Why Urban vs Suburban, and Rural Preparedness Matters
Imagine the electric grid goes down. Or perhaps there's a major chemical spill, contaminating the municipal water supply. What's your first move?
Now image you live in a high rise apartment building in a busy urban center. What's your strategy? What about if you are living in a remote Colorado location, miles away from the nearest town? Your survival strategy will be wildly different based on those two scenarios. Your top priorities for staying safe in an apartment will not be the same as living in a remote homestead or even a suburban neighborhood.
Source: Joia de Jong on Unsplash
"Preparedness for all" is a key part of our mission at MIRA Safety. That's why we're committed to helping everyone develop survival plans - from rural communities and homesteaders to people who live in the city to suburb dwellers.
We'll cover the key differences in your survival plan depending on what type of community you live in - urban, suburban, or rural.
Preparedness challenges Opportunities for Urban Safety Enthusiasts Urban Survival Communities Challenges in Suburban Preparedness Opportunities for Suburban Safety Advocates Preparedness Challenges for Rural Americans Rural Opportunities How Urban and Suburban Areas Share Preparedness Needs Solutions for Urban and Suburban Areas How Suburban and Rural Areas Share Challenges Tailored Solutions for Suburban and Rural Preparedness Building Community Education and Self-Sufficiency Steps All Communities Should Take Table of Contents
Understanding Urban Areas: Challenges and Opportunities
The U.S. Census defines "urban" as any area that has at least 5,000 residents or have at least 2,000 housing units.
Urban residents have many conveniences:
- advanced infrastructure
- local restaurants/grocery stores
- nearby hospitals
- diverse populations/cultures
- public transportation
- walkable neighborhoods
These features can quickly turn into vulnerabilities in an emergency scenario. That's why studying urban preparedness is a growing trend among those who don't want to be at the mercy of a resource-limited concrete jungle in a crisis.
Preparedness challenges
The convenience of densely-populated areas can become a liability in emergencies. People in urban areas may experience:
- limited evacuation routes out of the area
- food and supply shortages
- overwhelmed public services
- bottlenecks on key resources, like water and electricity, due to high demand and complex supply chains
Source: Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
Opportunities for Urban Safety Enthusiasts
The good news for preparedness-minded folks living in a high population area is that a little bit of preparation can make a huge difference.
FEMA's National Survey on Disaster Preparedness revealed that under half of American households have assembled emergency supplies or signed up for emergency alerts.
Key preparedness takeaway for urban areas: most urban preppers focus on a bug out plan - meaning a way to safely evacuate the area until the threat has passed.
You can get ahead of the crowd by stocking in-demand PPE that would be in short supply during a disaster. MIRA Safety recommends key safety kits like the Fire Escape Pro Kit, The EvacPak Survival Kit, and especially Child-Sized Escape Respirator if you have a family.
Urban Survival Communities
Cities have limited resources. Because of this, urban prepper communities are on the rise as residents realize they may not be able to depend on emergency services in a true crisis. Urban dwellers are increasingly connecting in small groups - like an apartment building or city block - or on social media to make community-based emergency plans that rely on each other.
READ NOW: Mastering Urban Survival
Suburban Areas: A Balance Between Urban and Rural Needs What Defines a Suburban Area
175 million Americans live in the suburbs or small metros. That's more than live in urban and rural areas combined, and its growing quickly.
Suburban areas have a medium population density and a mixed use of land. You'll likely see many family neighborhoods mixed with commercial properties, surrounded by farmland on the outskirts.
Key preparedness takeaway for suburban areas: most suburban preppers are focused on family safety.
Source: Breno Assis on Unsplash
Challenges in Suburban Preparedness
Suburban communities face a mixture of the problems presented in rural and urban areas. If you live in a suburban community, you might face:
- slower response times from emergency services
- dependence on urban hubs for key resources
- limited access to key resources, like city water or food staples
Opportunities for Suburban Safety Advocates
Most people who live in the suburbs do so because they have a family. Building urban or suburban survival communities is a key element of an emergency plan.
Other considerations include:
- Comprehensive safety kits for kids, the elderly, and medically vulnerable (like this PPE kit here)
- Creating a safety plan for beloved pets (check out our collapsible CBRN Animal Ark)
- Stockpiling supplies with the added space
- Starting a small backyard garden to supplement food stores
WATCH NOW: Suburban Prepper Gardening - Feed a Family on 20' X 40' Garden
Rural Areas: Adapting to Isolation and Resource Scarcity
Rural areas are sometimes idealized by the prepper community, but they come with their own challenges. People in rural areas have greater opportunities for self-sufficiency thanks to cheaper land and low population density. That said, to live in a rural area, you need to be prepared to solve your own problems in a crisis, because help may not be quick in arriving.
Preparedness Challenges for Rural Americans
People who live in rural areas may face some of the following issues in a disaster:
- Sparse infrastructure - city water or electric may be unreliable or even nonexistent
- Slower response from emergency services
- Geographic isolation from community
- Restricted resources because of distance and product availability
Key preparedness takeaway for rural residents: Most rural preppers build towards as much self-sufficiency of crucial resources as possible, especially food, water, and energy.
Source: Ciprian Boiciuc on Unsplash
Rural Opportunities
If you're willing to overcome the challenges rural areas often present, there can be a number of opportunities for building your own and your family's resilience, including:
- Develop self-sufficient avenues for key resources like food, water, and energy
- Stock resources that help you monitor threats independently - we recommend the combo tool dosimeter/Geiger counter that helps you monitor radiation levels in your area.
