my new idear for surburban survival in situation x

everyone knows in situation x the best thing would be to take to the hills with supplys to avoid the problems with lots of panicking people.

but if you where trapped behind what would be the best building to hold up in?

(i know there are previous posts similar to this this is more about what i think is the best)


here are some of the more well know.

1. mall (lots of food clothes etc ( very big hard to defend)
2.your house (not much supply's easer to defend)
4. tall office buliding etc
5.supermarkets 9lots of food)


my idear is garden centers!!!

over here in england most garden centers are on small buissnes parks with no supper markets ... just electrical goods etc.... this would mean at first looters would be about taking all the electrical good things of valuse not at a garden center / bnq DIY type shop with a garden center.


the reason for my choice is as follows.

1. (immidiate food, water ,shelter. heat, weaponry.)

as soon as you step inside one of these you have food and water from the stafff areas vending machines and the like. a roof over your head lots of heating devices (if in garden center garden candels oil burners etc patio heaters ) ( if in a hardware diy store with garden center you allso have all kinds of gas heaters and gas bottles and bbq sets.

there will be limited water on tap some cans and possibly drinking fountains refills if the company uses them.

in garden centers or diy shops weapons would be abundant.... nailguns shearers, chainsaw, spade, axe, blowtorch the list is endless.

2. ( long term survival with out having to scavange / move)


THIS IS THE BEAST PART.

if you choice a BnQ diy store with massive out door garden center ) these are walled up high then have fencing with barbs to about the roof of the shop ... no one is getting over, sum are even caged on top)

so you have a large out door spot all the growing materials you need for sustainable food. seeds, mulch , compost , gravel ,... turn the whole out side to a vegi patch ..... use the hardware stuff to build a plumming to collect water off the roof as all these types of stores will have countless water butts.

inside build up a few sheds or the like and insulate the # out of them with the hard ware section again..... cosy living in the winter incase you ever run out of ... 2stroke oil for movers ... gas bottles.... 2x4 to burn

once again with all the tools and building supply at your fingertips you can fortify your entrance point to the store..... this shoud be undertaken upon entry.

you wil even have limited first aid supplys as all lage stores have to have first aid kits.......

you could create electrisity by jerry rigging loads of those crappy solar powered garden lights together ..... possibility's are endless.... when you have nearly every tool man made to hand and the ability to grow food and collect water.

summary


so just think about it when situation x kicks in where would you go if stuck in the city... maby this is better tahn running to the hills??

as i said before looters wouldn't relay be a problem much better places to rob. and in the initial confusion people would go to food stores and not supply's for making food.... by the time they run out and come looking for seeds compost fertilizers etc it wil be to late. your nicely hauled up inside eating a lovely heart vegetable soup. cooked over your travel bbq kit. ... and maby after a nap you will while you relex back on your nice sun lounger have a play on your trampoline. maby take up a new hobby like garden bowls ... hehe

please post comments and improvements. i realy think this could be an overlooked possibility

even though i have just posted this i can already think of loads of useful things you would have or could make being at a hardware store / garden center.

1. water filtration via boiling (loads of supply's in the pluming section)

2. indoor growing for winter via grow lights hydroponic kits etc ( power them with generators fueled by 2 stroke fuel or gas or with jery rigged electricity from solar power

3. meat source( use wire to make snares and uneatable / ungrowable seeds like flowers to catch birds on the roof easy to get up with tons of ladders probably still a fork lift or 2 hanging a round with charge or a bit of gas left

4. fall out shelter ( if you have water to spare there is a frick load of concrete you could make part of the building a fallout shelter.


5. avoid chemical problems ( you coul build carbon filters and air filters with the equipment availible this obviously would take ages but possible allso straight awau resperators would be about in the painting section


the only problem with this set up is the set up.... you have to get stuff growing before initial supply's ran out...... the out door section will be full of stuff ready to eat or half grown...a few raids to nearby stores after looters have finished with them to grab vending machines etc...,

also the diet would mainly be a veggi one but i like my veggies so you would just have to get creative luckily all garden centers have herb seeds and herb gardens... get some nice sesoning on the grow!!

