Increasing Your Odds of Survival

Dave Hodges

Today, most Americans believe that the United States is on the verge of a total economic collapse and will soon be entering another Great Depression. The government believes it as well. However, unlike most Americans, the government is prepared as evidenced by DHS and their recently purchased 2.2 billion rounds of ammunition and 2700 armored personnel carriers.

Only a small percentage of the people are prepared for what is about to happen. Just what does it take to be prepared? How much of this and how much of that are questions that many preppers ask. Unfortunately, most Americans are not asking any questions at all. Most of these ignorant people will be among the first to die.

There are two major types of crises which could come to our country. We could get lucky and have a soft landing, which will be catastrophic, but survivable. The other possibility is that we will be looking at a complete collapse of everything and this country could become a very dangerous place in which to live. This article examines strategies for dealing with a complete breakdown of our society.
Economic Collapse

With $200 trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities and corresponding amount in personal debt, it is not a matter of if, but when the economic collapse is coming.

Are you prepared for what could be visited upon you and your family at a moment’s notice, or do you still trust Big Brother to meet your needs?

Here are some things that you and your family might consider stocking up on in order to survive.

Water

Most people can survive for a number of weeks without food, but without water you will die in just a few days.

Subsequently, where would you procure water if your taps run dry? If you do not have a plan, this would most likely be the cause of death. Do you have an abundant supply of clean water near your home? Do you have the ability to boil water if you needed to purify it? Gathering water is your number one concern. Do you have a swimming pool? If you are one of the few that has a swimming pool, you need to be able to defend the water because your house will be a target.

Water purification tablets are critical because the water you have access to in a crisis, may not be suitable for drinking. So you may find that water purification tablets and a water filter will prove immeasurably important.

Food
Most families could not last longer than a month on what they have in their house right now. When the economic collapse comes, how long could you survive on what you have?

You need to start growing food right now. Having your own garden, both in and out of your house is critically important, for if you don’t, when your family runs out of food, you will suddenly find yourselves competing with the desperate mobs of hungry people who are looting the stores and roaming the streets looking for victims in order to steal their food.

Begin to store food, now! Store seeds and plants now. Seeds will be the first item to disappear. So, begin to gather them now. Of course, if you are hungry, the government would be happy to take you to a safe refuge, a FEMA Camp. The question is, will you come out alive?

Avoid Roads Like the Plague

Highways will become death traps as they will be targeted by bad guys, many of who will don military and police uniforms in order lure in unsuspecting people. To a starving and thirsty gang, there is not a better target than a passenger vehicle, a truck or, better yet, an RV loaded down with stored food and ammunition.

If you have a bug out location, plan to leave the very moment that the event happens and get to where you want to be within 72 hours. Once the trouble starts, do not attempt to travel. The government, and the gangsters are equally dangerous during this time. 

Military strategy documents all advise that when governments fail, roads are to be avoided at all costs.

Should You Expatriate?

This is a very controversial question. The world, not just the United States will experience systemic failure. However, America carries a special bulls-eye on its collective back. Why? Well, when President George W. Bush said that “they hate us for our freedoms,” he was half right. The NWO which is using the government to strip America of its civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorists funded by the CIA, do indeed hate us for our freedoms. Therefore, I expect the accompanying political crackdown to be much more severe in America than anywhere else.

If expatriation is an option, you better be where you need to be within that 72-hour window, or you are not getting there. My favorite countries that I have considered expatriation to are Norway and Costa Rica. However, you would be far better off owning a cabin in a remote area, stocked with hidden food, water, guns and lots of ammunition, than attempting to get to a foreign land.

If you come up short on these options, hunker down in your neighborhood. However, you better have a network of like-minded people for community defense against the marauding hordes that will be roaming the streets looking for food and water. And just don’t own a gun, learn how to use it and maintain it.

Prepare Three Day Bug Out Bags 

It is possible that you may have to flee your home in order to stay alive. Surviving the first three days in these cases is the first critical challenge. Prepare a bug out bag for each family member and store it in an accessible place.
Some of the items a bug out bag should contain are sleeping bags, flashlights with extra batteries, guns and ammo, knives, forks, spoons, weather-appropriate clothing, toiletries, change of underwear and other clothes, bottled water, snacks, water purification device and tablets, small pot for boiling water, backpacker mini-cook stove with fuel, towel, ability to make fire, flashlight with extra batteries, a first aid kit and medication, fishing line, small fishing hooks, a compass, and your critical papers (ID, birth certificates and bank account books and bank statements.