- Maintaining community bonds and checking on other isolated households
- Keeping natural disaster protection handy - like the Fire Escape Pro Kit
Rural areas are a double-edged sword: if you're not prepared, the isolation and lack of emergency services can leave you stranded and desperate. If you've thought ahead, however, you can often put sustainable systems into place to wait out a crisis almost indefinitely.
READ NOW: Water Purification for Emergency Preparedness
Urban and Suburban Preparedness: Tackling Shared Challenges
Now that you have a pretty clear idea of the challenges and opportunities that come from your particular living situation, we'll cover the similarities in strategies based on where people live.
How Urban and Suburban Areas Share Preparedness Needs
Suburban and urban areas are often considered together because they share one key characteristic: they depend on efficient resource distribution.
The main reason there is dense population in urban and suburban areas is that it's more efficient to specialize in a particular job and then rely on other professionals to do their jobs - basically, this is how all civilization functions.
The weakness of this system in an emergency is that the resource distribution can quickly break down. For example, urban areas are typically affected dramatically by food shortages because people don't have the capacity to stockpile food or grow their own in an urban environment.
Source: Nathaniel Sison on Unsplash
Solutions for Urban and Suburban Areas
Areas with high population density and vast suburban sprawl will benefit most from portable, individualized preparedness solutions coupled with community led initiatives.
Urban living preparedness should focus on gear that helps you reach safety as quickly as possible. This means:
Community initiatives play a huge role among those in urban settings. Metropolitan areas tend to have robust emergency notification systems. Take advantage of those to create grassroots mobilization plans and conduct emergency drills with your neighbors. Resource sharing can be life-saving in small spaces, so you could work with other families to specialize in what supplies you will stockpile.
Suburban and Rural Areas: Preparedness Across Expanses
Just suburban and urban areas are characterized by their realize on complex supply lines and efficient resource distribution, suburban and rural areas are far more likely to share challenges of slow emergency response and lack of access to resources.
How Suburban and Rural Areas Share Challenges
Suburbs and rural areas will benefit the most from survival strategies that combine self-reliant strategies with localized community building.
These strategies need to balance the need for family-based preparedness with the number of people living nearby who could be able to help you adapt to different threats. We'll cover some of the key ways to handle different community structures in your plan.
Tailored Solutions for Suburban and Rural Preparedness
Versatility is key in suburban and rural regions. First, we recommend stocking multipurpose PPE designed for diverse environmental threats, especially among rural communities where emergency services may be slow or nonexistent:
- Wildfire and house fire emergency kit
- CBRN Child Safety Respirator
- CBRN Animal Ark - protects pets from various threats
- Food detoxifier
Suburban communities often fail to coordinate plans together. It's crucial to take initiative before disaster strikes so everyone knows exactly what to do.
Source: Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
Americans in Urban, Suburban, and Rural Areas Share Preparedness Goals
We've covered what makes these communities different, but these different types of communities have much in common, too.
Pew Research Center conducts research on what united and divides urban and rural settings and their populations. One similarity that stood out across community type is that building a sense of community is important to them. But even adults in rural areas who live in the community where they grew up still don't feel extremely connected to their neighbors, according to one recent pew research center survey.
Building Community Education and Self-Sufficiency
Regardless of whether you're part of urban sprawl or moved away from the city years ago, there are some common factors we can all agree on when it comes to emergency planning.
Everyone wants to ensure safety for themselves and their families. This comes from stocking quality emergency supplies that can ensure your self-sufficiency while positioning you to play your role competently in a community disaster plan.
Steps All Communities Should Take
There are a few things you can do to prepare, no matter where you live.
- Stock key PPE for yourself and your household - don't forget pets or the medically vulnerable, who need specialized equipment
- Familiarize yourself with the most likely natural disasters in your region - hurricanes, wildfires, etc.
- Get to know your neighbors and have an emergency communication plan with them
- Sign up for all local and regional emergency alerts - we recommend keeping a backup radio
- Consider leading community education plans, especially in urban areas which tend to lack self-sufficiency training
The best survival plan will be tailored to your particular household, living situation, resources, and the likely threats in your area. That said, we recommend that you just start, even if you can't prepare for eveyr possibility right out of the gate. Even rudimentary preparation is better than none.
Source: Tima Miroshnichenko
Future Trends in Urban, Suburban, and Rural Preparedness
We live in an area of growing threats - biological, chemical, nuclear, and natural disasters abound.
Luckily, innovation in PPE and emergency planning can benefit urban, rural and suburban areas.
Improvements include:
- Wearable PPE suitable for those who live in urban areas
- Preparedness mindset communities online
- Homesteading and self-reliance solutions for rural people
It's easier than ever to obtain high-quality, military grade PPE for any scenario, whether you're worried about a terrorist attack or a wildfire. In many cases, the same equipment can prepare you for multiple scenarios. The active, knowledgeable preparedness community online is providing free education and training for people across the globe.
Conclusion: Preparedness for Every Environment
Preparedness challenges vary based on region. Urban and suburban areas can quickly experience supply bottlenecks and population disorder during a threat. Rural, and some suburban communities, can face lack of emergency services and isolation during crises.
Knowing the particular vulnerabilities and opportunities of your community can help you prepare and serve as a resource for your friends and neighbors. As always, knowing your resources and making a plan ahead of time is the best thing you can do for any situation. Stocking your home with reliable safety gear that is shelf-stable and customizable for each family member is key for everyone- rural, urban, and suburban.