The world we live in continues to get scarier and uglier with each passing day. During any disaster, you want to be as secluded as possible from any looters and punks.

Living on a suburban homestead still places you within the civil unrest danger area because you are located so close to a city but putting your backyard to work for you to increase your level of self-reliance and investing in alternative power, will make you more prepared to live without outside help during at least a short-term disaster.

There are many reasons why a homestead is the ideal place to be during a SHTF scenario. We’ll be looking at the top 20 emergencies you’re more likely to survive on a homestead than in an urban or suburban location

#1. Pandemic

One of the most likely disasters to occur next is a pandemic. Any airborne illness can be transferred rapidly, especially in the city surrounded by a large crowd of people.

On your homestead, you have the luxury of privacy and isolation. While on your homestead, the chances of you catching any airborne disease is very slim.

When the SHTF, if anyone in your family or group has the disease that led to the pandemic, you have the opportunity to use a shed or building on your homestead and create a quarantine. Making a quarantine on your homestead will decrease the chances of the illness being spread quickly.

#2. Power Grid Down

Hackers can easily attack our power grid and people that are not prepared will not have any idea on how to survive.

You can live off-grid on your homestead while still feeding and protecting yourself and your family. Or, if you choose to have different energy sources besides electric, such as wind, solar, hydro, steam power, or natural gas, you will be able to make it when the power grid goes down. If you do not have either of these options on your homestead yet, you can use a generator for a short amount of time while you build yourself a wind turbine or hydropower system.

#3. WWIII

WWIII is very likely to happen with all the chaos from North Korea and Russia. If WWIII would break out, your homestead could protect you from various situations.

If WWIII would occur on our homeland, major cities would be the first targets. Small towns and rural villages would be attacked next. You want to be as isolated as possible during any war.

You will be secluded on your homestead which makes your group less detected and not as likely to become a victim. If you have plenty of acres on your homestead, you can set up traps and be stealthy while on “look out.” The people in your group can also plan for hideouts within your homestead to lessen the risk of you being caught or killed during WWII.

#4. Economic Collapse

During an economic collapse, you will not have to worry as much about the survival of your family because your homestead will already be providing for their basic needs.

If an economic collapse would occur again, people will be looting all stores and gas stations. They will be desperate for food for their family once they run out of food. When people become desperate for food and water, they will be willing to do anything to feed their family, even if that includes killing people to get their belongings.

You also have livestock on your homestead which will provide your family and loved ones to not have to stress about starving. With the livestock on your homestead, you will not need to have you or a member in your group travel to town to gather food and other items, which would possibly save a life.

#5. Civil Unrest

Sadly, civil unrest has occurred more frequently in recent years due to increasing cultural, political, and racial tensions in our society. Even a slight difference of opinion or the uttering of a politically incorrect comment can cause violence and near rioting. The extent of the violence that occurred in Ferguson just a few years ago clearly illustrates how quickly a single spark can turn an entire neighborhood into chaos that costs millions of dollars to repair.

You do not want to be in the city where these riots can break out due to how dangerous they can become. Thankfully, you will be safe and sound on your homestead and not have to worry about punks coming onto your land causing a riot. Your homestead will keep you isolated from the chaotic mess.

#6. Martial Law

If WWIII would begin or if civil unrest goes to the extreme, Martial Law is a huge possibility.

If Martial Law happened in your town, consider all your freedoms vanished. The government can and will walk into your home and swipe your most valuable belongings. Your guns being the first items they take. You will have a curfew and will have strict living regulations.

Thanks to your livestock and garden on your homestead, you will not have to travel to town to gather food which will protect you from being spotted by the government. Eventually when people run out of their food stock, they are going to run to the government for help and end up being sent to FEMA camps. At the FEMA camps, they will basically be like prisoners and many will die. You and your family will be self-reliant on your homestead, so it won’t really affect you when Martial Law is happening.

Make sure to hide your weapons in places they wouldn’t think to look. Such as inside your couch (staple it back up so they won’t be able to tell your rifles are hiding in there), and you can also purchase clocks that open for you to hide your handguns and ammo.

