Should I avoid buying a river front bugout camp?
Posted by TheDude50484@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 54 comments
Hey Y'all, I'm searching for a bugout camp and I'm considering buying something that is riverfront. For the sole purpose of bugout SHTF this is probably not the best location, but I'm considering river front because I know my family and I will use it and enjoy it far more if it is river front (dual purpose - recreation and bugout retreat). What are your thoughts on buying on the river (Allegheny specifically)? Avoid it or not terribly a poor choice?
Ryan_e3p@reddit
Rivers, streams, tributaries, fed ponds, and fed lakes are going to be very unstable if things get that bad. So much of our water is controlled via dams and reservoirs, holding, diverting, and otherwise controlling when & where it flows to. A little stream going through a backyard that is fed by a river with flow controls could end up completely out of control once human intervention stops. Rivers that run 20' deep and a couple hundred feet across can run dry. It's a crapshoot. Best chance is to have a pond that is completely separated from the rest of the tributary system.
Also, consider that weather extremes are becoming more common as well. Those "1000 year storms" are not going to be as infrequent as they used to be.
jaroslaw-psikuta@reddit
We just had super high temperatures with some records beaten and huge drought in Poland few days ago and now we are being flooded with rivers going wild.
monty845@reddit
You can also look at the topology and sometimes there will be an obvious answer. Also, historical information is valuable, if you use it as a starting point, and not the conclusion.
So, the property I bought, I was able to ask a neighbor how high the water was when the area got a 1000 year flood about a decade earlier. It was about 20 vertical feet blow the house, and looking at the topology, it would take orders of magnitude more water to go that next 20 feet.
For me, that is I think a good metric... Take the 1000 year flood, kick it up an order of magnitude or two, and imagine what that would look like. You should be well enough into absurdity that even a fairly inaccurate estimate on your part should be well beyond the worst realistic flood possible.
johndoe3471111@reddit
Just bought a property like that myself. Small cabin on major US river. My wife and I love it. It’s off grid except for electricity. We love it. We got some kayaks, a fire pit, hammocks, and some lounge chairs. Is it nice to have a little place to bug out to…sure. The joy we get out it until then is absolutely priceless.
AdvisorLong9424@reddit
Mine is on 400 acres in the flood zone. I built my cabin on dock partitions so it will float as the water comes up every spring. It's about 50 yards in and camt be seen from any part of the river. There has been 3 cabins in that land in the last 100 years. All have been elevated, when I got the property the DNR said I couldn't build a permanent building on it. I said eff you guys, built my cabin on the dock partitions and registered it as a boat. I tie it between 4 trees so when the water comes up it floats with high water. It's a 15 minute boat ride from my primary residence. I'm either there or some random sand bar camping most every weekend. During duck season I'm there every weekend.
pf_burner_acct@reddit
At this rate, we are going to have "bugout location" subdivisions.
"Go'dern it Bugout Jim. I told you twice already! You don't have an easement to access the river through my Bugout camp! Go use the fish cleaning sation like e'ryone else. I'm going to the association if I catch you here again!"
tyler111762@reddit
that'sideal. having off grid communities ready to flip a switch and become their own self sustaining village is how a society survives "the big one"
pf_burner_acct@reddit
Then it's a town. It's just a town.
Informal-Diet979@reddit
you just described jackson hole wyoming with extra solar panels.
pf_burner_acct@reddit
Exactly.
tyler111762@reddit
mhm, yes and no. no more than a cottage community is a town. no incorporated municipality with bylaws or central services.
i know it seems like a distinction without a difference but... the minor differences would be a lot less minor should the big one hit.
pf_burner_acct@reddit
Okay. I can see that enough people see the silliness here.
oldtimehawkey@reddit
How many other people are around it now? Everyone and their family is going to “bug out” to their vacation “cabins” when the time comes. If there’s a lot of people around you, be prepared for them to harass you but plan ahead and be friendly. Act like a dumbass and say you only have “enough groceries for the week.” Things that make you seem like you don’t have anything.
How close is it to a city or population hub? People will see your fire smoke. They may or may not come to you. If you last more than six months, I think one or two people (if they make it longer than six months) might make the trip to see what you have.
Are the buildings right on the river? I’d worry about flooding. You don’t want to be right on the river. A little bit away and be on a higher area or have a way to protect from flood waters.
Competitive-Ticket14@reddit
Idk boss. People drown in rivers. Also dinosaurs had sick riverfront space too.
1one14@reddit
EVERYONE will be traveling to water to survive. I would find something far away from it.
silasmoeckel@reddit
It completely depends on if you have someplace to put the house that's not likely to flood. Is there any dams upstream that could fail?
My location has a stream but it's 60f below the cabins so little chance of it flooding the cabins without a guy on a boat with lots of animals sailing by.
