I Live in LA If you can't get out of the City in Longterm SHTF or TEOTAWKI Where is the best Place

10 BEST USED DUAL-SPORT BIKES

+ar15 with 22 kit.
+pistol of choice
+BoB
+railroad tracks.



Nuff said.

 

Wow! You just arrived and already have asked two very serious questions which shows you are seriously about this as one should be. First, welcome. We definitely like your mindset.

This is my opinion... I was in Bosnia towards the end and right after the Dayton Accords. My opinion if something like this happens in America it will be much, much worse in some regards, better in some. We have lots of guns which works both ways: defensively and offensively. Hopefully, the heavier stuff (tanks, armor cars, etc.) will not come into play quickly and when it does one hopes it is on the good guys sides...but who are the good guys in a meltdown? The government?

So, putting myself in your place, in a plywood and glass apartment, hopefully 3+ floors up... It's a damn tight spot and I think you need to realize that there is only so much you can do. It will come down to two major choices.
1. Can I get out of the city? Is there time? Is the RV, 4wd pickup, ready to go? Is there anyplace to go?
2. Or, Fortify in place?
a. Seal off stair wells, cut power to elevator, water storage...
b. Are there any neighbors I can trust and work with? Get them organized for food, security, water, sewage, children management, etc.

I then think I would have a 'Devil's Alternative' plan, last ditch effort which can't be left too late, meaning: I will die if I stay or I probably will die if I go. A bugout bag for each family member with preselected routes for travel by night and defendable locations during the day (sewers, sub-power stations buildings, any place that will stop bullet and has limited entrances). There is really only so much you can do if you live in the City... Sounds like you got a lot of food and hopefully water so barricade and hope for the best and when that goes into the toilet then move just don't leave it too late.
EDIT: A boat is a hell'va good idea...the best actually.

 

Railroad tracks will be a viable option in the very first few days. It won't take long for those that want/need your stuff to take advantage of this new supply chain. Great line of sight, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel. Travelers upon this path will be lucky if they even see the flash.

Again, great way to get out when the freeways are deadlocked in the beginning and you are bugging out of the city.

In full swing, you won't find anyone with any sense of self preservation travelling this route. No cover, multiple opportunities to be ambushed and to be seen from great distances. It would be like standing on the barricade between rioters and police in Kyiv.

 

I got to agree with @VisuTrac on railroads. They would be great in the beginning before people wake up and realize that Hell came for breakfast and ain't leaving any time soon. After that, they're death traps...

 

Barricade yourself on the 3rd floor seems like a viable option to you? Nah, you would be dead in short order. Cut off power and water to you. Take out your windows in dark with 12ga slugs or 00 buckshot. Harass with small arms fire from adjacent buildings, specially at night. Include very flares now and then. You would be under siege from all sides plus up and down. Run out of water. Well at that point you got 3 days left maximum. Piss off those who have you under siege enough by your stubbornness, well why should they leave you and yours in peace or leave you for someone else to pillage? An evil person would just burn you out.
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You have to put yourself in the mindset of those who want what you have! I have made this answer as short as I could while trying to point out the absolute truth. Cities will be death traps and killing fields for the strongest and meanest of the criminal elements, gangs and lowlife predators. You will not survive for 3 weeks in the cities. You and yours due to your choices will be abused and tortured in the most horrible ways you cannot even conceive. You will die. You will die fast only if very lucky. jmho

 

Welcome aboard. One thing I will add here, Bullets travel through walls very well, bugging in will get you killed very quick. Roads will be hard to impossible to navigate, and if your more then a day's walk to the Ocean, forget a boat. A duel sport bike is a very good option for a single person, and they can be "Built" from normal dirt bikes especially enduro sports bikes ( which is what I did) The road less traveled is the best option for getting out, and tossing in twists and turns will likely throw off any one who might come after you. head east into the Mountains, find a little lake way in and then set up security and hold there until got get discovered or decide on a better place.
I am thinking I need to start a thread on building a Duel Sport SHTF bike like mine and the WIfe's.

