Are you bugging out of the big city?

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With all the concern over terrorism, as well as Y2K breakdowns, etc. - if you are in the large cities (NYC, DC, Philly, Atlanta, Chicago, LA, SF, Seattle, etc.) are you planning of fleeing the city early to see what happens?

How many of you have made plans and preps outside the city?

Coming from a very rural, midwestern area I can't relate to life in the big cities. I don't claim to be street smart. But I see a significant risk in staying.

What are your plans and/or thoughts at this point?

Tell me -

-- Tell me (DoWe@bugout.com), December 23, 1999

Answers

Will leave Mpls on next Thur. if I can. Going to remote local 100 or so Mi. away. My preps leave with me. Thank God for SUV's

-- CygnusXI (cygnus@black-hole.com), December 23, 1999.

I bugged out of the city 18 years ago.

-- chicken farmer (chicken-farmer@ y2k.farm), December 23, 1999.

Then again, a last minute decision may make us decide to stay home. I guess it depends on the latest info. Either way, we are ready(as ready as we'll be).

-- CygnusXI (cygnus@black-hole.com), December 23, 1999.

Tell Me,

I moved out of the city of Atlanta about three weeks ago, into rural(- ish) South Carolina.

It wasn't Y2K that made me want to move though. It was these reasons:

1.) I lives next to the Perimeter highway (285) and could smell the CO from the cars as they sat there in rush hour traffic, which lasts all day. It was also the fact that I couldn't stand sharing the roads with three million unhappy, bad drivers anymore.

2.) The CDC was located about twenty miles from my house. I saw a special on TV one night about the CDC in Atlanta. They said that there are currently (about a year ago) twelve (12) deadly, communicable diseases being stored there. The kind of diseases that'll kill you in three days time, if your lucky. I couldn't stand to have that notion hovering over the heads of me and my family any more.

3.) Dobbins Air Reserve Base was located about THREE miles away from my house. I did a little research on the danger of different ARB in the USA and Dobbins was on the "Thermonuclear Strike Warning" list. THis means that it has a runway longer than 8000 feet. Long enough for our own B2 bombers to take off from loaded with our warheads. In the event of a nuclear strike, the enemy will target those runways that meet the 8000 foot criteria first, as to cripple our ability to launch a counterstrike. I then downloaded a DOS based nucelar warhgead strike simulator onto my computer. This lets you pick the size of the warhead and the altitude it hits. It then gives you the statistics for that particular strike. Well, to make a long story short, I would have been extra crispy toast giving my locale from Dobbins. I wouldn't have even had a chance to think about what was going on. Here on minute, gone the next. All simple structures (wooden houses) at a 3.5 mile radius will be knocked flat once by the shock wave, and then smashed apart by the gust of wind from the initial explosion, and then the debris is knocked apart a second time by the returning gust of wind going the opposite direction filling up the vacuum created by the absence of air from the blast. You get it coming and going. And if your lucky enough to survive that, the atmospheric temp rises to 300+F instantaneouly, and the Gamma and X- Rays will burn your fleash moments later. And that is just if you're lucky enough to get hit by the smaller payload. You don't even want to know what it would be like to get hit by a 10 or 20 Megaton warhead.

I couldn't tolerate making myself a target like that any longer. I've said it once, and I'll say it again. They didn't build those nice shiny missiles to sit around and look dangerous.

Other than that I wanted to get out that city because the racial intolerance is building up. Would you believe that the black stay predominatley to the southern end of the city, while the whites stay on the north side? It's just ridiculous that people still act this way. But the reality of the situation is that things are getting to the boiling point in that city, and I didn't want to be around when it explodes, like it has so many times in the Watts section of NYC, or south central Los Angeles.

-- (just@wanting.to remain anon), December 23, 1999.


