Survivalist Forum banner

Best Way Out of L.A. When The SHTF???

17K views 54 replies 37 participants last post by  Hick Industries 
#1 ·
Hi,

I just joined. My wife and I are more "Preppers" than Survivalists as we plan on bugging in if possible in a SHTF scenario. We are stuck in Los Angeles and wondering if there are other members around L.A. Been seriously prepping for over a year. Interests include: Guns & Ammo, BOB's, Bug Out Vehicles, Food Storage & MRE's., Best way out of city of L.A.? We have an electric scooter/bike with a 40 mile range per charge (it can carry us both & our BOB). Believe our car would be stuck in gridlock. Any ideas?

Best,
James & Kie
 
#28 ·
Yup. Wind the clock back about 10 years and leave. If you can't do that, leave now. All of your interests are completely opposite of living in one of the biggest filthy infested crime laden cities in America.

It's a top target for terrorism.
It's a top target for a nuclear attack, and within range of NK nuclear weapons.
It's a cesspool of filth, violence, etc.
It's anti-gun. So you're barred from owning the most effective weaponry that I guarantee criminal elements own.
You've got regular natural disasters like forest fires and earthquakes and are prone to a tsunami.
You have a massive illegal immigrant population.
You have massive state issues with bankruptcy and debt.
It's 4 million occupants will clog every road and highway to make them impassible in an emergency.
Bugging in will not be a viable option with gangs like you have there (Crips, Bloods, MS13, and so forth). The criminal element will tear the entire city apart in a collapse. Look at the damage small isolated riots do in various cities and multiply it by 1000. Total violent lawlessness.

Unless you make a staggering amount of money to justify living in one of the most expensive and least desirable cities in America, you should leave now.

In case you need a visual, this is how the natives reacted to a Rodney King verdict, and this is just the holiday traffic. Entire blocks were destroyed and people killed over a jury verdict. Holiday traffic takes hours to move a few miles. In a total evacuation situation nobody would be going anywhere. A few stalled vehicles, collapsed bridge, bad accident, etc. with no help would bring all this to a standstill. If you plan is to bug in, you fail. If you plan is to bug out, you fail. Being there you are simply sealing your own fate IMO.

How are you to defend against a title wave of desperate and violent and armed gangs and people? Imagine no police service, no fire department, no National Guard due to being overwhelmed.












 
#29 ·
Yup, pretty much sums up my own thoughts on LA. If you've got an electric scooter with a 40 mile charge the best you are going to do is maybe make to San Bernadino or maybe Riverside. That assumes of course you aren't killed first and your wife brutally raped by above mentioned gangs and then killed.

Your scooter isn't going to carry much so just get it out of your head that you will be taking all of your world possessions with you. If leaving now isn't an option understand then that by bugging in you will last just long enough until an overwhelming force from the above mentioned gangs overruns your BIL.

If you aren't convinced by leadcounsel's pictures above, go find some newspapers or history books with pictures of the Watts neighborhood back in the day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: leadcounsel
#35 ·
https://www.flickr.com/photos/38037974@N00/5598457724/ (Thought of this when reading Grotius' post about fire-gas main rupture resulting in fire after Northridge quake. Granada Hills area.)

In the '94 quake, the devastation was wide-spread, from freeway overpasses collapsing on the 14 out of the Santa Clarita valley (resulting in a motorcycle officer dying, while hurrying from home to report to his station), collapses on the 118 fwy., collapses on the I10 in Santa Monica, condos and apartments collapsing in Sherman Oaks and Northridge, brick facades collapsing in Fillmore, damage to hospitals from Holy Cross in Mission Hills to St. Johns in Santa Monica (11 hospitals were damaged, and hopefully revised seismic standards will prevent that occurring again).

It was chaos. And the LA Riots in '92 was another brand of insanity.

Watch your area, and any exit routes, for elevated roads or roads that pass under bridges. They are architectural choke-points, whether traffic/collapsed road/or man-made obstacle caused. My wife and I recently realized the number of bridges that we cross without thinking, or roads we travel that pass under freeways; it has made us review our options for travel.
 
#36 ·
#37 ·
What a bunch of fear mongers, mostly distorting facts a great deal. Extremely unlikely of an earthquake large enough to destroy everything from Ventura to San Diego. Maybe a giant meteor hit, but anything that big could destroy the entire planet.

Name one major city that will not have similar problems in major emergencies. Even most smaller cities have a segment of the population that will turn violent. But, 80% of the time, (a number I made up,) people will help others in need. When you have to kill people just to steal your next meal, chances of survival will drop dramatically.

Every year people die from freezing, heat stroke, drowning, tornados, hurricanes, floods, etc, etc. Every city is now at risk from a miniature nuclear bomb which can be easily smuggled in. No place is absolutely safe from all risks.

What percentage of the population have land, water, survival supplies and skills to survive without any outside supplies or assistance? and for how long? Not many, and even fewer who can survive a few years.

