Posted on 08/17/2015 5:05:14 PM PDT by SkyPilot
The plan seems simple doesn’t it? All you need for the best chance of survival for your family is a well-stocked bug out bag, a keen attention to your surroundings and careful monitoring of what is happening in the news. With these bases covered you will be a very informed prepper and will be able to get the jump on all of the clueless sheeple if something bad happens. You will load your family up with your bags and hike off into the sunset way ahead of the approaching death and destruction. You have a plan to bug out.
It sounds perfect, but in this article I am going to try and convince you how that might not be the best and first option you should consider. There are many reasons and situations I can think of why you do not want to bug out from your home. You may be asking yourself, how can I even say those words on a prepper blog such as this without getting struck by lightning? It’s true that hunkering down is not the option that gets the most press, but in my opinion during most (but not all) scenarios, it is the better choice. That is unless you are a combat trained Navy Seal. If you are like me, just an average guy with a family and a giant subterranean monster unleashed by nuclear experiments is not headed your way, you might want to stay put. Here are a few reasons why:
You live where your stuff is.
I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of these reasons are going to seem incredibly simple and obvious, but I think sometimes that is the best way to approach a problem. As a prepper you have probably started collecting some supplies to help you get through short and long term emergencies. Some of you have stored a TON of supplies because you have been doing this for a long time or else you are independently wealthy and you just blew up the Black Friday sales.
Even if you only have a week’s worth of food and water, that is nothing to sneeze at. Everything you have is stored probably in nicely organized bins for easy retrieval. You don’t have to carry it and the supplies aren’t subject to the elements. Leaving your home will make you potentially have to leave most, or all of your survival supplies at home. You could put them all in your best bug out vehicle, the diesel Ford F-250 with the trailer, right? Sure you could, but are you sure that truck will always be in your possession? It’s just better to stay at your home base because there are tons of advantages like… I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of these reasons are going to seem incredibly simple and obvious, but I think sometimes that is the best way to approach a problem. As a prepper you have probably started collecting some supplies to help you get through short and long term emergencies. Some of you have stored a TON of supplies because you have been doing this for a long time or else you are independently wealthy and you just blew up the Black Friday sales.
Even if you only have a week’s worth of food and water, that is nothing to sneeze at. Everything you have is stored probably in nicely organized bins for easy retrieval. You don’t have to carry it and the supplies aren’t subject to the elements. Leaving your home will make you potentially have to leave most, or all of your survival supplies at home. You could put them all in your best bug out vehicle, the diesel Ford F-250 with the trailer, right? Sure you could, but are you sure that truck will always be in your possession? It’s just better to stay at your home base because there are tons of advantages like…
Even your kitchen floor is more comfortable than sleeping in the woods
Yes, I know that some people sleep perfectly well in the woods and I can too, once I am exhausted from hiking all day. Honestly, you would have to agree that your old lumpy Serta Posturpedic mattress would be preferable to sleeping in the woods or an abandoned building or even a hammock. Why is that important?
Getting plenty of good sleep has a huge impact on our health. It not only affects your moods, but alertness and even immune system. In a disaster you will be stressed in ways you haven’t even considered. You may be working like a dog and having a comfortable and relatively safe place to rest your head, even if that is the living room floor will be an advantage that the people who think they can just bug out into the woods won’t have.
Built in Community whether you know it or not
In times of crisis, you can almost guarantee that communities will band together in some ways. You probably don’t consider your small neighborhood or dead end street a community but let some disaster happen and you will see humans come together for support, safety and to help each-other out. Being around even just a few neighbors who know you can give you advantages if you need assistance for things like a neighborhood security plan.
Even neighbors you don’t get along with will probably overcome grudges if the disaster is severe enough. Of course there is the potential that your neighbors could turn on you for being the lone prepper but I think in most cases, things won’t go Mad Max for a little while. If it does you will have to adjust, but I believe that most people would benefit by banding with their neighbors for support. You could have an opportunity for leadership here or compassion by helping out others who haven’t prepared. It is much better to strive for this kind of relationship with people than head out the door and face the world with only what is on your back.
