Surviving the zombie apocalypse

[xXmusicimpactXx]

All brought up good points. Me? I'd probably gear up and hunker down somewhere discreet or inconspicuous within the city or just on the edge of it, namely because I can honestly say I know much more about surviving there, than out in the wilderness. I wouldn't be opposed to going "I Am Legend" style and fortifying my own house, in fact. Hell, everything I'd need to start off is already there, why not?
I'd definitely prefer to have another person or two with me rather than lone-wolfing it, as an individual (even armed) can still be overtaken by a gang of people (be them zombies or not), especially in a crisis situation where people may be desperate, such as a zombie apocalypse (or Obama getting re-elected). If you can find your own food/water and make your own ammo, the rest is secondary.

[Fresnel]

Nobody has seemed to mention the lack of easily accessible food in the desert around the cities. And by the time you travel to where animals are, how many of you people know has experience trapping and gutting common varmints(realistically the only animals you will eat out here if everything goes normal)? And has anybody seen a water source for 25miles and can easily walk to it from here? There is not enough shade, so being resourceful is probably your best weapon out here. People will resort to thieving, scavenging and defending within the city.....Why I know this, because common people here tend to not know ANYTHING about the land in which they are surrounded by other than "its hot". And when electricity went down for 1-3 days these last couple years, everyone seemed to be at walmart or wandering in their own houses with nothing to do. My whole point of this was to just point out some realistic facts, zombies wont be the problem, just desperate, scared and unprepared neighbors. Optimistically I hope people will try and be more civil in desperate times.

Dude, you forgot quail and doves, which are the number one reason why my shotgun is my go-to survival gun. You can live comfortably on quail and doves for a long time. Not like rabbits... eating too much rabbit will fuck you up, google "rabbit starvation". Your body actually gets to the point where you can eat raw fat or lard and not feel sick from it. And if you stick around the water source, the game comes to you.

[nukeduster]

I'm developing an atmospheric water generator that so far looks like it can yield about 1 gallon of water per day in Arizonas climate (more or less depending on relative humidity). Just working on a better design right now in solid works for a method of tapping the water that is collected and putting it into a storage vessel without the water getting contact with dust particles, etc in the air once it condensates. Not going to go too far into how it works because I've been working with a patent lawyer about it, but it is electrical powered, can be solar powered off a (preferrably 240w) solar panel, and collects ambient moisture indoors and out, and does not rely on a condenser / compressor / refrigerant in order to function.

I also am about to pull the trigger on a 10KW solar array for my house, just waiting on the paperwork next week. Tired of paying SRP their outrageous and always increasing electricity rates.

[theFlyingTrumpet]

Nukeduster, that sounds awesome. You seem like a dude with a lot of sweet things. 

[Fung Li]

If the SHTF, me and a couple of friends are just going to hole up somewhere in the White Mountains.  Between us, we have about 15 guns and a shit ton of knives and tomahawks, among various other weapons.  All of us have been to the area before multiple times and there is plenty of game to go around.  There's also plenty of stock ponds that we could drink from (after purifying the water, of course).  Pond water tastes like shit, but it will keep you alive.  I'm the only inexperienced hunter within my group, but I make up for it with my knowledge of first aid.  We all have had roughly a year of training in wilderness survival, including shelter building, hunting and gathering via snares and primitive weapons.  We have also been briefly, briefly trained in escape and evasion, which would come in handy at some point or another.

So yeah, we'd probably be screwed in the long run, but I think me and my friends could hold out for a couple of months.

[Rd maul]

after reading this entire thread Nukeduster will be my new survival friend....I am heading his way if a SHTF situation arises

[gilandb]

The whole idea of "bugging out" sounds good until you are actually faced with it. Want to find out what it would be like, go to a city that has a hurricane bearing down on it, wait until they order evacuations, then try to evacuate. It is a serious cluster you know what.
I was in Houston for the evacuation about 7 years ago. we went 100 miles in 12 hours. Once we hit the main freeway, people would push their cars forward the 5 feet then wait the 15 minutes to do it again. They had blankets on the side of the road for the kids to play on because we were not moving. Every gas station was out of gas, people where running out all over the place.  And Houston actually had a mass evacuation plan. Does Phoenix even have one? The authorities were filtering everyone to specific exits. You couldn't just go where you wanted.

