Survival in the Northern vs the Southern United States

Survival in the north and survival in the south do differ from one another. The main difference between survival up north and down south is the temperate zones. Winters up north can be extremely harsh and dangerously cold. So cold in fact they can be life-threatening. On the opposite end of the scale, the southern states can experience summertime temperatures that can exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit. These temperatures also can be extremely dangerous and potentially deadly. Both situations are unpleasant whether you are in -30 below temperatures or 110 degrees plus temperatures they both can end up taking your life if you do not take certain safety precautions into consideration. In the winter states you must be prepared by having backup heat sources on hand and emergency supplies that do not perish or freeze. Your emergency supplies should also be in the same room that you plan on keeping warm during an emergency situation.

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Survival in the south would involve having extra ways to stay cool during these extremely hot times. Air conditioning obviously is a number one solution for this problem. However when air conditioning is not on hand you should try things like misting yourself with a spray bottle of water while having several fans going to help circulate air. Still there can become extremely dangerous as it will heat up. Make sure that in both circumstances you stay hydrated and managed to nourish your body with the proper amount of food each day. Doing these simple things can help ensure your survival no matter whether you live up north or down south.

 

"Misting yourself" in a high humidity area is nearly useless and can encourage mold growth if you are not careful. Use shade, stay hydrated. watch your electrolyte intake; most of all don't over do it.

 

I’ve lived in both hot and cold environmenta and each present unique challenges and opportunities in prepping. While I agree that in the northern environment there are food items that you need to guard against freezing, but the cold temperature is a huge advantage in storing meat which is a primary food source.

 

I agree 100%, if you know how to live in the north it is not that bad, just look at the inuit that have lived in the arctic for 10,000 years .

 

I have lived in both, and that is part of what makes prepping unique. You have to prepare for the situations you are most likely to face. For me it (prepping) has become a life style, so if I am going to a different climate or part of the country I investigate, and see what challenges may be presented. Almost any place you go you will encounter some type of natural phenomena that can be life threatening.

 

I have learned a lot on mostly this but also other survival type boards about surviving in the cold. It is just an alien world to me. I have lived in the heat and sky high humidity most of my life.

There are actually, heat and cold wise, several different types of climate that you have to learn a little about in order to be as flexible and well prepared as possible. You have the bitter cold but mostly dry areas, the cold snow type places, the scorching hot and dry deserts and the hot and wet places. The funny thing about these places is that their flip side can bite you in the but even more than the weather you expect from them.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s when the auto industry died the oil industry bloomed. The skilled trades that were no longer needed in the north came to the south especially along the gulf coast to go to work here. The 100% humidity, heat and mosquitoes year around were hard on them. One and all they looked forward to our winter. It seldom drops into freezing during the day and we consider the 20s to be bitterly cold. When winter finally rolled in they nearly froze to death!

Winter in East Texas means 40s with rain almost EVERY DAY. You are almost always damp and when you finally get out of the weather you start to sweat and have to start shedding clothes. We dress in lots of layers because in a single day the temperatures can run from near freezing at dawn to 80 in the afternoon and rain ALL DAY LONG! Umbrellas are useless. Along with the rain is usually enough wind to turn an umbrella inside out. In the morning they were OK with their big heavy coats but then burned up and then got cold again. They were sick all the time because the cold wet just wears you down.

I can understand their misconceptions. I nearly froze to death (not literally) in the Desert west. How in the world can it be over a hundred all day and then get so damn cold at night??? We had a hot summer in the 70s and there were a lot of deaths in the North. On the TV they were talking about scorching temperatures in the 90s and low 100s. That is just summer in the deep south. What I learned from my Yankee friends was that a lot of older people up there didn't have air-conditioning. To us that is like saying that we don't have heaters in the house to someone from Michigan. I was a grown man before I lived in a house that came with a heater. When you rented a house you provided your own little space heaters.