Being Cold Sucks and it can kill you
I bet that most of you like to keep the thermostat somewhere in the upper 60’s to low 70’s during the winter. There might be some play in that range, but there are no thermostats outside. Whatever the temperature is outdoors is what you are going to be living with. Can you start a fire or wear warm layers to regulate your body temperature? Of course, but the last place I want to be on a cold winter night is huddled up in my sleeping bag under a tarp even if I did have a nice roasting fire beside me.
There are some situations where you wouldn’t be able to start a fire. Maybe if it was raining and you couldn’t find any dry wood or tinder, or there were people that didn’t look so friendly following you. Staying in your home, even without power can give you advantages of shelter that you won’t easily find outdoors. You can seal off rooms and even your body heat will generate a little warmth. You can black out your curtains with heavy gauge plastic sheeting and even the heat from a lantern or a couple of candles can put out an amazing amount of heat.
You may put yourself in a worse situation
The problem with most bug out plans are that you don’t have a destination. Where are you bugging out to? Do you think the National Forest is going to be reserved solely for you and your family? Do you think you will just set up a tent and start hunting for small game? In a large regional disaster, there could be millions of people leaving the cities. The concept is called the Golden Horde and they will be competing with you for natural resources. With even a few dozen hunters in the same area game will be depleted in days if not sooner. Then you will be stuck near a bunch of other hungry people who blame you for catching the last squirrel.
Being on the road makes you an easier target
One of the advantages of staying put at home is the home field or defenders advantage. When you go out, you do not know what you are walking or driving into. The best you can do is recon very deliberately which will only slow you down more. By staying put in your home, you can set up a neighborhood watch with your fellow neighbors and monitor who is coming in. This gives you the opportunity to set up defensive positions and plans that anyone walking in with thoughts of taking advantage of you, won’t be aware of.
If nobody knows you, you are a stranger
Have you ever been walking your dog and seen someone strange walking through your neighborhood? This was someone you didn’t know so obviously they fell under suspicion. Had they been one of your neighbors kids you would have recognized them, but this new person stuck out. That is what you will be faced with if you leave your home and go wandering through other towns and cities. In your home neighborhood you will be dealing with known people that you can grow a deeper relationship with. There is a built-in level of trust because they have lived near you for years. If you start walking into a strange town with your bug out bags and AR-15 slung over your bulletproof vest, you may not like the attention you receive.
Gear is heavy and a lot of gear is heavier.
Speaking of walking around in your bulletproof vest and gear, how many of you have walked for 3 days with your bug out bag? OK, now add a full complement of bullets and anything else you think you might need to defend yourself. It adds up quickly even when you try to reduce the weight of your bug out bag as much as possible. These weren’t meant to live for a long time out of. Your food will run out, possibly your ammo and that will help you with the weight, but in a disaster where you are walking out the door in full combat gear, do you think Walmart will be open when you run out of something?
In a grid down you won’t get to call AAA
Maybe you are one of the lucky ones that have a place to go up in the mountains. If you don’t get out before everyone else starts leaving, you could be stuck on the road. What if your old bug out vehicle breaks down? All those supplies you stored in the back of that trailer are either going to feed a lot of other people on the highway or you will most likely die defending them. If you aren’t already living at your retreat before the disaster happens, you will have to be incredibly fast to avoid getting stranded. Let’s say you are ready to go, do you know when you would actually leave? Do you know when the S has actually HTF and it’s time to leave or will you debate leaving with your wife and mother for two days because they think it will all blow over soon?
If you get hurt you want to be near a secure shelter not under a tarp
I have a decent first aid supply kit. I don’t have IV’s and a ton of medicine but I can take care of garden variety injuries pretty well. Imagine you somehow break your leg after the grid is down. Would you rather drag yourself into the house, or be stuck in the woods for weeks unable to move? Most hospitals don’t stick their patients out in the back yard for a reason so you will convalesce better with a good roof over your head that is hopefully providing some climate protections. If nothing else, it will be a relatively clean and safe place to get better that beats lying under a log.
So what does staying home mean?
I will write a post about reasons why you may have to bug out later, but staying home doesn’t guarantee you will be safe and secure either. I think each situation has to be taken into consideration as to what is the better option for you and your family. Naturally if there is a fire heading your way staying at home is stupid. It is something to think about that and that may help you begin to form different plans for different scenarios. What are your plans?
I so very disagree with this article...
