Second, I agree that Man is resourceful and will almost always find a way to overcome obstacles. No argument there. The point of the article is that many people have a “pie in the sky” vision of what a survival community is and what it isn’t.

It is a lot of hard work. It is doomed to failure without strong, intelligent leadership.

It isn’t for the faint of heart, nor for those who aren’t willing to pull their own weight.

And I have looked behind the bushes a time or three, even spent some time there. In large part, I found too many armchair survivalists and keyboard warriors, rather than people who truly knew what they were doing.

I can tell you categorically she will NEVER get out of Houston on foot or by car in an emergency. When hurricane Rita was poised to his Houston in 2005 (this was right after Katrina) there was the larget urban evacuation in history. The average speed was 8mph. Many people headed to Dallas and San Antonio. I went to my retreat. Unluckily, Rita made a last minute turn and the eyewall was 10 miles from my retreat.

The lake sustained winds of 120mph. My retreat is surrounded by pine trees which acted as a wind break. The highest winds I recorded was 65mph. Afterward, we were without power for 2 weeks and landlocked due to all the felled trees.

I have 3 genset and plenty of fuel. The thing that was in highest demand was ICE!!! I had a small under the counter freezer and filled ziplock bags with water, froze them, and handed them out. Being a doctor and having ample medical supplies on hand I was able to treat those who were insulin dependent or other common chronic disease.

The temperatures got up to 105 and many people began to suffer from hyperthermia. That is where the ice came in. You place it under the armpits to bring the persons core temp. down.

That was the best real life exercise I have had to date. Not something I would want to repeat however.