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Monday, October 5, 2015

Safe locations



One of the common questions new preppers ask is: where is a safe place to live? Sounds like a simple enough question but it isn't.

Safe from what? Missouri is pretty safe from hurricanes, but it's in tornado alley. New Hampshire is safe from poisonous snakes, but you might freeze to death in the winter. You've got to focus on what really matters to you. Then you have to play the odds.

Right now I'm visiting in Florida, a place known for hurricanes. We've just been missed by one, but the Carolinas are getting slammed by historic rain and flooding. The Northeast isn't known for suffering from hurricanes, but New York got clobbered by hurricane Sandy. Just because a location doesn't normally suffer from certain disasters doesn't mean you are safe. Playing the odds doesn't always work.

Given a long enough time frame every point on the earth has at one time been unsafe. So what's a person to do?

The first thing you've got to do is to be flexible in your thinking. You plan for the most likely disasters, but don't limit your thinking. If some black swan event totally outside your expectation happens, don't panic. Many people panic and freeze up when disasters strike. Other times they just wait too long before they decide to move. When the water looks to breach the levies, it's past time to leave.

If you are a prepper you know how to provide the basics: water, food, shelter, and security. With those basics squared away your mental efforts can be directed to the unexpected threats.

I'm a big fan of sheltering in place. Usually it's the safest course of action, at least in the short term. However, sometimes the only thing one can do is to run. Being mobile can save your life. If the tanks are moving in, getting out their way is the best alternative. Should uncontrolled wildfires come your way, get the heck out of Dodge.

The safest place to live? That varies. Learn to sleep with one eye open.

-Sixbears




12 comments:

  1. At least now-a-days we get plenty of warnings about storms and invasions...

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    1. All we have to do is to pay attention but many do not.

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  2. I always considered people to be the A number one threat. Especially after my experiences in the middle east in the 1980s. So when I looked for a place to live, I wanted very low population density, easily controlled access, multiple water supplies and a location where the future should not and could not include co located neighbors. So I wound up on this mountain surrounded by national forest in Appalachia. So far, so good and that was 30 plus years ago.

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    1. Can't argue with over 30 years of success.

      You've got a great set up. The only major problem that I can see is that isolation works both ways. If you wanted to leave your mountain in a hurry, you might not be able to.

      It's something I started thinking about one winter after being snowed in for days. Good thing we didn't need to go anywhere. It would have been a long slog on snowshoes.

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  3. Sounds like you got some good ideas, Sixbears, and leave everyone to figure out what works for them. Like the idea of shelter-in-place myself. Even in Hurricane Ike, when the roads out of Houston were bogged for 16 hours and we were without power for 13 days, stayin' home still worked for us ...

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    1. My sister-in-law lives in Channel View and she's one of those who got stuck on the highway.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. There is usually a way out of or a way to avoid trouble, if you look hard enough.

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    1. It pays to keep your eyes open to impending threats.

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