Fortunately, I do not live in LA proper, I hate just driving through it.

I would not consider the LA river or other canals any sort of chance to escape. Look at pictures on the internet, lots of sand, water, trees in the bottom. Then look at where it ends, in the middle of nowhere, no supplies, and you still have a huge mountain range to get over, and then a huge desert or San Joaquin Valley and a few small towns that will not be able to provide much more than a staging area. Another problem with any bug out plan is getting around all the downed power poles and lines that fell into the street.

But all this got me thinking about the best bug out vehicle, with an added gas tank, and leave the wife at home.

https://www.flyskyrunner.com/
 
#38 ·
LA tends to have the most natural disasters. It's in 2nd largest US city at 4 million people. It's the largest US city nearest the Mexico border (a disaster waiting to happen), with a massive illegal population. It's situated in a 'sanctuary' state with a pending financial and legal and perhaps police/military fight with the federal government any day now. Massive economic problems with CA teetering on bankruptcy. Sits close to the San Andreas fault. Every year it's hit by massive forest fires, including this year. CA suffers regularly from droughts, fires, mudslides, or earthquakes.
Rampant crime. Huge minority populations of blacks and hispanics and illegals which tends to be the most problematic at rioting, looting, and mass crime (these are FBI statistics, not racism in any way), harboring the biggest most violent gangs in the nation (MS13, Crips, Bloods, etc.). There's only 2 ways to escape, north and east since it's bordered by Mexico and an ocean. Travel relies on a few main roads and lots of bridges.

Sure. Fear mongering.
 
#40 ·
Yup, and I'll amend my earlier post with this. Following the massive fires that killed and laid waste to southern CA last month, now they have heavy rains, flooding, and mudslides that have killed at least 13 people. Think about that. 13 dead from rain and mudslides. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rainfall-mudflow-20180109-story.html

Towns evacuated, more property damage, massive rescue efforts.

I really do not get the draw of living in a place that routinely has so many problems and is so expensive and fraught with issues.

And worse yet the worst disaster is liberals and their high taxes, ruin of your individual liberties, etc. sanctuary nonsense, lunacy ways.
 
#43 ·
Hi J&K -

Welcome to SB.. :cool: Fellow 'Lost Angeleno', here.. we're also up in the SFV-area, and would be happy to chat / brainstorm some 'escape plan scenarios', Fwiw... From DTLA? Sheesh Man, yer gonna Need all the help you can possibly get.. Sorry to sound 'negative', but that's just the reality, as I'm sure you realize.. Though we Do live well out of the DT-specific conundrum, I have ran quite a few DT-escape scenarios both via mapping, and, wheels-on-ground, as I travel a lot for work, and 'bugging Home' - To 'bug out' - is an absolute Must to plan for / dry-run.. Can't just sit at home all the time, waiting for the air-raid sirens to go off! ;)

PM me how you prefer to chat / discuss, Should you wish.. :cool:
Cheers..
jd
 
#46 ·
Yeah DTLA is gonna be a deathtrap in a SHTF / 'Big One' event. Just drove through Skid Row the other day for work reasons, it's already bleak...

Now on the positive side of things, the earthquake hasn't happened yet and the roads up to Angeles Range aren't busted lol... Anyone game for some shooting this Friday ?

-W
 
#47 ·
Op,

There are some pretty big obstacles in the way of your survival if you needed to Bug Out after the fact.

I am curious as to your fitness and your wife's fitness levels. Are you both triathlete cross fit long distance hikers or obese cubicle drones like most Americans? This is a very serious question. The more fit you both are the vastly improved chance you will have for many reasons.

Is your wife attractive? It has been over a decade, but I read some report in backpacker magazine IIRC that a man's chance of experiencing violence on the relatively safe hiking trails in the country doubled if in the company of a female. If your wife is attractive your odds of being in a violent encounter skyrocket when there is no 911 available.

Do you both have any dirt bike riding or mountain biking experience? That seems like your best options, but water will be an issue most likely and snow depending on what way you try to go depending on the season.

Realistically your best hope by far seems to be a very well planned bug in to include a back-up cache incase your place of residence is destroyed. Food, water, arms, and fire fighting ability, plus robust community involvement and networking.

Unless you are a sailor, stay off the ocean if you can help it or become a sailor now. I am both a sailor from the Navy and the merchant marine and it is a tough environment, although in your shoes next to air travel, would be my first choice.

You may want to develop so caches along a desert route, but even that is tough.

Best luck.
 
#48 ·
LA is a big place. What area of LA do you live in? If there is a huge earthquake I agree with staying put until the dust settles and the bug out if that is the only option. I would keep the electric scooter or a bicycle at work or bring it to work to get home. I worked in downtown LA for a few years. It will be best to be at home stocked up and lying really low. I had a sail boat at Dana Point Marina for 30 years. I do not see the Ocean or any country south as a good option and going North as noted is a tough way to go and more North is more bad weather.
 