I kept reading from those in the north that cotton kills and wool is the only way to go. I've never even seen a wool pair of pants or shirt for sale in a store. We just have no use here for wool and cotton is king. The people from the north that wore wool to work in the winter usually only did it once or twice. Even in the winter you are more concerned with shedding heat from your body for most of the day than keeping warm. There is not a single day of the year here that has never hit the 90s. I have gone swimming in a lake in the first week in January and it felt good. It was in the low 90s and the fish were spawning!

Each place will offer up its specific challenges. Those that live there know how to best deal with it and it is always fun to watch a new person try to adapt. There is also a lot to learn from them because they are probably expert in living someplace different and knowledge is always worth having.

 

My beautiful desert is a wonder. Boil you during the day and freeze you at night. We do laugh about the "Dry Heat" comments. Yes it is a heck of a lot better than all that humidity but it will also smack you in the face when you first walk outdoors, literally. I will never leave Arizona. I am here to stay.

 

TMT now you are just rubbing it in. LOL. Best class I ever took in college was the Sonoran Desert Flora and Fauna. I think I could still name every plant and animal in the desert. The final exam was a slide show. You had to name everything.

Dry Heat? Stick you head in the oven. That is dry heat. Doesn't mean it isn't HOT!! As you say it will flat knock your hat in the creek when you walk outside. Remember those little plastic statues you put on your dashboard. In Arizona we turned them into modern art. A steering wheel to hot to touch, or getting waffle butt from sitting on a vinyl seat. God I loved it there. People have no idea how beautiful it is.

 

Surviving in the north has got to be tougher, especially during the winter months. This article has some need to know info about the cold https://zamonthly.org/2019/01/10/winter-survival-know-how-to-prevent-and-treat-hypothermia/

 

I'll stick with Alaska. I can put a lot of clothes on but the cops show up if I take too many off. You talk about keeping hydrated in the heat but when it gets really cold the humidity drops and you expel tons of your water when you breathe.

Multiple layers are life saving and quality clothing. Don't allow yourself to sweat. When you get wet and start to rest you freeze. The insulation of your clothing diminishes and you better have a plan.

 

Do tip my hat to yo'all up north (damn Yankee's) . I can't take cold temps. I can bundle up until I look like the Pillsbury dough boy and still be quaking like a bowl of Jello. When it reaches 100, I just take off my second shirt.

 

The needs for survival are vastly different from North to South. In the North, you have to go at it hard and fast to gather food and fuel to prepare for and survive a long winter. In the South, you can garden year-round and both hunt and fish year around. The problem we have is that even in the dead of winter you have to immediately process any meat to keep it from rotting. Even the vegetables don't store and keep well here. We don't have root cellars. Because of this, we have to live a much more hand to mouth lifestyle. For us, the heat of late summers are the hardest time and in a world without unlimited water from the taps that will be even truer.

Your winters will make short work of the lazy and the stupid. That will be a big plus for those of you that are prepared. In the South, we will have to thin them out more"personally". Fortunately, in most of the South people are well armed and other than those in the mega cities the attitude is not the sort that is going to lay back and let people come and take what you have.

I think that things will settle down in the North faster than in the South. It is easier to survive here but if you have no knowledge and have made no preperations you will slowly starve to death if you don't get killed trying to TAKE what you want. If the power goes off in the winter by spring most of the idiots will be long gone.

 

should I stay, or should I go?
Where oh where...which direction...
Somebody used to tell me it would be better to be in the south because of the ice, snow and cold in the north and what if the power goes out because of the ice while you're in the north.
I'd probably die if I were in the south in the heat of the summer and the power goes off (no AC, etc). At least I had a woodstove or fireplace in the north. I could seek shelter in the north. The redeeming value of the north...lots of good food can be grown in a short amount of time, foods you can't grow in the south. A lot of fruit trees can be grown in the north. Citrus in the south, but no apples!
In the south even a swimming pool isn't going to cut the heat. The pool water gets too warm and is no relief at all. And most houses in the deep south don't have a basement (a good place to cool off). The redeeming value of the south is it isn't too bad in the winter, unless there's an ice or snow storm. I disagree that you can grow things year round in the south. It gets too hot.
I'm happy for anybody that thinks they have found their perfect location.

