I ran across this old exchange I had with someone that thought bugging out was always a terrible idea. Here is the exchange with my responses in red:
A Bug-out Bag, is more a concept than an actual bag. It might be a back pack, yes. Or a duffle bag. Or a tote. Or a loaded down game cart. Or simply their every day carry. Could be a quarter million dollar motor home or a bicycle. Bugging-out and Bug-out Bags are a means to an end. That of getting to safety if staying at home is not safe. Pure and simple.
To the people who have a bug out bag:
Where do you think you're going to go with it?
Depends. Hopefully no further than down the street to the Peppermill Hotel/Casino for a few hours or overnight while the apartment building is being fumigated, or waiting on fire damage to be corrected in a neighbor’s aparttment. To a nearby park if here is an earthquake and the building is evacuated. Next town up the highway if there is a major gas leak, hazmat incident, or other activity that makes staying in town to uncomfortable or dangerous for a few days. Or up to the moutains for a few days for a temporary stay for similar reasons. Or to my BOL (my brother’s place) 200+ miles away.
Do you have a plan, and have you practiced this plan in the exact way that you would put it into action in the situation(s) you imagine using it?
Yes. I do have a plan. A very flexible one, with many options, dependent on the actual scenario. And yes, I have practiced almost all the elements of the plan to one degree or another, some under adverse conditions. No, I haven’t walked to the BOL with kit. But every plan to bug-out does have a destination, or two, or more.
Is everything you have in your BOB "just in case..." of whatever the imagination can contrive, or is there any evidence to support having a backpack full of the things you've chosen? By "evidence", I don't mean good reasoning and logic, though there's nothing wrong with using those; I'm asking if there were ever instances of people who "bugged out" and failed to survive due to not having a certain piece of gear that you do have.
Do I have Just In Case items in the kit? Sure I do. They come after the basic human needs.
I have some form of wealth in my kit. Look at the Jews in 1940 in Nazi Germany. Those with portable wealth were much more likely to be able to get out of the country safely. Those without warm clothes froze to death. Those with no plan and no means to take care of themselves were used and abused and eventually died or were rounded up, taken to a camp, and then killed. Consider the recent Colorado floods. People died because they didn’t have a life jacket with them. I carry a life jacket in my gear. Consider the California Rim Fire. People coming up on a flare up died because they didn’t have something as simple as a space blanket to shield them against the heat as they drove by.
Can you use every piece of gear in your bag, in the dark, in the rain, with your eyes closed? This is the lightweight backpacker in me here, as I've learned that gear is only as good as the person who can put it into action, and if not put into action, it's just dead weight, and can be an obstacle to survival due to causing extra fatigue. Ounces very quickly become pounds when packing backpacks, and there's a big difference in how quickly I can move, for example, when wearing a 10 pound backpack vs. wearing a 20 pound backpack.
All my life saving gear, yes. I can do it in the dark, while it is raining, and with my eyes closed. Using my multi-fuel stove to heat water for tea? No. To use my tomahawk to cut wood for the fire? No. I do have several means of putting light on the subject in question, which I can find and turn on in the dark, in the rain, with my eyes closed.
And the old addage that Ounces Quickly Become Pounds can be quite true. But so can the one that says Pack Light, Freeze At Night. You won’t be bugging out if there isn’t a major event going on. You aren’t out there doing a trek with the lightest gear you can find and afford. You’re trying to stay alive, no matter what the situation, until you get where you are going. That means, for me, anyway, surviving and staying healthy at minus twenty degrees, with sixty mile an hour winds, in six feet of snow. Or in the open, in one hundred twenty degree temps, without a breath of wind blowing.
Or there are people that want to have what I have, because they didn’t prepare. Or I run into a mountain lion up in the mountains. Or I am delayed by circumstance, need to detour due to brigands or authorities, or washed out bridges, or for whatever reason.
