Home Survival During Civil Unrest

I recently wrote an article over at survivalreadyblog.com titled Home Survival During Civil Unrest which covered the some of the basics on what to expect during civil unrest and protecting your home. It made me think a bit more about what I might do my self. The thought crossed my mind, how well would I survive inside my house right now if I was unable to leave my property. Lets say there has been an outbreak in civil unrest, angry citizens are out on the streets looting stores of their supplies. What would my first reactions be for my home defense? Do I have enough supplies and equipment to protect the supplies I have?

Home Survival During Civil Unrest

The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about home survival during civil unrest is protecting the supplies that I already have. The first thing I need to do secure my house, and start thinking about securing my property. From the start my biggest concerns are windows, and doors. I keep sheets of plywood in my shed for just this reason. I would be wise to measure and cut them to fit each window before hand, but I haven’t gotten there yet. I have enough to cover the inside of every window in my house, it’s your choice to do the inside or outside, or both. I chose to only cover the inside so I can remove the cover if needed. I also have glass as an indicator of someone trying to break in. As it stand I have enough supplies for me and my daughter to survive in my house for up to 3 months. We wouldn’t be eating amazing 4 course meals, but we have enough food stocks to get enough energy to survive. I have several gallons of water handy, and the ability to collect rain water if I really needed too. My plans aren’t focused on staying in my house however. Because of my life style, and the general location of where my daughter might be compared to where I might be at any given time, My plans are more focused on being mobile and setting up a new home outside of town. In the case of deciding to bug down inside my home for awhile has a few more key points to hit on defense.

Fortifying Your Home

As part of fortifying your home, I would recommend you install door stops, an extra barrier to help keep your door closed. Something as simple as screwing a 2×4 on it’s side to the floor can add a decent amount more difficulty for someone to open the door. There are many ways to fortify your doors and windows, and it’s important that you find a solution that works best for your situation and house design. All my windows are floor level, as my house is a single story. When I board up my windows, they are all getting boarded up. If you live in a two story house, you have a huge advantage as you might be able to keep some of the second story windows uncovered for outlook purposes. If your plan for home survival during civil unrest is just locking your doors and closing your blinds, you might want to consider the fact that other people might not be prepared with their supplies, and will eventually come try and take yours. As part of fortifying your home, it’s critical to look at your house from an outside perspective. Where are the weak points? If you were outside and needed to get in, what spots would you try to enter first? This will give you a good starting point to work from.

Outdoor Defense

As part of fortifying your home, you may want to consider setting up traps, or alarms around your property. Setting up trip wire is one of my favorites. I have seen just how effective trip wire can be in real life application. I have set up trip wire around my camping spots before and caught kids trying to steel beer, so at minimum, the unsuspecting person might trip on their face and decide to run away. If you can afford them, getting wireless motion sensors will help you track parts of your property you can’t physically watch. Flood lights are always a good thing to have, as it creates a false sense of security strength that thief’s usually fall for. Just keep in mind that if the power goes out, this can’t be your only deterrent. It might be useful to keep barbed wire around in a shed or storage area if your deciding to bug in. If my plan was to bug in I would invest in razor wire and put it around the fence that protects 3/4 of my property when SHTF.

Secondary Defenses

No matter how prepared you are in home survival during civil unrest, there is always the chance that someone might get through your defenses, and you need a secondary defense system. More often than not this is going to be either a pistol, shotgun, or short sword/combat hatchet. When someone decides to break in to your house, they have decided that you do not posses the means of getting rid of them. Once the attempt to enter has started, it’s now your job to show the intruders why it would be a bad idea for them to continue.

Last Resort

When there is no longer a choice, it’s time to grab your bugout bag and bail. There might come a time and place when leaving your property is a better idea for your survival than staying. If you had decided to bug in, and have now started to run out of supplies, it would be wise to leave while you still have a week or more worth of food. You want to make sure you have enough time to find more food on your way out. Having a bugout bag prepared before this happens can make a huge difference. With having the vital tools and resources for survival all inside one bag, you can throw this inside your car or on your back and skip town. I recently upgraded my bailout bag, and I’m in the process of converting my old bugout bag into a gobag. My daughter even got a new hiking backpack for Christmas from her grandparents, along with a mess kit, which was pretty awesome of them to embrace. I plan on helping her design her bag, and let her decide what goes in it. Which leads me to my last and final point.

Family

I try to involve my daughter in as many of my prepping and survival activities. Although there are some things I keep away from her, I show her just about everything. I think it is important to involve your kids, just make sure it’s not to the point where they are fearing for their lives. It can be a very fun and family oriented thing to do, but it can also be taken too far and create unnecessary concern. Regardless of any civil unrest, your family should have a plan for defending, or escaping your home. Whether you have an intruder or a fire, it’s always a good idea to make plans, and practice them.   Do you have any plans for Home Survival During Civil Unrest? Share with us in the comments below what kind of plans you have made for your home defense.