Bugging in place

By Joseph Parish

Just about every place that one may consider as a safe retreat location has some sort of negative aspect about it. As an example, assume we take the Idaho, Wyoming and Montana area. There are groups of people that are currently observing the Yellowstone area for a impending crisis. Suppose for one moment that the Yellowstone geysers start to go off as it has been predicted. We are quickly becoming conscious that this hot springs locality is nothing more then a super volcano waiting to erupt. In this case a safe retreat to those surrounding states would be a waste. The Northwest section of the country has its associated risks as well with Mt St Helens also on the verge of eruption. Let’s face, it we could plan to go south and meet head on with hurricanes or travel west and find an abundance of killer tornados awaiting our arrival. It really doesn’t matter much as to where we plan to go as all areas have their downfalls to a certain extent.

Wherever you plan to reside you have to be able to make a living. If you want to be a survivalist you can not just make a living at your job. You have to make more then a living in order to afford to properly feed yourself and at the same time purchase additional supplies for your emergency storage. You will need to purchase more fuel then what you would normally consume. Just getting by will not make it. We have to go that extra step and make more and do more with what we have at our disposal. We all require some sort of job that those jobs are not generally found in rural areas.

Where you make your living could be in New York City, Los Angeles or somewhere in Texas. To most people packing up all their belongings and moving to some remote location is simply impractical and totally unreasonable. To move your family at a moments notice is pure nonsense. It is actually easier to say then to really do. People are basically stuck where they are employed and it's not so very easy to obtain the necessary funds needed to buy that ideal retreat. In addition, the transition to your retreat living is usually not without its share of difficulties It is simply not an easy task if someone is not experienced at that kind of work. The elderly like myself perhaps would find it a bit more difficult then would a younger person however the younger person usually does not realize that they should be preparing for a potential danger in the first place. A potential location may appear to be very pleasing and offer a great potential for a retreat but you have to remember that you and your family may have local commitments and jobs where you are located now and to just up and leave is not an option. Unfortunately, you may not be able to make a decent living if you were to move completely to your retreat location.

There are good as well as bad points to having a bug out retreat some distance away. First off, security of the retreat remains a big problem while you are way. You can not rely upon your emergency retreat being there when you need it. You are located in one location and the retreat is in another . Think for a moment what is stopping looters and thieves from taking what they want when they want it. Keep in mind no one is there and may not be there for many months. If you have food stored there it could be gone when you need it. If you are storing weapons there they may have been stolen before you get there. In a nutshell you can not secure some place that you will not be residing in.

Facts being what they are you can readily find that there are many fine survival retreat location in just about every one of our states however regardless of what some survivalists may think where you are currently located and the amount of preps that you have made will ultimately be the answer that would work for you. I live in the state of Delaware. It is not a large town by any means but it is also now green acres. I would like to have a retreat to go to that is within an hours drive which in my case would put it in the state of Virginia. If I were in a serious survival bug out requirement I would most likely try to reach my planned retreat with my family and a few close friends.

Some folks will plan to leave the area completely either before or during a crisis situation. To them I say all well and good. Myself, I will plan to be more self sufficient in the event of our infrastructure collapsing. I like Delaware and I like the area that I live in. To me it is home. I have a child to raise and educate money to earn in order to purchase survival supplies and a life to lead. Often times we tend to lose sight of the larger picture. In this case it is to survive and make a life for your family under all circumstances. So it is not always about what you read and what some experts say will happen but rather what may work best for you.

I guess what I am trying to say is that we need to carefully ensure that we are totally prepared and have all the possible preparations completed that we possibly can at our current home. We must hone up on our various survival skills and learn new and useable trades. We need to store up on a good quantity of food and other useful survival supplies. It doesn’t matter how great of a gardener we are the point remains that we still need to eat until our first harvest has materialized and matured. We will need not just food but also fresh water, fuel, possibly ammo, meds and trading materials.

With all these facts clearly in mind it makes good sense to seriously consider where you currently live at. Where you reside now is actually where you can make your best living and ultimately store up on extra products.

I think one must be prepare to survive in place as a first retreat plan. If there are particular reasons why this would not present itself as a feasible plan such as residing in a fairly large city then one should quickly relocate outside the larger city prior to TSHTF.  In a large city you are likely to be presented with many different challenges and to consider "in place" would not be too likely however you may wish to consider another location near by.

I fully support the idea of having a bug out plan in fact maybe several would be a good idea however do not make bugging out your only type of plan. Bugging out may not be the best solution in the long run. What good would it do to plan on going to a place that is so far away that you possibly can not even be certain that you can effectively get to it? In addition, last minute rushes just do not work well from a survivalist point of view. Look at the hurricanes down south. Even with several days notification it is impossible to evacuate that many people. In place may be better then stuck on the highway somewhere without all your usual preps.

Copyright @ 2009 Joseph Parish