 

Before I get involved...are we talking about LA or L.A.?

 

The place where they don't know what crawfish boil is.

 

Do it up man....all we got for trails is a crappy quad with 1/2 the lights ripped off from extreme 4x4ing. $7k my bro spent on it 3-4 years ago...lucky to get $1500 if he sold it today...i offered him 1k. lol

*sigh*
There is absolutely nothing i can disagree with in this post..
Nothing. nadda. zilch.
I'm going to have a very hard time for a couple months without internet....
Frankly, i noticed a big withdrawl when i first stopped watching tv completely...(2010-2011 ish) I can't stand commercials now - at all....esp every 10 mins.
Net loss will be much worse. I have lots of e-books but no easy way to keep the pc running long enough on a battery to really root through them to xfer to a single tablet....should have multiple tablets.

 

When the SHTF, it's pretty much a given that the grid will go down.

A safe hide in any big city would be a place where nobody has the slightest reason to go.

Like, for instance, the AC utility room that sits on top of most apartment and commercial buildings.

With the grid down nobody will be going into one for routine maintenance, that's for sure.

They're concrete, usually windowless, and always cheaply locked--and easily unlocked to those with the right skill set.

Add a solid inside lock when you take possession.

You might even be able to lock down the whole roof.

Those utility rooms are sometimes surprisingly spacious.

Waste disposal would be no problem. Just toss everything off the roof at night, and let it mingle anonymously with what everyone else tosses off their balconies. Public Sanitation, a la 900 AD.

You will need to foray to resupply, of course, but that would usually be handled at night.

The chances are you can hunker down long enough for the rest of the herd to finish thinning itself.

Then it might be safe to move on to greener pastures.

 

I live aboot 25 miles out of the city from where my office is - this has always been my main plan to "gtfo" is "shtf" while I'm at work.
In the first month or two - i agree with you.
At month 6 - intact railways will be the only way i'll want to go.
Scout up front, pack on a jimmy rigged rail-cart is a mobile community.
Either way - i'm not a fan of staying near a city unless you got an enduro dirt bike and several routes to go...even if going in to barter/trade with whatever is left of civ.

 

My concern with cities and tall buildings is, say you are on the roof or upper floor. There is someone in the lower floor that decides that they are going to hold out too and they get in a fight with the marauders.
And then someone decides to toss a Molotov cocktail. And oh there will be cocktails.

What's the evac plan. As waiting for the building to collapse or becoming a crispy critter do not seem appealing.

 

Well...I have commented before when this question was asked that (as one who grew up in that sprawling megalopolis), to me, the direction of travel would be directly to either Marina del Rey, King Harbor or San Pedro and transport first west and then either up the coast or down it.

 

My neighbors are OK As someone else pointed out, when people run out of food, they will attempt to take yours!

Good point!

 

Yeah, totally agree. The problem with most of these people who live in apartments is if you just mention to them they can buy food supplies like spaghetti etc. for 3 months duration in advance for very little monry and s

Totally agree with you. When I even casually mention this to professional people I know like Doctors, Dentists, etc., they just don't want to think about it.

 

Never underestimate the power of hunger. Hungry people will eat their own children. Robbing (or killing and eating a friendly neighbor) becomes the most obvious, practical, and reasonable course of action rather early in the game.

When it comes to hunger there are no friendly neighbors. Or strangers. Or relatives.

I saw a video one time where aid workers brought food to a village in the midst of a famine.

In one hut was a man about thirty years old, and his father, who looked about sixty.

The workers gave each of them a plate of food.

They both started eating.

The son finished his food quickly, then took his father's food and ate it.

Then he pried his father's jaws open, scooped out the bite the old man was still chewing, and ate that, too.

Never forget that when a hungry person knocks on your door wanting food, you are food.

 

If you choose to live in LA or any main routes leading away from it you will die. No bug out plan I can think of will reliably get you to somewhere relatively safe. Even if you get there no man is an island. Your survival plan needs to include others you can trust. They also need to be able to trust you. If you show up anywhere johnny come lately you will be an unknown quantity