MArkansas-254@reddit
This. Flood is the only potential downside in my mind. You also have a reasonably easy and quick escape route.
Opcn@reddit
Two things to look at, the floodplain maps and the future course of the river. If you are on the outside bend of a river that is aggressively meandering climate shifts could increase rainfall in your area or just a few big storms and you could lose a substantial amount of your land. As to floodplains, if you have a relatively flat piece of land that touches the river an increased flow would sink it, but if it's a relatively steep piece of land and you have some high ground well away from the river you can put a structure up there and be sure it won't get washed away or submerged.
vba7@reddit
What are the laws there? In many places rivers cannot be fenced and everyone who wants can walk near them - so you will see a lot of tourists / hikers.
Obviously in a "shit hits the fan" scenario people will ignore laws anyway - so walking near a river to get to somewhere makes sense.
Environmental_Art852@reddit
A good life before SHTF. Go for it.
HedgehogSea2861@reddit
As long as there's no dams upstream, I'd go for it. Even if the water supply becomes tainted you can still use it for generating electricity. Plus you get a kickass vacation spot if S, does in fact not, HTF.
OnTheEdgeOfFreedom@reddit
Depends on your SHTF I suppose. Are we talking societal collapse. That's probably one in a billion in your lifetime, so if you think being near water in SHTF is a problem, it's a problem with very little negative weight. But if your family loves playing in rivers and will be there every weekend, that gets a big positive weight. Advantage: river front.
But f your SHTF is a major flood and your family's just not that into mosquitoes around rivers... Advantage: somewhere drier.
Do whatever math you think works. I can't tell what your pros and cons are or the odds you think of each of them.
stpg1222@reddit
First and most importantly, can you afford it?
RickDick-246@reddit
I’d avoid on a river but would want to be near a river. 1. Flood. 2. It’s a natural pathway for humans. Much easier to follow a river in most cases than bush wack.
My house is close enough to a river where I could comfortably walk to go get water but far enough away where I wouldn’t likely have a lot of foot traffic in a true SHTF situation.
SunLillyFairy@reddit
I wonder in general about vacant private properties for bug out locations. If people are fleeing and S has actually HTF, what stops them from making claim and setting up camp before you get there? Would they care about your deed if they were desperate?
This is just a ponder, I see the benefit in having land and setting it up to go to… if you knew something was coming you’d certainly already be there.
In relation to your question, it seems like a good idea for survival resources as long as it’s not popular/well traversed and you know the potential for flood or flash flood and build/set up accordingly.
Eredani@reddit
Could be a good water source. If the concern is flooding, check here:
https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search
Kaliking247@reddit
So a couple pros and cons. The biggest pro is that if you have a river ready boat you can leave fairly easily. There's also something to be said about ready access to running water for bathing, drinking and cleaning.That said there's a whole lot of cons. Easy access to the river also means easy access to you. Ignoring the fact that water was are a big form of transportation for the homeless in normal conditions if something bad happens they won't be the only people using the river. There's also the fact that it's a flood zone. It could be bad if you go there to exfil and end up shoulder deep in water. Building next to a river isn't impossible but it may be expensive. If you go through with it make sure you know the area and have the money on hand to build.
SundaePuzzleheaded30@reddit
I also think shtf means different things to people. I read One Second After and that really opened my eyes to this. Things I never thought of.....
SundaePuzzleheaded30@reddit
Personally I'd be afraid of who comes down the river. I'd rather be in a mountain/hilly area and more hidden. I think having something to dig a well and a hand pump source would be beneficial. I don't know that lakes/rivers/streams will be clean. Of course you want to have water purification items.
Jay_Stone@reddit
My wife and I looked at a 20 acre plot of land along a river in Oklahoma two years ago. We were pretty happy with it until I happened to see a skeleton of a fish within a tree that was a good distance away from the river.
Once we did some research, we discovered that the reason this acreage was so cheap was because it was in a 100 year flood zone.
Helppccc@reddit
All depends on the topography and surroundings... I went with high elevation on the peak of a mountain, but it's all situational
joeshleb@reddit
I live on a river. In a SHTF scenario, I'll always have potable water (after boiling) fresh fish, ducks and geese et al.
joeshleb@reddit
I live on a river. In a SHTF scenario, I'll always have potable water (after boiling) fresh fish, ducks and geese et al.
Cats_books_soups@reddit
Rivers, streams, and estuaries can have very different flood patterns, each one is unique. One way to go about this is to look up the worst flood in the last 10 years and also any historic floods from the past (including before more recent dams may have been installed or updated). Then ask a local “Hey were you living here during (major storm) do you know where the storm surge reached?”