#7. EMP

An EMP striking is America’s worst nightmare. EMP catastrophes can end civilization and result to TEOTWAWKI. There would be years of darkness to recreate the power grid. That’s years without hospitals, transportation, gas, grocery stores, communication, and any electricity.

The horses on your homestead can provide you with transportation. All you need to do is saddle them up or jump on and ride bareback to get to any needed location. You can also haul items (such as wood, water, or injured people) on the back of your horse.

Your livestock will provide you with meat and dairy, so you won’t have to worry about anyone in your group dying of starvation or dehydration. You also can live off your garden and receive all your vegetable nutrition.

#8. Job Loss

Many homesteaders and preppers prepare for doomsday events but don’t often prep for personal SHTF scenarios. If you experience job loss, you and your family can get by on your homestead without struggling.

For food, you can butcher your livestock and hunt for deer on your land. For drinks, you can use a water purifier on your creek or any water supply or milk your cow or goat.

If you need money to pay your bills, you can breed your livestock, sell them, or butcher your livestock and sell the meat and their hide. If you have chickens, you can sell their eggs by the dozen for extra income.

If you do not have enough money to purchase hay, you can get your tractor out and take it out to your field and begin making your own.

#9. Drought

If your local area experiences a drought, your family and livestock won’t necessarily have to worry about becoming dehydrated. Your rainwater collection system on the homestead allows you to stockpile water that can easily be purified for both human and livestock consumption – as well as garden watering.

Get into the habit of stockpiling extra water from your creek or pond to help you better prepare for a potential drought in the future. Put extra water in water barrels, mason jars and other containers, and stockpile them up for later. You will also need to gather up buckets to fill up with water to haul down to your animal’s multiple and to haul water down to your garden. You don’t want your crops becoming dry and dying out.

#10. Snowstorm

Wood is one of the most valuable resources on your homestead and will be essential during a SHTF situation. With all the trees surrounding you on your homestead, you can cut them down and start chopping up the wood. Chop and split wood during the spring, summer, and fall so you have a healthy stockpile to use each winter. A home without heat will cause illness and ultimately death, during a winter snowstorm. Frostbite and hypothermia can set in quickly and it is unlikely first responders will be able to reach your home to help the patient due to weather and road conditions.

You can use your wood for your woodstove, make a fire for warmth, use the wood to boil water to purify your water, or use wood to make your food over it. Wood can also be used to build extra shelters for family or anyone in your group, so they can get out of the nasty frigid weather.

#11. Summer Heat Wave

Intense summer heat puts a drain on the power grid because air conditioners are running nonstop. Designing a home to make best use of natural air flow and putting in a basement to retreat to for a break from the heat, will help prevent you and your loved ones from becoming heat stroke victims.

If the power is out for long, generators at grocery and gas stores will run out of fuel. People will not be able to replenish their supplies and can become desperate for food, generator fuel, and water.

Take steps to prevent the creation of additional heat inside your home by cooking your stockpiled and preserved food outdoors. Grill or over a fire in the morning before the heat of the day starts.

Both you and the livestock you are keeping can use the pond or creek on the homestead to keep cool. Take dips in the waterway and mist yourself and the animals with water throughout the day.

For breakfast, lunch, or dinner you can squeeze your fresh fruits or veggies from your garden into juice to cool you off and give you energy. You can also grab one of your homegrown watermelons and snack on that to replace the electrolytes you lost while sweating profusely while doing chores during the hot wave.

#12. Flooding

Your homestead can protect you from flooding because you can dig ditches around your home, barn, and buildings to help direct water away. You can also fill your stockpiled feed sacks with sand or dirt to help prevent water from reaching your home, growing areas, and outbuildings.

If you live on a suburban homestead, make up sand bags in advance to help protect your backyard garden. Storing preps in your basement could be a huge mistake if your region is prone to flooding. Use wall and ceiling mounted storage units to protect your long-term storage food and gear from rising water.

Flood waters destroy crops and kill livestock, causing food prices to rise and potential shortages. The food you have preserved and stockpiled will help keep you and your family from growing hungry during the days, weeks, and months it may take the community or region to recover from the flood.

When the roads are covered and unsafe to travel, you will be able to rely on your homestead to provide for all your basic needs and not risk getting in a vehicle.

