How To Survive An Urban Collapse (Escape Strategies)

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[00:00:41] All right, welcome back to the Survival and Basic Badass Podcast, Kevin and Chuck. Today, what we're going to talk about, urban survival. Basically, how to escape the city when things go bad. um turns out like even the power being out for four or five days the city isn't where you want to be um bad weather flooding that kind of thing comes up uh the end of the world that kind of thing

[00:01:10] comes up the apocalypse i mean it hasn't happened yet but actually it happens in other countries all the time we're just not as used to it in america as you know yeah i mean it happened in the rest of the years ago happened in new orleans happened in uh puerto rico puerto rico there wasn't a lot of places to escape to but uh it can end badly um you know maybe you're in uh nepal or

[00:01:36] whatever i don't know there's all kinds of bad things happening all around the world i don't know but the bottom line is you need to have a plan um 80 percent of the population live in uh in some kind of city and urban area and you know i guess we all make bad choices like i wouldn't want to live in the city but it turns out that's where the fun and excitement is so i kind of get it if you want

[00:02:03] to be honest like you know why even be alive if you're not gonna have a good time and the party's in the city that turns out country folk know how to party too but it's just different it's different but yeah step one is uh move to the country that that's my understanding but anyway so with that there are basic things you can do for a reasonable level of preparedness and this may buy you time

[00:02:32] if things go bad in the city and so what what kind of things do we stockpile kevin like what what would you have if you lived in uh in a high rise well i mean i would have a basic emergency kit you know uh you want to want to have food and water stocked up and you know the truth is even even in a small apartment you know it doesn't take a lot of space to to store some uh some face basic food you know

[00:03:00] um freeze-dried stuff takes up almost no space you know dried beans dried rice um and then they have a million different types of of freeze-dried meals you know ready to eat type things um and you know it doesn't take up that much space to have a week's worth of food um water is is a little bit different takes up a lot of space and it goes you go through it real fast and if you needed to get rid of the

[00:03:26] booze yeah and if you're on the 10th floor you might not have enough pressure pretty quickly to actually have you know water coming out of your faucet your shower your toilet yeah um a lot of the buildings have the tower on top but it's not that big and that's things so they pump the water up and then it kind of has a little reserve and gravity back down but like kevin said when you're sharing

[00:03:49] with all those people it runs out quick yeah so yeah so uh another thing that you you definitely want to have and if you're in the city that doesn't take up enough space is a good first aid kit a good stock medicine cabinet um you know i i see a lot of uh people that run these um uh like um they have these first aid kits that have like gauze and and you know antiseptics and and all sorts of stuff but

[00:04:17] they don't have like band-aids you know like you slice your finger open and you don't necessarily need like you know a giant gauze pack and tape and all that sort of stuff but you don't want to get an infection you know having like just band-aids also is is a good idea it kind of goes both ways uh what i do is in my all my vehicles actually everyone um i have a trauma bag which i mean we're talking like

[00:04:44] ifac size right not like i'm not like emt or something i have like tourniquet and the quick stuff like you're saying like some gauze to pack a wound so you know a chest seal things like that right that would come up in that emergency but then i have another one that's exactly what you're saying that's band-aids that's triple antibiotic that's you know your things for your day-to-day nonsense

[00:05:10] right right your boo-boo bag yeah that for the boo-boos and you need to be ready for that and that's you know that's the way to go is to have both um now they can be together i just when i'm dealing with an emergency i want to be able to find what i need quickly right with the turk kits and you know with the trauma bag but you need the day-to-day and that way you know the one kind of stays safe and the other you know you can get it but anyway what else would you have stockpiled

[00:05:40] now well actually before you you move on here one of the things that concerned me is i was just listening to an audiobook one of the you know all the time whatever it's what i'm doing and they were trying to escape out of dc and they were heading down to north carolina to you know get out to the country because the government was after them and mind you these were government people but two in the

