At first glance, the area I live in sounds like a decent spot:
Outside (30 min drive) a metropolis
Near (within 5-10 minutes) a main city artery (Interstate)
Lots of access to get out of the town (West, North, South are all viable)
Live within 5 minutes of kids school and church

When I take a closer look, it really starts to dawn on me how horrible this area is:
Prison within 10 minutes
Boys school within 5 minutes
Girls school within 5 minutes
River that floods runs through the old part of town (about 30% of town is in the flood plain - PD is on the opposite side)
2 huge arteries out of the metropolis come through the town
Hospital is 20-25 minutes away
Within 1/2 mile from a grocery store
Within 1/2 mile of a big box retail store

When taking a look at building some Google map evac routes, the nightmare really starts to reveal itself. I've got to add in contingency after contingency. Even the rule of 3 starts to sound like not enough. Anyone else come across something similar when taking a look at evac routes?

unfortunately it sounds like every suburb I've ever heard of.

Here is my stats...
2 metros within 20 minutes
hospitals are deep within each
2 major highways from metro 1 that join leading to metro 2
after passing through my town there is only one exit before taking you into metro 2
airpoint is sandwiched between town and metro 2
all the stores are around the exit ramps for the highways
no prison, but how about a pipeline control station
(can you imagine millions of gallons of flammable liquids!?)

That's why as far as I'm concerned the country is the way to go. Simple put how many bad things do you want around you. I have plenty here. When I live out west in a town of 500 I had none and knew everyone in town by sight if there was someone new I knew it right away.

Out west pro
No Hospital for 1/2` hour Small medical clinc in the area.
No rail line
No transport trucks going through other then stuff coming
Knew everyone
Farms land and hunting ground all around
Only 500 people to deal with if they all go zombie
Can grow food in my backyard like everyone else.

Cons
No help coming if something happens
No one can hear you scream
lack of job choices

Here Pro
Access to cheaper food for storage
More jobs
Access to high speed/reliable Internet and library services.
Work for my wife (was actually a problem out west only certain jobs for women)

Cons
No one gives a shit if you scream
1 hospital Emerg. Centre for my area
3 Grocery stores in a 10 block radius
Lots of bridges as a matter of fact no way out except across a bridge
5 Million people around me if the SHTF
Train tracks and really bad stuff on the tracks like eat your skin on contact stuff
3 nuclear generators I'm in the blast radius of all three. If one cooks off the other 2 go so at least it's short
Prison 20 minutes to the north
Great Lake to the south of me.
Major centre that has almost had one terrorist attack
3 major highways around me
No yard

Don't forget police and fire stations. Day to day, those are more important then anything else.

New guy here, so bash away. In my opinion, most of that stuff doesn't matter too much. Prisons, boys schools, girls schools close by are not necessarily bad. If anyone escapes from them, it's not like they are gonna stay close by. Generally the biggest issues is someone stealing your car to get farther away from the area. There is a small chance that one of the escapees may try to use your house as a hideout, and try to take hostages. Fortunately, you are on this site, so that means you are "forward thinker". You have the ability to take proactive steps to prevent this from happening. Common crime prevention steps, coupled with some outside the box thinking and planning would address most issues with an escapee.
As far as geographic concerns of other businesses, who cares. If it all goes bad, you dont want to be anywhere near those places anyway. The biggest concern I see in your post is the PD being on the other side of the flood plane. Where is the FD? Are they over the river and through the woods, or on your side? If you are on the other side of the flood plane from FD also, it sounds like you may want to consider so type of planning for this problem. In my opinion, one of the reasons for emergency preperation is to avoid having to depend on anyone. I can assure you that when seconds count, emergency response is almost always minutes away.
Every home has it's unique set of geographic challenges. I had a huge concern, but fortunately, it solved it's self for me. I live near a set of 2 HUGE natural gas storage tanks. Recently, I found out the tanks are now empty, and they are being torn down. I live about 1/4 mile straight line from these tanks. THat would suck if they blew up.
I also live about 200 yards from I-44. This i sgood and bad. Good, for quick escape. Bad due to the amount of commercial trafiic, and hazmat that is present on the highway.
My biggest concern is essentially living on an island. I live in St. Louis county. This area is surrounded by rivers. to the east, we have the Mississippi river. To the north, the Missouri river. To the west and south, the Meramec river. Now, should there be a massive earthquake, it is possible, that all of the bridges could be damaged/destroyed. Or if there were a terrorist attack, I see other issues. Dropping bridges would be a great way to isolate. Hell, if I were to attack the region, I would drop all of them except one. That would creat a bottle neck, also called a fatal funnel.
So, short of having a boat, how could this geographic problem be addressed?
Sorry for rambling.