#13. Wild Fires

If a wild fire blazes across the region it can destroy homes and crops. The stockpiles you have on the homestead survival retreat could see you through a time when you are out of work and protect you from either a food shortage or price gouging. Building your home out of poured concrete, cinder block, and a metal roof will help protect it from wild fire.

If a wild fire breaks out near your homestead, you can rush to your creek, pond, river, lake, or any water source nearby and attempt to get the fire out.

Dig fire breaks around your home, keep brush cleared, and engage in select cutting in your wooded areas to further harden the homestead from seasonal brush fires that destroy properties of people who did not exercise sound fire deterrent practices.

#14. Earthquake

An earthquake can be hard to prepared for if you aren’t warned in advance. For the aftermath of an earthquake, your homestead makes you self-sufficient. If the nearby grocery store or convenience store collapsed, you would still be able to provide you and your loved ones with delicious food on your homestead.

If power lines go down from the earthquake, you will be able to use your alternative energy sources to provide power to the home. You can also make your own alternative fuel run your generator, so your frozen meat doesn’t go bad and any frozen food that you canned.

The homestead will also provide you with trees to cut down for warmth, cooking, and water from your pond, rainwater collection barrel system, or creek.

#15. Tornados

You can use the root cellar on the homestead as a bunker during a tornado. The underground storage area should protect you and your loved ones from the forceful winds and flying debris if both it and the door entry-way were built in a sturdy manner.

#16. Terror Attack

Your homestead would be one of the safest places to be during a terror attack because of the isolation. When you see the headlines on the news of such attacks, you’ll notice that the majority of the attacks occurred in a big city. Cities are usually the targeted location because there are so many more individuals in the city to make victims.

During a terror attack, you will be able to sit cozy on your homestead and not need to travel to town to gather up food, water, or any belongings. If you need anything to eat, you can just walk on out to your barn or butcher shop instead of risking the lives of you and your family members by entering a big crowd of people.

#17. Nuclear War

Not everyone will die during a nuclear war. The further you are away from the explosion, the better. Although, even if you are all the way across the country from the location of the nuclear bomb, you will still have to worry about radiation in the air.

Build a nuclear fallout shelter on your homestead and use it to store some of the food and medicines you grow so it is always stocked and ready for you to live.

Even if you are far from the attack area, the food supply chain will be disrupted, causing a shortage and riots by panicked people desperate for clean water to drink, food to eat, and emergency medical care. Your survival homesteading retreat will provide you with all these things – without being forced to leave the safety of your home.

Plan for nuclear contamination issues and learn how to cover your growing crops and water supply to protect them from radiation and acid rain.

#18. Cyber Attack

Cyber attack could take down power grid or destroy financial system and wipe out your bank accounts. Most people won’t know what to do without having their money but luckily you are prepared.

Your homestead will allow you to survive without money. You won’t need to trade anything for food because you have your livestock and garden. But if there is any other item you want or need, you can also barter or trade your livestock, crops, canned goods, farm equipment, wood, medicine, herbs, purified water, and any other necessities that others would trade with.

#19. Illness and Injury

One thing you do not want to happen to any of the members in your group is to experience an injury or illness. Your herbal apothecary on your homestead will help tremendously on naturally treating the illnesses and injuries. Your additional herbs can also help ease the pain during any illness or injury. There are natural home remedies that can even treat tetanus! Make sure to stock up on colloidal silver and keep in your first aid kit.

In your quarantine, you can keep your loved one safe and sound while you wait for them to get better to reduce the risk of other loved ones catching their illness.

#20. Food Shortage

During any type of disaster, people will eventually experience food shortage and will result to death.

Your livestock gives you the gift of meat and dairy. You will have a lot of food and milk to get you and your family by. You can freeze extra meat and can your milk to make a stockpile for when you run out of your current supply. You should also can your garden goodies for easy access!

For additional meat, you can grab your gun or bow and hit the woods looking for deer on your homestead.

Final Word

Living on a homestead gives you so much more access to food rather than living in a city. People will be out scouting the streets, breaking into houses, and rioting in grocery stores with empty shelves, while you and your family will have a food supply that you are living comfortably with.