Only problem is that other people might get the same brilliant idea and try to come hole up there too. And then you might have those looking for supplies to shore up their own houses and bunkers. You'll have to fight the looters off or let them share your bunker.

my theory is that any one come to loot form the store would be later on by then you would have ample time to fortify your store. my reasoning is the first panic wave after food shortages hit is to go to the local supper market roit etc... when this starts happening business will start shutting up. smaller buissness parks like the kind im talking about are on the outskirts of town and outer stores on the site would probly be hit by loots looking for a quick buck but this would be well after say all the much nearer places. these places are a little drive from nearby housing estates etc espesialy round here on the south coast of england. even then once looters start coming there would be 2 types... ones looting for survival or thouse for cash / survival ...... survival ones may be more persistent... but like i said all these outer stores would have staff areas with vending machines etc... so that would be easyer than going for the heavily fortified armed to the teeth with power tools store....

i dont think in the panic many will be thinking in advance like me... they will be like oh lets smash that store so i can get my next meal... where im thinking bout the meal 3months down the line

on the defense side

1. lots of motion sensors around the store in the store combine with nail guns and your solar power for a quick fix deterrent. ammo wouldn't be much of an issue.

2. these stores have wielding tools and stuff to wield . also a lot of timber, wires pipes ets you could realy fortify all the entrance points. hell these places even stock barbed wire

Hey man thanks for the post. This is something new I have never heard before. It is an option, maybe not the best for everyone or every situation, but probably the best choice for some. I live in a Suburban area, that borders on rural areas as well as Urban, this seems a great option for me personally (might be good to at least make friends with the greenery owners yes?). I don't think it's going to be that easy to hold/defend, but maybe I'm missing something.

I just really like the "take to the hills" strategy 95% of Americans can't even make it 100 feet up a hill w/o hitting exhaustion.

tis true this option would require a lot of gardening handi work etc but i think most real survivalists shud be up to the job..

as for getting to know greenery owners i was thinking not.... more like the large coporate owned ownes... not hurting someones home / lively hood just a corporation.

as for the defence side of things these are great.... the type im thinking of are faily large all concoreate / metal sheet with massive roll down shutters on the front a side dooor for deliverys and the outdoor section witch is walled to about 2.5 head height then fence n razor wire afterthat a few ive been in are caged off 2 boot.

add extra renforcement to the side doors and any pesky fire escapes. from the out side there is no rel way to scale the building and gain entry that way. so your pretty much safe..

if people tryed to start breaking threw your defences you take to the roof and trow stuff at em... i nail guns pain can what ever there are lots of things to improvise as weaponry.... and against uk armed mobs its much easer not many people are going to have guns they will be few and far between..... im shure a gass powered semi automatic nail gun .will see off most people.

if not there is a lot more deadly stuff to turn to .... ie explosives..

in garden centers you get fertilizers... you can make lots of tasty explosives with em... then pop to the plumming section find small tubes n some cap.. thn off to do some drilling make a fuse finally with some plummer matches (murn slowly to smoke show holes in pipes but allso gud fuse) then u have a small grenade

defense would not be a concern i think getting in would be fairly hard not impossible but hard..... take some tools to get in .... then the hard part fortify it really good as soon as possible. by the time any attacks occur you will be well and truly ready im shure after a while people will go to the home base (anouther uk store)or the more open plan type garden centers to get the supply's .... in this area there are a lot of diy stores / garden centers ..... what im saying is realistically few people will think of the idea... so you will be able to find one and haul up.... then when people come looking for supples etc they will give up on your well defended one and go for one near by that has been looted or is not defended. like small hardware store... or small garden center or for seed n stuff even peoples backyard sheds.

for the ratio of these types of places to the amount of people that will haul up in them urly on i think its a good bet for a survival spot

That's true few will think of the idea. The greenerys in this area are not warehouse size. I think we are talking of two different things. What would be ideal is a team of people who worked on the outskirts (have base out in the outskirts), but also have four or five people defending the greenery and it's resources. Rotate jobs and allow rest for your team up in the hills, but secure the greenery areas.