We live in the middle of the Reading/ Wilkes-Barre / Harrisburg triangle a mile from the interstate exit and along a major state highway. When we talk to people in those cities they usually refer to my neck of the woods as "the sticks" and talk about the good hunting areas so I pretty much expect to see them pass by when TSHTF. Throw in a federal and 2 state prisons within 10 miles, Berwick nuclear power plant to the north-northwest and the infamous Three Mile Island plant to the south. Winds can come from either direction.

There are 3 hospitals within 10 miles, though the closest one (about 4 miles away) is only one step above leeches and bone saws-and only has 3 beds in its ER. Our FD is volunteer and our PD is very small. There is a state police barracks close by, but they only add a handful of troopers. There are 2 small airfields within driving distance, one if we had to hike. There are also many deep mines to hide in if you know where to find them

Tool, I was in that area a coupl eyears back, buying an old car. I then drove it back to St.Louis. I spent an afternoon in Reading. I recall thinking to myself "wow, the hood in the middle of the woods". I found it interesting to have a city like that, surrounded by hills and woods. I bet that could pose some interesting tactical, and logistical issues.

good post. i have to relocate to the metro baltimore area, and thought about many of the same things. so many pros and cons to weigh. if anyone live(d) in the area, please give me some insight.

I dont know what part of Reading you were in, but there aren't too many parts I would venture into on a good day, let alone if TSHTF. Reading has one of the nation's highest homicide and crime rates. I would expect to see the immediate areas around Reading and Harrisburg turn ugly real quick. The main artery that runs north out of Reading also runs by my house; most of the drug and burglary arrests in my area are visitors from Reading. I would expect it to increase if things got bad. Hell, 2 years ago my neighbors car was stolen from in front of his house and found in Reading the next day.

Even the least preparred people in my neck of the woods have concerns of Reading's problems spilling out if things get bad and have adequate contingencies -most involve gunplay.

ETA: just curious, why would you buy a car from PA? Our winter plans are to add 2 inches of salt when it calls for an inch of snow. That new brine that PennDot sprays adds the extra corrosion for the nooks and crannys you cant wash out.

Hospital 2 mins
police/fire 3-5 mins
exits, highway north or south
Located in city of 20k

next major popluation center 1000km

If the dam breaks my house is border line flooded

more moose then people.


I'm actually feeling pretty good aboot that.

I've worked as a contractor in the area. Beware of Prince George's county. I have family in Anne Arundel county, its nice there, as well as Frederick county- but you'll have to drive further to get to Baltimore. Hopefully some MD ZS'ers will chime in...

Tool, I was very aware of my surroundings while in Reading. We flew into Philly, then hired a car to drive us to Reading. We were dropped off, and the driver left. I immediately noticed the torn off corners of plastic baggies on teh ground THIS IS A CLUE! I also thought that if I lived htere, and things got stupid, I'd head for the hills, to a strategic location that I would have prepped in advance.
Off topic here, but I was near the old Reading PA firehouse. The salt in PA didn't matter. The car was driven there from Ohio 5 years earlier, and sat in a collection until I bought it. Why go to PA? Because the car I bought was kinda rare, and this one was in pretty good shape. THe car was a 76 Fiat spider. Not sure if you are aware of this, but the guy I bought it from has the largest collection of Fiats (and other Italian cars) on teh east coast. He is actually a legend in the I-car world in N.America.
Anyway, I bought the car, drove it home, playes with it for a year or two, then found another Fiat that I loved even more. I then owned two Fiats. I quickly realized that I was overwhelmed in Fiats. I sold teh Spider to a local guy. Now I have the other Fiat. If you know anyting about old Fiats, I drive a 79 FIat 128. Hence the name Jeremy128.
Here, now that I'm way off topic, I'll post a pic of it, then get back to the topic at hand. If you look in the background, you'll see my escape vehicle.

By jeremy128, shot with SPH-M540 at 2009-07-01

I'm pro suburbs for survival. I'm not saying they are perfect, for there is no such thing (even the much enthused country living has fatal flaws). but I feel that suburbs combine the best advantages with the least disadvantages.

Access to highways and roads for transport of people, goods and material. Civic infrastructure (not really important to me, but it is to some), market resources (there's more than one place to buy a pizza). Centralized utilities will start from urbanization and go out (yay power and water). At the same time I have the liberty of food and power supplements on my own property which a lot of urban dwellers lack, and with a larger nearby population it acts as a deterrent to raiding that most isolated country folk don't grasp.

Or, one might alternately say that is because suburbs do no one thing best. Which is of course, true.

Now I remember why this thread sounded familiar...

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=36872

Hell, you win. +1

Dangit - nice catch Murph. Thats an extremely helpful post.

If you really think so, hit the "report" [!] icon and select the option that is says it was a good post.