Underground Living (Not just for terrorists anymore)

Hello Members of ATS. I have been checking your site out for sometime now and I have determined this to be a safe place for me to share my thoughts and opinions with some like minded folks.

I want to see if anyone else has gotten a strange urge to build an underground compound, complete with MRE's, weapons, independent power supplies, entertainment systems, radio communications, Bank vault doors, light armor vehicles, cameras and basic survival necessities.

Yeah, I know it sounds like a nerds paradise, huh? And while I could easily fall into that category, let me offer this as a cop out.

My whole life I have been taught to trust my instincts. And when I joined the Military in 2000, that was encouraged even more. I finished my term in 04 and have discovered that those skills may have new uses.

Now lately I have been watching the news, internet threads, history channel, newspapers, magazines, you name it. There's promises of hope, change and all the warm and fuzzies that could make even the most optimistic of us question our fates.

Like someone else posted in other threads, The Sh@! is going to hit the fan!! I don't know about you guys, but like the politicians, I do not want to get caught with my pants down.

Couple that with the promise of total world chaos in the year 2012 as per the Mayan calendar and the fact that our next election is going to be a couple months before the "big date"

It could be nothing, but it could be SOMETHING!! Is anyone else preparing for a possible (Insert catastrophe here) Nuclear war, End of Times, Alien attack, terrorist cell, bad weather, violent government takeover, All of the above??? Am I wrong for informing friends and family an awareness? Not too many seem to want to take this matter seriously.

good post! i can honestly say that ever since 9/11 i have also felt the constant urge to find some kind of safehaven. considering the area that i am currently in, i have started researching the mountains nearby and trying to figure out if there is a good system of caves that could be utilized for all of the things that you have mentioned. it's unfortunate that so many people refuse to see the cracks in the foundations...things definitely seem to be coming to a head, don't they? economically and militarily especially.

It's good to see that I'm not alone in this.

This idea just came to me one afternoon, while I was making music in my home studio. I realized how unprepared I really was if something were to invade our way of life.

My father used to say "Come prepared, or Come prepared to improvise"

That didn't make much sense to me as a child but if I had to improvise today, there is little hope that I would survive with a couple packs of ramen noodles, and an Mp3 player.

lol, yeah you wouldn't get too far with just the ramen and the tunes would ya? the problem that i am personally faced with is not being in possession of the capital to buy a piece of land, let alone being able to pay for a fortified construction of any kind. this is why i have been looking into the mountainous areas....the question for me is, since it is pretty much all state and federal land, how can i possibly get away with stockpiling and/or outfitting the chosen location beforehand? quite scary, i would like to be able to get started right away but no doubt i would get busted...so do i wait for the SHTF moment? could be too late. any thoughts?

[edit on 18-6-2008 by mpriebe81]

[edit on 18-6-2008 by mpriebe81]

Well I live in Middle Tennessee. I have always pined for a plot of land in Colorado. Not just for it's practical uses but the scenery there is majestic and inspiring.

However. Land here on the outskirts of Nashville is still relatively cheap. You can get a trailer that sits on about 12-20 acres of land for about 150K to 200K. Land that would be primed for combat training, crop growing, and yes the aforementioned bunker of awesomeness!

The land here is rich and very useful with many wooded areas and some decent sized rolling hills. One would be hard pressed to be located should one choose to vanish into the forest.

I recently took a job at Dell and plan to live with a relative for the next year while stacking away some serious money. In the meantime I am working on my plans to streamline the project and maximize efficiency. I have also recruited my German girlfriend to be a part of the grand scheme as well. Just gotta figure out that whole green card thing!

This is really interesting...
Not that I could do that kind of thing, living in the city and being a teenager
But hey, it's not as crazy as my ex who at one time asked me what skills I had that would come in handy in case of "zombie attack"

I have to admit, I did laugh at that.

Ah nice! I've been to Nashville before, Tennessee in general is just an awesome state in my opinion....i've never seen mountains quite like those anywhere else! I live in Arizona at the moment...there is a lot of seemingly uncharted territory once you get away from the cities. I just haven't had the opportunity to really get out there and explore though.
One idea i have been considering is Belize...check it out, it's a beautiful place! Pretty laid back compared to most other countries in Central America.
Who knows which location will be hit the hardest, and by what...we're dealing with all unknowns here, anything could happen. scary times my friend!

i've always been into building forts and bunkers. i think it would be the coolest thing to have a secret lair - underground or even just a hidden area in a house.

