Maps

Good to have on hand for your survival are maps.  Maps help you get where you want to go, now.  They are marked with much more information than just the road that takes you from home to work.  They can show you what is coming your way and may provide you with the data needed to leave dodge in the event you are overrun.  

http://geology.com

     Right now, while you can get online and use your GPS devices, maps seem silly and antiquated.  You can go online and look at maps of the world (and points local) at night.  You can see the people who will be scrambling to find your food stores.    You can go to http://www.maproomblog.com and see my house at night from a satellite photo, it comes with a free toolbar, you can turn it off if you don't want it.    These night maps give you a scary picture of the numbers ofpeople who are not prepared to survive the night let alone a true disaster, and how close they live to you.  I passed two new developments under construction today who's contractor signs promised a country address.  They are not in the country, anymore and they will be targets for looters as they are situated outside the city limits, along a main highway, and with walls my granddaughters could breech!  

http://www.theatlanticcities.com

Stop thinking like the electricity will never go off and you will always have enough money to buy enough power.  Get some good maps.  Learn how to use them.  I bought a book from a yard sale, The National Atlas of the United States of America.  It is Full of information on rainfall, snow days, terrain, roads, highways, logging roads, federal reservations, state parks, water, minerals, and much more.  It helps me to verify information I gather online and helped me to decide to bug in or bug out.  

http://www.delorme.com

  Even a fold out Rand McNally map of your state can tell you more than you know about where you live.  There are also State atlases with more pages available from Delorme.   They have more info you can use to learn about your state and enjoy it now and use to survive later.  These maps and atlases are also available through Amazon and Barnes and Nobles in near new condition at a lower price.  The slightly used maps put you in a position to profit from someone who drove to your state one summer, never to return.  Get them for less at these resale sites!  

If you are a member of AAA, get your maps through them. You can get trip ticks from your home to a general location near your retreat or family retreat that point out construction and other travel difficulties, in case you haven't been there in a while.  Do not use exact addresses.    Surely you can find your way from the Post Office or local hospital to your families' home without letting their address become public.  I have a relative of a friend who plans to bug to her home.  It dawned on him recently, if there were a storm coming from the south, he could encounter trouble since the exits and interchanges have been rerouted.  She told him to get a trip tick and that solved the problem.  He would have been two towns over and lost, since they mowed down his landmarks to make the new exit ramp.  
Get to know where you are, what is around you, and how to move.  Get a map.