Submissions     Contact     Advertise     Donate     BlogRoll     Subscribe                         

Friday, November 8, 2024

Rural Versus Urban Prepping: How to Prepare

Rural Versus Urban Prepping: How to Prepare

Today, we are going to talk about Rural Versus Urban Prepping. Prepping will look slightly different, depending on whether you are an urban or rural dweller. Depending on where you live, you must make significant decisions now to ensure you are prepared for a disaster.

Rural Versus Urban Prepping How to Prepare

What is Urban Living?

If you live in an urban area, you live in or near a city. So, if you live in a town, city, or even the suburbs, you live in an urban area. A metropolitan/urban area is usually very developed with stores, gas stations, bars, shops, etc. 

What is Rural Living?

If you live in a rural area, you live in the country. This means there is a low population density and undeveloped land and farmland.

Rural Versus Urban Prepping

Living in the city and the country has advantages and disadvantages. I would love to live off-grid, but it isn’t always feasible. So, I will break down the pros and cons of each for you.

Rural Living

Rural Versus Urban Prepping: How to Prepare

Rural living has pros and cons, but many preppers prefer to live in the country. Here are just a few of the pros and cons of living in the country: 

Pros

  1. You are further from the city and away from dangers such as crime, congestion, noise, pollution, etc. 
  2. In a rural area, you can depend on natural resources such as trees, rivers, lakes, and wildlife. 
  3. You may be more adept at knowing and using survival skills like fishing, hunting, canning, fire-starting, farming, and growing a survival garden. 
  4. The masses don’t see you. Fewer people typically means fewer problems. 

Cons

  1. Laws may become nearly nonexistent in remote areas first, so there may be more dangers than you realize. 
  2. If you live in the open, not in the woods, you may not have places to go if dangerous situations come up. 
  3. Rural preppers are usually off on their own, which means you have to be careful who you can trust. Just because there are fewer people doesn’t mean they are trustworthy. 

Urban Living

Rural Versus Urban Prepping: How to Prepare

As with rural living, urban living has its pros and cons, too. Although many preppers would prefer to live in the country, it isn’t always possible. Here are just a few pros and cons to living in the city:

Pros

  1. You have access to constant communication about what’s going on. News travels faster in the city. This gives you the advantage to react quickly. 
  2. There are more places to hide, duck under, and cover. This is good if you are attempting to escape an attacker. 
  3. You still have access to sporting activities like fishing and hunting if you want to travel a reasonably short distance. 

Cons

  1. You will need to understand that when SHTF, you will have to depend on your saved up resources such as food and water. 
  2. Many urbanities depend more on frequent trips to the grocery store, which will likely be wiped clean in a crisis. Therefore, you will need to double your stocks. 
  3. There are a lot of people. This means you not only have competition for groceries and goods, but gangs can band together to take over resources of the weak. More people equals more threats. 
  4. Increased risk of sickness and disease with more people. 

Rural Versus Urban Prepping: How to Prepare

As you can tell, there are a variety of differences between living in the country and in the city. This means you have to be able to prepare yourself for the different situations where you live. We have to be able to think of our threats, on one hand, and the benefits on the other. With that being said, here is your guide to Rural Versus Urban Prepping.

Rural Prepping

When it comes to prepping in rural areas, you have a lot more options. Obviously, you can still head to the grocery store at the city closest to you, but you can also be self-reliant. Here are some ways I would recommend you prep if you are in the country:

Store Water

Whether you live in the country or the city, your very first priority is making sure you have fresh drinking water. You can live for a few weeks without food, but you can ONLY live 3-days without water. If you live near a water source, check out my guide on the Best Ways to Purify Water. However, you also want to have water stocked up that you can drink without worry. Check out my guide on How to Store Water for Drinking and Cooking. 

Food

The second thing you need to worry about for any SHTF scenario is food. When it comes to food supply in the country, you have several options, and you can do all of them!

  • Stock up on non perishables from your closest grocery store.
  • Plant a garden and grow your own fruits and vegetables.
  • Invest in livestock. Raise and butcher your own livestock for meat. In addition, you could have a cow for milk and chickens for eggs. 

If you have livestock that you can raise and eat, you will want to stock up on food for your livestock. Have at least a 6-month supply of food for the animals to eat. 

Learn to preserve your food that you grow in your garden through canning, freezing or dehydrating it. If you aren’t sure how to can food, please get the book: “Complete Guide to Home Canning.”

Related: Survival Food and Emergency Food Storage

Hunting/Fishing Equipment

If you live off-grid, you can use your land to possibly hunt and fish. Keep in mind that as things communities progress and get more congested, it’s because others will have the same idea. You may want to think about stocking your freezer now. Be sure to stock up on things like a bow and arrow, shotguns (ammo), knives, and fishing poles so you can get your own food. 

Related: How to Make Heat in a Can for Hunting or Survival

Home Protection

In the country, you aren’t just protecting your house and its belongings, you are protecting your whole property. Most preppers that live in the country will have livestock and a garden you need to protect as well. 