I'd still prefer my home. I can easily fortify it and have enough food to last four people for up to three weeks. Theirs a source of drinking water 50m away from my house and as long as I stay quite no one will bother me. I then just wait till I run out of foods and by then the crowds should have dies down.

Living inside a Home Depot... wow, that's like, every man's dream isn't it?

But I have to agree with worldwatcher... assuming a looting/panic situation, you'll be joined by every handyman in the area looking for supplies to get themselves by. Most places have generators, right? They will be like gold should the power go out, and a huge incentive to loot.

The fenced in areas are designed to keep thieves out, true, but only long enough for the police to arrive. They are over-designed for that purpose, but without law and order would still be easy to get into. Just grab a car, hot-wire it, and drive right through the fence. You have a gaping hole in your defense within 5 minutes of someone getting the idea.

All the ideas to fortify the place will take time to build, and time isn't something that you would have in large supply in any such survival situation.

Plus you will still have to deal with a mob mentality. When that takes over, all logical thinking is out the window. A mob is simply angry and looking for something, anything, everything to destroy. Around here such places are right in the middle of populated areas and well-known, so you can bet the hoards of crazed humans will be there as well.

One last problem is getting in. The doors will be locked and the alarms will be on (no police, but nice advertising that someone broke into something). So for you to get inside, you will have to defeat the same things that you are depending on to keep others out.

I'd think a small convenience store might be better.... food and supplies, but smaller, more easily overlooked, and more easily defended.

TheRedneck

reply to post by jericanman


Next time you're in one of the stores take a close look at the racking that they use to build the aisles with...they're modular bolted-together systems like giant meccano sets. With the use of a few wrenches and the forklift trucks (all the forklifts I've seen used in these places are powered by Propane cylinders, so there may be additional fuel to be had in store too) you could disassemble them to use as fortification structures etc

I like the idea..... im quite far from a BnQ store, but before reading this post i probably wouldve headed to the same places as everyone else for food etc.... but now it makes more sense to head to the gardenstores where there is plenty of wood/materials/heaters etc which i would then probably take back home and use to secure my home more....

Originally posted by cosmicstorm
I like the idea..... im quite far from a BnQ store, but before reading this post i probably wouldve headed to the same places as everyone else for food etc.... but now it makes more sense to head to the gardenstores where there is plenty of wood/materials/heaters etc which i would then probably take back home and use to secure my home more....

but what if you're infected with Morgellons by then?

and it's crawling through your head, eyes and body, causing massive muscle spasms and involuntary articulated movements?

-

obviously any survival scenario's comes down to the type and scale of problem that has lead to survival in the first place. obviously for more minor things i may well stay home.

as for the fences

dont know if you have seen a b ans Q im not talking just chain link fencing its massive brick walls anywhere up to 3 head heights then a fence then barbed / razor wire.... they really go to town on some of there places.

obviously to defend it you have to get it. this wouldn't be to much of a problem ( if situation x is still taking place and the shutters arnt down ... may be a case of slipping inside and hiding.... if locked and shutters up well ill just drive my car straight threw. once inside lower the metal shutters and begin to fortify.
next properly secured the side door (normally trade entrance for warehouse)

then only the sky lights and roof that present an entrance point.... i think these could easily be defended with height on your side.(your already up) ladders would become your worst nightmare lol

plus im shure any kind of mob mentality would soon dissipate after a bit of a thrashing from nail guns ...and the like off to an easy to raid store..... the the sheeple follow.


as for the morgellons...... your in a freaking hardware store what better place for some botched surgery.... im shure an angle grinder makes light work of a skull..... then a philiphs head screwdriver to spear the beast. replace skull and use lashings of supper glue