[00:06:05] white house right and so obviously you know that could happen anytime and uh so they're they're heading down to uh north carolina and they hit like a sporting goods store or actually they hit a walmart and like oh there's freeze-dried food there's whatever and they're buying this stuff and just like you said freeze-dried food it's lightweight it doesn't take up a lot of space but what's going through my head is yeah but where are you going to get the water for all that uh

[00:06:33] like you have all the dry stuff but now you're like i'm kind of feeling like if you have some cans with some moisture you're like kind of dual purpose there you know or but so that's just something to think about but as as we've seen you can slide you know your thing at 24 water bottles under the bed have a couple of those set aside or a couple of gallons you know i mean you got to think of how you

[00:07:03] can utilize the storage you know watch a little uh martha stewart or something i don't know who the new girl is that people pay attention to but i think it's that uh i think joanna girl megan was it doing the new who is it uh uh prince henry oh yep yep yep because that's like it was first yeah it was first like uh martha stewart then we had joanna gains and now we're moving on okay so i'm i'm two

[00:07:32] generations back in my uh preparedness but that happens so all right so what else would you have well you know a good toolkit and i think most most people in general have like the little toolbox that they keep under their sink that's got you know a screwdriver and a pair of pliers or something but i mean like a real toolkit you know yeah and one of the things that i that's under uh i don't think

[00:08:00] that a lot of people have it and it doesn't even come up that often unless you're a crazy person or an asshole like me is uh bolt cutters you know the big ones you have to cut padlocks all the time you know what i mean or at least if you're getting into and getting into shit you know and it's real easy you got a three-foot bolt cutter is just you know no problem right through that padlock exactly

[00:08:25] one of the other things that i think is a good idea to keep uh either in your vehicle or in your house is is basic camping supplies you know tent sleeping bag that sort of stuff um if you have to evacuate that would be a great thing to have in your vehicle if you're trying to get out you know get out and you don't have a set destination you're just trying to get out of the city right it's a good idea um

[00:08:49] and then and then uh you know basic things like flashlights uh basic lighting you know headlamps i like the headlamps i like flashlights too get the good ones though don't you know don't get the yeah the 395 one that they have at walmart that's made out of plastic i gotta tell you i got this uh at work they bought us all uh some kind of magnet milwaukee like foldable like led super bright light

[00:09:17] that like light up the room and they charge off a usb thing and that kind of stuff i think they intended for me to use it at work but they said here you go so it's on my refrigerator and i gotta say power goes out whatever i'm bam you know i'm living the life something premium like that i also have a couple of like those led charging like light that look like a pen but like have the full bar and there's

[00:09:43] some cheaper ones and there's some better ones i think mine is in the like 40 dollar range because my company bought it so it is probably fancier but those are are pretty awesome to have especially something you know you can magnet on the stuff and it's just useful all the time and then you know whatever plus like at work i'm like batman utility belt and i have those you know like fancy uh heavy

[00:10:08] battery uh lights anyway so you know cr124 whatever those you know yeah another thing that now having an emergency kit when you're in the city is is a great idea um you know and all these things you can keep in your emergency kit you know in a certain spot designated now uh one thing that is underlooked a lot is is basic hygiene stuff oh you know like toilet paper disinfectant toilet paper is a

[00:10:37] great idea i mean everyone knows that when there's an emergency toilet paper goes first right um but basic hygiene is is uh you know why do i need hygiene i've got bars of soap in the closet i've got shampoo and you know set up in the shower i'm all set with that sort of stuff yeah but if you have to bug out if you have to get out of the city having some soap having some basic hygiene stuff with you

[00:11:01] is a great idea because you know your hands get dirty fast when you're in uh you know in an emergency situation and keeping your hands clean especially if you got to treat a wound or you're even just getting ready to eat you don't want to you know be shoveling food in your in your face with your rare hands you know when they're filthy and then you know next thing you know you got diarrhea for a week

[00:11:24] so hand sanitizer if you will and that's the thing being able to wash up without a lot of extra water that kind of stuff it's always a plus um something to think about uh and so moving on now the next thing would be what if you have to get out of the city what what if it's not going to work out staying there well one of the ways to do that is to be a little preemptive and kind of know your escape routes

