5 Steps to Developing a Better Urban Survival Process
We all know about grey man and the idea that we should merely bugout of any major metro area in the event of a disaster. These are good pieces of advice but I think it’s time we take this base knowledge and begin to apply it to our specific neighborhood. If you are truly going to be successful in the urban survival scenario you should apply these five urban survival processes
When we talk about surviving in the urban environment we are going to need a constant flow of resources from a combination of sustainable options that can be grown and harvested on your property or by running for resources in the local area.
Map Your Resources
While we have peace at our disposal we must use it to our advantage. Now is the time to create maps of your area. Begin by marking up resources on the map starting with those closest to your home. You may think you know your area well but having the map and the identified resources marked on it could make an enormous difference.
Mark your map with color coded dots to help easily discern the resource
- Food and Water (GREEN)
- Tools (BLUE)
- Medical (RED)
- Guns and Ammo (BLACK)
Be creative with your locations. Target is probably not the best location to visit as it will be picked over but maybe a less conspicuous location could be helpful. Mom and Pops or locations that closed recently may have some leftover inventory. Don’t go for the obvious.
Plan Your Routes
Have you given any thought to how you get out of the neighborhood? In a collapse situation just getting out of your neighborhood could be a dangerous proposition. The time and routes are a very important to your success. If you are surrounded by desperation heading out with a backpack on and other resources will most certainly make you a target. Worse is returning with a full pack of resources. You do not want to be seen coming or going.
Plan your routes on the resource map. This map should have multiple routes to each location in case you happen upon people along the way. There could also be other obstructions.
Hide Caches on Your Route
The cache is a powerful weapon in travel because they allow you to carry less and save room in your bag. The survival cache should be hidden along your mapped routes.
To get a better understanding of what you are trying to achieve with survival caches as well as what’s possible start the exciting hobby of geocaching (GEOCACHING.COM) today. This is basically a real-life treasure hunt based on GPS coordinates. It’s the best real life practice for understanding what survival caches are capable of
Intelligence
One of the practices I rarely hear mentioned in urban survival is intelligence. It hardly comes up. It would seem we are better off just staying put in our homes and cowering in terror.
Our survival radios will offer us national news and things of that nature but to really find out about what is happening at the ground level in your town or city you must get out in the streets. You can listen from a distance or explore more creative methods of getting information.
If the city has collapsed there will be ruling powers, rumors and resources. Make plans to sift out the useful intelligence.
Disappearance
In urban survival, a threat can present itself at any time. You will need to have a plan on how to disappear. A quick but effective local bugout may be necessary. A small shelter or hideout somewhere close to your home can move your family out of the cross hairs for a night or two until the threat passes.
Your ability to disappear in the face of danger and reappear without anyone noticing will be very important. Consider learning:
- Escape and evasion techniques
- Hand signals for silent navigation
- Night travel and light discipline.