Microage97,

As head of a family of four (when DW lets me) let me share with you some of my plans.

Family: Me (39 in good shape), wife (a bit younger , a bit less physically active ), 4 yr old daughter, 2 year old daughter.

Current location: House in northern suburb of Houston, TX, righ off I-45, the main evacuation route north out of Houston.

Threats: Hurricanes, haz-mat train derailment, flooding, ice storm (in theory), civil unrest.

Current BOB vehicles: 2005 Honda Pilot, 2006 double cab Toyota Tacoma with off-road options package, two adult bicycles and a bicycle cart, canoe, wagon with "off-road" tires.

Current vehicle BOBs: The Pilot and Tacoma each has a bag with water, clothing, diapers, personal hygiene supplies, tools, radio, tarp, rope, space blankets, ponchos, radio, "dynamo" flashlight, cooksets, firestarters, etc.

House BOB: this contains four fleece sleeping bags, more changes of clothing, diapers, personal hygiene supplies, radio, earplugs, flashlights, rope, pliers, knife, screwdriver set, deck of cards, bible, etc. This gear is not designed to keep us alive in the woods, it is to simply make us comfortable while we crash at a friend's place or (shudder) a public emergency shelter during a localized disturbance.

Heading into the woods for an extended amount of time with my wife and two young kids is not a realistic option and I say this after taking the family camping a number of times. Texas summers are brutally hot and humid. Minnesota winters are brutally cold (at least they were growing up in St. Michael, MN). Trying to keep the family healthy and safe in such environments is almost futile with just the gear in a bag.

Overall, I believe the chances of the entire USA being plunged into chaos are very slim and my BOBs/BOPs reflect that belief.

-Blast

You also need to know how to run the fuel pump. For example, older GM's without a fuse block under the hood there should be a single connector hanging out of the wiring harness near where it goes above the brake booster. Newer ones with the under hood electrical center there will be a small hole next to the fuel pump relay that you can poke a wire in to. Might be a good idea to test this ahead of time, you can safely run the fuel pump on most vehicles without any problems since there is a machanical regulator and fuel return, it will simply build up pressure, the regulator will open up and the fuel will return to the tank. There are however some new returnless systems where the pressure regulator is electronic and modulates power to the pump to regulate pressure so you would need to have something connected to the test port to release the pressure even if the pump test pin is available.
The fuel pressure test ports on cars looks like a tire valve once you take off the cap. The A/C system uses the same kind of vavle too though so be sure to get the correct one. IIRC the cap on the ac is usually blue and the fuel is green.
Also note that a car pump is a high pressure low volume unlike the low pressure high volume pump at the gas station. It can take hours to drain a full tank with the cars fuel pump.

Bugging out doesn't have to mean heading to the woods. For example my primary BOL is my parents farm, which has a house with a room waiting for me.
During the ice storm we had a few years ago many people had to bug out to hotels or relatives homes. Thats what bugging out is most likely to be, you have to leave your home for another outside the disaster area.

Exactly! That's why my main BOB is set up to crash at a friend's place or a hotel room.

-Blast

Ditto. Bugging means it is time to leave, not time to become a caveman.

When I was living on the other side of the state, I had electric heat, electric cooking, and electric water pump. So after three days without power, I'd be wanting to some place else. I had friends I could go stay with, but I'd want to bring my own groceries. (I know how they stay so skinny- they don't eat.) Worst case, I head to my folks, which is normally a 90 minute drive, but as someone who's had a long history of junky cars and with only one real route there, being able to get out on foot is just a good plan.

All that went double when living in the dorms in college. I'm just glad I had a roommate who was into preps as much as I was. (Stop lurking- you know who you are.)

For a while, I was also living down valley of an industrial facility that has a building known simply as "the bunker", and contains things like hexaflorides. Figure it takes fifteen minutes for it get to where I was. Two to three minutes to get the emergency warning out if something goes wrong. Spend ONE (1) minute getting my boots on and grabbing my pack. That gave me time to get serious uphill by foot if I had to.

Or when I lived down wind of the nuclear plant...

Or across the street from the ag chem factory and railroad...

Yeah, as much my Dad can make me crazy, I'm glad I moved home. Oh, wait, they run tanker trucks on the interstate just above the house, and I've seen too many scary placards on them. It is about three quarters of a mile the way the crow flies, but also about 80 feet higher...