A trending topic in the survivalist blogosphere (the Preppersphere?) has been the old classic “When the world comes to an end, I’ll just go to your place” scenario. [ 1, 2 ] If you’ve been into preparedness for any amount of time, you’ve heard that line from someone. Usually they say it jokingly because if they realy thought the world could come to an end they’d get off their butts and get ready themselves. But they don’t think its going to happen, so they think they can just say pithy and clever things like that and be funny.
Unfortunately, once the forced good-natured grins leave our faces we think to ourselves “Well crap…how am I going to deal with this?” On the very rare occasions someone says something like that to me, my reply is to usually either say “Knock yourself out. I won’t be here”, or, more often, “wouldn’t it make more sense for you to just take similar precautions?”
Obviously, not telling someone that you’ve got a secret life as Burt Gummer Jr. would be a good way to go. But…sometimes you can’t help it. Close friends fade away over time, people you trust surprise you, the electrician notices the garage full of stuff when he’s wiring in your transfer switch, the neighbors see the UPS guy dropping those big blue barrels off, etc, etc. Try, but it’s still a tough secret to keep.
I know very few people who aren’t into preparedness, so I don’t worry about it too much. I don’t think I’d have much trouble turning away strangers, it’s the casual friends and the like that might be an issue. Easiest solution? Don’t be there. Throw the remaining gear into the vehicle and head for the Beta Site.
But, between Everything Is Fine and Gotta Go Now Now Now, there’s a continuum.. take, for example, a windstorm that comes through and knocks down some power lines. Electricity is going to be out for only a day or two…three, tops, but your causal work buddy would like to camp out in your yard since you’ve got power from your generator and hot food and showers because of that 500 gallon propane tank behind your garage. It’s not the end of the world exactly….but he wants your help. Yea? Nay? Or it becomes more pronounced…and it’s a week without power. Does that change your willingness to host the less prepared?
There’s always that chorus that says “If someone said to me they were going to come to my place when the world ends, I’d tell them I’d [shoot them/eat them/keep their women and send the men away/similar tough-guy talk]” but you can’t really think that’ll dissuade anyone.
Keeping a very low-profile would certainly help. The neighbors are less likely to come knocking on your door if they think you’re just as bad off as they are. It would also help if they didn’t know that the person living next door to them was a survivalist.
I mean, if I have a 12-month supply for two people of something, someone bringing themselves and another person (or more) knock me down to 6-months…just like that. Why, in the name of Crom, would I willingly cut my margin of safety in half (or worse)?
Like I said, my favorite plan to deal with the “when the world comes to an end….” issue is to simply not be there when it happens. When the distant family members, faded-from-history friends, and other arms-length people come to the doorstep I hope I’m far away.
I should mention, there’s a few (really, really, really, small few) people I’d take in but it’s a number small enough to count on the fingers on one hand of a careless woodworker. It’s easier to try and convert those people rather than explain to them why you don’t want them in your lifeboat. But, it’s even easier to just not deal with them at all by being elsewhere.
You have nailed it!
Gathering supplies is hard enough, but it is EASY compared to “Who do I tell about it?”
This is one of the reasons why “Bugging In” in an urban environment is a form of slow-motion suicide…
1. You cannot hide what you are doing.
2. You cannot defend your resources.
3. You will lose your opportunity to G.O.O.D.
4. You WILL die there, among the wreckage of your hopes and dreams.
Unless you have picked VERY carefully, each person you tell will have someone they need to protect. Each of THOSE will have someone.
If they arrive “En Masse” will you turn them away at gunpoint? and if you do, what will stop them coming back with armed company?
So.
To have ANY chance of surviving, you need to be away from town, with hidden storehouses, and VERY few people knowing about either.
This will sound very cold-hearted, but you cannot save the world, or even everyone you know.
You will die if you try.
So.
1. Choose your location well.
2. Stock it carefully.
3. Only tell a trusted few.
God Bless…
Does your prepping include growing food? And if so is it doable to have food growing at your second site.
The people who might make their way to my place if real s**ts hit the fan would have to be survivalists anyway to cross the miles and miles of deserts and mountains and survive. It’s elsewhere out here. Can’t even get family to visit, and people still have cars, and gas, and Motel 6.
My roomie said “Well, you’ll give me your food from your garden and cook for me, right?”. And he wasn’t kidding. I told him he better have something to trade or he’s going hungry. I’m not gonna let the internet know what I really thought- it ain’t pretty.
Robert:
I take it your first step to protect your stuff is to find a new roomie?