Prearranged Meeting Place

If you are in your normal 8-5 routine, have a preset place to meet your family. Make sure you coach your children that under no circumstances are they get on a school bus that will take them to “safety.” Schools across America annually practice bus evacuation drills. The problem that I have with these drills is that they never tell the public, or even school authorities what kind of places they will take your children. In a major Denver disaster drill, a couple of years ago, they took busloads of children to Invesco field where the Denver Broncos play football. Does anyone remember the Louisiana Superdome after Hurricane Katrina? And of course, the bus could always head to a FEMA Camp as well.

I have coached my son on how to drop out of line to the bus and where to hide until I come and get him. You should practice reuniting both in a vehicle and on foot. I keep a bug out survival bag in my car. Paranoid? Look at the economic numbers that I listed at the top of this article and ask yourself: paranoid, or prepared? 

Leave the City

If you are convinced as I am that the collapse is on the near horizon, you should have a bug out location outside of a major metropolitan area and once you see the signs, don’t wait to act, go right away.

If you cannot get out of the city, you need to give your home a ransacked look and feel. Throw old clothes and wrappers along with dresser drawers out on the front lawn. Barricade your doors. If you can afford it, by special awnings, now, to go over your windows to prevent easy access. 

Again, if you are departing the city, stay off of the main roads as much as possible. Network and travel in a caravan if possible.

Sanitation

In the third world, the leading cause of death is typically dysentery as water mixes with sewage. In cities, sewers and subsequently toilets will be backing up. If one does not bury excrement properly this too can lead to serious diseases. You will need portable toilets, lots of toilet paper, and bleach to scrub clean the messes.

In major cities, trash disposal will become a major problem as well. It will attract dangerous animals. The disease component will expand exponentially after a week. In these cases, trash should be burned.

Store Medicines

This may be the most difficult aspect of preparation because a lot of life-saving medication (e.g. diabetes, heart pills, asthma inhalers, etc.) are controlled by prescription. First, one should immediately learn about natural remedies and stock up on these products. Secondly, if you can take a tiny bit less of your meds today, without endangering yourself, begin doing so. Ignore the expiration on your medication labels. Medications far outlast the posted dates as Big Pharma wants you to keep coming back. Finally, consider a series of smuggling shopping sprees to Mexico or to Canada. Empty out old pill bottles and fill them with over-the-counter medications that you can purchase with medication that matches the labels on the pill boxes. Most immigration officials are not going to challenge something so trivial that appears to be legitimate. Of course, you will have to be judicious in the amount you smuggle back. Keep in mind it is a crime to bring back foreign medication to our country. Oh, I forgot to mention that America is the only country in the world which does not allow its citizens to purchase foreign drugs. Isn’t it nice that your government does such a good job of protecting Big Pharma’s monopoly?

Conclusion
If society experiences a meltdown, the odds for survival are not good. For example, Congressman Trent Franks (AZ) produced a video which showed that in the event of an EMP attack, 90% of the people would be dead within two years. Estimates call for a 50% mortality rate in the event of a total economic breakdown. If civil war accompanies a breakdown, the casualty estimates would be impossible to gauge. Either way, the odds are stacked against survival. Preparation does not guarantee survival, but if one does not prepare, they are sealing their own fate. And most of all, do not forget your spirituality, you may need a miracle in the days ahead.

This article, by no means, is meant to represent an exhaustive list for survival needs. Rather the contents listed here are intended to get the reader to reflect on their own preparation and what they could do when disaster strikes.

Part three of this series will look at strategies people may employ in the event of a currency collapse but the country remains relatively intact. There are things that every American should be doing today to prepare for a financial meltdown, for when it starts, no bank account, stock market investment, 401k or pension will be safe from the clutches of the bankster controlled government. 

Dave is an award winning psychology, statistics and research professor, a college basketball coach, a mental health counselor, a political activist and writer who has published dozens of editorials and articles in several publications such as Freedoms Phoenix, News With Views and The Arizona Republic.

The Common Sense Show features a wide variety of important topics that range from the loss of constitutional liberties, to the subsequent implementation of a police state under world governance, to exploring the limits of human potential. The primary purpose of The Common Sense Show is to provide Americans with the tools necessary to reclaim both our individual and national sovereignty.
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