How to Survive the 2012 Apocalypse in Upstate New York

Pros: Plenty of food and fresh water. Not a lot of population, for now. The Adirondack Mountains offer seclusion and solitude. You're not dealing with a large human population. The region is the home to New York's most sparely populated county, Hamilton.

Cons: Land in the Adirondacks is pricey. It'll cost you a pretty penny if you wanted to buy a plot now to start making preparations. Everyone else may have the same idea as you. Whatever population remains after the Apocalypse is likely to flock to the Adirondacks to look for escape from the cities.

Pros: Corridor of commerce and transpiration for centuries. The Erie Corridor, which cuts through the heart of Upstate New York, has seen the movement of humans for hundreds of years. Today it's the home of the New York State Thruway. Before the the coming of the Europeans, Native Americans used the Mohawk River to the Oneida Carry at Rome as a vital transpiration link. When civilization begins to emerge after the Apocalypse, primitive forms of transportation such as the canal may be the only way to efficiently move goods and people.

Cons: Because the Erie Canal corridor may be the only way to move over long distances, the area may be rife with highwaymen and brigands looking to prey on weary refugees. The cities that dot the Erie from Albany to Utica, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo may become urban battlegrounds.

Pros: Think of the small communities in Allegheny and Cattaraugus counties. These small towns and villages on New York's southern border are some of the most desolate and least traveled-to regions of the state. Find a place to bug out here and you may be safely on your own for a long, long time.

Cons: That isolation may come at a price when civilization begins to return. The Allegheny foothills and backwoods may be the last to see some sembelance of modern life again.