Mistakes of a Bug Out

Mistakes of a Bug Out

By Joseph Parish

There is nothing better then to practice bugging out before the activity is needed for actual emergencies. Since I use a motor home for bugging out I try to plan accordingly.

There are essentially three types of bug out conditions. The first is the one where you have to leave your home but will more then likely remain in your immediate area. These conditions include chemical spills, fires or storms. The second situation is one where you have to leave immediately but are unsure as to when you will return. These scenarios can include terrorist activity with low grade nuke detonations, biological or chemical attacks as well as major disease outbreaks. Lastly we have the situation where you may have to leave and you may never come back.

The exact amount of emergency gear and the level of preps that are brought will be determined by the event that is occurring. The largest fear that we should experience at this point is taking too long to depart the area.

The first bug out exercise we conducted was a total disaster. We found that we forgot important items while we also took useless but at the time items that we considered necessary. I was extremely disappointed in both myself and my wife on things that we messed up on. Months later as we look back on the situation we laugh but had it been an actual emergency condition it certainly would not have been very funny.

I like to give ourselves an hour at the most to get ready. In most cases the majority of the items would previously have been loaded in the motor home and we would only need to pack the last minute items. I tell my wife to be ready to pack it all into the RV in only 45 minutes to one hour. These include such things as clothing, extra food, and important papers. A suitcase in every bedroom packed and ready to go is an excellent idea to be prepared for such events. For many items that must be packed at the last minute we now use totes in the home or related check lists. If necessary to deploy we grab the totes and load them in the RV or trailer.

Things to be particularly watchful for are bathroom supplies, games and books for young children, extension cords, extra wash cloths and towels, shoes as well as pillows and blankets.  

Generally, I keep copies of all our important documents on my person in the form of a flash drive. I scan everything that we consider valuable and save it on the drive. If needed the flash drive can be accessed by computers anywhere.

As the time arrives to depart the area I would more then likely take some of the following items although not necessarily all of the ones on this list. Individual tastes take over at this point.

* A few candy bars

* Assorted tools

* Bottled water or jugs of drinking water

* Can Opener

* Canned food

* CB Radio

* Dental and medical supplies

* eating utensils as well as pots and pans

* Extra batteries

* Hard drive of survival data

* Police Scanner

* Portable computer

* Ramen Noodles

* Shaving gear

* Styrofoam drinking cups

* Television

* Toilet paper

* Walkie talkies

* Weather radio

One generally believes they are ready for such things until the actual time arrives so it is better to do some dry runs for practice then to fail at some critical time.

Copyright @ 2010 Joseph Parish

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