I don't see many individuals at risk of arest, during an emergency situations. An LEO has bigger thigns to think about than arresting you, if he is looking at your stash of food to take it and distribute it. I think the risk you have is from someone taking your stuff, and if anything else harming you. There's not likely to be time that someone wants to spend detaining you or caring for you afterward. They'll just take the stuff, and incapacitate you, if they need or want to do so.

Prosecution for hoarding will not come until there is an up and running system, courts, cops without bigger problems, etc., and then it will most likely be fines.

No one is less of a fan of Dubya than me; but this ludicrous fantasy you cite as evidence is preposterous. Dubya a dictator? He has a lot of faults but if Kerry got one more vote in 2004 he'd have left.

The Socki

> So I don’t see it as detached to want to bug out because it could go big
> and at the same time expecting the house to still be there when the fire
> is over.

I agree - as I said, my concern is earthquakes where I don't expect the house to survive in a big earthquake/fire. My question then is who do you think would go in and take your stuff during such a fire? Again, my perspective is long-term abandonment with people in long-term survival mode. A refinery fire might be days?

Plan and equip your BOB to fit your situation. It is hard to define what or what not to include. Individual circumstances are too varied to cover with a list.

I don't see confiscation as a major hazard. Small groups of people with alternative supplies are not an issue. It is seen as just a few people who won't need assistance so more for those in need.

That isn't to say that you get to live like kings flaunting it and lording it over people or make a killing selling bread to the starving masses. Doing that is crass and inconsiderate. You can expect to pay a penalty if you make too much of an ass out of yourself. Even if they don't prosecute you they might just drag you down to the station for questioning. Meanwhile your stash is unprotected. Problem solved.

In other words, use some common sense. If your so inclined, help where and when you can. If you can't, don't flaunt what you have and if you do sell things keep the prices reasonable.

I also wouldn't worry too much about firearms confiscation. Reading accounts of police in NOLA many of the people who had guns confiscated were flaunting their guns and sometimes threatening people. Removing the guns eliminates the risk of having to come back for a shooting.

Very few people who kept a low profile had their weapons collected. One really good reason being that the police didn't have the time or manpower available to hunt for weapons. If there weren't complaints or didn't see them there was nothing to confiscate.

Just on the surface of it, it looks like collection of goods when they are abundant is not illegal, and really not likely to be seized. What appears to be called 'hoarding' is really 'scalping', selling goods at inflated prices.

When someone goes to a disaster area and sells water, a basic human necessity, for $10 a gallon, that's scalping. It's making a large profit from a survival situation.

To respond to the original question of this thread, a BOB is a portable container of goods for an emergency, designed to save your life or make it easier to survive until you can get to a certain place. It's not intended as a long-term collection of goods.

If you have to run away from home (or sometimes, you're just trying to get home from somewhere else), you take the necessities so you can survive the chlorine leak from an overturned tanker or something, or a threat that doesn't materialize. As soon as possible, you want to go back to your large supply of goods, as long as they are still available (not burnt up, covered with mud or water, etc). Even if your house collapsed during an earthquake, much of the stuff you had stored is still probably there, so you just have to work your way to it.

You do the best you can with what you have.

Sue