Quickstart:
Call a friend or family member, in the same city that you live, and ask if you could come stay with them during an emergency. Then do the same thing with a friend or family member in a different state.
Now, make sure you call around until you have a definite yes from a friend or family member in town and out of state. If you know some folks outside of the country you live in, give them a call too. You never know how far you will have to evacuate.
Blog Post:
Some people call them bug-out bags (BOBs). Others call them get out of Dodge bags (GOOD), and others call them 72-hour kits. I am going to call them emergency evacuation kits.
They all serve the same purpose, to get you away from trouble.
You will need one for your car, one for your work, and one for your home. When I say you, I mean every member of the family. Even the kids should have a BOB for each of these places.
You might disagree about the need for a work and a car bug-out bag, but I want you to think about this. How much time do you spend at work? For me it is at least eight hours. How much time do you spend in your car, and/or how many miles do you travel in your car? For me two hours a day and 7o miles, at least, during the weekday. On the weekends, it might be as great as 8 hours in the car and over 150 miles from home.
That is a lot of time and a long distance. Plus, can you guarantee that you can get to your car during an evacuation from work.
The first bag that you need is a bag for your home.
Now, some people put all kinds of stuff in their bag. Matches, water bladders, ultralight sleeping bags, tents, and many other things. Just like a threat analysis, you have to decide what are you escaping from and where are you going.
Let me give you a few scenarios.
What would a Jewish family have needed to leave Nazi Germany in 1939 if they were going to Palestine to live with friends. The list would have been different for a Tutsi family coming to the United States to live with family in the 1990s.
What would your family need if they were evacuating from your home after an area wide earthquake, to your front or backyard. The list would be different if there had been a fire, instead.
I was going to write about a lot of stuff. Until, I started reading the wikipedia article on bug-out bags, so I am going to stop writing and let you read it.
Pretty good article, wasn't it. Plus, if you want, you can always do a key word search on the internet.
So, back to this weeks entry.
A emergency evacuation bag for work will be different from the GOOD bag for your home. The work bag is about getting out of your office or having to stay in your office.
A few posts ago, I told you that I have bunny slippers in my office kit. That is true. I keep them in a box, but this box is for storing the stuff I need for staying over. Modest sleeping clothes, toiletries, blankets, and a pillow are a few of the items. I also include a door wedge to wedge the door close in an active shooter scenario.
An active shooter scenario is when a person is walking around the building shooting employees. Since we can't carry guns at work, I will try to barricade myself, and others, in my office.
Now, I have a different kit for getting out. Once again, this kit will be different for someone working in a high-rise office building compared to someone working in a strip mall, but both of these kits have similarities.
This similarity is having practiced the evacuation routes.
Yes, routes is plural. A primary route, an alternative route, a contingency route, and an emergency route. These routes should be taken at least once a week, if possible.
Some emergency routes might not be usable/legal until an emergency say like kicking through the wall to get to another room, breaking the large glass window to walk through to the showroom floor, or taking the fire hose to use as a rope to get to the ground floor. You get the idea.
My car kit, I have written about in the past. Since I don't know a lot about fixing cars, I don't keep repair parts in my car. I have towing on my insurance policy.
And this is important. The End Of The World probably won't happen. You are more likely to have a fire, earthquake, laid off, accident, heart attack, and many other mundane emergencies then TEOTWAWKI. Google it if you want to know.
When all is said and done. A bug-out bag (BOB), get out of Dodge (GOOD) bag, and/or a 72 hour kit is used to get to a place that knows that you are coming.
These bags are not used to go to an unknown location. You must have a destination because these bags don't have all the stuff to keep you and your family alive and healthy after 72 hours.
So, pack a bag, and I'll ...
See you, Monday.
Links:
Mogen Daypack
My BOB (Bug Out Bag)
Go Bag
Wikipedia - Bug-Out Bag
make sure you read the links within the article.
Alpha Rubicon - Backpack Survival