You may think living in the country means nobody will bother you, but you do have some real threats you have to think about:

  • Crime and violence can go undetected in rural areas. 
  • Rural areas lack the benefit of neighborhood watch which can deter crime.
  • You live in large open expanses. 
  • Crime is less likely to occur, but the odds of deterring intruders is reduced. This is because you have a much larger space to cover.

Protect what you have by: 

  • Spreading out your security equipment. In addition to having security equipment throughout your grounds, you will want it to be able to run your household and possibly the outbuildings with a backup generator as well. 
  • Have sensors. You will want to have a motion sensor that will trigger such things as floodlights or a siren, or maybe an alarm to notify you of an intruder. Having a dog can help work too. 
  • Using electric fencing around your livestock. This helps prevent people and predators from accessing your livestock. 

Other Things to Stock

Here is a list of other things you will want to stock up on. They may not be things you could live without, but you may not have the best hygiene, or not feel your best without them. 

Urban Prepping

Living in the city means you have to be on top of your game. You have to know your threats and you have to prepare with a purpose. 

Do You Bug In or Out?

Many people who live in urban areas may wish to bug out when the SHTF. Obviously for smaller scenarios, you may bug in. Your preps may determine whether you will bug out or bug in during a SHTF scenario. Here’s how you know when to bug in or bug out:

When it’s time to bug out:

  • A natural disaster is imminent. This means where you live has the potential to be unsafe. This could be a flood, wildfire, hurricane, chemical spill, or other significant event.
  • If staying put is more dangerous. If your home is right in the middle of where disasters or emergencies will happen the worst, it’s time to get out. 
  • The transportation system is down. If all transportation is down, the shelves will be empty in days and people will begin to loot.
  • Your stockpile is almost gone. Yep, you may have planned and prepped, but if the event lasts longer than what you expected, you may need to bug out.

Keep in mind that you will need several ways out of the city if you plan to bug out. Highways will probably be flooded with panicking people. 

When it’s time to bug in:

  • Going outside is more dangerous than bugging out. If people aren’t prepared like you, they will do whatever they can to survive. Sometimes being locked inside gives you the best chance of survival. 
  • You have nowhere to go. If you don’t have a safe destination within a reasonable distance, stay where you are and prepare to bug in. 
  • It’s too suspicious to bug out. Being on the road during the worst of it can make you an easy target. 

Related: 15 Reasons Why You Do Not Want to Bug Out

Make a plan for when you will bug in and when you will bug out. If you choose to bug out, know where you will go and several routes to get there. You will also want to prepare your bug out bags!

Have a Bug Out Bag

If you are thinking you may bug out in certain circumstances and you have a place to go, you will need bug out bags for every member of your family. Check out our Most Comprehensive Bug Out Bag Checklist for more information on what to prep. 

Store Water

Again, whether you live in the country or the city, your very first priority is making sure you have fresh drinking water. You can live a few weeks without food, but you can ONLY live 3-days without water. If you live near a water source, check out my guide on the Best Ways to Purify Water. However, you also want to have water stocked up that you can drink. The American Red Cross recommends 1 gallon of water per person per day. Check out my guide on How to Store Water for Drinking and Cooking. 

Food

When it comes to prepping food in the city, you are limited on the options available. In the country you can be more self-sufficient for the most part, but in the city you really have to rely on your preps. This means food storage needs to be very calculated. If you live in the city, you will probably get most of your food from the grocery store. 

In the country, you could have just a few months of food stored up, and then just live off the land to keep your supplies up. But in the city, it is hard to replenish on your own without being able to grow a garden or raise livestock.

So, I would suggest having at least 6-months to a year of food and water stored up. Please check out my guide on Survival Food and Emergency Food Storage for information on what to prep. 

Home Protection

Another thing you have to think about when you live in the city is home protection. When you live in the city, you could have to deal with looters and other crimes as people panic. Check out How to Prepare Your House Against Looters to find out how to prepare your home against it, and what you need if it happens. The information in that post is great to do regardless if it’s looting or another crime. 

Other Items You Will Need

In addition to what is mentioned above, you will want to make sure you have other necessary items on hand: 

Related: Homemade Soap Recipes from Scratch

Final Word

I personally like the idea of living in the country, but for many of us, it just isn’t possible right now. When it comes to prepping, you also need to not only prep food, but know how you can cook it, so think about those things as well. Additionally, be sure to check out 30 Non-Food Survival Items to Stockpile. 

Whether you are prepping in the city or in the country, remember, to stock the necessities and add in the extras. Did you find this guide on Rural Versus Urban Prepping informational? Let me know if I missed anything by using the comments section below! Please keep prepping, we must. May God bless this world, Linda

Copyright Images: Urban Suburban Homes Deposit photos_39363733_s-2019, Wooden Country House Deposit photos_3212682_s-2019, Cozy Home Rustic Depositphotos_47901521_s-2019

The post Rural Versus Urban Prepping: How to Prepare appeared first on Food Storage Moms.



from Food Storage Moms
Posted by on
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)