Attempting to evacuate Phoenix would be a nightmare. think of how many actual roads there are. You think 17 is bad during rush hour, that isn't even 1% of the people who would try to use it in the case of a disaster. How many roads really are there available to leave the phoenix? The best choice is to head north and everyone knows it. You wouldn't be the only one bugging out, so would everyone else.

The best solution in my mind would be for a "group" of people to collapse to a decently close, but relatively rural area. East side would be something like Florence of Coolidge area. Out of the suburbs, but within easy reach to arrive quickly. A group because there is strength in numbers and it helps split up watch duty. ideally not on city water, but a well. Wait out the big push of everyone leaving. Then after a day or two, convoy up and travel to the final destination.

[xXmusicimpactXx]

The whole idea of "bugging out" sounds good until you are actually faced with it. Want to find out what it would be like, go to a city that has a hurricane bearing down on it, wait until they order evacuations, then try to evacuate. It is a serious cluster you know what.
I was in Houston for the evacuation about 7 years ago. we went 100 miles in 12 hours. Once we hit the main freeway, people would push their cars forward the 5 feet then wait the 15 minutes to do it again. They had blankets on the side of the road for the kids to play on because we were not moving. Every gas station was out of gas, people where running out all over the place.  And Houston actually had a mass evacuation plan. Does Phoenix even have one? The authorities were filtering everyone to specific exits. You couldn't just go where you wanted.

Attempting to evacuate Phoenix would be a nightmare. think of how many actual roads there are. You think 17 is bad during rush hour, that isn't even 1% of the people who would try to use it in the case of a disaster. How many roads really are there available to leave the phoenix? The best choice is to head north and everyone knows it. You wouldn't be the only one bugging out, so would everyone else.

The best solution in my mind would be for a "group" of people to collapse to a decently close, but relatively rural area. East side would be something like Florence of Coolidge area. Out of the suburbs, but within easy reach to arrive quickly. A group because there is strength in numbers and it helps split up watch duty. ideally not on city water, but a well. Wait out the big push of everyone leaving. Then after a day or two, convoy up and travel to the final destination.

I agree with you. Might as well hunker down in the initial wave of things (any common household has at least a couple days-worth of supplies laying around) and let the masses exit, then group up and relocate if need be.

[Bob Z Moose]

^^^This

I've run it a couple of times in my head and figure that it's going to be a mad rush up the 17, 10, and every other freeway headed out of town. It would be traffic jam on steroids. Surface streets wouldn't be much better, since none of them were designed for evacuations.

On top of all that, I have family members that have chronic health problems. If we weren't able to make it to a safe place with a functioning pharmacy/hospital within a set amount of time (depends on how much medication was on hand at the time), there would be serious problems. If the shit is going on pretty much everywhere, there's really no point in bugging out for me.All that considered, along with the fact that most of my family's necessities are perishable, consumable, and far too expensive to stock up on, bugging in is the best option for me.

If the crisis/zombie apocalypse lasted more than a few months (tops), then s*** has gotten really real. I would leave with my brother and whoever else (friends and family) I could group up with and start out north. A lifetime of hunting/camping/generally playing in the desert and northern AZ will hopefully serve me well. By the time bugging out will be the best option, I'm figuring things will generally f***ed. I'm not even sure travel by road would be an attractive option. If the cities are f***ed and the crisis is pretty much everywhere (most likely), there's a couple of places that are decently remote and hard to reach that I might head to.

All this excludes situations where getting out of town is absolutely necessary. If anything happens with Palo Verde and the fallout is headed this way, I'm getting out of town even if it's on foot, bicycle, or off road motorcycle. At that point, I hate to think of the decisions that would have to be made, but those would be dark, desperate times. Only thing I know is that I would do my best to keep my brother and whoever else I could save safe. All this is really scary, but it has to be considered.