The summer time is for being outside, not stuck inside because it's too hot. Anyway, if, I mean when, the SHTF, I think the people in the north will survive it better. But I suppose it might matter what season it hits.

 

Subj: Surviving, living, thriving in different topo zones;

It's much less about snowshoes and air conditioners and 100% about knowledge and practice.

I've gone from the tropics (Indonesia) to chilly areas (Mongolia) on the same project. The main roadblock is to refute the old rule to "travel light".

"Where one can live, one can live well." Anon.

Many people relocated from places like Odessa, Sevastopol to new residences in and around Magadan, Wrangel Island, New Siberian Islands and had descendants.

Whether it's rice and corn-based sour mash iced tea or hard winter wheat and thin tea, adoption to new climates is realistic enough. The causes for concern weren't climate and weather and not much has since changed on the planet.

Meanwhile, anti-vibration gloves for extreme cold weather could use some improving.

 

It is not too hot to garden in the summer here. People do it every day. I currently reside in central Florida. Food will only be an issue here because people are too stupid to recognize food in it's natural state. Also, most people don't garden here even though they could. When the power goes off over half the population of Florida will be dead in a month. Not due to lack of food, but because they are very old and have multiple prescriptions for multiple maladies. Many require bottled oxygen to live. Others will be trapped once their stair lifts and motorized wheel chairs die.

 

We all have our reasons to live where we live. I moved up to Alaska from the bayous of the Deep South a decade ago. Both locations are survivable for their own unique reasons. There is something about the solitude of the far north that just does it for me. In a complete grid down scenario, the ease of food storage in the north seams to hold a distinct advantage.

One difference between the two locations, you end up cramming huge hours of productivity during the short 5 months of May-Sept in the north. If you can’t go 18 hours a day pretty much everyday during this period it’s hard to get it all done. This includes time for agriculture, subsistence hunts/fishing, etc.

I do miss some of the abundance of easily obtainable food of the bayous. My fear is if TEOTWAWKI, the high populations of the area will deplete the resources pretty quickly. This could be an issue up here, but most who try won’t survive their first winter.

 

The very base, the foundation of my SHTF survival plan, starts with the unwavering belief that minimal contact with humans is critical. The greatest danger post SHTF in my opinion is human encounters. Therefore I choose to reside in the arctic.

 

The two weather extremes are the attraction to some preppers. The desolate frozen north and the desolate souther desert. How many times have you heard anybody say, if it hits the fan I am headed to the frozen north or to the heat of the desert???? None I bet. They are all headed to the nearest forest, along with a few million others.

 

Where I'm from, you gotta be ready if you get caught at altitude and can't make it down off the mountain ridge where you are. There's a world of difference here between 5000-6000 ft above sea level and 1200 ft above.

I've hunted high pasture before and not know whether I was in Tennessee or North Carolina. Best to be able to get back to where you are staying in the hollar.

On a magnificently clear day, I've been on a mountain bald (at circa 65oo ft.) and was able to look east into N.Carolina, west into Tennessee, and south into Georgia. I felt like I was being held in the palm of God's hand. If you are camping up there on a night when the sky is clear, you can look up at the Milky Way and see ten thousand suns. The Cherokee considered these places sacred. So do I.

 

I live in the not so desolate frozen north, at the fringe of the largest population base in Alaska. The heat is unbearable to me. It took me two years to adapt to the heat of the tropics and then I came home and adapted back in a couple of months. I've been so long here it is what my body understands.

If I can't stand the heat there must be many who can't stand the cold.

 

Caribou, you summer temp would have me shivering. Hand go numb at 50*F. I don't sweat until it gets above 90. Went to the range last Thursday, temp a little above 90, had to take off my cover shirt.

 

TMT, when it gets above 80º the cops come arrest me for indecent exposure, above 90º I call the ambulance. It was in the mid 60's this AM. The wife and I were talking about how nice it was and lamenting that it would probably get pretty hot later, into the 70's.

 

Caribou, we are polar (pun intended) opposites. I can't stand the cold and you melt with my heat but between us, we got the nation covered.

