In a SHTF situation or a prolonged disaster, knowing the places to avoid is a critical component of any safety strategy. Looters, thieves, ill-prepared people, and general Ne’er-do-well all pose a threat to your personal safety, and possibly even your own supplies.
In a prolonged disaster or an all-out SHTF situation, you need to avoid the following places. If you do find yourself in need of something from them, there are little things you can do to improve your chances of getting out unscathed.
Grocery Stores & Box Stores
Everyone who is ill-prepared will run to the big box stores and grocery stores hoping to get food and supplies.
If the SHTF disaster also knocked the power out, the store might not even be open, as they won’t be able to operate the cash registers. A lot of smart employees probably won’t even show up for work. In some states, they’re not allowed to open and sell perishable items if the power is out.
However, this won’t stop a mob mentality from simply breaking in and looting the store. Once people take that step over the line, lawless looting ensues.
How to Avoid
Even if you’re not a prepper, you should still always have at least two weeks’ worth of non-perishable food items in your house. While it might sound boring to eat beans and SPAM seven days in a row. It’s still better than getting trampled by a mob or beaten within an inch of your life for a can of spaghetti sauce and a pack of mega-roll toilet paper.
Gas Stations
In a SHTF situation, gas stations are the next most likely place to be looted, clogged, and prone to mob mentality. If the power is out, the electric pumps won’t work and safety shut-offs will be in place. This won’t keep people from trying, and the surface streets surrounding a lot of gas stations will be clogged with frustrated motorists.
Even if power is still up, long lines of fuming people running on fumes will be a powder keg for trouble. If you’re stuck in those lines when a situation erupts, you’ll have to leave your car to flee.
How to Avoid
The first step in avoiding gas stations is to always keep your tank half full or more. You should also keep a basic stock of gasoline at home in gas cans. Just make sure to add a fuel stabilizer to keep the gasoline from separating and degrading while stored.
Related: The Best Places Where You Can Store Fuels Safely in an Emergency
If you do have to go to a gas station in a power outage, use as many B-roads as possible to avoid jams. Bring gas cans with you as a backup container. Truck stops and large-scale service stations are more likely to have backup generators which will keep the pumps running. They’ll also have more pumps, which will keep the lines moving faster, and with less frustrated motorists, than a small station.
If you have gas cans with you. It might be possible to walk up and get gas, without having to get your car trapped in line.
Sporting Goods Stores
Sporting goods stores and any store that sells guns or camping equipment will also be flooded with looters and unprepared people.
Especially if the SHTF disaster is prompting people to bug out, or homes have been compromised.
If you live in a state where there’s a waiting period to buy a gun, or the sporting goods stores are overrun, a riot could break out. Desperate people might start grabbing guns, hoping to take what they need by force. The last thing you want is to be caught in the line of fire!
How to Avoid
Ideally, you should have a good stock of ammo to support your home protection and hunting needs already. Even if you don’t want to make a big investment right now, a 22-caliber rifle and a thousand rounds of LR ammo can feed you small games. It also makes enough of a pop that the average Joe might think twice when you shoot it in the air as a warning shot not to trespass on your property.
In a world where looting and lawlessness can erupt quickly, having a solid home defense strategy is crucial. One way to ensure you’re fully prepared is by taking advantage of specialized training. The Special Forces Home Defense Academy offers comprehensive courses that can teach you how to protect your home and family effectively in times of crisis.
The Academy’s expert instruction covers everything from setting up strategic defenses to handling various security threats. With training designed by the seasoned Green Beret Terry Schappert, you’ll gain the skills needed to face even the most challenging situations. Don’t wait for a crisis to realize you’re unprepared.
Hospitals and Urgent Care Clinics
All those people who got trampled in a crowd, beat up for a roll or toilet paper, shot trying to buy a gun, and clobbered at the gas station are all going to flood the hospital. As patients start to pile up in the ER waiting room, patience starts to run thin.
The last thing you want is to be in that waiting room injured or with an injured loved one when someone tries forcing the doctors to give them care. Especially, if the firearm security measures for the ER waiting room have started to break down.
How to Avoid
Keeping up to date on things like first aid training and CPR will go a long way toward helping you assess and treat many injuries.
If you absolutely do need to go to the hospital, try to stay close to the door or the bathroom. If something does get out of hand, you’ll have a better chance of slipping out of harm’s way.
Pharmacies and Drug Stores
At some point, people are going to start flooding into drugstores and pharmacies. Depending on how bad the SHTF situation is, someone will likely need a prescription refill but don’t have the doctor’s signature they need to go with it.
The last thing you want is to be waiting in line when someone decides they’d rather rob the pharmacy of the amoxicillin they need for their kid’s ear infection. Let alone looters, and people with opioid addiction who want to help themselves when the pharmacy is closed!
How to Avoid
If possible, try to be overstocked on all your necessary prescriptions and antibiotics. Without antibiotics, your chances of survival go way down during a prolonged crisis.
Remember that you likely won’t be able to resupply yourself for quite some time in a crisis. Since antibiotics are typically not available over the counter, here is an ingenious way to stockpile antibiotics without a prescription, before it’s too late.