If not, why not…
Commander, I like your analysis. Locusts cannot devour that which they do not see. If you are out behind Mount St. Elsewhere, hanging in your cabin or cottage, and the locusts are focused on your homestead, no kinetic dissuasion is required. Were it me, I’d be irritated at the likely damage occasioned by frustrated eaters, but, what the heck, stuff can be repaired or replaced. My kharma from ventilating some eaters, well, that’s something I’d prefer to confront only in the gravest extreme. Your scheme would help reduce the likelihood of that encounter.
One of the most often things to talk about is this issue and I just chuckle at those who claim will shoot anyone who shows up at their door, that will be a self correcting problem in the first couple of days. Will people I know currently or I’ve known come to my house if SHTF? Yep, I no doubt count on it. Will I be there – most likely now that Beta and Charlie sites are no longer available and finding a Beta/Charlie site is getting harder and harder to find within 3hrs of my area since I’m not rolling in cash to afford one myself. Even renting a small storage locker in a area is getting utterly stupid in prices, lowest I’ve found is $36 + tax/month for a 6 x 10 locker. We have family who have cabins/property that could be good Beta or Charlie sites but when approached with the subject/topic they 100% REFUSE to even allow me to store a 30 day cache on the property, but we’re ‘welcome to come anytime!’.
This is a very interesting conundrum. I’ve been out of the city since 2001 and after a 3-day power out back in 2006 found me unprepared, I’ve been prepping. The only people that know are my wife, my 2 brothers-in-law and a few very close friends who also prep. Together we have a decent repertoire of skills and co-own a hunt camp that we have over the last decade manage to fully stock. One thing we are all paranoid about is OPSEC. To the best of my knowledge, not even the neighbors have a clue. As for turning someone away, that’s not going to happen because we are not going to be here to answer the door. If anyone shows up before we leave, well, aside from bug out gear there’s nothing here to share.
“The only people that know are my wife, my 2 brothers-in-law and a few very close friends” and it only needs one person to say something to one person.
This is where belonging to a group is a plus.
You can as a group buy land, like a RV park, and have a place to keep supplies and equipment, along with security in numbers. Make sure you get everything in writing and have a lawyer.
I usually say “great, how much food are you bringing?” That generally shuts down the line of chat.
During Harvey the call went out for various items, which SHMBO hit me up for. So I pulled a bulk pack of TP and paper towel off the shelves. Ditto for some aging out food. Wife’s comment on the expiry date was, if they’re really hungry, they’ll eat it.
We were stocking ad hoc shelters so we wouldn’t have folks roaming the streets or knocking on our door.
It was very ‘neighbor to neighbor’, coordinated thru social media.
This of course was a regional disaster, with help available from outside, and a sense of shared hardship and purpose. It would be different in other scenarios.
Even so, I was reluctant to give away too much.
n
(I was able to unload 12 cases of tyvek that didn’t fit, and feel charitable doing so, so that freed up some storage space for stuff that I do need.)
How many times have you heard advice about forming a prepper/survivalist group in advance of a catastrophe, rather than waiting and trying to form one afterward?
The problem with that approach is that maybe, and I emphasize maybe, 1 person in 50 might be agreeable and would be willing to join in such an effort while times are normal.
The problem here is that the other 49 people now know that your place is likely the equivalent of the neighborhood supply depot, so you must be convinced to share with them. This is a particular problem if you have no bug out location and, as a result, will be forced to hunker down where you are rather than head out as a refugee into the great unknown.
After things have gotten “spicey,” the other 49 people showing up at your door with a knife, fork, and empty stomach will be your undoing. Feed them and they will return. Don’t feed them and they are ultimately likely to find ways to get at your storage, and it could get very ugly. “How dare you turn your back on us?”
Were you one of the unprepared zombies after the apocalypse, and your 3-year-old was lying malnourished on the couch while begging you for good, just what would you do?
Those who spend any time around me know who can show up, who should call 1st, and who should try somewhere else. They have also been told, “If you don’t know where you fit, don’t come!”
I had one lady tell me “You wouldn’t turn me away.”. My response was “Which one of my grandchildren goes hungry because you won’t listen now?” That really set her back on her heals.
BINGO! “So, Ms. Whoever, since you are saving up NOTHING, and planning for NOTHING, which one of my grandchildren will be ejected, in order to save your burdensome tail? Here are pictures: select one.” (For those who didn’t read the syllabus, in MY classroom, it’s Ms. Whoever who gets voted off the island!)
There’s an old joke, I can’t take credit for it, but when someone says they’ll just show up at my house after a disaster, my pat response is “Great, bring your _____________” Fill in the blank with daughter, wife, girlfriend, D-1 women’s volleyball team etc. as appropriate (or inappropriate as the case may be).