[00:11:54] right know where you are know where things are are going to clog up you know if you think uh the tunnel or whatever whatever you know like i always think in new york city when i think escape out of the city and and the problem with new york city is it's an island and there are kind of choke points of getting out of there and that's the the big thing so but a lot of cities are like that where

[00:12:20] you have kind of choke points and and bottlenecks of how people can get out um i i know atlanta has like a big circle around it and you got to kind of get outside of that beltway that you know to to get to freedom and it's all about you know having a plan so you need to think of the best route on foot the best route on bike uh new york city do i know how to get to the harbor if uh the bridges and the

[00:12:44] tunnels are kind of shut down is there a way to get out on boat you know maybe there's a nice sailboat or something that you can uh borrow maybe you have a friend that that has the boat there that you've been eyeing every time you go out for your morning run and he's like hey you know whatever but being aware of what's available to you beforehand can buy you so much right so mapping out evacuation routes

[00:13:12] is a is a good idea um you know i know that uh you know when they have mandatory evacuations that's probably too late you know to to go by normal means you know just getting in your car packing it up with uh with everything you need and and getting on the the highway and bumper bumper traffic for the next you know 10 hours not the not the best way to go about it um you want to go

[00:13:41] with like a voluntary evacuation really you want to see that shit coming in and get out early right right if you can't that is one of the things as a prepper is just paying attention to the news and what's going on in the political climate and the you know the tensions with foreign countries things like that be aware because a lot of times you can kind of predict what's coming you know you know when things are bad like hey it'd be a good time to go make a vacation in the country for a week you know

[00:14:10] you don't know yeah one thing to keep uh keep in mind is is basic stuff transit hubs um you know the train stations the bus stations you you don't want to be in those places when everybody's trying to get out but not knowing where they are if you're stranded in a city and knowing where they are is a good bet because there's going to be all sorts of stuff there there's going to be taxis there's going to

[00:14:36] be buses there's going to be all sorts of stuff going on there um they're all also like shelter areas that you might want to map out if you haven't been able to get out of the city in time you want to know where the shelters are going to be at um not a great option you know that's not the best option it's last resort um china and moscow have some big underground bunkers that you can

[00:15:00] you know they do they're also you know right in the city for those people so they're looking out for you i'm not sure our government has the same uh plan for you but well i know uh in in uh ukraine one of the big things were the underground uh train stations the subway yeah yeah and they had designed those as bomb shelters because new york did that originally and chicago did that originally

[00:15:25] but yeah yeah you a lot of those subway stations are actually bomb shelters they're not going to help you with you know gas attacks or nuclear attacks or some of that stuff but you know bombs happen sometimes it happens um you also want to have a plan with your family members you know if you have other family members living in the city with you but that aren't in the same exact you know the same

[00:15:53] building or the same uh apartment you want to be able to communicate with them you want to be able to make a plan with them um you know grandma across town might not be able to just hop in her car and make a run for it you might have to go scoop her up oh you know aunt bess you know she might not be as mobile as she used to be yeah and you want to be able to plan for your family members

[00:16:19] yeah and that's the the best thing is to try and plan ahead you know to have these these things and also to have a set meeting point you know if things go bad knowing where you guys are going to meet up or who's going to go get who like it sucks if you go all the way across town to get to grandma's house and grandma's neighbor already took her and you just wasted all that time and effort you could have been

[00:16:43] gone you know you guys need to have a plan of what you're going to do if things go bad um but like i said the key is really paying attention to what's going on beforehand and kind of being a little preemptive yeah so let's talk about situational awareness yeah um you know we're we're kind of touching on that um and that's the the main thing with situational awareness is being observant you know keeping your eyes

[00:17:12] open uh you know who the shit bag is in your neighborhood you know you know who the asshole is near in your uh apartment complex the one that's going to be the problem um you need to be aware of what's going on with the people in your area you know especially when you're in a crowded place like a city um you want to stay informed you know the radio is is is a great place for that you have it