We bugged out of a rural town of 8000 to acerage 5 miles outside of town. Never did like living in town so Y2K was a good excuse to leave. Here is what we have that we would not in town: 1)Water; two ponds and creek plus barn roof to fill cistren. Also lots of fish in the ponds. 2)Cess pool so we can always flush comode with water hauled from the front pond. 3)A 1000 gallon propane tank to be topped off again Monday 12/27. A non electric propane wall furnace of course. 4)Lots of timber for cooking fuel. 5)A large barn in which lots of supplies are stored. 6)Large barn also houses small farm animals. 7)A place to raise crops. 8)Dozens of producing pecan trees. 9)Lots of deer and turkeys. 10)Peace and quite which is not possible in town. 11)Farmers and ranchers for neighbors, many of which we know. 12)No T.V. even now which is great for the boys IMHO. 13)A wife and mother who can cook to beat the band and do many other things better than most. This is our number one asset.

-- Ed (ed@lizzardranch.com), December 23, 1999.


I live in Seattle, which apparently is ground zero. If the Y2K bug don't bite us, the terrorists probably will. At any rate, I have made preparations to hunker down where we are. It may be a decision that I later regret, but I have a lot of friends here that I can't run out on. So, 'let's get it on' is my attitude.

-- Zeke Doomer (Zeke@ouch.com), December 23, 1999.

My family is leaving the DC area on the 28th and setting up shop at a friend's farm. No way we're staying close to an obvious ground zero! Hopefully we won't need to be there more than a few days, but we're not taking any chances.

Deciding factor? If we actually needed our 6+ months of preps, our suburban neighbors would certainly want them too. Would rather not be put in a situations where we have to defend ourselves.

-- Sitting Duck (splittin'@the.city), December 23, 1999.


Yes, until I see what will happen. Better to be safe than sorry.

-- Larry (cobol.programmer@usa.net), December 23, 1999.

We bugged out 25 years ago to the coast range mountains. We have wood forever, a pond and orchard and gardens. Our alternative energy system will pump water and take care our our house and my shop if the grid goes down.

We consider people neighbors if they are 5 or more miles away -- that'show rural this area is.

Todd

-- Todd Detzel (detzel@jps.net), December 23, 1999.


I'm right there with Zeke just in a different city.

I think people forget that cities can live and survive under exceptionally difficult circumstances. Look at the bombing of cities during times of war...any war. People make due, ration what they can, scrape out an existance. Life may not be "normal" but it doesn't necessarily end.

Though I would have liked to have bugged out before the rollover with all of my family in tow I don't see this as possible. Their belief in the spin and their lack of desire to see even a credible threat as a reason for taking a few days vacation away will keep me and my immediate family here. I can't leave those I love behind.

I've stored extra water, some extra food and I'm prepared for self defense. Gotta think, "safety in numbers" and make that work for you. We'll make it through. I have no doubt previous generations have been though equally interesting times.

Mike

============================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), December 23, 1999.



Staying in Chicago. Prepped to the gills and living in a highrise, but it's a secure building, I'm on the 4th floor, the walls and ceilings are concrete, and there is only one way in and one way out. Quite frankly, unless Chicago is nuked (unlikely, IMHO) I feel a LOT safer in my little bunker here than if I lived in a house (multiple doors and windows, ground level, etc). If TSHTF I will just stay in my little hole till the screaming stops.

-- Ludi (ludi@rollin.com), December 23, 1999.

