When Disaster Strikes, Unite or Die

When a disaster strikes, it can take weeks, months, or even years to re-establish a community.  But while humans pose the greatest threat to your survival in a SHTF situation, they can also be your biggest allies. Therefore, the key to your survival lies in developing a strong network of like-minded individuals prior to a catastrophe. 

There are countless large online survival communities that offer membership in return for “small membership fees.” They promise that they have large pieces of land in the middle of nowhere where you will all be able to gather and live together when society falls apart. However, the problem is that none of these communities will actually survive any emergency situation. They are too big, too widespread, and too unorganized to be effective when the time comes to take action as a group. But how, then, would you form a tight-knit survival group in your community?

A survival community (SC) is a group of people you can depend on for help after a disaster. They can provide supplies and support when emergency responders cannot. They are people who can teach you tricks and skills, and whom you can rely on to help you survive any situation.

How to find potential SC members

Your SC members should live nearby. You don’t want to try to gather hours away while the world is falling apart. You can put classifieds in your local paper or advertise in local online forums about survival seminars. You can hold classes to teach survival skills at a nearby location. The people who continue to participate in your seminars and classes are potential members because they share your interests in prepping and are invested enough to spend the time to attend the sessions.

But now that you have interested people, how do you determine who to include in your SC?

How to determine who should be included

• Your SC should be composed of friends and family whom you explicitly trust. There’s no room for error. You’re not going to be instant bffs with the strangers at your sessions, but ask yourself if you could trust these people in the future. Your life may depend on their help one day. 
• Keep the group small. Three or four reliable people is big enough. Remember that they each will have families to protect as well, so four people could easily turn into sixteen if they each have a wife and a couple kids. Any larger and the group becomes difficult to organize and trust. Each member of your SC should have different strengths. A group that includes a doctor, mechanic, carpenter, and hunter is going to be more successful than a bunch of doctors, regardless of how many degrees they have.
• Determine why you are prepping. Are you concerned about natural disasters, terrorist attacks, EMP, or a zombie invasion? You must ensure that everyone in your SC is focusing on prepping for the same things. If everyone is prepping for natural disasters, you can’t have one person focusing on zombies.

Pick your bug-in location.  

The most secure location will be at a house with a lot of land. If that doesn’t describe your home, you know who to talk to first about forming your team.  Remember that the size of the property will be influential in determining the size of your SC.

Once you’ve established your SC, meet regularly to discuss strategies, equipment, and supplies, and work together to practice different skills. These meetings will strengthen trust within the group and help everyone better their own individual survival skills. Just remember that while creating a SC is a solid insurance plan, you are still responsible for your own survival. Take care of you and your own first.

How did you determine who should be in your survival community? Share your SC building experiences with us in our Facebook Group!