[00:17:36] in your car you know despite the fact that i never listen to the radio anymore um who turns that in a situation like this it's a great idea to just you know throw your cds out throw your book on tape turn off your series get the local news on your radio and pay attention to it um one of the big things also with situational awareness is just trusting your instincts trust trust your gut you

[00:18:00] know you you know you get bad feelings around certain people and you get uh off-putting feelings in in certain places and and situations trust your instincts you know yeah now the next thing i would say so say we decide we we got like a backpack or whatever and i'm assuming a lot of people are are leaving obviously you want to look as inconspicuous as possible and and by that i mean you want to fit in

[00:18:29] you want to go with the crowd right so like a knapsack or something in the city not too uncommon to have a guy you know with a backpack or whatever and now again if you're full-on camping frame and whatever probably a little more conspicuous you don't want to look like the guy who has stuff that people want that's the big thing um i always like if i'm in the city you want to blend into the city it's funny

[00:18:56] when i was coming up with uh like thumbnail covers of this i i was like i typed in like stealthy escape from the city or something and they showed a a guy in the city with his car and he had one of those nets over it to help it blend in in the forest it's what ai came up with yeah and i'm like having a net to

[00:19:20] cover your car in the city it's not going to make it not stand out right right you're not making it less so i'm like you might have missed the mark on that one and that's the thing is you need to like you want to look like other city people so having a bag that's maybe not hot pink or or fun fashion right

[00:19:42] right unless everybody's fun fashion but maybe something like a light blue or you know like a gray or a black those kind of work you know and to be honest it's more and more common for people to have the mole style bags um i i know you know we've talked about i have like a uh 511 tactical bag that i

[00:20:06] have that's like blue i have one sitting right here that i use that this one was like 20 bucks or something obviously not 511 tactical for 20 bucks but the one i keep in the car is like light blue and just looks like but it's like to the point where it's like almost gray and it just blends in is unnoticeable that's the kind of thing but the mole bags they're not uncommon to have the little

[00:20:31] so you can have the function without standing out i don't think they're a you know big thing anymore but i wouldn't go with like od green or camouflage or something like that because one you're going to look like oh i'm preparedness guy i have something you want to look like i grabbed the kids you know bag and and this is where we're heading out like everybody else i'm in the same boat i would probably

[00:20:56] have water and the things that are really going to matter in that bag but so you need to get out so you don't want to you want to fit in um maybe you have like earbuds in but you like kevin said you don't want to be listening to stuff you need to be paying attention but if you had earbuds in it just kind of look like hey don't talk to me i'm not involved that might be cool having the hoodie the

[00:21:22] nondescript having the hat hung down a little bit you know you want to kind of be a little subtle but you don't want to be i always felt like if i was going to do something bad in the city like where i go and move in on something and then want to get away quickly i would want something really unique and descriptive like a red ball cap or something like that or a red sweatshirt because i always feel like when people see you they're like oh

[00:21:50] he had a red sweatshirt i know i i got it i i clocked that guy he had a red hat and i'm wearing that when bad things happen and then that hat's gone right you know what i'm saying like i do that i get 10 feet away maybe i even run in the wrong direction of where i'm gonna go and then i ditch that stuff and slip off into something else and go to the plane nondescript you know that kind of thing

[00:22:17] so yeah i think that's a you know that's it that's it also a uh you know a great tactic for gray man stuff is being able to have clothing that you can discard or or swap out you know a windbreaker is great for that because it covers your your whole torso and you can take it off and pack it into a little pocket in it in your pants or something you know yeah um one of the things that we kind of

[00:22:42] skipped over i we should go back a little bit is is community building um you want to be able to know you want to know your neighbors you know you want to be you know on speaking terms with the people that are on your block you know in your in your neighborhood um the guy that runs the bodega you know the the homeless guy homeless guys know what's up man um it always concerns me that you're

[00:23:11] so familiar with the homeless community and you're those are my people man they are your people degenerates you know but uh i had a friend of mine that was telling me that uh there's a homeless person that lived in their neighborhood and every time you know once a week she said like the homeless person kind of made her nervous and so um every week she'd get home you know on friday or whatever

