Since I'm the original author I figured I'd post this here and see what you guys think. This is a thread from another forum, and I've been pondering these ideas and more for a long time. I have almost completely stopped posting on other sites and forums, because I get tired of seeing the same armchair survivalist crap. I know, I know... I'm not living in a nuke shelter under an island no one knows about, but it gets so annoying listening to idiots who think their entire life will fit into an ALICE pack and they can run off into the woods and never be seen again. This is Indiana, and you guys can look at the woods around here and understand how much of a joke that mindset is. So here it is. I hope you enjoy.
For quite some time I have been pondering the urban zones during and after a SHTF/TEOTWAWKI situation. During the initial days of any disaster people want to flee from the city, and rightly so in some situations. If there are wildfires encroaching upon the borders of your town or a hurricane rolling toward your shore it's time to lock up and hit the road, but what do we do when everyone else is heading to the woods? When you're trying to get away from people it doesn't always mean getting away from the city, because when everyone goes to the closest state/national park or chunk of woods then you're all going to be in the same boat, just with nothing but what people brought with them.
Once abandoned the cities will provide much that people need. Food, shelter, and supplies. Many preppers have a vision of stores being instantly looted and everything useful being stripped from anywhere with more than one stop light but this is simply not true. People will not, in their panicked state, take everything that is not nailed down. However, you'll never find a big screen TV or booze, but these are items that you don't need to make it. Look around at your town (Or the one you're next in) and think about the things you could do with the supplies you could find a use for in building a suitable home or outpost in town.
1. Walls
I have been thinking about walls for quite some time. Walls will be needed whether you're in a city or in the rolling plains. If your "village" becomes even semi-permanent you're going to have the smell of cooking food, lights at night, and movement that will draw attention. The primary defense throughout history has always been walls. There is a great amount of wall building material throughout any city that could be turned into great impassible structures. If you look at most cars or trucks, imagine crushing down the roof and taking the wheels off... You've now got a 1500 to 2500 pound brick. Start to Lego some of those together and you're not getting in unless you walk through the gate. Concrete lane dividers would also make a great addition. For smaller or lighter barriers fencing could be used. If you took all the chain link fence from a couple neighborhoods you could patch together quite a nice fence that would keep people out. For fencing think inner perimeter.
2. Gardens and small farms
Every patch of grass will no longer have a use keeping neighborhoods scenic and beautiful, so why not use that area? Rip us that sod and plant a garden. If everyone with a yard farmed the entire thing they'd be able to feed a lot more than just themselves. For those areas too far out to protect let them grow, then go bale it. Livestock needs straw, and it will be abundant. Also, cities are an amazing source of glass, and glass means greenhouses. Greenhouses will enable a longer growing season and non-indigenous crops. Almost all produce you pick up at the grocery store can be grown in a greenhouse.
3. Security
Cities provide an amazing amount of security, and they will continue to do so in the future. Nature takes it's course in domesticated animals and ensures their survival. Packs of large (Because smaller ones end up as food for the others) feral dogs WILL kill people. This may be hazardous to patrols outside the wall, but to intruders it will also be an extreme deterrent. The dark windows facing a street have and will always create a paranoia that someone may be watching, and an attack can come from any one of those windows. The psychological effect of the imminent guerrilla attack within an urban environment will also serve to ward off those who would otherwise attempt to gain access to your compound. And last but not least... The killing fields. An urban setting means corners, doors, elevated shooting positions, road blocks... You can make your own personal maze of death, and as long and you and your group know what is where you'll be fine, not so much for those who don't.
4. Information
The local library, hardware stores, local surveyors offices, schools, city buildings, and even a gas station will contain books, maps, blueprints, and other information that may be crucial to building a working, safe society. All these materials will aid you in your goal of survival, and will allow you to take it to the level you deem necessary. With Do-It-Yourself books, Chemistry texts, medical banks, and blueprints of citywide structures and utilities you'll be able to bring you and yours back out of the dark ages.
