Marauders at TEOTWATKI Your Opinion to a Perhaps a Partial Hypothetical

I think the stakes are you against everyone you don't know and you can't trust ANYONE even the known unless you have 100% trust in them Personally I know about 6 living people I can trust my life with

 

Correct.
Even muni libraries will have office supplies, perhaps coffee/food, etc in staff areas, first aid kits, and most importantly - TP.

 

If you live in the city I believe it would be wise to establish friends in the country that you can really trust and have the same "belief set", so that when hard times come you have some place to go at least if they will let you camp in their yard a while.
Any one that has been in a SHTF situation in the city, had regretted not moving long before it occurred.
If you are self contained in a more remote location you are miles ahead seeing it takes a serious investment to leave one's current living arrangement some where else, trying to do so during/after an event will be near impossible. Secondly it's like looking for a job and getting approval, if you hope to run to the woods. if no one knows you, you might not be let in. Some folk are prepared to keep people out of their neck of the woods

 

How long would it take for salvagers (scavengers, vultures) to organize enough to start making systematic searches? How much infighting over the number one position? Or between competing groups? If high rise living is your only current option, just be ready to bounce. Try to have a safe haven you can get to, hopefully away from any large municipalities. Re-read Lucifer's Hammer and Alas Babylon. They are both dated now but still show the importance of mindset. Maybe The Postman? And I don't know if ladder trucks can get above the seventh floor.

 

Maybe use a government office building with a full cafeteria on the ground floor. There's often a "snackbar" further up too. Both will have gedunk machines, if you're lucky they haven't been broken into yet. Cafeteria will have big pots for water storeage, knives and other tools&weapons. My state building had two stairwells that would need to be secured - I'm assuming power is off and the elevators aren't working. Newer office buildings have windows that don't open, so escape that way is more difficult.

 

Your answer courtesy Selco:

"After a month or two, gangs started operating, destroying everything. Hospitals, for example, turned into slaughterhouses. There was no more police. About 80 percent of the hospital staff were gone. I got lucky. My family at the time was fairly large (15 people in a large house, six pistols, three AKs), and we survived (most of us, at least)."​

Note that Selco lost two family members to bad water. It's not just the guns or starvation that will kill you.

 

Conflict and confrontation should be something every survivlist/prepper should avoid at all cost. Hard to do that in a Dog Eat Dog urban environment. Suppose you might head into the sewers and become a C.H.U.D. But everything above ground 25 or 100 stories is going to be gone through for anything useful or valuable. There are a whole lot of bad people in urban areas and the first thing they will do is "Pluck the low hanging fruit" that low hanging fruit will be the cultured, well educated folks that have never known any real hardship. That is not speculation that is fact that history and proven true over and over again. You have to have a split mind set and be able to think and act as a predator when needed or think and act like a Rabbit when needed. Why live out here in the sticks, Urban folks are completely out of their element out here in the snakes, lakes, woods, and hills and make no mistake you don't live out here and not have strong fight or flee instinct balanced with common sense and logic. Urban marauders might make it out her......... but they will eventually meet Mike's Merry Marauders or someone like us. Very simple rule that history has also proven, Urban needs Rural to support every aspect of their lives. Rural survives and thrives just fine without Urban. LOL and in the Urban areas.... if/when everything goes sideways, law enforcement will most likely be the most powerful raiders in the hoods. The rules of civil society no longer apply or even exist, a man gets hungry enough he will eat his own feces....... don't think for a minute he won't eat his neighbor.

 

The doper population gets high and spends 8 hours stealing 50 bucks worth of copper. When the end comes people will steal supplies and make dope with everything they can find. 25 stories on meth five minutes. Rational no no not in this lifetime.

 

Any misinterpretation you think you see is apt to be due to unclearly stated original premise. Your interpretation above did nothing. That said, you have yet to acknowledge the advice to haul on out of there and burden your sister (IF THAT REALLY IS AN OPTION) which I, for one, doubt would be a friendly port for your storm. Pretty clearly, you are not, and are unwilling think your sit through and quit trying for agreement that you can escape (to TEN BLOCKS AWAY!! when ten MILES won't be enough) and hope that bad guys can't find you. I'd take pretty good odds, your sister KNOWS you will show up with no assets, and the door will be closed to you. Your job will cease to exist, so hitting the road is the only option, or you are pushing up the grass, if someone finds and cleans up your decayed remains and buries them.

 

If you've got your self barricaded in an up stairs apartment, and there is a fire , now what do you do ?

 

You are going to burn.

 

The only possible plus to remain in the urban setting is in a partial or slow collapse a semblance of order may be retained. Municipal, county, state, FEMA, national guard and regular military, coalitions and gangs may all take turns providing various levels of order/support in exchange for anything from peace to forced labor.

Life will not continue as it had before. It may be Jewish ghetto starvation or it may be Sarajevo style snipers and chaos.

To unskilled refugees, life could just as bleak as a diseased and exhausted loner wandering up and down highways and turned away from any support.

 

Here is a dilemma ,if the good are hidden , that leaves the bad to over run the rest of the country and gather strength.

 

I do not agree with your BIL. Scavengers will go through office buildings because I know I would. Office buildings are a treasure trove of good stuff. Five gallon jugs of water, food/coffee, first aid kits, garbage bags etc. some office building have gardens on the top or on balconies. Due to it being a building that many work in, after a certain time others will think and remember all the useful stuff that is in the building. If I was a scavenger, I would hit the office buildings first and leave the Wal-marts etc.. to the gangs and horde.

 

Office buildings with cafeterias and kitchens especially!
And those having backup gensets will have diesel fuel, oil, etc.

 

Plus soap, toilet paper and the anti-bacterial hand sanitizer that will be important if SHTF.

 

IMO offices will be next in line after WallMart, big box stores like Costco, and grocery stores. Employees might even do it right off the bat on their way out if they know the severity of the situation. Smarter looters might start at the bottom and work their way up. Sporting goods stores will possibly get looted twice, the first for guns, ammo, knives, and snacks/drinks; the second time for other supplies.

 

I'm hitting the Dollar stores first me....

 

The dollar stores up here don't really carry the right ingredients for a decent rub so I'll move them down the list a ways.