[00:23:35] and park her car and she'd give the guy the homeless guy 20 bucks and be like hey just keep an eye on my car this week you know and that way you know he's you know she's like his benefactor and she he's like watching out for and she said one day she came out and all the cars in her neighborhood were fucked up like somebody just went through a bat smashing windshields and he was standing next to her car and she's like they didn't touch your car miss miss angela nice you know saved her a windshield

[00:24:05] but uh you know i mean the guy's looking out for you now instead of being somebody you have to worry about that's it you're always buying them the the bottle of malt liquor all right keep them in and uh you know he'll he'll watch out for you ah yeah yeah so that that's the thing is is you want to be like the people around you you know that that's the whole thing where just blend in and act like

[00:24:33] they act like i hate to say it you don't want to have the pace or the gate that's 20 times or you know two times faster than everybody else if the crowd's moving you want to move kind of with the crowd you want to be able to get out of the crowd and not caught up in a big mob like where you know it's out of control like you want to be in control and and by that i mean like able to escape able to

[00:25:00] you know get out of the situation but you want to kind of go with the flow right you don't want to be the extreme opposite now i understand maybe you got to go the other direction but you got to kind of you know play it play it by ear right do do the things that you can do um even before you leave uh your place you know you should know the fire escapes the different stairways and hallways in your building

[00:25:27] the different know all your exits know you know how to how to get it how to get out i guess is is what i mean have you know a way to to you know move out of your building where you're not going to be you know the easy steps shouldn't become the problem you know that's i guess what it comes down to

[00:25:52] uh don't be on your phone now another thing depending what you're trying to avoid maybe maybe there was a coup in your government like i just talked about in the the thing and all of a sudden you became the uh the the enemy number one right and maybe you need to ditch that cell phone maybe you don't use the credit cards but you need to also remember the facial recognition

[00:26:20] the cameras everywhere all this stuff the world is very connected and it's not like it used to be you know people used to be like oh i can't use a credit card that's the least of your problems right in the city or whatever there are cameras everywhere that are gonna see you and and be aware and they really can you know follow people and and see where the heck they're going and more and more they can even do

[00:26:47] it with you know your gate and how you walk and how you know how you move you need to be aware of those things and how to kind of blend in take a tip from uh from luigi mangione remember he he shot that guy in the middle of a city street and just walked away and they lost him for days yeah you know what did he he just had a hoodie on and uh uh one of those uh n95 masks and he just walked into the woods in

[00:27:14] central park switched out his hoodie you know ditched the the mask and got on a bike and left and he just went mia for for almost a week yeah no that's it i mean you just you need to be discreet you need to blend and that's the thing is if when people first notice you you're one way and you're

[00:27:38] able to change into something else that's gonna you know give you the option it's a lot harder to cover up than it is to kind of get rid of you know like like kevin said if you're wearing the the n95 mask and the you know the sunglasses and the hoodie when bad things happen and then all of a sudden you're not wearing a hoodie you're not wearing the glasses and the whatever whereas if you try and go to the guy who's got the hoodie and the whatever then you kind of stand out more you know what i'm saying

[00:28:08] like think of how you're gonna blend in and how you're gonna watch and and that kind of stuff how you're gonna change so that's what i got the other option i mean it's sort of like blending in and escaping and you know paying attention gray man stuff another thing you might want to do is if you can move with a show of force right you know there's other times where you have a group of 10

[00:28:33] people that kind of look like hard targets you know maybe that's the way to go to move out but that's a lot harder to pull off to be a hard target in uh in the city because there's kind of always a bigger mob you know right that's that's the danger you run into you need to focus you need to have a plan you need to take actionable steps all the way through and you know just be aware it's like the thinking and

[00:28:59] just think how am i gonna not be out of the norm right that's and also not putting yourself in a box you know by knowing the escape routes you can wind up not being cornered and you should know multiple escape routes you know that's the thing and that's stuff you can do beforehand like to be honest i mean that's why they say like hey maybe you should study krav maga learn self-defense hey maybe