First off, the 'bug-out bag', as I know it to be naturally, is the 'last gasp'... It is there to increase your chances when you are down to nothing else. It is a very practical thing to have out here in the Rockies, and something I have lived with my whole life. Here, it is very possible that one's truck will break down where there is no choice but to walk out or die - That bug-out bag lives in my truck as a matter of course. Likewise, it is common here to walk off into the woods on a day hike that might easily become an extended event for many different reasons - That bug-out bag is on my back every time I enter the woods, even on a simple day hike that is supposedly 'safe'.
Secondly, I can attest that one CAN be extraordinarily comfortable in the woods. That's WHY you bring the things you need, and the things you need should be designed around taking your comforts from the woods, not bringing your comforts with. You need tools more than food - Your standard bag probably will have three days of food, which can be stretched to a week if rationed... that's not very much. But it's enough to let you get your feet set, and put you in a position that you have the energy to get more food from the woods. That emergency food is terrifically important, but the tools to survive beyond that food are more important...
But it depends upon what you carry - You are welcome to carry a tent, for instance, but you'd find it all but useless in below zero weather, or in a torrential downpour... I don't need a tent, because the tools to build a shelter are in my possession... And a wikiup is tremendously comfortable in any weather... I mean, down right cozy.
The idea that one might not be able to build a fire is true, but unlikely - If one is a woodsman, it is just part of living to collect and protect tinder along the way - something one is constantly looking for as you go along - I just wouldn't be caught in a condition where I don't have dry tinder. Dry bedding can be a little harder to gather, but it is maybe an uncomfortable night only, as if one keeps the fire in the door of the shelter, everything in the shelter will dry out pretty quickly - gather it wet, and keep rolling it over, and it will dry out just fine.
Fire, shelter, and bedding, and the woods become very comfortable - These are secondary to food and water, but almost as important.
What is most important is the knowledge - Do not rely upon gadgets and modern gear. Learn the old ways and you will have little to carry, and taking from the woods will far outlast whatever you might bring in (with the exception of tomahawk and knife), because you can always make another one... Experience it - Make the mistakes during many practice outings, hone your possibles in your bag accordingly, and then when it is dire necessity, you will have the knowledge and the tools you need.
And I would caution against staying in place - I know the natural tendency, and I would much rather hunker down in my home if I can, but those who won't leave while the leaving is good are the ones who get caught in calamity - If your feet are getting itchy, start preparing for GTFOut. Load the truck. Get it ready. Take all you can... Make several trips to stock a staging area... And then when the time comes. don't look back.
Everyone in the surrounding areas know that’s a wealthy area...so IMO it would be a target for the gangs of bad guys. And they’d be real happy to take off in that RV....
Better IMO that you get yourself a place in the hill country to bug out to.
It sounds like you have quite a bit of knowledge. And you’re right. I think the point of the article is it is all situational base. If you have to survive out there, you really need a destination, knowledge, and the supplies, at least for short time as you indicated. I think another one of his points is that the plug out culture is romantically driven, rather than a well thought out and practical solution. But again, if disaster our moms are heading your way, leaving might be the best solution. In other cases. Staying put and being prepared is always the Optimal.
Why is that Laz?
You can tell part of my voice recognition software failed with that last post of mine.
Ha. I just watched Jaws.
If the Yellowstone cauldron ever did blow, it would make Pompeii and Vesuvius look like a garden party.
Just my opinion here, but I’ll try to answer your very good question. It all depends on how bad, how big, and how long the disaster lasts. Even if it was a power loss for two days that would be calamitous to the EBT gangs. When the EBT system went down in several states two years ago my wife and I were watching TV. We were shocked. Two women the size of refrigerators almost assaulted the TV crew covering the story. They were enraged, and screamed: “Da @;”ing EBT done broke!! How’s dey spect us to eats?!” This was six hours after the machines went down. So depending on the emergency, you will probably be safe in the short term. But in the long term I think everyone will make their way to where the resources are.
You points are perfectly sane! :-) The whole operation needs to micro-managed to minute-by-minute details to fully understand the consequences.
Why would I bug out and miss all the violence? I’m done running. Let’s effing roll!
If I am correct your “perception” image is a still from the original Red Dawn.
Many folks could learn from that movie. Specifically the team ethos.
My old house in the burbs came with a 1960s-era fallout shelter.