Large Public Shelters
The Red Cross, National Guard, FEMA, and similar agencies might open large public shelter areas after a natural disaster. If you’re displaced from your home, you’ll need someplace to go. These official public shelters are much better than communal gathering places, as they tend to be policed and there’s some sort of order. Even if it is a form of martial law.
How to Avoid
Even if you do go to a government-controlled large-scale shelter, don’t expect it to be 100% safe. You need only look at the Super Dome in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to see how dangerous these places can be.
Related: 9 Signs You Might Be on FEMA’s List
Instead, prioritize finding or creating a more isolated and secure location where you can maintain control and avoid the unpredictability of large crowds. Consider scouting out secluded areas or setting up a small, hidden camp away from high-traffic zones. Always have an escape plan and the means to relocate swiftly if the situation deteriorates.
Someone Else’s Cabin or Farm
A lot of people who’ve lived their lives in cities have this fantasy that in a disaster they’ll simply flee to the countryside. They stumble upon a well-stocked cabin or farm, to start living a bucolic fantasy milking cows and picking fresh dew-kissed vegetables while hunting a deer or two on the side.
They often forget that the cabin owner, or farmer, and his well-armed family already own their generational farm. Most likely they’re pretty determined not to hand it over to some random city slickers!
How to Avoid
If you do have to bug out of an urban area, have a plan on where you’re going to go. Make sure everyone in the family group knows the destination. If you’re planning to go to a friend’s farm or cabin, make sure they know you’re coming.
If you need to take shelter or need to ask for help in a rural area, let them know you’re walking up. Keep your hands where they can see them and speak politely. Let them know your name, and how you’re in trouble.
People who are defending their homestead are less likely to shoot if they know your name, and they’re more likely to empathize if they know you truly need help.
In a SHTF situation, the wilderness might be your only refuge. But surviving in the wild isn’t just about basic skills—it’s about knowing how to live off the land long-term.
That’s why I rely on this guide. This isn’t your typical survival manual; it’s a practical tool that teaches you the forgotten wisdom of our ancestors who didn’t just survive in the wild—they thrived there. So, when you need to head for the hills, make sure this handbook is in your backpack; it could be your lifeline in uncertain times.
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What ever happened to Left Coast Chuck? Anyone hear from him lately?
Cali Chuck is probably homeless by now, as many liberals have voted to bring in the poor law breakers who are sucking up our assets reserved for us Americans.
I have thought about crossing the open border to get all those free stuff illegals get, free taxpayer free housing, food, clothes, schooling. That most of us Americans can’t afford to get anymore.
If Harris some other liberal gets promoted to be president because of skin color politics our second amendment will be removed and our families will be defenseless. Many of those thugs have military grade weapons from the open southern border anti-American groups now in charge of our American borders.
This has nothing to do with being liberal. Jezuz F***
You better believe that! I only wish some Demoncrats had and used common sense sometimes and put the Country ahead of their hatred and vote for what our country needs instead of just not liking how someone looks ! People really need to know the agenda they are voting for and who will benefit from their actions! The left are the ones threatening all of our freedoms and destroying our country but they claim it is Maga Republicans! They just blindly follow the leader without using any common sense!!
I wondered that myself from time to time. The last few times LCC commented, he said how his responses often vanished and asked Claude to address the issue. If memory serves, he was using his i-phone, and I wondered if that were part of the problem.
I miss Red, City Chick, and ClergyLady, too.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some have stopped commenting because of the trolls.
To return to the post topic, I think anything we can do now to help ourselves out later wouldn’t go amiss.
Probably Left Coast Chuck got removed from his home by illegals doing the Cali squatter’s rights program the liberal have done to the state of Sanctuary-ism.
America has many new issues since Biden – Harris gave us open borders and people sucking up our medicare and social security.
He probably moved to Texas or Florida.
Along those lines there is no safe refuge anymore as illegals, terrorist cells have been sent into those bug out areas we once thought were safe.
There will be a civil war of remaining Americans who still have their weapons against the illegal – Chinese nationals (Military personnel), middle east terrorist, MS13 and world class criminals and psycho mental patients. That Biden-Harris let into our God forsaken country being led into shambles.
You like more these past four years vote for another Obama surrogate like Harris, Michelle, Hillary or another progressive puppet they have in mind.
It’s your America, what are you going to do about the mess?
We only get to vote for someone chosen by the party’s.
If the previous election can be rigged, and it was, so can the upcoming one as nothing has improved.Neither party wants secure elections or it would have been done long ago as they all benefit from them, as long as they tow the rope election-party support will be theirs so nothing changes. Remember the fact that our government is only a ceremonial one & our country is a corporation, a legal fiction, so we are governed by contract law. The republic was lost long ago when states became corporations and we all have Lincoln to thank for it all because of his supposed civil war over slavery, but it was not a true civil war as it was between the northern and southern states and an act of aggression by the northern States. WESTERN Territories AND PROVINCES WERE NOT INVOLVED. And slavery was not a part of them either.