#49 ·
I think getting to a marina and bugging out by boat is absolutely the way to go. Even if you have to convince someone by trading some of your stuff. I would head north until I got to where I could then go by road. Weather wouldn't bother me at all. People would bother me.
 
#50 ·
I recently finished reading a book called "The Walk" by Lee Goldberg, about a man trying to get home from downtown LA after the 'big one'. Kind of predictable, but brought up some scenarios that would be 'normal' for So. Cal.-bridge collapse, fire on both sides of the 405, loss of sanity, sleep deprivation....
 
#51 ·
Want to leave L.A. It can be done.

Go on google earth and look for all those fire roads that you can take from the north side of the san Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys into the Antelope Valley. Others will take you from west valley into Ventura County.

You will need a battery powered cutting wheel to open the gates and you are on your way.

Key to bugging out is to have somewhere to go and know the way there.

The electric scooter (to me) won't cut it. You two are an easy victim on it and it won't carry the stuff you need to get by unless you are fleeing a localized disaster.

Best of luck to you.
 
#52 ·
I had an in-law that lived in East Germany under communist rule.
We got to see him after the wall came down.

He had the same sort of ideas many Californians have. It wasn’t that bad, life was good, as long as you kept your head down. He was a truck driver, retired on a pension, had a small house with chickens and rabbits...that someone had lived in prior to being shot or imprisoned or running to the west....so the government gave it to him and allowed him to use.

But he was still stuck in a one party communist hell hole of a prison that offered him no real freedom beyond what they felt like giving him on a daily basis. Everything, including his life, was only “his” subject to their decisions. Everything was controlled by the government...media, jobs, permission to travel.... EVERYTHING. He couldn’t even visit his family 100 miles over the border without permission and a valid reason.

The only real difference is, California keeps their proles happy with modern tech and the false hope of being free Americans.:rolleyes:
 
#54 ·
Because I transit through LA (and San Diego) for a few days at a time for work, and as my US BOL is AZ (and not Phoenix :) ) I have given this thought and planning.

In brief: when SHTF I plan to
(a) accept reality as quickly as I can and start walking east
(b) if for cash I can buy a bicycle, so much the better - a tricycle, more so. If that fails, a golf cart or pull-along trolley.
(c) carry most of my load for the first 3 days as water. (Everybody has differing BOB lists they favor, as do I - my main content is water filter x2, dehydrated food, socks and underwear, a tarp, clothing layers, hygiene stuff, redundant maps, a compass, a torch, and a bike lock... I expect most of my electronics to be instantly or quickly useless and will ditch 'em).
(d) in an EMP event I'll start by taking the highways to avoid neighborhood transits. In a non-EMP event I'll try the LA river bed or if too many people have the same idea, I'll head south on the 405 and lesser roads first, even to the point of not getting onto the 10 until Chiriaco. Either way, not going Straight Through Compton and environs... nor through Hollyweird / Maliboo / even Palm Springs. I expect those places will be 'active.'

Being a transient / guest I will not be firearmed, but just as I learned to walk a very long way a good few decades ago on Her Majesty's dime, I learned some other ways of staying out of trouble if I can, and dealing with it if I have to. With everyday objects.

I expect not to do better than 10-12 miles a day (or night) on foot if the event is 'cosmic' scale. I have paper-map-plotted water supplies either side of the 10, all the way to my resupply / storage location in Phoenix; & I have cached 10,000 calorie food drops along the 10, landmarked.

I expect my planning not to survive reality, intact :). But I would rather have a plan however dubious, than an extended "WTF? oh my, whatever shall I do now?" moment.
 
#55 ·
I moved to Southern California in 1982 after graduating engineering school. I lived in Upland for two yrs, then moved 165 miles north to Ridgecrest, and worked at NWC China Lake another 30 yrs. I studied geology while working at China Lake.

First, it is entirely possible for SC to experience a +8 mag quake that destroys all the major interstates, and isolates the area for months. The USGS has been warning that this has happened many times in the past, and they consider this overdue. But I also believe it is possible for some people to escape the area after such a quake. Possible, but not easy, and not every one who trys this will survive. But the odds are much better leaving, than staying. LC is correct, leaving now is better than leaving after.

My suggestion is to trade your electric scooter for a real off road vehicle. I recommend buying a 4wd truck equipped for rock climbing and soft sand. Getting out of the LA basin, is by far the trickiest part. I solved that by simply moving moving to Ridgecrest, but I spent enough time off roading to suggest that some people will be able to drive across the broken highways, and make it to the high desert.

Once you make it to the desert, head straight north up US 395 to Bishop, then head NE into Nevada and Utah. You will need to refuel several times enroute, and fuel will be hard to find. I suggest caching fuel and supplies along the route, or perhaps buy a diesel pickup with dual tanks. My first gen Dodge Cummins carries 75 gal in two tanks, for a 1,500 mile range.

I posted a thread describing the quake prediction,and this evacuation route. I'll look for it. https://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=886434
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top