5. Energy
Once the power goes out the gas pumps will stop working, that doesn't mean there's no more fuel, and if you know how to get it you'll be driving to your heart's content and running generators to play the old copy of Jet Moto you found in a box. Multitudes of road signs and other small things around the country are run on solar panels. Wire enough solar panels together and you've got power. Abandoned cars will littler the entire world, and each and every car out there (with the exception of electrics) will have an alternator on it. Whip up some blades, a gear set, and hook up an inverter and you've got some wind turbines. Propane facilities will be abandoned and ripe for the picking (if you get there before someone else gets the same idea) and propane and other gases have extensive uses.
6. Existing infrastructure
Want to set up a communication center? Head down to the local radio station and secure a perimeter around it. Use some of that know-how and get yourself some power, then you're talkin'... Literally, to anyone who's listening for it. Talk about an early warning... Get a call on the 2-Way or CB and broadcast it over the radio station, then in the middle of Turn the Page someone hears the message to pick up their rifle and get ready. Junk yards will be like opening that perfect gift on Christmas morning. Wells, water towers, electrical lines, gas lines, and the like could all be utilized. Homes and other structures could all be great for housing and whatever else you can think of. Old school buildings and hospitals would be amazing for a large communal setting, seeing as how they have many rooms, thick walls, good construction, and large dining facilities.
7. Supplies supplies supplies
While people may be looting stores and stealing cars very few will be going house to house looking for useful items. In one block you'll find a great amount of canned goods, tools, clothing, and other things that may make life easier. You may even come across some firearms which will greatly increase the security of you and your people. If you happen to have a large boiler or similar furnace that burns wood imagine the firewood all around you. Cities are filled to the brim, and no one if going to take everything they own when they leave. Finding those mowing shoes or an old jacket may be the thing that saves your life, you never know.
8. Other Survivors
Not everyone will leave, and not everyone who stays will instantly die. If you happen to run across other survivors they may have something you need, and in exchange for the security you will be able to provide they may be eternally grateful. Imagine running across a doctor, electrician, veteran, or a dentist. The skillsets they will be able to employ to aid you will far outweigh the food and shelter you provide for them.
These are just some of the things that pop into my head when I think about urban survival but, undoubtedly, there are many more. What are your thoughts?
For quite some time I have been pondering the urban zones during and after a SHTF/TEOTWAWKI situation. During the initial days of any disaster people want to flee from the city, and rightly so in some situations. If there are wildfires encroaching upon the borders of your town or a hurricane rolling toward your shore it's time to lock up and hit the road, but what do we do when everyone else is heading to the woods? When you're trying to get away from people it doesn't always mean getting away from the city, because when everyone goes to the closest state/national park or chunk of woods then you're all going to be in the same boat, just with nothing but what people brought with them.
Once abandoned the cities will provide much that people need. Food, shelter, and supplies. Many preppers have a vision of stores being instantly looted and everything useful being stripped from anywhere with more than one stop light but this is simply not true. People will not, in their panicked state, take everything that is not nailed down. However, you'll never find a big screen TV or booze, but these are items that you don't need to make it. Look around at your town (Or the one you're next in) and think about the things you could do with the supplies you could find a use for in building a suitable home or outpost in town.
1. Walls
I have been thinking about walls for quite some time. Walls will be needed whether you're in a city or in the rolling plains. If your "village" becomes even semi-permanent you're going to have the smell of cooking food, lights at night, and movement that will draw attention. The primary defense throughout history has always been walls. There is a great amount of wall building material throughout any city that could be turned into great impassible structures. If you look at most cars or trucks, imagine crushing down the roof and taking the wheels off... You've now got a 1500 to 2500 pound brick. Start to Lego some of those together and you're not getting in unless you walk through the gate. Concrete lane dividers would also make a great addition. For smaller or lighter barriers fencing could be used. If you took all the chain link fence from a couple neighborhoods you could patch together quite a nice fence that would keep people out. For fencing think inner perimeter.