I did that when I rented near a river. I knew from locals that hurricane Isabell had the highest water in the 10 years before I rented and the surge didn’t reach our street and there was over 5-10 feet of elevation between high water and the house. I also knew that you could still easily reach the main roads during Isabell. Since I knew the predicted and reported storm surge during that storm, I could calculate whether forecast storms were safe. I will say when I bought my house I wanted 20 feet elevation above any recorded past storm to be on the safe side.
TheAngrySkipper@reddit
I plan on buying river front in the next couple of years.
There are products that can help you in case of flooding - one is a flood barrier in the shape of an “L” - iirc a Chinese guy purportedly invented it - you can order them Amazon. The second product is an American invention, the aquadam.
For my money, if the river is fast moving, that’s an energy source my friend, you can figure out how you want to set it up, but you can use a paddle wheel (basically) for electrical charge, you can also setup a self panning gold trap, all streams and rivers have some level of gold, but if it’s going automatically and you check every couple weeks, who cares if it doesn’t return a huge profit, $X > $0.
Pamakarma48@reddit
Get your river front and enjoy it now. The future is never guaranteed. also, if you need to bug out, you can get a new boat and sail away. Oh so am I can I come with you?
misslatina510@reddit
IMO when shtf, people will walk along the river to navigate from place to place, is there anyway to conceal your camp from the river?
kabekew@reddit
Being on the Allegheny is handy if the gas runs out everywhere and things are only getting worse, you can bugout again by canoe or sailboat (or even raft or barge) all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and points south.
Enigma_xplorer@reddit
I'm a big fan of riverfront property from a recreational standpoint. I think it also has a number of advantages from a prepping stand point. Not only is it a source of well, water but it can also probably be fished and will attract other animals as well. You should also remember waterways were the original super highways. A lot of major towns originated by ports and rivers prior to trains and highways.
blaskoa@reddit
You should always buy land especially land with water. That’s my two cents. Just check flood plane info to make sure it doesn’t flood every year with rain. If it floods once every 1000 years then I would take it.
No reason to bug out if you dont have water.
For me to justify a bug out spot, I would also have to be interested in it as a recreational place to, unless you have a lot of extra cash.
WeekendQuant@reddit
I'd rather have a well than standing water.
Vivid-Juggernaut2833@reddit
A small lake or large pond would be preferable to a River.
TheCarcissist@reddit
My 2 cents... during (and since) covid traditional campgrounds were shut down, or booked to absolute capacity. I would have given anything to have a dedicated site, away from everyone, that I could park my trailer on and just chill.
Ryan_e3p@reddit
Also, you're going to want to consider pollution sources upriver. Farms will be a constant source of pollution should things get bad since there's no regulation enforcement. Factories and manufacturing may pollute the waters should their infrastructure/safeties fail, or people just loot the place and chuck whatever chemicals they find into the river. Residential areas will be using the river as a place to dump their human waste.
MPH2025@reddit
You can use a River for free energy.
reduhl@reddit
First you need to worry about flooding. If there is a weather event upstream it can effect the river levels for a long time.
Next you need to think about industrial runoff. If things hit the fan upstream, it is possible that industrial sites will have a conflagration and toxins might hit the waterway.
If you are using the water way as a secondary transportation option, that is a neat idea. You will need sufficient fuel stocked or extra sails if that is your thing.
I would not be opposed to such a place, but pay attention to the flooding concerns.
cserskine@reddit
Downside: What contaminated stuff could you be down river from? Dam failure?
Upside: Fishing opportunities, hydroelectric power, constant access to water.
StuffInABowl@reddit
I almost bought a river front property. Two things made me say no:
In my area, folks like to float the river in the summer. Music, booze, crowds… all floating past my home every weekend.
The river flooded relatively often. Didn’t want to deal with that either.
Guy-with-garden@reddit
Fishing and water access is good. You probably can build some sort of hydro power/water wheel?
Mosquitos, river crossing? and flooding are bad if not able to pull a bit back and up..
Overall-Tailor8949@reddit
Are there dams up river from the location? Even a "simple" flood control one would make me think hard about it for a long term (multi-year) SHTF scenario, just in case a dam fails for some reason. That said, it sounds like it could be perfect for all of the more likely scenarios.
Spirited-Egg-2683@reddit
I have a riverfront homestead and I am loving life.
Do it.
DeFiClark@reddit
Look at the current flood zones and look for 1000 year flood projections — having had two in the last four years locally I’d be very wary of high water lines.
AdditionalAd9794@reddit
I feel the pros outweigh the cons.
I mean assuming it is high enough up the bank to be safe from flooding and is accessible in an emergency.
Led_Zeppole_73@reddit
Depends on the area, prices aren’t outrageous where I live but riverfront’s going to cost an arm and a leg.