Apartment Security in an Urban area: Bug Out

I would give seri­ous con­sid­er­a­tion to find­ing and turn­ing up a Bug Out Loca­tion (BOL) for your­self, your girl­friend, and any fam­i­ly you both have.  If you do not already make sure your preps are portable so your­self and them safe­ly to your BOL.

Have a plan to Bug out.  In Fact, have three + plans and routes to bug out.  My per­son­al BOL to date is 110 miles from my sub­ur­ban apart­ment.  It is a fam­i­ly mem­ber’s home.  I am con­sid­er­ing one fur­ther out, and more remote than that to iso­late myself from the “locusts” that will be devour­ing resources in their path as they go.  And, don’t think 110 miles is far for peo­ple to trav­el.  It’s not.  My plan is go Bug Out in my vehi­cle, but also know that if there is an NBC sit­u­a­tion the roads may be blocked and the area quar­an­tined.

The next thing I would do, (and I am doing this now), is I would look for oth­er locals (in or out­side your apart­ment com­plex) that you can group up with that are of the same mind­set (prep­per, sur­vival­ist, etc), but be care­ful who you choose and who you work with.  Some peo­ple may be moti­vat­ed to know where you are and that you have preps vs. actu­al­ly being part of a group that you can meet­up with, prac­tice skills, and learn from one anoth­er.  If I were in a sub­ur­ban or urban area, I would cre­ate a group on Meetup.com.  I have actu­al­ly joined a local Meet­up group recent­ly and have met a cou­ple prep­pers that I am going to join forces with.  Beware the mili­tia and gov­ern­ment hater types.  These guys hate any par­ty that gets elect­ed and will drag you into a legal mess even­tu­al­ly that you cer­tain­ly will want to avoid.

Here is my per­spec­tive on apart­ment secu­ri­ty if you live in an urban or sub­ur­ban area.  There is none… If you have prepped sup­plies my sug­ges­tion they should be for minor nat­ur­al dis­as­ters only.  Peo­ple will be come refugees in a SHTF in urban areas and then they will be come locusts devour­ing every resource in their path because they were not pre­pared.  An apart­ment com­plex is only safe after all the res­i­dents have already gone.  If you are bugged in for 48 hours, I would give seri­ous con­sid­er­a­tion to bug­ging out if there is no news of an improv­ing sit­u­a­tion.  And, hon­est­ly, your gut should tell you to bug out long before that 48 hour mark I men­tioned.

I would give seri­ous con­sid­er­a­tion to find­ing and turn­ing up a Bug Out Loca­tion (BOL) for your­self, your girl­friend, and any fam­i­ly you both have.  If you do not already make sure your preps are portable so your­self and them safe­ly to your BOL.

Have a plan to Bug out.  In Fact, have three + plans and routes to bug out.  My per­son­al BOL to date is 110 miles from my sub­ur­ban apart­ment.  It is a fam­i­ly mem­ber’s home.  I am con­sid­er­ing one fur­ther out, and more remote than that to iso­late myself from the “locusts” that will be devour­ing resources in their path as they go.  And, don’t think 110 miles is far for peo­ple to trav­el.  It’s not.  My plan is go Bug Out in my vehi­cle, but also know that if there is an NBC sit­u­a­tion the roads may be blocked and the area quar­an­tined.

Con­verse­ly, if you do bug in, the suggestion(s) about black­ing out your win­dows is wise.  I would use low light­ing solu­tions such as out­door gar­den light­ing that have the solar charg­ers.  I would store foods that do not need much heat­ing (ala MREs) like canned soups, canned meats, dehy­drat­ed foods that can be recon­sti­tut­ed just by adding warm or hot waters.  Thick plas­tic sheet­ing over your win­dows and doors that is duct taped to the walls seal­ing your doors and win­dows from let­ting the food smells from seep­ing out your win­dows and doors.  Now that also presents a dif­fer­ent issue of secu­ri­ty.  You can­not see out­side or have access to your win­dows and doors to see if any­one is com­ing for you.
The next thing I would do, (and I am doing this now), is I would look for oth­er locals (in or out­side your apart­ment com­plex) that you can group up with that are of the same mind­set (prep­per, sur­vival­ist, etc), but be care­ful who you choose and who you work with.  Some peo­ple may be moti­vat­ed to know where you are and that you have preps vs. actu­al­ly being part of a group that you can meet­up with, prac­tice skills, and learn from one anoth­er.  If I were in a sub­ur­ban or urban area, I would cre­ate a group on Meetup.com.  I have actu­al­ly joined a local Meet­up group recent­ly and have met a cou­ple prep­pers that I am going to join forces with.  Beware the mili­tia and gov­ern­ment hater types.  These guys hate any par­ty that gets elect­ed and will drag you into a legal mess even­tu­al­ly that you cer­tain­ly will want to avoid.

So, back to my point, I would look for a BOL, learn about per­ma­cul­ture, gar­den­ing, hydro­pon­ic gar­den­ing, keep your preps portable, get a good Bug Out Vehi­cle, cache some preps (use your com­mon sense) and plan.

Final note, this goes for those that live in Co-ops, row homes, and town homes as well.