...The point is to plan...and then create a back-up for that plan. For me - I'll drive home. If I can't drive, I'll ride. If I can't ride, I'll walk.

Each plan takes some consideration -- and a different set of tools.

I have only read half of the posts so forgive me if sopmeone has already suggested this. How about putting a bicycle in the trunk of your car and keep it there (as EDC) whenever you go to work.

As for me, I am too overweight and out of shape to do it, but lying in our back yard are 4 bicycles of different sizes. Kids have grown and don't want to ride them anymore. Sometimes I have seen full grown men riding smaller bikes with handlebars and seats pulled up as far as possible to accomodate an adult. Th eadult size bike will get you home faster but the smaller one will fit even in truncks of smaller cars.

You may choose an adult size or kid size bike as a bug out vehicle, or you may even use it as a barter tool to get a ride LOL.

In my case, IF I did this, the goal will not be to reach my home ( I would have a heart attack before reaching there LOL ) but the goal is to reach a relaticve's house a few miles from my office building. From there I may stay with them or pick a ride to my house. If it was that messy, it would almost definitely mean staying with them for sometime.

Having said that, my 1st option , if anything happen NOW, is to inform our buiding security that I am going to sleep in my office for the night. I have enough stuff for 2-3 days.

Some people have been known to stash a bike at their office.
If you have a mountain bike you can pack it into a pretty small space by taking the wheels off.

If you put a wrench with it so you can remove the front forks and handle bars you can usually fit a bike into a large duffle bag.
A bag they use to pack wheel chairs for travel by plane or train should do nicely.

It usually takes 15 minutes or less to pack or reassemble one.
It helps to have enough cable to let you remove the handle bars without needing to unhook the cables.

This evening I was discussing this forum with friends. I specifically mentioned the post above and ran the only conceivable scenario I could think of. I don't know the blast radius of a nuclear explosion and we, my friends and I, had different ideas on the most likely place in the Metroplex where a nuclear explosion would take place. It may come down to the intent of the responsible party.

The scenario: A nuclear explosion has struck the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. News of this has quickly spread like a wildfire, everyone in the vicinity who is awake and breathing knows about it. The driver of the bus I'm riding has deviated from the rout to get home so he and his family can get out of Dodge. He leaves the bus running and he sprints. I am unable to catch him. The driver is now AWOL. I can't get in touch with DART and I am unable to use my cell phone to get in touch with my family. I'm the only passenger willing to attempt to drive the bus. Depending on where we are, I may drive East or South. I ask my fellow passengers, hopefully there aren't many, if they wish to be dropped off or make a quick stop at their home. If their home is close to our location, and if it appears we are out of the immediate blast radius, or is on our way out of Dodge, I stop. If my home is on the way out of Dodge, I'll make a quick stop there and one other place. If my family is there, great, if not I will quickly gather needed gear. Now would be a good time to have a bug out bag. I may quickly make an indication I was home. From their, I need to make a decision, head south or east. Where I'm headed depends on two factors: First, what is the traffic like on the different routs? Second, where would my fellow passengers want to go?

Jeanette Isabelle

"It may come down to the intent of the responsible party."

Intent is one thing, ability to execute the plan is something else. Terrorists and other criminals often make really stupid mistakes.

I believe survival near the blast site depends on several things: power of the bomb, if it was detonated at ground level or in the air, etc.

The concussion from the blast is going to make stuff that wasn't vaporized initially turn into dangerous missiles: chunks of building concrete, steel beams, telephone poles, light standards, vehicles, cornerstones, bronze lions, etc. Can you imagine all the parts of of NYC being reduced to chunks of various sizes, moving parallel to the ground at high rates of speed? It would be a truly ugly sight.

Survival would probably depend on sheer dumb luck. The idea of an open street is more than I can imagine. Multiply the crash of the Twin Towers by 50,000, with debris moving sideways.