It’s a bad joke, but it always makes folks think.
If we look at Katrina being one of the latest disasters, roads were shut down pretty quick and no one was going anywhere. The people that left early made out the best but that requires resources.
Folks like me that will probable bug in will have to deal with those that haven’t prepared and want my stuff. Let them in and they will become the locust. Shut them out and one kid with a beer bottle of gasoline could burn this place down.
Quite the conundrum.
Step 1: don’t live in a house made of fuel.
Yes, it’s difficult and expensive to find a place — especially one built in the last 40 years — that isn’t a shoddily-crafted stick-built “might still be standing when the mortgage is paid-off” tract home, with little more than drywall and fiberglass batting for walls, carpeted floors that will poison the occupants in a fire and a roof that will blow away in a stiff breeze.
None of my friends and neighbors have — so far — lost as much as a stick of chewing gum or an AA battery to looters.
But three of them have suffered major losses due to fire. One lost everything he possessed and found himself with his family, standing in a neighbor’s yard in their underwear, waiting for the Red Cross to show up.
“Bugging out” is a terrible idea in almost any scenario. You can’t haul enough tools and supplies — especially in a crisis — to last more than a few weeks. And pre-positioned/cached supplies are all too likely to be stolen or damaged by the environment before you arrive. Remaining in one’s current home is the sensible choice most of the time.
So make that location defensible. And that more than anything else means defensible against fire.
Brick, stucco or stone facades can be added to many stick-built homes. Not bulletproof, but much harder to burn, be it arson or wildfire.
Wood or tile floors. Easier to clean when there’s no electricity. Much less flammable than carpet, and no poisonous gases cooking out of them in the event of a fire.
Metal or tile roofs. They last much longer than asphalt shingles, and are much harder to set on fire. Add a roof-sprinkler/washer set-up to increase their resistance to attacks with molotovs and also against wildfires. This doesn’t have to be more complicated than a few lengths of copper pipe with holes drilled along the sides, and a jumper hose that connects to a work sink.
Reinforce the framing around windows, so that it’s quick and easy to fit shutters or plywood covers in the event of storms or social unrest. Leave a gap at the bottom of the window covers, sufficient to observe and — if necessary — fire through.
A good solid-core metal door on all entries. Fastened to reinforced framing. Wouldn’t hurt to add some barriers to ramming by a vehicle or several large men with a battering ram. Big decorative concrete planters aren’t that costly.
To the extent possible, clear your yard of cover that could be used by attackers. This will also help with defense against wildfire. Some battery-power remotely controlled infrared lights can be helpful as well. They will make a video surveillance camera much more useful at night.
People in the Katrina disaster kept waiting for the government to “save” them. THAT is why so many were trying to navigate clogged roads, crazy people, and no gas. I know this, because a friends daughter kept calling her mother & stepdad in California to come get her. This daughter did nothing to get herself out mind you. Dialing the phone, crying and pleading, were her main safety nets. Her stepfather finally loaded some weapons, food, water, and 2 friends in the minivan with gas cans and took off after the dimwit. DON”T be these people! Have plans A,B,C, and maybe D. If you plan to bloom where you are planted, then prepare accordingly. Know your area and get a handle on the local law enforcement. Knowledge is power. If you do plan to bug out to the holy grail of fortitude, then line those ducks up beforehand. Did you know? A lot of nurses, doctors, lawyers, accountants-etc all could have simply rebuilt their lives in Houston (or anywhere else in Texas). There were plenty of job openings. (God Bless Texas!) However…….most people did not have an Emergency Binder with copies of their licenses, schooling, etc. All of the important pieces of paper proving who and what you are should be in an Emergency Binder that you can grab in a heartbeat. Include the dogs’ shot records, the kids vaccinations, etc. Quit waiting to prepare. Your life and your loved ones lives, depend on being ready!
Now a days you may as well scan your paper work and email to your self – as well as not instead of having paper copys. That’s copys as in, keep in more than one place.
Just dealt with this at work recently, well we’ll come to your place or maybe the crazy MIL house, I’m like well I havnt been to the grocery store in a few weeks and I’m stopping by my parents for dinner more often than not… if people ask I just am into guns and associated gear, can’t barely feed myself otherwise…
As the eminent philosopher Clint Eastwood stated ” A man has to know his limitations ” . Getting too old to ruck it over these hills so my only choice will be to make a stand . I have adopted the Israeli strategy of implementing the Samson Option if needed . When the dust clears there will be no more problems . Other than a direct 10 kiloton event I will walk away alone and free . Never fear death ! It gives them an advantage . Dig deep and build wisely .