if those right near you don’t want to take your shit or worse.
If all of the above is done or mostly done and you still have time or money or both, you could look into a 2nd home or moving altogether. For most people that is not affordable or practical.
Oh – remember Ronald Reagan “The nine scariest words in the english language are I’m from the Govt and I’m here to help”.
If you think the powers that be will help you when SHTF, then you are going to be fucked.
Good luck!
Not trying to quibble but that’s not ‘a long read’ it is the source
material student handout for a couple of graduate courses in
statistical analysis !!!
“Where is the best place to live in the US during and after the apocalypse?”
A number of middle/upper-class patriots who formerly gave Uncle Sam a blank check have begun to scratch out/erase the words “…in the US…” from the question saying, “This is no longer the US in which I grew up and for which I wrote that blank check.”
I’m probably going to wind up leaving CO in 2-3 years (Daughter will be leaving the nest sometime, and if land values here haven’t tanked it’ll be a good time to get out).
But if “SHTF” between now and then I’ve got…not a plan, but some ideas. Those ideas are not *nearly* as civilized as yours.
Remember the old adage: “If you die, we’re splitting up your gear”.
I thought the fact they came down to one county was interesting. Obviously they are young and have no real idea on how to live with no appliances. The county is what 50 square miles? Just how many peppers would that hold? And proximity to towns, yes people will not move around so much when shanks mare is the popular transport method. No, it is going to get messy and the ability to dissuade attack in your abode is probably the best idea for a short term. The travel to an away spot. Hopefully by the most of the bad actors will have died before you start to move. Books have been written about this and some authors have a decent handle and some don’t.
The mere fact that Hinsdale County was the “winner” in such an article is a good reason to take it off the list. I’m where I am and it’s as safe as anyplace in the lower 48 – acknowledging the supreme law of the universe – Murphy. I’m here, I’m established, and I don’t care to move someplace where I’d be considered a newcomer. I don’t even consider HI and AK to be reasonable places to be if the SHTF.
My take on this whole SHTF discussion: YOU will NOT survive the zombie apocalypse (or any apocalyptic-type disaster). Your efforts would be far better spent working to prevent such an event than prepping for what surely would be a failure of your efforts.