Why you should leave the city.

[Scythe13]

Some interesting points raised here.

With the initial post, I think it was Cody Lundel that wrote that book (off the top of my head). He's a great survival guy (big guy guy too! I wouldn't want to fight him!) but he's a perculiar exception to the general American style of survivalist. He's much more like us on this forum in that he learns the natural ways, but accepts that modern technology can play a part (space blankets etc).

My issue with his critique of living in a city:

3.hazardous materials are shipped by rail and road through cities.
But between their time in the cities, they're moving through rural areas. Even though they're moving at a lower frequency, you can't take that point soley as a good point. They probably spend more time travelling through a rural area than through a city (rural area will be larger than the city, so it's a logical point).

4.chemical plants and refineries are located in or near cities
Near cities.....as in.....rural. However, nuclear stations are in rural areas. Obviously you can go to places to avoid these plants though. But (and I might just be speaking for myself here) we live where we can afford to live in as good as setting as is viable.

13. overworked, underpaid, undertrained, understaffed police service
As oppossed to village police that hardly exist or have shared stations leading to response times long enough to deliver a baby.

14. city hospitals are not staffed or equipped for disasters
Situation where TSHTF (train wreck, dirty bomb, viral spread) the suggestion is that a city hospital is not equipped to deal with it. Does that assume that there are village/rural hospitals that are ready for such a virus, train wreck, radiation, etc?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against rural living! I'm more for it. However, there are elements that can be taken out of context or pinpoined to enhance one side of an argument without recognising the other view of such things.

At the same time, I think that Tonka is right too that people planning of upping and offing to the woods at the first sniff of trouble are probably a little odd. It's a last resort, but one that would need most preparing for, as it is the one we are least adapted/skilled at doing. It's for this reason that my emphasis in prepping is for that possibility, because much of the rest can be learned along the way. But when you're up the creek and you don't have a paddle......that's when you need to know what you're doing, more than any other time.