I have been born and raised in NYC all of my life. I have lived in Manhattan but since moved back to the Bronx. I am a bit unusual in that I have a great affinity for the country. I am a graduate of two wilderness survival schools and every year I look forward to my 5 day hiking trip through the Adirondak Mts. A bare-bones trip, carry everything you need with you, scrounge for what you can, bury what you leave behind. In general, I can make it just fine if i have to in the country. My choice though is to stay here in NYC, the Bronx, during the roll-over for a number of reasons. For one, I live in an ethnic enclave, That is to say a white, Italian, Catholic, middle-class neighborhood. Although I am Irish they do tolerate me well, but they do resent my ability to make a better gravy than they. This neighborhood, for me is my best option for the insuing civil unrest. We know each other, we leave our doors open at night, every house I know has someone who thinks of themselves as a hunter during open season so I know there is alot of Iron on the block. We also have the Bay at our backs and few direct entries into the neighborhood. Yes, we do have a great deal of criminally-inclined, lower socioeconomic inhabitants in the surrounding areas of the Bronx and this is a problem. However, I do belive that the close-knit fabric of the neighborhood will afford protection in any civil or natural disturbance. People in the country have space to afford them protection, I have community. A second consideration for me is that I am a cityboy,and as a cityboy I know how to move about, where to get things, who to see for the things I need if it be on the black, grey or ligitimate market. Even in the Warsaw Ghetto of 39-40 and during the seige of Lenningrad of 42-43 there were those you were able to do o.k.. One has to be flexible and has to be able to operate in there enviorment like "a fish through water" as the old Chairman once said if we are to be succesfull. So then, to all you country cousins out there in Free America, don't worry about this city rat here in the Bronx. I'll do just fine here with the little I put aside, my ability to scrounge up what I need and the good fortune of heavily armed, prep storing, like-minded neighbors that I have here. And a plus to it all, if things tend to fall apart think of how cheap some of that prime location could become down in Manhattan once the urban flight takes place. You just got to live on the 30th floor of an upscale building with a panoramic view of the city even just for a little while to realy say you have done it all. Best of Luck and Merry Christmas

-- (iop@hotmail.com), December 23, 1999.

Tell,

I'm from the country (Maine), but lived in Philly for a few years. I bagged a wife in 93, and moved back up here to ME in 94 to a nice rural farm house. Some of our good Christian friends in Philly are also prepping for Y2K, and are bugging out to stay with us shortly. One couple and their 2 kids (19 mos & 5 mos) will be driving up on Dec. 25th, and the other couple and their daughter (19 mos) will be coming up on the 29th. Add to that my 2 kids (4 yrs & 19 mos), my pregnant wife (due Feb. 20th), the second couple's pregnant wife (due in May) and their dog, and you have one full house.

They have already brought up 2 van loads of preps, and are making a midnight run tonight to bring up another load. It is 600 miles one way, so it is no easy trip. I really hope that nothing will come of the rollover, but the closer it gets the more sure I am that things will not be nice in the cities. For what it's worth, I'm a programmer (AS/400, Unix, & PC), and so is one of the guys coming up.

-- Coder (Coder@Work.Now), December 23, 1999.


Hello from the Bronx, Glad to hear that I am not the only one ready and STAYING! Except for my three years in the army, The Bronx is the only place I have ever lived, it's what I know so it is where I stay. Much better to be in your home than wandering the roads.

Stay low and let it blow!!! Tom

-- tom (flstplt@yahoo.com), December 23, 1999.


Hey Coder, I hope your friends have all the gas they'll need for the trip on the 29th. Good bet the gas lines will be long, long, long. Not that anyone would try to fill their tank, you understand, since we've been told not to.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), December 23, 1999.


We're staying, but I know a number of folks who have already left. For anyone who still plans to leave, my advice is to be wherever your main preps are by the 28th, if for no other reason than to avoid the potential panic that might ensue next week.

-- (ladybuckeye_59@yahoo.com), December 23, 1999.

bw,

Yeah, they got their gas ready for the trip. Of course, it can't hurt to top off that tank, though...

-- Coder (Coder@Work.Now), December 23, 1999.


Good they got the gas. (It was meant sincerely, not snippy.) Yeah, you can top off the tank, but ONLY if you NORMALLY would for a 3-day storm.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), December 23, 1999.

We left 5 years ago. Got the opportunity, packed up everything, rented the house out and left. Haven't looked back and we keep pinching ourselves because life has been so good to us the last 5 years. There's always a way to leave the city if one desperately wants to.

-- ~~~~ (~~~@~~~.xcom), December 23, 1999.

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