[00:29:27] you should carry a firearm hey you should you know be a little prepared in life where it's you don't become an easy target you know when you take a class or two on situational awareness when you're aware of what's going on around you and you're able to defend yourself or protect yourself it's going to put you light years ahead of maybe you don't get so out of shape you know maybe you kind

[00:29:51] of maintain a level of fitness and health you know it is your obligation to take care of your family and protect the ones you love that's something you know maybe you take that stuff seriously i know we all work hard and get exhausted and it's like oh is there time for you know any more i can't do any more but it is your responsibility you know to take care of things so i'm just saying that that's

[00:30:16] an option so i would do that and we did have a uh sponsor for this episode right oh so that's exciting i'm gonna put the link in the show notes that'll uh you know be able to get you guys there the sponsor it's for these pretty badass uh water bottles there's a company called iron infidel and they basically uh make these like 64 ounce water bottles and the cool jug for on the go and it turns out if

[00:30:46] you have one you're like an extra manly man i'm just saying you could be a little cooler now you're probably like oh i don't want to spend 60 bucks on a cool water bottle maybe you're that guy but then wait for it turns out they have like smaller 39 dollar water bottles but i looked at the pictures and checked it out and it turns out that if you're a manly man you need the big one and if you're like

[00:31:15] a fit hot chick then you need the less manly one so we're just by the by the pictures the models yeah yeah check out the notes and uh like i said we got cool things you want to be tactical i think we have uh a way for you to do it and uh again we'll put they have some kind of discounts if you click the link and and hook you up uh no check that out we'll put it in the show notes you know

[00:31:43] i try and take care of you guys get you the deal yeah and uh you know hey yeah one thing i wanted to touch on before we go is um uh tariffs um we all know we've all been watching the news big tariffs going on america stuff uh but there's some stuff you might want to stock up on now if you haven't done it already let's let's run through a list coffee is time is ticking coffee is gonna be expensive

[00:32:09] is gonna be going up yep um your basic produce that doesn't come from the united states bananas bananas mangoes uh you know avocados all that sort of stuff i mean i'm sure we can all function with with apples and pears but you know i like apples and pears and oranges we have those in america and peaches and what else do you need after that i actually just planted like four peach

[00:32:35] trees so yeah they can i don't even have to worry about it china you can't bully me that's right they weren't selling me peaches anyway i do wait i do grow my own garlic which the rest of america is getting from china so turns out i never understood that like we grow america or sorry we grow garlic great especially in the northern states why does all our garlic come from china like i never can figure

[00:33:02] that out if you look at any powdered garlic you know garlic powder whatever any of that stuff it's always china trying to try it's always powdered garlic with fentanyl in it i guess i don't know you know a little kick maybe it's the pick me up or the numbing i guess fentanyl is numbing right okay all right it doesn't hurt so much anymore now that i have garlic powder they always say oh it's good for my joints and they're like yeah it's the fentanyl that's why you don't you know yeah that's right

[00:33:28] uh the other thing is uh electronics uh if you've got a big flat screen tv and you're happy with it great if you are thinking about buying one buy it now you know oh it's time okay electronics cell phones uh so i should go to the megalomart and uh go check out the flat tvs yeah if you're if you're in the in the in the uh market then now's the time to buy all right so uh and now is like in the next three

[00:33:55] days or something or the car and the used car the new car both of those things now's the time trucks are very expensive right now so they're they're kind of iffy but you know you gotta think things are coming down as far as trucks and cars they're gonna come down in the future so i know you're saying oh tariffs they're gonna go up i think people aren't buying that stuff anymore and people are scared they have no money but it's like house prices i think they're gonna come down

[00:34:23] you know nobody's buying anything because they can't afford it they can't afford it so you know times is hard but that's what i got so anyway questions concerns emails at prepping badass at gmail.com uh show ideas you know let us know otherwise i would say stay safe and we will talk to you guys next week you