Relocating for the Apocalypse

[Lambykins]

Did you read "Strategic Relocation" and check to see if where you live is *survivable* in the case of war/civil revolution/financial collapse/climate catastrophe/alien invasion, etc. ?
Have you relocated with survivability in mind? Have you turned down a job because it would necessitate moving to what you feel is a less survivable area? Would you?
How about where you live now? Can you see yourself hunkering down there? If not, do you have a bug out plan to where you think you could survive?

I am where I want to be. Are you where you want to be?
I think this is a good topic to discuss.
 

[Beowolf]

If money--aka, career--weren't a consideration, I would be in the mountains somewhere. Maybe here in Virginia or back in the Rockies in either Colorado or Montana. 30+ acres with full-on off-grid, solar power, well water, etc.

I'm of the mind, apocalypse or not, that being away from populated areas is the location preference. I simply appreciate the flexibility of options for whatever may come my way.

Unfortunately, I'm currently 60 miles from Washington, DC, and only a few miles away from a major interstate. Where I am is far from ideal in a disaster scenario, but it's where I need to be right now.

[Halfapint]

Where we live currently is close to lots of sfuff... 2 minutes to a Hagen, 3 from winco, 10 from a Costco... I wouldn't trade this location for the world (or something in the 8 digit range). Why? The neighbors.

The people who've been living here for years have a good solid plan. We have a great community. This is my survival area and is in the high survivability index.

Though if we do ever get our payout from the mine, we are looking for 20-100+ acres so we can build a family compound.

[Uomo Senza Nome]

In the 1950s Robert and Virginia Heinlein figured a Nuclear war was certain to happen and picked an excellent spot that radiation fallout was never supposed to reach. They were both engineers by trade and training and designed a beautiful 5000sqft mansion and built a bomb/ fallout shelter through solid granite, even though the house was in the middle of nowhere, just to be sure. The area was very lightly populated so they were able to pick the house number and street name. They built the house at 1776 Mesa Dr..... Colorado Springs, CO.

[Asparagus]

I was looking for a homestead/small farm type property and those tend to be better located than most so i had an advantage from the start, but I still feel I scored with the place I bought this winter! When searching I had a list of things to look out for, dealbreakers, wishes and wants and so on, some apocalypse related and some not and in the end I managed ti tick pretty much all the boxes. The major things was to avoid flood planes, quick-clay (major issue around here) and avalanche/landslide risk, as those are hard to do anything about. It's never possible to be 100% safe from everything, but when looking for/buying a place to live for many ears avoiding the usual problems should be high on everyones list!
 I'm ten minutes from the small town i work in and another small town, 30 minutes from a bigger town with everything i could ever need, high enough in the hills to avoid sea related issues and climate but low enough to avoid the mountain related ones too. The area is not suitable for property development, but also not attractive for cabins and tourists and that sort of things. I'm also on the "mountain road" between two towns so I can go either way should the road have issues, yet it's a detour so there's not much traffic trough here.
My main issues are that I'm a little close to a dam that could become a target in certain scenarios (luckily the powerplants it feeds are far away), I have some powerlines on my property that limits where i can build and the electricity grid here is not great as it's older and vulnerable in bad weather.

[Micon]

I find myself getting into a downward mental spiral when I try to dig into this topic.  The challenge is the 'best' place has a lot to do (IMHO) with what the reason is, and how people react.  

I VERY much like Halfapint's response - I think having awareness of the people around you and the lay of the land is likely more important than any other thing.  Course, I could be wrong with that too...