 

TMT Tact,

A real good point; everyone's heading to the nearest forest, ... a few million.

Here, where I transmit from, LaLa Loonie Land, most all think that when metro Washington D.C. and Hampton Roads evacuate to their hideaway 2 story cabins (already occupied by vagrants [trespass charges ?]), there will be gasoline stations with fuel for sale, restaurants, junk food and non, with food for sale, an evac road with vehicles in motion,......

Plan now, evac even earlier than early on time line or properly prepare to shelter in place or right now, contact some real estate agents in Yellowknife, Canada. We easterners no longer have Frobisher Bay. It's reserved for the locals.

 

The heat in the summer is something that you adapt to. In part, you learn to do your outside work early and late and stay out of the sun in the middle of the day. Pools are GREAT. We had a heat wave a few years ago and had temperatures 115f or above for two weeks. I LIVED in and around my pool. There is a reason why in Mexico that people take siestas in the middle of the day and eat supper at night. Just as I would have to learn about dealing with ice, snow and frozen winters people from the North have to learn about dealing with heat and Southern cold weather. Where I lived in Texas when I was a kid it wasn't the hot OR the cold that made you miserable. It was 100% humidity and rain. When it is 40f raining with 100% humidity and is like this for DAYS on end it is a type of cold that most Yanks have a hard time dealing with.

Each area has certain adaptations that must be made if you live there. We don't have apples here but we do have pears, peaches, figs, grapes and citrus fruits of many kinds. We can't grow wheat well here but rice is everywhere in the coastal areas. We have massive numbers of domestic animals. There are probably over a thousand cattle within a couple of miles of my home. More pigs, goats, and chickens that I can count and lots of horses that will be true within a world without cars and trucks.

Where ever you live you need to know what is available to you there in both animal and plants that can feed you. You need to have a clear understanding of the cycle of life and seasons where you live. Where I live in September and October are more like summer than fall. March is Spring and there isn't a single day in the entire year that we couldn't have temperatures in the High 80s f to low 90s f. We don't have blizzards but if all communications go down you will never KNOW if that summer cloud is a thunderstorm rolling in or a hurricane.

To some extent, the debate of East Coast versus West Coast survival is very different and an equally interesting discussion.

 

When I lived in the south, I had a great tolerance to the heat. Back then I was running 10 plus miles at a crack and could do it without problem mornings or late afternoon when it was still pretty hot. The humidity of the Deep South is something that takes some time to acclimatize to. But it certainly can be done.

I’m with IBME, I still think the number one factor in east coast/west coast and north/south is isolation/distance from others. This is more to do with personal safety and survival by limiting contact than with sustaining your resource base, but resources are important too. For me, this ruled out the east. Being from proud Appalachian routes and the strong family bonds, it was hard to leave the familiar soil of the mountain of Virginia. Even though we thought we were isolated from the world, the eastern Appalachian mountains will be filled with many thousands of very dangerous idiots from the not too distant urban areas. And they will be dangerous for their stupidity, diseases, and desperation. Thus my move to the bayous of the Deep South before settling on Alaska.

 

One BIG issue is the general wind direction "AND" the direction the earth rotates. These mean that any Bad Bad Bad thing that happens, it all gets washed toward the East. Yes.......it poops on the whole world, but the East coast gets it concentrated yucky.

Volcanic Gas and Ash
Nuclear power plant meltdown
Even wildfire and smoke
Stench of rotting flesh from all points West of the East coast

 

The problem with isolation is that while you may have fewer people around that might be a problem you also have fewer people around if you need help. One lone person or family group will be pretty easy pickings for a roving group of two-legged animals. There are some building projects that are just not something that you can do by yourself.

Then there is the point you made about resources. I have little doubt that you could go out into most any desolate wasteland and not have to worry about visitors but then you will always be living on the razor edge of survival. If an area has good resources it is going to have people there and more will try to go there if the cities become uninhabitable.