2. Gardens and small farms
Every patch of grass will no longer have a use keeping neighborhoods scenic and beautiful, so why not use that area? Rip us that sod and plant a garden. If everyone with a yard farmed the entire thing they'd be able to feed a lot more than just themselves. For those areas too far out to protect let them grow, then go bale it. Livestock needs straw, and it will be abundant. Also, cities are an amazing source of glass, and glass means greenhouses. Greenhouses will enable a longer growing season and non-indigenous crops. Almost all produce you pick up at the grocery store can be grown in a greenhouse.
3. Security
Cities provide an amazing amount of security, and they will continue to do so in the future. Nature takes it's course in domesticated animals and ensures their survival. Packs of large (Because smaller ones end up as food for the others) feral dogs WILL kill people. This may be hazardous to patrols outside the wall, but to intruders it will also be an extreme deterrent. The dark windows facing a street have and will always create a paranoia that someone may be watching, and an attack can come from any one of those windows. The psychological effect of the imminent guerrilla attack within an urban environment will also serve to ward off those who would otherwise attempt to gain access to your compound. And last but not least... The killing fields. An urban setting means corners, doors, elevated shooting positions, road blocks... You can make your own personal maze of death, and as long and you and your group know what is where you'll be fine, not so much for those who don't.
4. Information
The local library, hardware stores, local surveyors offices, schools, city buildings, and even a gas station will contain books, maps, blueprints, and other information that may be crucial to building a working, safe society. All these materials will aid you in your goal of survival, and will allow you to take it to the level you deem necessary. With Do-It-Yourself books, Chemistry texts, medical banks, and blueprints of citywide structures and utilities you'll be able to bring you and yours back out of the dark ages.
5. Energy
Once the power goes out the gas pumps will stop working, that doesn't mean there's no more fuel, and if you know how to get it you'll be driving to your heart's content and running generators to play the old copy of Jet Moto you found in a box. Multitudes of road signs and other small things around the country are run on solar panels. Wire enough solar panels together and you've got power. Abandoned cars will littler the entire world, and each and every car out there (with the exception of electrics) will have an alternator on it. Whip up some blades, a gear set, and hook up an inverter and you've got some wind turbines. Propane facilities will be abandoned and ripe for the picking (if you get there before someone else gets the same idea) and propane and other gases have extensive uses.
6. Existing infrastructure
Want to set up a communication center? Head down to the local radio station and secure a perimeter around it. Use some of that know-how and get yourself some power, then you're talkin'... Literally, to anyone who's listening for it. Talk about an early warning... Get a call on the 2-Way or CB and broadcast it over the radio station, then in the middle of Turn the Page someone hears the message to pick up their rifle and get ready. Junk yards will be like opening that perfect gift on Christmas morning. Wells, water towers, electrical lines, gas lines, and the like could all be utilized. Homes and other structures could all be great for housing and whatever else you can think of. Old school buildings and hospitals would be amazing for a large communal setting, seeing as how they have many rooms, thick walls, good construction, and large dining facilities.
7. Supplies supplies supplies
While people may be looting stores and stealing cars very few will be going house to house looking for useful items. In one block you'll find a great amount of canned goods, tools, clothing, and other things that may make life easier. You may even come across some firearms which will greatly increase the security of you and your people. If you happen to have a large boiler or similar furnace that burns wood imagine the firewood all around you. Cities are filled to the brim, and no one if going to take everything they own when they leave. Finding those mowing shoes or an old jacket may be the thing that saves your life, you never know.
8. Other Survivors
Not everyone will leave, and not everyone who stays will instantly die. If you happen to run across other survivors they may have something you need, and in exchange for the security you will be able to provide they may be eternally grateful. Imagine running across a doctor, electrician, veteran, or a dentist. The skillsets they will be able to employ to aid you will far outweigh the food and shelter you provide for them.
These are just some of the things that pop into my head when I think about urban survival but, undoubtedly, there are many more. What are your thoughts?
