Bugout Bag


Eternum
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I've seen the stuff around the interwebs and I'm not sure what to make of these kits I see from, say, Amazon. Is that worth it?

Better to set up your own? If so, what would be essential?

What about pets?

It's been on my mind as I've been watching hurricane season. This last spring we had issues with some rather serious tornado warnings and tornadoes too close to home when we never had to worry about that much before.

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It's a good idea to have one.  You're in hurricane season, I'm in forest fire and winter blizzard country.  You don't bug out from a tornado warning, you take shelter - there's no time to flee a tornado.  But you can see hurricanes coming, and authorities can issue good evacuate orders.

Pets - if you don't have a plan to transport/feed/care for them, you won't be coming up with it on the fly.  When we got evacuated, our pets stayed in one of many pet shelters that opened up in safe towns.  It was not fun.

What's essential?  
- Money.  If there's a period of no electricity, cash is king.  A forest fire had us evacuated for 4-5 days, we lived well at the Residence Inn Family suites. Gotta have $$ for that.
- Food and water (Stuff you're used to eating - nobody will want to learn a bean and MRE diet if something bad happens.  Water is heavy.)
- Clothing (2-3 days of clean clothing per person)
- Personal hygiene - washclothes, wet wipes, toothbrushes/toothpaste, deodorant (you will think this is more important than food if you forget it)
- Medications, 1st aid kit, cough/cold, tums, etc.
- If you have kids, you need something to keep them occupied for hours and hours.  Choose wisely, invest much.   Glowsticks did it for my daughters until they got phones, now I have personal recharging battery packs and USB cables to break out and distribute.
- Pre-planned area to meet (this stuff happens when kids are in school, someone is at work, and someone is shopping)
- Comfort items (favorite candy/clothes/pillow/whatever) - more important than you think.
- Training and mindset.  You won't rise to the occasion, you'll fall back on your training and preparations.  If you and your family aren't experienced cross-country trekkers, you won't be cross-country trekking - you'll be holed up at some shelter missing a shoe, nursing blisters.  Don't even think about carrying a gun for self defense unless you know what the heck you're doing.  You'll just get it taken away from you, go to jail, or someone innocent will get shot.

We have car kits (in case we get snowed in to a ditch somewhere and can't make it home), and bugout bags (in case we need to flee our home).  Every year during general conference, I dump out our kits in the middle of the floor and we pig out and replace all the food.  I call it the feast of the perishables - I'm sure it's in Leviticus somewhere.

perishables1.jpeg.45753c440ad2399a7263f3363c3e025f.jpeg  Perishables2.jpeg.c386cb9f8cf3c2519ea16c6f8875188c.jpeg  perishables3.jpeg.da53e198e75e396d983131c7b829741e.jpeg

Happy prepping!

Edited by NeuroTypical
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In many ways what needs to be in your bugout bag depends on your plan for bugging out.

For example if you plan to bugout on foot... then you are limited to what you can carry and still get out...  That is not as much as many would hope for.

If you have a transport then you can carry more.. but you have to be sure the transport can make it through if everyone else is trying to bug out at the same time.

Then you also have to factor in what the longer term plan is.  Is it just to keep you alive until you can transition (and if so transition to what) or is it to help you start over?

Once you know what you want to accomplish with your bugout bag then you can look through all the resources online and make your own call... Saying yes I need that... No I do not need this, and Oh I did not even think of that.

One of the biggest factor of preparedness success is not in having 'stuff' it is in having a plan.  Once you have plan what stuff you need answers itself with a little bit of research

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I won a solar-powered usb battery pack, good for keeping phones charged.  It’s sat in the rear window of my car ever since-haven’t used it yet.

Solar is getting (slightly) better and (slightly) cheaper every few years.  Spending a few hundred bucks on a system these days, and you can charge a car battery in several hours.  Sun still has to be shining, though.

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24 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

But how do you charge the battery of your bug out vehicle in Seattle?  Hand crank?

At the risk of taking a silly rabbit hole seriously: Summer in Seattle is quite sunny most of the time, and solar generally works great around here between May and September. I would guess the shortness of winter days is as big a problem to solar power generation as is the cloud cover, at least for things like charging batteries. There is enough ambient light during a normal cloudy day to allow decent power generation for battery charging.

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Location/elevation/cloud cover absolutely has an impact on how well solar panels work.

 

December 2018 at a random weather station in Colorado Springs:

image.png.8826ac3670e390e00549ca8141ca5865.png

 

 

 

December 2018 at a random weather station in Seattle:

image.png.a7e63f763d0a09af2e585b6b5d2bb4ac.png

https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KWASEATT527/graph/2018-12-4/2018-12-4/monthly

Edited by NeuroTypical
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35 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Location/elevation/cloud cover absolutely has an impact on how well solar panels work.

 

December 2018 at a random weather station in Colorado Springs:

image.png.8826ac3670e390e00549ca8141ca5865.png

 

 

 

December 2018 at a random weather station in Seattle:

image.png.a7e63f763d0a09af2e585b6b5d2bb4ac.png

https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KWASEATT527/graph/2018-12-4/2018-12-4/monthly

So you're saying the worst December day in Colorado Springs is better than the best December day in Seattle?

Okay, I can believe that.

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On 9/1/2019 at 12:57 AM, Eternum said:

I've seen the stuff around the interwebs and I'm not sure what to make of these kits I see from, say, Amazon. Is that worth it?

Better to set up your own? If so, what would be essential?

 

I wouldn't buy anything on Amazon or off the shelf, they are using cheap components and bundling. I would build my own, there are plenty of resources on line you can figure that out.

On 9/1/2019 at 12:57 AM, Eternum said:

What about pets?

What about them? in an emergency situation, life or death Fido gets left behind. I suppose if I think food supply may be an issue I'll bring him along and eat him first while he is still fat.

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