Bug out vs Evacuation, and some realizations

Excuse this posts format, but its more my ramblings on how to address and adjust my evac plan.  By writing down my thoughts I'm thinking through and clarifying my ideas.  I'm not crazy, and maybe it will help you too.

First, if you're reading this you probably know i'm not a huge "bug out" fan.  I mean I have racked my brain and still haven't come up with a situation where I need to leave in 5 minutes.  I even thought about every disaster movie I could, and the closest I could come up with was "War of the Worlds".  Not the first one, but rather the remake with Tom Cruise.    OK, so if lightning awakes aliens underground and they attack, I might need to go fast.

But most of the time its more like Battlefield LA where people have time to go to the beach to watch the things hit, and news crews show up and are reporting live.  Well, if CNN is sending trucks to the shoreline and has time to broadcast, I figure I have time to get my trailer and gear and get my butt headed the opposite way.

To be honest, most crisis are just that because of inaction, rather then urgency.  I think about Hurricane Katrina and Sandy where people were given 24 to 48 hours notice so it was ridiculous to be stuck there by choice. Now if you don't have the means, thats a different story, but to just sit there like a friend of mine did in her cozy New York condo with everyone saying leave is crazy.  Then she ends up walking down the street dragging luggage that she just carried down 30 stories until she got to a part of town with power just to rent a hotel room.  Now I'm not saying hit the freeway at every thunderstorm, but if you have an established evac plan, and can organize your stuff, then when the siren goes off or the TV says you should go, you can be in the first wave out and avoid later panic.

I remember some years ago being at Disney World for a week during a wildfire outbreak in Florida.  While fires were no where near us, all the news reports showed where and their movements with great detail.  The fire plan and where the fire fighters were fighting them.  They even opened the toll roads for free to help people evacuate. They had a few reports of looters in the evacuated areas.  In its totality the situation was bad, but all very well organized and orchestrated, and the whole Disney / Universal area never missed a beat or a dollar.  Less then 30 miles away was chaos and where we were was paradise. Sometimes the line to safety is that close, but you have to move to cross it.

To me this is not a bug out, its and evacuation. There is time to find alternate routes if need be, there is time to pack and gather useful or valuable items.   It will probably be organized by the government with police or military direction given for the first few miles out of the city.

IMHO the key in a forced or directed evac is to already have food and gear in inventory, its even better if its pre-staged.  The more time saved, the better off you are.  What you do NOT want to do is be running to the store trying to buy stuff.   The guy locking his storm shutters is miles ahead of the guy running around looking for plywood to board up his windows.  What is needed is a plan.

Ok, so that was a long long intro to what I'm actually doing about my plan.  Well I put on my reality thinking cap and said what would I really REALLY do, need, and want, if a "Katrina" type evac situation happened where I live.   Ground rules first, I would have +24 hours notice, Its a mandatory evac, Its local (meaning if I get 60 miles away from home or inland, I'm safe), I need to stay gone for 7 to 14 days (longer just means more food at this point), I will have no outside assistance while gone (no FEMA camp), it will not be WROL but there will be minimal LEOs self-protection WITH repercussions for actions later, and I will come back home but it may sustain substantial environmental damage.  Now i'm running a realistic simulation in my head, but i am physically walking around the house checking my gear status, logistics, weight, and systematically thinking this through step by step.

Now admittedly, I know i'm way ahead of the game with my trailer pre packed with tents, lights, camp gear and stuff, but in doing a realistic dry run in my head the first thing I realized my food plan is all wrong.  I have 5 gallon buckets and shelves of can food, but none of it is organized in meals or labeled to insure a proper meal mix individually.  This is great for long term storage, and I can crack them and stay home quarantined and eat for months, but there is no way to carry all of it, nor should I even plan to.  If its a storm or wildfire or environmental, why try and lug 8 months of food when 1 is more then sufficient.


Then I realized my 2 totes with 5 cases of MREs and freeze-dried foods were stored way in back because I don't need to get to them ever, but they should be the FIRST totes into the truck. I have +2 weeks of food for my family of four ready to go in a instant, and I would have to move the whole damn pantry to get to it... NOT SMART.

Then I looked at how I have my important documents, All nice and neat in a safe that will still be bolted in place when I evac, or maybe i'll empty it.  WOW, how about making duplicate copies AND electronic copies and putting them and a flash drive in with the food right now.  And while i'm at it, take a lesson from the Walking Dead.  I always liked the part where Rick could tell his family left home alive because they took the family photos off the wall.  I can scan the family photos and put them on the drive and thus secure them too. Another free missed opportunity to be ready.

Another important thing I realized while camping with my wife and daughter is that they have different needs then my son and I.  He and I go all the time and take the same stuff with no problem.  We got it down to a science.  They went with us and the load out more then doubled. I figured just grab more food, but girls need things we guys don't...  WHO KNEW?  I know they have an "inventory" at home, I make sure of it. I guess i'll take a tote and have my wife pack a month or so worth of whatever mystical magical stuff they need in it and label it "girly stuff" and permanently add it to my gear.    I also realized how vitally important a camp toilet is for ladies now. We guys just run to the nearest tree line and cut loose. I have two words of advice about chem toilets... "get one".  It may seem like wasted space now, but if I had to evac the ladies in my household for a week without it. I might be better off facing the hurricane.

Oh and the little microfiber towels in the auto department are worth their weight in gold.  They air dry fast, are soft, rinse out quick, and are the perfect size for everything from cooking to camp bird-baths to whatever.  And while i'm at it I need more empty buckets then I thought.  dishes, baths, hot water seems to need to be everywhere.  AND I need a bigger pot to warm it in over a campfire.

As well as I had done in my base camp kitchen kit, I realized I don't have enough cups or plates or ANY sort of tableware. I simultaneously realized the ladies in my life don't like eating out of mess kits. My son and I were just chomping away at dinner happy as clams, only to look up and see my wife and daughter just holding their mess kits looking at the both of us like we were cavemen eating hog slop right out the troff.

I also discovered a trip to Toys-R-Us would be a good investment.  Sure if the S really HTF, there would be bigger things to address then fun, games, and entertainment, but if it were to evac because of an environmental situation, keeping "the troops" entertained and not thinking about the situation or just eating because of boredom is key.  Baseball gloves and ball, frisbee, lawn darts, horse shoes, whatever works to relax and clear our minds.

All in all, the conclusion I have come to is that SHTF I was prepared for survival, but there is some room for comfort in what I would consider a more typical evac situation.  Now most of the changes i'm now making are free.  Its logistical and organization, not spending or buying.  None of the changes effect the efficiency of my preparations in a shelter in place, nor do they change how i respond if I really did need to leave and take it all because i'm never coming home.  But my adjustments will build in the flexibility to respond to the much more likely temporary evacuation scenario.  I also realized I have a long way to go.