I guess that because I'm older now I see things differently than a lot of people. When you get older you learn the true fact that NONE of us is going to survive and get out of this world alive. To me, survival is less an individual thing as much as it is a group thing. There is a VERY serious reason why people all over the world have always gathered into clans, tribes and other larger groups of people than just a family group. It is called survival of the fittest and the odds of your children surviving to carry on your genes into future generations is HUGELY enhanced by having a larger group. If the male of a family died the clan or tribe saw to the survival of the wife and children. If they had been alone there is a strong possibility that they would all have died over time.

In the event of some sort of disaster that causes a total collapse of our culture and infrastructure, the real long term survivors will not be the hermits hiding in the outback. Those that gather together first will be the strongest and over time will gather most of the resources for themselves. That is just how people operate. Tribes claim a territory and then protect it. "Primitive" people were lots smarter than modern people. they understood that if you let every useless refugee come and take a part of their resources that eventually their territory will become overcrowded and as messed up as the territory refugees left.

Where ever you live or bug out to you need to consider that if you are not a part of the local community, in the beginning, you may NEVER be a part of it. Clans tend to be damn picky about who they let into their group and you can bet that after the fall the "stranger danger" reflex is going to be even more pronounced than it is now. Those that you help a little in the beginning may be important contacts to you later.

I know that for some of you all this being friendly with strangers business is scary and dangerous but in the long run, I believe that you will be safer being seen as part of the US group rather than THEM in the area that you live.

 

Tex, good post! You are so right, none of us are making it out of this world alive. Curious, you talk about being old. What age is old? I’m just shy of 60 and most of the time I still think I’m still kid.

 

I mean you ZERO disrespect.........And I greatly enjoy your posts, I truly do. But people just don't understand about Alaska. Even people born here don't understand.

On the Survival Boards forum, "Alaskajohn" and myself have tried and tried to get people to understand. But is hopeless. They can't grasp Alaska "Wilderness".

In my opinion Alaska is a very easy place to survive, very easy.

 

Sometimes I don’t like to advertise, but Alaska is a great place to escape the crap that’s all around the 21st century. I’m ok if people don’t buy into it.

 

I understand that Alaska offers a lot in the way of resources and wide open lands. If you can learn to live there. Truthfully when the power goes off forever and the fuel stops coming there how many people will be able to survive there? Alaska has always been sparsely populated for a good reason. It is a harsh environment at the best of times and not many people are up for going Inuet. With no power and no fuel, those long long winter nights will be hard to survive. The growing seasons are short and there are all sorts of problems that very few people, even most that live there, are prepared to survive.

I understand that things are much better in the southern parts of the state but that is still a tough environment. It is a little like the deserts that the aborigines live in Australia. they survive pretty well but most people wouldn't last long there. I have no doubt that if you know what you are doing that it is a beautiful place. I could live well in the Everglades. I was raised in swamp country. Most people would find the swamps rather uninhabitable so I really do understand that harsh environments can be good places in hard times... if you KNOW how to live there when you go into it. Unforgiving environments are not good places to learn on the fly.

 

100% of the people who currently don't need fuel or power. It will be "Hell" for those living in the Alaska cities, and mortality will be horrific. But many Alaska city people will be just fine, they walk out their front door, load the family and supplies into their own Cessna or Piper aircraft and fly to their well stocked remote cabin......that is only accessible by Alaska "Bush" aircraft.

The single biggest danger for Alaska, is a "Hot" war with the Russia-China alliance. They can capture Alaska in only a few hours. And America could not recapture Alaska without total destruction.

 

It is all in knowing the rules. The ocean and shores has a set of rules as do the mountains. The tundra and the arctic have another set of rules. Now, if you want to live in NYC or LA you better learn the rules.

In a SHTF situation the rules can change but if you are in the wild, not so much.

 

I just reread the MSF masthead before transmitting this. The masthead says "to learn from each other ... don't be shy".

I do not deny that radiation sickness is dreadful.

There are the vector-borne diseases like Zika and dengue fever. A couple of variety of mosquitoes are vectors.

The human species also carries dread diseases. Humans are mobile; wanderers. Complete this thought and consider what happens when Jack and Jill arrive with their luggage and pistachio nuts from a store in Hawaii.