Think of it this way. I'll use a random city that comes to mind and a dark sky area.
Greensboro, NC has a population of just under 300k. Let's just say that the initial collapse from something nationwide that takes out our food distribution happens. Within a few weeks at best every major city just like this one will be mayhem. So just assume that 10% survive (30k) the first 4-6 months. But things are getting even worse in the cities with lack of water, no sewers and sanitation, and food is dwindling and dead bodies are everywhere. And over the coarse of the first 4-6 months the 10% formed groups at first that were 20-50 ppl and then to not get wiped out by raiding parties those groups joined other groups and so on until there were 6 groups total with of coarse some lone wolfs but for the sake of this scenario lets just assume that it plays out so that there are 6 groups with 5k ppl somehow surviving from the scavenged supplies throughout Greensboro, NC 4-6 months after the collapse. Now one of those groups leaders looks ahead and thinks that moving on out of the city with that size group is going to be better and decides to scavenge the countryside for cattle and take over farms one small town at a time.
What's to become of our small town?
It would take a leader to lead a town and people who were not ready for such to stand up to a force this size.
While someone to lead and stop such a force would be more rare to take a stand and lead a town that has fallen apart in a collapse, the chances of a large gang ravaging the country side is quite likely. Now could you and I and all of our neighbors stop fighting amongst ourselves and fight off a large group? Possibly.
My point is same as above. Don't underestimate the threat of large hordes of refugees. Some of them yes will be just large amounts of pathetic looking people with carts of crap that they push along the road with no purpose, but some may form a formidable group. Hence why I feel we should strive to be as far away from large population centers as possible.
Greensboro, NC has a population of just under 300k. Let's just say that the initial collapse from something nationwide that takes out our food distribution happens. Within a few weeks at best every major city just like this one will be mayhem. So just assume that 10% survive (30k) the first 4-6 months. But things are getting even worse in the cities with lack of water, no sewers and sanitation, and food is dwindling and dead bodies are everywhere. And over the coarse of the first 4-6 months the 10% formed groups at first that were 20-50 ppl and then to not get wiped out by raiding parties those groups joined other groups and so on until there were 6 groups total with of coarse some lone wolfs but for the sake of this scenario lets just assume that it plays out so that there are 6 groups with 5k ppl somehow surviving from the scavenged supplies throughout Greensboro, NC 4-6 months after the collapse. Now one of those groups leaders looks ahead and thinks that moving on out of the city with that size group is going to be better and decides to scavenge the countryside for cattle and take over farms one small town at a time.
What's to become of our small town?
It would take a leader to lead a town and people who were not ready for such to stand up to a force this size.
While someone to lead and stop such a force would be more rare to take a stand and lead a town that has fallen apart in a collapse, the chances of a large gang ravaging the country side is quite likely. Now could you and I and all of our neighbors stop fighting amongst ourselves and fight off a large group? Possibly.
My point is same as above. Don't underestimate the threat of large hordes of refugees. Some of them yes will be just large amounts of pathetic looking people with carts of crap that they push along the road with no purpose, but some may form a formidable group. Hence why I feel we should strive to be as far away from large population centers as possible.