Those of you who know about Selco of SHTFSchool already know this is a must listen to episode. For those of you who don’t, you are in for a treat. We all do our best to think about all the different aspects of preparing for a large scale SHTF event, and hearing from someone who has actually been through it can help us do that.

Imagine for a second that our country is in deep financial and political crisis, and several states are contemplating seceding from the union. Because of this, the national government decides to cut off all supply lines, electricity, and critical infrastructure until your state comes to it’s senses.

You may be thinking that something like this happening here in the United States is highly unlikely, but something very similar to this scenario happened a little over 150 years ago… It was called the Civil War. While a “Civil War” in the typical sense is highly unlikely, there are many scenarios that would have the same consequences.

This is basically what happened during the Balkan Wars in communist Yugoslavia, which emerged shortly after the end of World War II, was made up of six republics: Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia. The town where Selco lived was held under siege for over a year in what he calls “One Year in Hell”.

SPP255 Surviving One Year in Hell: Interview With Selco of SHTFSchool

In this weeks show, I had the chance to pick Selco’s brain about bartering, food, water, looting, rioting and a number of other issues he experienced during a true SHTF situation.

The Realities of a SHTF situation

Below are some of the topics we covered in this weeks show, I included a short description of his answer, but I highly suggest you listen to the full show.

Question: What was the population of the town/village you lived in? (urban/suburban/rural)

Answer: Selco lived in an area that encompassed both urban and suburban areas.

Question: On your website you talk about “1 year in hell” Can you explain why that year was so much worse.

Answer: The Balkan Wars lasted a little over 4 years, but that 1 year the town was under siege, meaning no supplies and resources were getting in or out.

Question: People always talk about the time frame when things go from bad to worse, how long did it take for things to escalate? (looters, crime, gangs, hungry people etc…)

Answer: The answer is not so simple, but smaller things like looting happened very quickly, and some things took some time to develop.

Question: What are some things you did to get food, water, energy, supplies etc? (did you have to go out and find things, and what did you do?)

Answer: This was quite a detailed answer, but for the most part everything we think about with a SHTF scenario is accurate. Rain catchment, bartering for food, and burning wood taken from the walls of your home was common place.

Question: People always talk about hunting and foraging in a SHTF scenario, how realistic is that, and did you ever do it?

Answer: After a short time there was nothing to hunt, and dogs roaming around became a food source. As far as foraging, it was done, but there wasn’t much available.

Question: As preppers we think about bartering supplies all the time. How necessary was bartering, and what was most commonly used for barter?

Answer: Bartering was an absolute necessity for survival. Selco was an RN, so along with bartering his skills, smaller items like lighters and batteries were commonly used for barter.

Question: What was the availability of guns and ammunition during that 1 year in hell?

Answer: It was interesting to me that he mentioned that guns and ammo ac...