And since I can’t carry more than about ten to fifteen pounds on my back, and about twenty or twenty-five on my body, inluding clothing and every day carry, I use a game cart to carry the ‘Field Bug-out Kit/INCH kit/permanent evacuation kit. It has the short term BOB as part of it, which I would grab for the short term incidents. I would only take the game cart for long term situations, or where I will be on my own for days to months.
Lastly, why do you want to bug out, and can you cite examples, for instance from a war-torn or disaster-ridden country, where people who bugged-out had higher chances of survival than those who didn't?
Same answer here as earlier: I have some form of wealth in my kit. Look at the Jews in 1940 in Nazi Germany. Those with portable wealth were much more likely to be able to get out of the country safely. Those without warm clothes froze to death. Those with no plan and no means to take care of themselves were used and abused and eventually died or were rounded up, taken to a camp, and then killed. Consider the recent Colorado floods. People died because they didn’t have a life jacket with them. I carry a life jacket in my gear. Consider the California Rim Fire. People coming up on a flare up died because they didn’t have something as simple as a space blanket to shield them against the heat as they drove by.
What kinds of situations are bug-out situations, and what kinds of situations aren't?
Anything that is more dangerous, or likely to become unlivable if staying than leaving then I would bug-out. If there is less danger staying or living would be much more difficult leaving, which is probably going to be better than 85% of the time, then I stay until and unless that changes.
The apartment building is on fire. There is a widespread HAZMAT incident threatening the whole town. Police are on strike and MS-13 is looting, robbing, and killing people indiscriminately in their homes. There is an earthquake and the building is evacuated.
For things that I wouldn’t bug out for include a cold spell and the heat goes off as I have alternative means to stay warm and keep my supplies from freezing. One hundred and ten in the summer and the A/C is out because power is down. No need. I have what I need to avoid heat related problems and the means to deal with them if I do become overheated. There is an earthquake and there is no significant damage to the building. The Truckee River is flooding one block over but I’m on the third floor and can hold out for two months. Far more reasons to stay than to leave.
Obviously, hurricanes are best observed from many miles inland, but is a BOB required to evacuate for a hurricane?
No. A BOB is not required for evacuating from a hurricane. There is Red Cross. There are good Samaritans that will take you in and buy you food and let you take showers and give you money to get home on. There are places like the Super Dome in New Orleans. And, of course, there is FEMA… Eventually.
Or you can have a BOB with plenty of safe water, foods you like to eat, your own sleeping bag or blanket, private means for sanitation, the means to get a motel room or make your stay with family or friends as painless on you and them as possible.
Do you think that in the event of some sort of hostile military coup or martial law, that a lone civilian out in the woods, out after curfew, or otherwise wandering around a city without "papers" is going to have higher chances of survival than someone who weathers the situation in their barricaded home?
Nope. No way, shape, form, or fashion. Only those without a clue would be doing that, and they’re pretty much just out of luck.
If you had been living in Boston this past summer, would you have bugged out as soon as the police issued orders for everyone to stay in their homes, rolled out their para-military vehicles and sent SWAT teams into people's homes without warrants on the pretense of searching for some Chechen idiot, or would you have stayed in your home/complied with police orders/not rocked the boat?
I would have bugged in, locked down, monitored my communications, and let the authorities handle the problem, as long as it didn’t come to me.
If you answered that you'd do the latter, then why/how would a so-called SHTF situation be any different that you would be willing and/or able to bug out of the city?
And a repeat answer again: Anything that is more dangerous, or likely to become unlivable if staying than leaving then I would bug-out. If there is less danger staying or living would be much more difficult leaving, which is probably going to be better than 85% of the time, then I stay until and unless that changes.
Bugging out is a choice. Not an absolute. You only leave home when things will be much worse there than if you leave. And the concept includes a plan. A flexible plan. You don’t just head for the hills at the first sign of trouble and expect to live there for months or years. Yes, there are some that do plan to do just that. But they sure aren’t representative of Preppers in general. Most Preppers have thought the situation through logically and come to the same conclusion I have. Stay until you know it is better to leave, which might be immediately, or six months into a financial meltdown, and then leave as quickly as you can.
Just my opinion.
20 Replies
1385 Views