It has hammock hooks welded to wall for a whole family. It would get claustrophobic real fast; its maybe 11 by 13 by 7 feet tall.
Welded plate steel, with rivets in some places. It has a foyer, which is a clue that it’s for nuke rather than hurricane: some radioactivity is direct and cannot go around corners, so they put a corner near the entrance.
I realize I’m late to the discussion, but, I think it’s best to have a plan for both bugging-in and bugging out.
Bugging in is the best plan whenever possible. But, if you absolutely need to bug out, chances are you won’t have a lot of time to spare.
And it doesn’t have to be a huge, nation-destroying event, either. There was a sinkhole that opened up in a parking lot here in town a few days ago. Swallowed a few cars and damaged a gas line, but the damage to the gas line was bad enough that it leaked into the apartment complex nearby, which was immediately evacuated.
300 people, instant refugees.
It can happen that fast.
Be careful what you wish for.
Honestly I feel a combination of movement and stationary defense is best, using judgement to decide when stationary is good, and when movement is good.
“Everyone in the surrounding areas know that’s a wealthy area...so IMO it would be a target for the gangs of bad guys. And they’d be real happy to take off in that RV.... Better IMO that you get yourself a place in the hill country to bug out to.”
Bad guy groups in inner city Dallas (the closest inner city) are far away, 20 plus miles. They will stay in their inner city and areas just out of that area.
What you say about the bus is true if the wealthy people in this large subdivision go feral. It is parked in part of our large driveway, totally seeable to those passing the hose. One day, two men came to the front door and asked if we wanted to sell the bus. I told them no. Those two men were not living in this subdivision.
“place in the hill country”
I have a couple of very good friends (known them for many years) who live in the hill country on a high hill. At the bottom of their hill and down a road there is a high gate and no one can get in unless they use a phone there and call them for permission to come in.
My friends would have to hit a button for the gate to open. The intruders could climb the gate but couldn’t get their vehicle inside. If they did manage to tear down the gate, there is only one road up that hill to that house. My friends can see down that road, plus they have two very large dogs that would tell them someone is heading that way. Those dogs are Australian Shepherd dogs and you better be okayed by my friends or those dogs will take your head off.
They are preppers, too, and he’s good at hitting a target and so is she.
They own a large amount of acres around their location so no one is close to them. If worse came to worse, we could go there with my preps and with us four, make a good stand against anyone who might get into their location.
Back to this big house:’
No one knows we have any preps and we wouldn’t make that known if we have to use them. Unless these wealthy people go from door to door to invade since they are starving, plus have no water, hoping to find water/food, they wouldn’t come here. They can get to water since a finger of a lake is within short walking distance, but they won’t have a way to sanitize it, can’t even boil it if power is off.
They might have a barbecue grill but I would bet it is a propane tank grill and their propane wouldn’t last long.
If a collapse happens, these wealthy people won’t be any better off than poor people - a lack of water/food puts ALL people in the same category - all dying.
I hope to hell a collapse doesn’t happen between September - December.
“I kinda have no choice but to sit tight.”
I thought you were going to friends out in the country. Did something happen to cancel that?
You and I have talked enough that I think you have water/food/protection even if you have to sit tight. I realize your main problem is which girl friend to invite to stay with you during a collapse. :o)
“You can tell part of my voice recognition software failed with that last post of mine.”
I don’t know which post or yours you mean. After the above post, another post of yours had this in it:
“They were enraged, and screamed: “Da @;”ing EBT done broke!! How’s dey spect us to eats?!””
That post takes some decoding word skills. :o)
Ok.... Sounds good to have your friends as a back up as long as they know that they’re a back up for you.
We use to have a log cabin up on the mountain in the back woods.....the road eventually to it was nothing more than a rut road with grass growing in between....it was beautiful up there. Cabin slept 6 with master bedroom of course. Double garage....we could have done well today with that.....sold it many years ago for nice profit.
I’m pretty sure that movie helped me (ultimately) embrace the Second Amendment and other core American national virtues. I sort of forget the plot, though... I seem to remember it was Hungarians or Estonians or Venezuelans or something that decided to invade America... LOL... But yes, it’s a still from the movie. Good eye, FRiend!
One of the greatest bad movies of all time, and a factor in my development also!
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