There's lots of material on the net regarding matching contents of a BOB to the specific situation and anticipated environment, but my question that people don't seem to talk about very much is, what are some example circumstances one would be wise to leave their home ? I don't get that. I got it when it comes to hurricane or a regional emergency of some sort, but what are more common scenarios, so to speak, that one would want to need to bug out ? When is your castle NOT the best place to be in an emergency ? When you're at home, if your're organized, you already have most everything you might need to various emergencies. Also, has anyone you've even known actually leave their home to save their lives, short of a hurricane ?

Well, I live 2 blocks from the San Francisco Bay, so if I hears tsunami sirens, I'm outa here.

While living in L.A.,
Some got out when the Northridge quake hit,
Others lit out when The Rodney King riots started,
others waited till the o.j. riots

I imagine some went when the mud slides and fires surprised them.

Don't know where you live, but what happens if your services go down? Electric out, water out, sewer out? What are you gonna do?

You have to think about things that don't usually happen, but could.

Locally, and it may apply to a large number of members, is if the local nuclear plant experiences an uncontrolled meltdown. Probably my first concern outside of weather related is that. Enough so I store iodine pills.

Good question.

I was just pondering the other post about what one would do with $400K.

Giving my position and other factors in life, I think I'd get a bug out location and stock it.

Nothing elaborate, nothing fancy, just remote enough to work.

YMWV You Mileage WILL Vary.
.

You're completely correct that your first inclination should be to hunker down in your own abode. But of course there's sitations that could force you to abandon the castle.

Your building is destroyed/compromised by earthquake. I remember in the '89 Loma Prieta residents of compromised structures were allowed 15 minutes to gather whatever they could, then no further re-entries.

You're in the middle of a hot zone. Nuclear fallout from an attack, or a plant meltdown, or a toxic cloud release, or a massive fire.

Red Dawn. The ChiComs have landed, and they're going door-to-door. Far-fetched? Given recent history, nothing's off the table.

quote:

Originally posted by craigcpa:
Locally, and it may apply to a large number of members, is if the local nuclear plant experiences an uncontrolled meltdown. Probably my first concern outside of weather related is that. Enough so I store iodine pills.

I live around 3 miles from the Nuclear Power Plant in town. Even decommissioned, it is of concern.

Buggin' out is a state of mind.

NEO - Non-combatant evacuation operations

Where in an emergency dependents are evacuated, which likely means sitting 3-7 days at a base before appropriate transportation is avaiable.

While that may never apply to anyone in the US, a while back we had a rail car turnover near the house and it was carrying lots of some chemical. So they were ordering folks near us to evacuate.

CLO2 explosion at the paper mill across the street would warrant the same or perhaps a stay indoors order depending on the circumstances.

Many emergencies caused by random accidents that I'm sure I'm forgetting.

In my experience, while a bug out bag is a great way to prepare for emergencies, I think a Car bag is MUCH more important and practical, We traveled an hour away once and a storm came and the water covered the only bridge back into town and we had to camp overnight in the car at a gas station.

In Hawaii if ANYTHING happens on H1 you can be in traffic for 3-8 hours. It's hot and sunny so water food and sun block are just some of the things that make a Car bag necessary.

Depending on where one lives I can think of many situations where leaving your residence in an emergency scenario could happen. Best to be prepared.

What's happening in Three Gorges can happen many other places. A good number of people live in flood plains. Big water can happen from a dam break, or the overflowing of a large river, or torrential rainfall. Seems to happen somewhere every year.

Run in with the drug cartel.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
There's lots of material on the net regarding matching contents of a BOB to the specific situation and anticipated environment, but my question that people don't seem to talk about very much is, what are some example circumstances one would be wise to leave their home ? I don't get that. I got it when it comes to hurricane or a regional emergency of some sort, but what are more common scenarios, so to speak, that one would want to need to bug out ? When is your castle NOT the best place to be in an emergency ? When you're at home, if your're organized, you already have most everything you might need to various emergencies. Also, has anyone you've even known actually leave their home to save their lives, short of a hurricane ?