BiohazardsBack: i have zombie attacks covered. this is a pretty good guide to get you started: www.kuro5hin.org...

i just watched I Am Legend for the first time last night and it really gave me some perspective on what a SHTF scenario might be like. well, maybe excluding the virally mutated people. it really got me thinking about what i would do if i needed to be self-sufficient.

assuming i had to compete for resources i don't think we would last long. if there was some situation where the population was dying out and i was a survivor, i could go a bit longer from scavenging.

No thx.
I don't believe in zombies, and don't fear death.
So even if I'm wrong it wouldn't matter.

Originally posted by mpriebe81
Ah nice! I've been to Nashville before, Tennessee in general is just an awesome state in my opinion....i've never seen mountains quite like those anywhere else! I live in Arizona at the moment...there is a lot of seemingly uncharted territory once you get away from the cities.

I lived in Cottonwood, Arizona for a little over a year. I spent much of my time exploring the peaks in Flagstaff, the rocks in Sedona, The Grand Canyon, and the caves in between. I thought Arizona was a microcosm of living. You could literally drive for an hour or so and feel like you have entered a different climate zone. Lush forests and high mountains, Deadly deserts, low valleys, volcanoes, canyons, craters.

Point being, If you could master the terrain of Arizona. You can master anything. I have learned alot from that place and will use that knowledge to my advantage in a SHTF scenario.

reply to post by mpriebe81
Central or south america would be a VERY bad idea. Most of the people are anti-American and would kill you in a heartbeat! Southern U.S. states are not a good idea either. With global warming the oceans are rising and all lowlands will flood, and Soldier of fortune magazine reported that in the first three months of 2007 the mexican army was documented seven times on U.S. soil. That's just what we know of. Also in early 2007 seven major cities had protest' by illegal aliens that carried signs saying they are going to take "their" land back from us"europians". The protest in L.A. had over 750,000 illegal mexicans alone! Tenessee is not a good place either, the entire mid-west is on a major faultline that will destroy a lot of area including any underground structures. I live in about the best area you will find, lots of mountains, natural caves, silver mines big enough to house about 50,000 people each, and lots of wild game to eat.

reply to post by Baumgartner
The chaos is going to hit before 2012.

Buy yourself a decommissioned ballistic missile silo.You might be able to get those fairly cheap as well.Sometimes $20,000 depending on state.Just a idea of what these could look like.

www.silohome.com...

It is utterly stupid, bordering on insanity, to tell your plans on a web site that you KNOW (or even suspect) is being monitored.

Say nothing about what your plans (or lack thereof) are. Say nothing about what you plan to do, or not do, say nothing about what you have or haven't prepared. Say nothing about where you will or won't go. Do not give information out that you don't have to give out. This should be common knowledge.

If your "instincts" are telling you to dig an underground bunker, they should also be telling you TO KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! (I don't mean just you, OP, but I mean everybody, myself included.)

Underground dwellings are just bad on so many levels in certain sit-x's unless you're on high ground.
The most likely scenario for you guys over the Atlantic would have to be Hurricanes,earthquakes,floods etc..

Apart from the initial shelter from high winds and flying debris,it's going to be pretty miserable sitting in pools of polluted floodwater,watching your stocks of supplies getting trashed.

If you're going to go oldschool.Head for the hills and any cave complexes near you.
It worked for our ancestors to survive ice ages and it's working a treat for ole Osama..and it will work for the Iranians when it kicks off.

Tried and tested.
.
O yeah.. check for bears before you load in your plasma tv

reply to post by alienstar
Not all of us can afford to drop $20,000 on something like that.

Well, to get back on topic I will say Yes, I have been getting the urge to prepare lately. I don't know why. I've always been an "outdoorsy" kinda guy, growing up in the sticks and all but I never thought about obtaining supplies before. At least not more than I need for hunting, fishing and what have you each season. But for the last few years I've been buying stuff that in the context of regular life would seem...hmmm...obsessive perhaps? Every time I go to Wal-mart or Cabela's or a sporting goods or surplus store I find myself drawn to buying what some might say is useless junk or repetitive purchases. Wal-mart has crappy little folding knives in the camping section for something like 94 cents. I currently have 20 of them...lol I have 3 machetes, 5 axes/hatchets, and a bunch of other stuff that in reality (or should I say the normal everyday world) I have no use for being that I live in one of the biggest cities in the US and that I'm single so no need to create a bug out kit for more than my own personal use being that my family is 2000 miles away.

Maybe it's just the odds that a bunch of people would "feel this urge" being that there are 6 billion of us running around this rock we're bound to have similarities right? But maybe it's more than that, who knows?