Month: October 2005

Recommended Region: The Show Low Region (Navajo County, Northeast Arizona)

This mountainous region of northern Arizona (Navajo County) http://www.co.navajo.az.us/ is becoming popular with retirees. Statistics (for Show Low): Average high temperature in August: 83.7. Average low temperature in January: 22.7. Growing season: No precise data, just “Short.” Average snowfall in March: 17.8”. Advantages: Well removed from the high crime rate regions of southern Arizona. Disadvantages: Downwind from nuke targets in California. Grid Up Retreat Potential: 3 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best) Grid Down Retreat Potential: 5 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best) Nuclear Scenario Retreat Potential: 7 …


Letter From “A. Microbiologist” Re: Asian Avian Flu

Jim: Cipro is an antibiotic, as such it is only useful for bacterial infections. If you developed pneumonia during the course of the flu infection Cipro might be an okay choice. From what I have read most people that die from avian flu are dying from respiratory failure far before they would get pneumonia. Recommending Tamiflu is a better choice but resistant strains to this are emerging, and this is the most common stockpiled drug so more resistance is likely to occur. Relenza is an even better option, but it is much more expensive. I would recommend that all your …


Letter Re: Retreat Potential for The Eastern States–Pennsylvania

Dear Mr. Rawles: Thank you for providing a fine forum for those of us who value self-reliance and preparedness. My current professional situation requires that we live in a notoriously liberal city in the northern People’s Republic of Kalifornia. My wife and I laugh frequently at being the true minorities in our city – an independent Christian family with children where the father is a net provider of jobs. We are working actively on a relocation plan and hope for implementation within a few years. Pennsylvania is a state which may not appear interesting when considered in the aggregate, as …


Two Letters Re: Retreat Potential for The Eastern States–Virginia

Mr. Rawles, I’ll take you up on your offer to sing the praises of an eastern state as a retreat. Give me Virginia any day. We have excellent gun laws–shall issue for CCW; open carry; no restrictions on private transfers; no gun registry; and no waiting periods. H*ll, we can open or concealed carry in the state capitol building! (Except that open carry is now restricted to CCW permit holders.) Last year we got rid of local pre-emption, which drove the commies in Fairfax and Arlington counties nuts. We are a bit close to DC, so the a**hole population is …


Letter Re: Retreat Potential for The Eastern States–Various Locales

Dear Mr. Rawles, Thank you for this website—it’s more concise and relevant than most of the survival web sites I’ve come across. As far as your call for Eastern US survival information, something one should bear in mind is that the pro/cons here are almost completely different than in the west. High Sheeple and business numbers mean more assets to scavenge—not smash and grab looting, per se, but ten years into a TEOTWAWKI scenario, machine equipment & warehoused goods will be sitting idle with dead & gone owners. More doctors and engineers and technically qualified people are likely to be …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Nine requisites for contented living: Health enough to make work a pleasure. Wealth enough to support your needs. Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished. Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor. Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others. Faith enough to make real the things of God. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future." – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)


Note from JWR:

I will be a featured guest today (Saturday) in a round table discussion on Dr. Geri Guidetti’s web radio/shortwave radio show. The show airs at 1 p.m. Central Time (11 a.m. Pacific Time.) This two hour show will also be available via podcast. The Topic: Pandemics–Potential Impacts on Society. For details on how to hear the webcast live or on how to download it post facto, visit the Republic Radio web site: http://www.rbnlive.com. Today, I continue my detailed potential retreat locales analysis series with another region in Montana. Do you have any suggested regions where you have first hand experience …


Recommended Region: The Bitterroot Valley Region, (Ravalli County, Western Montana)

The Bitterroot Valley region of western Montana, (south of Missoula) is worth considering. It still has some affordable land, but the out-of-state millionaires who all seem to want to build 4,000+ square foot log “cabins” are gradually creeping in and pushing up prices. Concentrate on small towns along the Bitterroot River, such as Florence, Stevensville, Victor, Corvalis, Pinesdale, Woodside, Hamilton, Grantsdale, and Darby. Advantages: Away from the I-90 corridor. Plentiful water and firewood. Great hunting. Disadvantages: Even though it is west of the Great Divide and they call this “Montana’s Banana Belt”, this region still has a relatively cold climate …



More About Asian Avian Flu

Several time in recent days I’ve read references to the Asian Avian Influenza (“A.A. Flu“) having a “less than 50% mortality rate.” Clinically, perhaps, but not in a real world pandemic! Why? The 50% figure is based on advanced medical treatment. Because A.A. flu is a respiratory disease, therapies that are currently being used to combat the small outbreaks in Asia this will not be available at home. (This includes inhalation therapy, anti-bacterial drugs like Ciprofloxacin (“Cipro”)–already in short supply–and ventilators.) Here is a data point for you: There 105,000 ventilators installed at U.S. hospitals, of which at least 70,000 …


Letter From “A. Microbiologist” Re: Asian Avian Flu

A reader asked about Avian Influenza (H5N1.) Do public health professionals take it seriously? The answer is very much Yes. Of course we can’t predict the future with certainty, and there *is* a certain amount of hype right now — but, yes, the situation *could* eventually rival the 1918-19 influenza pandemic. At the same time, I must emphasize there is no guarantee that will happen: and we are not there, yet, not by a long shot. The bottom line is yes, it is *possible* the H5N1 virus could mutate so as to efficiently jump between humans (person-to-person transmission) and cause …


Letter Re: Asian Avian Flu

Aloha Jim– Your Thursday, October 6th reference about the [potential] Avian Flu Pandemic article is a “must read” from page 18 to the end. Included is a specific list of OTC supplies and prescription medications, plus how to care for the ill in your family. These very informative details are predicated on the likelihood that a pandemic would overwhelm professional help/facilities, requiring family members to care for each other. It’s a chilling, but should be a required read – B.B. in Hawaii



Note from JWR:

I get more than 40 e-mails a day, more than half of which include specific questions. My humble apologies for not being able to respond to every e-mail. For those of you that do get replies, my further apologies for being so terse. You might feel cheated when you get just a two or three line reply to a 20 or 30 line e-mail. But if I were verbose as I’d like to be in my responses, I would only be able to respond to a small fraction of the e-mails instead of half of them. Since I have a …


Recommended Region: The Clark Fork Valley Region, (Sanders County, Northwest Montana)

The Clark Fork Valley Region, (Sanders County, Northwest Montana, near the Idaho State Line.) This isolated valley sits between the Bitterroot and Cabinet Mountain Ranges. Concentrate on small towns along the Clark Fork such as Plains, Thompson Falls, Belknap, Trout Creek, Noxon, and Heron. Avoid the upper elevations. (In this region, an additional 1,000 feet of elevation puts you in a much different climate!) Advantages: Away from the I-90 corridor. Disadvantages: Cold climate and short growing season. (Can be compensated by building a large greenhouse.) Economy is not as diverse as the Kalispell/Flathead Lake Region. Insufficient agriculture in the region …