Sue

Ride home from someone else... Would this include prior planning that should they be stuck at your house and have no supplies of their own that you now have to make a choice? Cut them off or include them into your food/water/waste provisions? Were they eleceted DD because they were one of the few people in the parking lot who had 4 wheel drive? If so how many people were they trying to drop off before or after they arrived at your house and could go no further? 1 guest becomes more.

So the border is closed, and you are on one side with your family on the other.

How are you going to get home? If it is a short term closing, I would say wait it out. Long term I think one is going to have to start looking for small "county" roads that the locals use day-in and day-out.

Many moons ago we tried an experiment like this in the National Guard. The test was to deploy enough folks to "close" down a single county. All that was really happening was we were watching the regular traffic go by our HMMWV (we weren't stopping any traffic), but being there was the "road block". Then later, a well known local guardsman was flown about in a Black Hawk pointing out all the "border crossings" missed by the map and all the places one could trespass on someone's property to cross said boundary.

At the time I thought a lack of field training budget combined with a state commander who had read too much Tom Clancy produced that training. Then things like Anthrax attacks, Avian Flu, and Swine Flu came about and the memory gained new meaning.

Hummmm, how to get from Calgary, Alberta to DFW, Texas on back roads. I am going to need a map.

We have lots of uncontrolled border crossing you can drive through.

But trust us, once you are here you won't want to leave.

I chose Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in my scenario for two reasons: First, it is a plausible target. Second, I'm likely to be close enough to need to leave and yet far enough to survive the initial blast.

After carefully examining the map, making a quick stop at home may not be a good idea. The best thing to do is get out of Dallas NOW. Interstate 30, 20 or 45 may be the best choices.

Jeanette Isabelle

My home to work is about 7 miles. I've walked it once when the snow stalled traffic on icy streets, and have ridden my bike to work often enough to know I don't want to ride my bike - too much riding in car traffic. I know one bike shop a few blocks from work where I might buy a bike, but in most circumstances their credit card processing will be down, and if the owner has any wits he will be locked up - most bikes cost more than I carry as pocket change. So if something hits, I plan to walk, its part of my plan worked out with my family:

- check my local environment (workplace): assist anyone who needs help. That may take a while. Phone / message my out of state contact, telling them I'm okay and where I'm moving next, ultimate destination home.
- message and meet up with brothers 2 and 4, who work nearby. We have a contingency to meet outside my building. Brother 2 lives a few blocks from me, brother 4 in another direction. Assess transportation and communications, then head for home. Brother 4 will almost always go another direction, but if we can drive we will divert in direction of his home to see him most of the way home. Vehicle is just that, when the road ends or becomes impassable we get out and walk. It's just a car, I have others.
- check in at the high school my son attends. Schools have a disaster plan, hold til release. That means I need to come and get #1 son or he sleeps on the floor there. I helped pack their container a few weeks ago, its as good a place as any to spend a night. Pick up son, head for home.
- getting from HS to home actually involves a detour around a slough and lots of land that will liquefy in a bad earthquake. It adds 3 miles to the walk home, which is okay, but son will complain.
- home. If my wife has been nearby during an event we'll find her there, if not we may divert to whatever direction she was last located. #1 daughter is now across the lake at college, unless the floating bridges are open there's no way to contact her. Once home I have ham frequencies and contacts on the west side of the lake, if I can raise them I can initiate a message giving our status and trying to find out hers, hopefully she remembers to contact our out of state contact. I also message out of state contacts to give them our status and whereabouts, and try some in-state relatives that should be outside the disaster area. Otherwise I change socks, eat, drink, rub my feet, and take a deep breath. Getting home was an adventure, but I'm sure the fun is just starting. Neighbors with cuts, broken arms and legs, head injuries, crush injuries no power, no food, isolated fires, probably no emergency responders in our area, missing kids and spouses, some fatalities, alot of stress, and people don't always respond well under stress. And I may be experiencing some of this firsthand, if my son or wife can't be found, or can't be moved. Any plan is just a best case - none of this get home plan happens if I'm under rubble or have a broken leg. Then I am depending on the kindness of strangers...