I was of the same mindset until a wildfire blew up about a month ago when I was out of town. The wife was loading the daughter and the dogs to evacuate, having grabbed a few things, when the wind shifted and the fire went the other way. We had some damage to some equipment near the barn, our steel targets got an interesting pink splatter paint job (phos-chek or similar), and the coastal side of the ridge looks like a nuclear wasteland, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse without the windshift and the efforts of a LOT of firefighters.

We had talked about having a bug out bag and plan, but it has definitely been bumped up the priority list.

It depends where you live & what’s going on. Yes, one could bug out for weather, earthquake or other disaster.

Say one had a family & lived one block from the ‘CHOP Zone’, could be a place they don’t want to be?

It could be a variation of that ‘go bag’ in your vehicle.

Me, I don’t have any reason to move one inch, here is just fine.

When I lived in the city, I had a BOB to get away from civil unrest, and out to a friend's place in the rural area.

Now that I live in a more rural area myself, my BOB has changed to more of a Natural Disaster (wildfire, hurricane) scenario.

Different situations, different setups.

We have a BOB for the unlikely event of having to leave the neighborhood due to some clown barricaded in a home nearby and the cops give us five minutes to leave. This is the most likely event I can figure.
If the dam breaks at Lake Belton, we are not in the way.
Nuke strike at Ft Hood, we won’t survive.
Hurricane, we are 3 hours away from Houston/beach by car...not to worried about hurricane.
Tornado, we get them occasionally in the area...haven’t figured out a place to go for shelter

For the vast majority of people in most situations, hunkering down at home is undoubtedly better. Bugging out should be limited to:

A) When you have no choice because a looming natural disaster that will kill you or level your house is forcing your evacuation - hurricane, tsunami, wildfire, chemical spill, etc.

and/or

B) When you have a known alternate location that you have preplanned and prestocked to be a better option for hunkering down during a situation than your current house, like that retrofitted missile silo you bought and turned into a doomsday bunker, or your brother's ranch out in the boonies that you've coordinated as the family meet-up and hunker down spot, etc.


I spent a little bit of time on a couple prepper forums back in the day, and the sheer number of people there who think that if there's some huge societal collapse they're just going to grab a Bug Out Bag, load themselves down with weapons, and wander off in a random direction to go "live in the woods" boggled my mind. That disconnect from reality, along with many others, is why I don't frequent prepper forums any more.

My home is 200 yards from a rail line and just a few hundred yards more from two intersecting bridges. Derailment concerns was one of the major reasons I started a bug-out bag and checklist.

The second is I live 1.5 and 3 miles, respectively, from large fuel storage tanks and the associated pipelines.
(I actually used to live a LOT closer and was the original genesis for creating the bag/checklist.)

Most other realistic situations, I'm bugging in.

As most have pointed about above, there are very legit reasons for people to be at least somewhat prepped for a 'bug out,' relocate situation. If you live downwind from chemical plant (explosion) or lowland water area (tsunami), a BoB probably isn't a bad idea. The recent CA wildfires show how rapidly things can go south with a shift in the wind. Situational awareness is key in these types of events.

Frankly, if it got that bad, our 'Bag' would be our full size 4WD vehicle up to garage, hatch open, family, dog, phones, laptops, passports, whatever cash on hand we have, essential gear, food, camping equipment (maybe), and some sentimental items (photo albums), and we're outta here. ~10-15 minutes. Scanning important docs to your computer and/or a flash drive probably isn't a bad idea.

If its more truly dire than that, its probably family in the vehicle and we're driving/racing for our lives...along with everyone else in the area, which probably isn't going to end well...

The one 'prepping' thing I see that makes me thing 'ugh, no' would be trying to truly 'bug out' with an infant(s)/young children. That would be truly dire, worst case scenario...how far do you think you're going to get in the woods with a Pack'N'Play and cases of Pampers? . In all seriousness...unless you have some place to go or looking a very short term situation, one would be hard pressed to abandon their home with little one(s).

A much more viable 'bag' situation is the 'get home bag.' A decent waterproof small/med. backpack or duffle with a 1-2 extra pairs of clothes, waterproof jacket, gloves, toothbrush, deodorant, some cash and maybe a spare cell phone along with a good pair of boots in your daily vehicle is a not a bad idea at all.

$.02 worth.

Boss