If we have rights then all 2a infringements like licensing etc. are null and void so is requiring a DL etc.
The state can not put a prerequisite on the exersing of any right & has already been ruled on by the SCOTUS but government abides by no law unless it feels like it. SO we have in reality privledge or contract law not rights.
They probably got shot or beheaded by the growing illegal law breaking population of freeloaders. All states are border states, some are more sanctuary for those who can vote in our local and national elections.
Will our votes be cancelled out by illegals?
When will voters rolls be purged of dead voters and fake mail in voters, that happened in the last election?
Who will we vote for in this November 5th election for the Christian soul of Miss Liberty?
I can guarantee that the old Katana wielding Marine Left Coast Chuck would never be unhoused by a California immigrant liberal figment of your imaginations. Our wives ran into serious health problems at the same time, have a feeling that took him away from his commentary. LC Chuck, Red, and City Chick had many unique experiences to share but they were all quite a bit older than me, and I am nearly ancient. Maybe one or t’other will check in some day.
Many posters have seen what has happened to the comment posts from people like Lisa and other trolls.
The older posters gave great advice some have passed away leaving a vacuum of conservative thought sadly missing with these new troll clowns that pop up.
Three things for sure politics, religion and fear mongering will be the daily thoughts in the misguided social media indoctrinated public of the clueless zombies.
Three things for sure politics, religion and fear mongering will be the daily thoughts in the misguided social media indoctrinated public of the clueless zombies.
I second what Todd said!
These next few days and weeks before a new president is elected will be a dangerous period as our enemies can do harm to us domestic and foreign laces abroad to our citizens and military.
Remember elections have consequences regardless of the liberal naysayers in the media and social media networks.
I am a conservative and a Republican. I am a Christian and love Jesus. I believe that we gain wisdom from our mistakes but it’s better to gain it from other people’s mistakes. Just because someone doesn’t agree with you doesn’t mean that they’re wrong. I’ve been wrong so often in my life that it’s embarrassing. My point is that I believe it’s foolish to not listen to opposing views. Occasionally their opinions change my mind. Many times prepper commentators will berate liberal posters and those posters will relocate to a liberal platform. In the multitude of many counsellors is great WISDOM. Can we easily defeat our opposition if we don’t know how they operate?
Maybe, these opposing characters believe in limiting our free speech and keep their lunatic notions as the mainstay in knowledge.
Party politics is a myth, we can all be conservative without a label. As their are still conservatives in the Demoncratic party. Their voices are drowned out by the radical voices.
I believe in God, Jesus Christ, but don’t believe in organized religion of any sorts, especially the radical Islamist’s who think they can riot anywhere like Antifa and BLM does.
Religion and politics are the great dividers of mankind, just as Clinton, Obama and other radicals are today.
Defeating the opposition is possible when you have identified their weaknesses, but just like in the UK right now, the opposition includes the police and other government factions. If you know what the end goal is, then you will know who the opposition truly is. All of the illegals and “immigrants” are here to cause mass confusion and destruction, but they are here under orders, or a promise of free stuff.
People do not follow the 10 commandments any more, but #8: thou shalt not steal, is the one that gets ignored the most. Theft of property, time, and freedoms will be mankind’s downfall. All of the other commandments are pretty easy to follow, but for some reason, we have determined that stealing can be justified or renamed, and that will keep us out of trouble. The people being sent to our country, or other countries, obviously have not considered the ramifications of their actions, but more than that, the “elites” that are sending the people must believe that there will be no ramifications.
Learn the opposition. Study their actions, priorities, and goals. Then take action to disrupt their plans. English and Scottish citizens are destroying hotels and other centers so the “migrants” have to be relocated. It is only a matter of time before the relocation is to private homes, but the havoc created is what matters most.
Please don’t use that .22 (or any other gun) to “shoot into the air”. 1) It’s a waste of ammo, which in a SHTF scenario is a Bad Idea. 2) You are responsible for wherever that projectile lands (and land it will, for “what goes up must come down”) and whatever damage it does. Even a .22 can do harm. Please handle your guns responsibly – that is what real “common sense gun control” is about.
Never fire or flash a firearm unless you have to use it. Gunfire is a bullet magnet. If you flash a gun, you must have something others want. Best to keep a low profile if you are traveling and ALWAYS have somewhere to go. Know how to travel by foot- especially if you bug-in for a while. Know how to purify water and know edible plants. Expect to travel cross country- the roads will be controlled by the less than friendly. Road pirates or local militia, ether will likely be unpleasant to deal with.
Good article. But Kathie makes an excellent point. NEVER fire a projectile firearm into the air. Bullets can travel miles and the heavier ones will flat kill a person. ONLY shotguns should be fired into the air. And even that has limitations.
Fire a warning shot, certainly. But shoot it into soft earth only!
BS, Liberal, not miles, that is a myth!
A warning shot only gives away your position. A kill shot eliminates the danger for ever. Don’t wast ammo, you may need it layer.
I looked back on many Ask a Prepper articles and Left Coast Chuck’s posts have been scrubbed off long before this year. When was the last time you saw a post from him? Does anyone know what happened to him??