Mr. Rawles:
I live in south Florida. I would like to know your opinion on having a retreat in northwest Florida, Dixie County to be exact, known as the “least populated county in Florida”. I can’t afford to move out of the state right now and I am concerned about driving through major cities if I had to leave in an emergency from down here.
I would like to be able to do it on one tank of gas which would put me about 5 or 6 hours away from where I am now. I already have a small piece of property up there now with a mobile home on it to use as a base of operation when I buy a larger piece of property and begin my preparations. Traveling two or three days to get to a retreat concerns me.
All of my other preparations are in order: food storage, security, some medical info and books, seeds, and silver/gold, etc. Where I live now is not a defendable place. I have about 8-10 family and friends that will join me. I would like your opinion on this: Is it worth the risk to travel to a farther location like Georgia or North Carolina, where I do have family in the mountains (or even Missouri where land is cheap); or just to prepare up in the Northwest part of Florida. There is a lot of deer, rivers, fishing, and the well water is good.
By the way, I have read [the earlier edition of] your “Patriots” novel and I just got the new [expanded] edition. Thank you for your time and effort into these books. I am looking forward to purchasing the other book about retreats. May God bless you for the wealth of information and knowledge that you share with us and our families. – Patriot Bob
JWR Replies: As previously stated, I encourage moving to selected low population density portions of the western U.S. to increase your chances of survival in the event of a major societal whammy. (See my Recommend Retreat Areas static web page for some pertinent data and recommendations, as well as my recently published book Rawles on Retreats and Relocation for greater detail, including maps.) If you must live in Florida, then the northwest portion of the state is about as good as it gets. It is still in the nation’s hurricane belt, but at least the population density is relatively low. If you can live at your retreat in northwest Florida year round, then my advice is to stay put. (Since you have well water, buy a hand pump from Lehmans.com (assuming that it is a shallow well), or better yet, buy a few photovoltaic (PV) panels and a DC well pump. The folks at Ready Made Resources give advice on sizing a designing a PV power system, free of charge.
If for family or business reasons you must continue live in South Florida, then I would recommend that you consider selling your retreat property in northwest Florida and instead buying a retreat in northern Georgia, South Carolina, or perhaps eastern Tennessee. If you can afford to, you might consider keeping your place in northwest Florida as a “refueling stopover” and as a lightly-stocked alternate retreat locale. It is wise to always have a Plan B and a Plan C!