In late 1994, with no thoughts of Y2K, my husband and I bought a beautiful, two-acre plot of land where a creek empties into the Ohio River. There were four trailers and some outbuildings on it, and a 32-foot houseboat came with it. It is 22 miles from our home, and we planned to spend summer weekends there. The property was so beautiful that area residents wanted to use it for fishing and partying, so a neighbor made a deal with the county commissioner. A county road dead-ended on our land, and if the commissioner would open that road to the public, the neighbors construction company would buy its materials from the commissioners building supply company. The neighbor even bragged to us about the deal and said wed never be able to close the road, because the commissioner had promised him the use of our property for the rest of his life. It had always been private property, and we had a deed stating that we owned it, but the sheriff was told not to arrest anyone trespassing there and the prosecutor was told not to prosecute anyone. Repeated vandalism and thefts caused us to put a gate across the road in 1996, but neighbors immediately tore it down with the countys blessing. We filed suit against the county commissioners.

In the flood of 1997 all of the structures were destroyed. (A man agreed to clean off the property in exchange for the boat, but after others dumped their own flood trash there and vandals damaged the boat he decided to just take everything that was salvageable and disappear. He left us with an even worse mess. He lives in the area, but somehow the sheriffs department just cant seem to find him.)

In May, after two and a half years of court delays, we finally got a decision on our suit. Of course the land belongs to us, and we put another gate across the road. So far no one has bothered it, probably because this gate has legal force behind it. Neighbors living in nearby shacks and rusty trailers are angry at the loss of their party place, but neighbors whose property was accessed by vandals through the use of our road are thrilled. The county commissioner had nothing to lose by stealing our land, but the taxpayers spent a lot defending his undefendable stance. It cost us about $7K.

Now we are concerned about Y2K, and while we have no plans to leave our home, we would like to use our river property as our emergency bug-out place. We had the trash cleared away and put up a used trailer. Weve had water hooked to it from a nearby private source, and we had electricity put in. Last week my husband called the electrician to see if he was done and what the next step is. Both the county and REMC must inspect it, but we learned that we were supposed to have gotten a permit before we put a trailer there. FEMA doesnt want us to have a trailer, and probably wouldnt have OKed it. (Thank goodness we didnt ask first!) A trip to the courthouse didnt clear up all of our questions, but apparently FEMA fears that our trailer might float away in the next flood and clog a dam. The trailers in the riverside resorts on both sides of us are acceptable, since they pulled them to high ground and then put them back in place. Ours is not acceptable because we hauled away the ruined trailers and brought in a new one. The fact that we got no money from FEMA doesnt matter. I explained to the building commissioner why we had gotten almost no use from our property since weve owned it and that we would like to use it before summer is over. When the he realized that our property was the controversial one that had been on the front page of the paper, he promised to go himself Tuesday and do the electrical inspection. We dont know if we will ever be allowed to turn the electricity on.

The FEMA rules only recently came to light, so no one is clear about them, but it looks like everyone will have to temporarily pull their trailers out of the flood plain every 180 days, or sooner if there is a flood. Probably everyone will pretend to have pulled the trailers out, and will pay bureaucrats a fee not to look too closely. If our 180-day permit begins Tuesday when the building commissioner does his inspection, I calculate that it will expire about January 2. Do you think FEMA will have anything better to do on January 2 than hassle us about pulling our trailers off their moorings?

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), July 04, 1999

Answers

If (when) TSHTF, I hope you've got lots of firepower. Doesn't sound like your neighbors or local "law enforcement" are the types you want around at any time, especially when ordinary restraints are no longer present. You need to go to http://www.loompanics.com and get books on perimeter warning, booby traps, hardening your position, etc.

-- A (A@AisA.com), July 04, 1999.

I grew up in a small rural southern town. Never, never move to a small rural town and expect to be accepted by the townspeople in under 25 years. You will always be the new people as long as the adults of that town are alive.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), July 04, 1999.

Pearlie:

A and Carol are correct. Your bugout property is not safe from the indigenous inhabitants. Not only will they remember you were responsible for denying them exclusive *party privileges*, but they might exercise squatter's rights before you ever reach your property. Of course, if you've stashed provisions there, you can kiss them good-bye.

Your account reminds me of the time years ago when I went down with some buddies to Portsmouth. We stayed at Randible's home, which was located on the bank of the Ohio River. Farther up was another house, which was built especially for sanctuary from river flooding. We were tripping on acid and sipping whiskey the whole night long. We stopped at the house of Charles Cobb, an ex-convict. Things were getting really rough for me until he passed out the morphine tabs. Then I felt better.

That area is very beautiful, but it comes at a price. If you are not friends or kin, you will be considered an outsider, NOT to be trusted. I hope you can maintain your present location because I don't foresee you having good fortune on those two acres.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), July 04, 1999.

Pearlie, you have my sincere sympathy. We to were involved in a long drawn out lawsuit over property and it was a horrible experience. If I hadn't known better, I would have sworn you were talking about our county commission.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), July 04, 1999.

I agree with A. If this is what you are looking at as a possible Y2K survival property, you had better plan on being able to defend it. Possibly with the help of the few neighbors who apparently supported you.

In spite of 10 years of restrictive (and unconsitutional IMHO) laws designed to eliminate the assault rifle from civilian hands, you can still, today, legally (AND affordably) purchase one if you are willing to work at it. I recently have done this, and once the "Preparations Only Please" (POP?) forum kicks off, I'll post a thread with tips & tricks. (And I'm talking reliable HK 91 quality here folks, not those AR-15 high maintenance models, nor those Mini-14s that lose their accuracy after 10 fast rounds!)

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), July 04, 1999.

Hey Pearlie, Do you happen to live in Southern In.? It soundds like the property you are talking about may be near Madison. If so, we are neighbors.

-- John (...@...), July 05, 1999.

Yes, John, we are neighbors, if you consider 30 miles away to be neighbors. Our property is between New Washington and Charlestown.

In response to those who suggest our river property isn't a good place to bug out... Believe me, we won't be going there unless something drastic happens to our house, where our preps are.

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), July 05, 1999.