[Lambykins]

Your community has a HUGE effect on "survivability".
The small community I live in has it's in-fighting and typical bruhahas of any community, BUT when it comes down to it, we all have each others backs.
During the worst parts of the pandemic many "flatlanders" or folks from "down south" came up here to buy homes/property in desperate moves to avoid the worst of it in Boston/New York/where-ever.
After the initial flurry of sales, people up here realized that although they were making some serious bank selling property/homes, the people moving in were changing or attempting to change the culture/tenor of the area. Like, they wanted to do an improvement to the local school ...at a cost of 17 million. We had a graduating class of 24 students this year. We have approximately 200 students TOTAL in the school. That's including pre-school to Senior year. 17 million. It got voted down at a town hall meeting.
Not unusual to see a shopper (male or female) in the store with a sidearm. We have open carry here. No one gets upset about it...except for some of the new residents. We have had some come up and urgently whisper "There's a man with a gun!", or "That woman has a pistol!" My usual response is "And?" or "So?" or if I am feeling particularly snarky "Well, if they aren't shooting at you, don't worry about it." One new resident proposed at a town hall meeting that open carry be outlawed/banned within town limits. That was met with resounding "BOOS!!!" and yells of "GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM!"`

So, now the (local) sellers, when they list something and start getting offers, they ask for the names and other info of the prospective buyers. Local buyers or buyers with strong ties to this area get first refusal. I know of one property that had huge offers, but the seller sold it to a local buyer for thirty thousand under the next higher offer because they wanted it to go to someone local.

Yes, we are all up in each others business around here. I know all the best gossip about just about everyone in town   People seriously can't fool around on their spouses without the whole town knowing within 48 hours, lol. (My favorite was the 2 girls that found out they were both pregnant by the same guy at the same time. They both dumped him and got a house together and were each others birth coach. They are quite happily raising the kids together. No romance, just the best of friends. The guy? He moved to another state.)
Yes, there have been a few cases of "local justice" wrought around here.Also, commit a property crime...such as stealing a car? Everyone knows who owns that car, dude. Better drop it off at the police station before the owner comes and gets you (this has happened more than a few times).

So, community is a major thing when it comes to survival. Pick your community carefully. Endeavor to establish good relationships.

[majorhavoc]

I find myself getting into a downward mental spiral when I try to dig into this topic.  The challenge is the 'best' place has a lot to do (IMHO) with what the reason is, and how people react. 

I VERY much like Halfapint's response - I think having awareness of the people around you and the lay of the land is likely more important than any other thing.  Course, I could be wrong with that too...

You raise 2 interesting points which speak to why topics like these are so important.

Terms like "prepper", "survivalist", "emergency readiness" mean different things to different people.  Everybody has to do their own personal risk assessment and let that guide how they approach the general rubric of "preparation".

Depending of where you land on that risk assessment, prepping can meaning choosing where to move to, or alternatively, making where you happen to be as resistant as possible to the kinds of contingencies you're personally concerned about.

For some, that may mean a full on, Doomsday, TEOTWAWKI scenerio.  For others, it means being ready for significant natural disasters your AO is at risk for, whether that be wildfires, hurricanes, earthquakes or something else.  For some it may mean nothing more than having adequate insurance and keeping a set of jumper cables in your car.

The point is, there's no one size fits all formula regarding what to prep for, and by extention, where to live. That's how I personally keep my sanity with a topic that is, after all, premised on pessimism.

The other point is the one Halfapint brought up. Having people you know and trust can see you through many a crisis. My personal belief - and others are free to disagree - is that most lone wolf type preppers will not do nearly so well in a significant emergency as they think. Community is among the most important of preps.

[Uomo Senza Nome]

The point is, there's no one size fits all formula regarding what to prep for, and by extension, where to live. That's how I personally keep my sanity with a topic that is, after all, premised on pessimism.

Point of order here. Preparedness is based upon optimism. Optimism that you can and will survive even terrible events that have most likely already occurred and will be repeated.

Even if I won the Powerball this week and suddenly had the resources to buy my own private island and with apocalypse fortress there is no way in hell I would bother. I would be too busy living.

[Micon]

Uomo if you win lotto I'd let you buy me a private island and fortress now, and you could use it if the need arises!  

[superduder]

I am where I want to be. Are you where you want to be?

Not really, My current BOL is more of a long term way station.
It's a decent enough setup for 6 months to maybe 18 months.
Then It would ideally be try like hell to get a secondary much further east,
I think we all know that the Sonoran desert is NOT a great long term survival location
should any of the big threats come to pass.
J