Relating a story from a few years ago, a major call out big event and I started to grab every thing and go...Very slowly.

I had the stuff; work clothes, ID, safety gear, ability to stay overnight...But not pre-packed. (Not even a checklist.)

Getting ready took forever. Lesson learned.

Is your bag packed? Or, at the very least, do you have a pre-printed check list?

My bags are packed, but I haven't reserved the u-Haul.


Your neighborhood was possibly being evacuated? Or you had a work thing?

Do you live in Maryland?


And now the song "Leaving On A Jet Plane" is ringing in my head.


"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...."

Our BoB's are always packed and ready to grab and go. Any extra time allows for a few more nice things to be loaded.

For a CERT call-out I'm good as long as I get the word at home; my CERT gear is by the door and fully packed. For a work-related call-out I might have to pack my laptop up but otherwise I'm ready.

For a bug out, if all we can grab on the way out the door is one of our BOBs, we're in pretty good shape. Mine is in my car and hers is in her van, at all times.

If there's time to load the rest of the bug-out/bug-in gear, it's containerized in wife-portable chunks. She can load it into the van by herself if I'm not home. One exception would be guns, which are always locked up when not on someone's person. Another exception is cash; finances have not permitted me to put together a useful amount to stash in the BOBs. I'd like to have enough on hand so that if cash still works but ATMs and credit cards don't we'd still be able to buy gas, food and lodging.

If there's a few minutes more, we start loading comfort items and the like. There's a checklist based loosely on Blast's Binder.

I'm set up to shelter in place, but I don't have a BOB packed and ready to go to bug out. Honestly, I can't imagine a scenario where I'd be better off bugging out than staying in. In Colorado, we don't have hurricanes, floods (where I live), earthquakes, etc. We have the rare tornado, but they're the really small ones that do minimal damage to a small ares (where I live). Even big snowstorms are rare, and short lived. A nuclear blast in Denver might make me want to leave, but if that happened I'd probably be too crispy-crittered to travel very far anyway.

Its the middle of the night and your awakened by the smoke alarm and smell smoke. Its cold and snowing outside so you grab your bob which has warm clothes and keys to your car so you can get dressed and shelter.

We're packed and ready to go. In fact, this weekend's prep priority is to check and re-pack the family BOB, and add a few more things to the pantry and deep freeze.

I keep BoB's packed and ready in case of a HazMat incident on either I-10, I-49/Hwy 90, or a train derails.

I've lived here 9 years and there has been 1 HazMat incident at the rail yard in which we were just outside of the "Evacuation Area" which consisted of a 1 mile radius of the spill.

In my lifetime, I have evacuated from one HazMat incident in 1968 (lots of flames but no gas) and lived with having to have a gas mask on hand at all times through a sunken Chlorine Barge incident in the Lower Mississippi River in the early 60's (No, I don't actually remember that one). That's 3 total incidents thus far in my lifetime.

Since I am involved in the Maritime Petro-Chemical Transportation, I am well aware of what moves on our highways, railways, and rivers/canals.

I also have everything ready to go, in 30 min, I can have substantial amount of gear moved (for 4 weeks), In 1 hour I can have enough equipment for a extremely long duration move(over a year). All BOB's and equipment are staged. Less than 5 min, I only have a 3 day supply.

That's a point, but we have our coats hanging by the front door, along with sets of car keys, and it's only about a 50 foot walk to one of many neighbors (we're on a cul-de-sac). But in other housing situations, I can see your point.

I've dis-assembled my BOB,& Placed the Essentials in Various places,at home & elsewhere.Logistically,Bugging Out from my Home,After a Disaster,Would place my Family,Under the Whip with about a Few million others,That is Not Acceptable!There are many Places I could Go If I Had Fair Warning,But in Reality,there is No Fair Anything,When Disaster Happens,Therefore I'll be Bugging In! I have a GHB in My Truck,Should I be Out& About Somewhere,& Have to Abandon the vehicle!

Richlacal, what about a house fire or windblown neighborhood fire?

Sue

I hate to admit that my Bug Out Bag is currently unpacked. I'm "in between" at the moment. In other words, I'm replacing, updating, experimenting, etc. The gear is all over my office floor. I have a lot of other life stuff going on that's more pressing at the moment.

you must have more faith and/or money than me. unless you vehicle is prepped, what are you going to do if your neighbours get burned out too? what if you're out more than a few hours? where are you going go? what are you going to wear? i can't imagine being comfy in jammies, coats and boots for vey long. how many house fires have we heard about, even just this month, where houses are evac'd? it's not always one house and the people rarely get back in quickly. do as you will, but i don't want my family to have to rely on anyone else for the basics if that ever happened. complaining that the aid wasn't there won't make it happen - that's my job.

i agree that bugging-in is very often the best strategy, and doing so comfortably is one of our family's priorities.

i need my family to be prepped for the alternative too though. there aren't many scenarios where i'd consider it, but denying that a fire, toxic train derailment or nuclear accident could happen around here would just be dumb and irresponsible.

As you can tell, I am a bug-in, home lovin' guy, but twice I have had the vehicles loaded up with our important stuff, ready to leave as wildfire bore down on our street. We are susceptible to another one, as the chaparral is getting higher.

We operate off of a posted check list. Both times, it took about fifteen minutes. What we would have to do in this case really doesn't fit the classical bugging out scenario, because we would go only as far as a reasonably situated cheap motel and watch the flames from there. I would be sure to bring my laptop so I could post to ETS

Great idea hikermor. We've got a bunch of stuff around to help the kids, and whatever adult is here with them at the time, to deal with a crisis, but we don't have a checklist for them. on the other hand, maybe that would make it more difficult? grabbing a comprehensive bob might be easier, at least that's the way we've been thinking until this moment.

I'm in the same situation as hikermor and have had the truck loaded and ready to go within minutes. It took more than a couple minutes to pack the truck -- prioritizing what goes and what stays, but where I am located I usually have days to pack the truck for a wildfire. It stays packed until the fire is out and we have an all clear.

The rain we've had lately is making for lots of fuel for the next wildfire.

while I have a 72 hour kit in the Explorer... my hurricane supplies are located in a central 3 shelf cabinet...over the years I've accumulated a variety of gear, that hopefully never gets used as intended... central location helps keep track of it, and save for a trip to the gun safe for a carbine, bandoleer and extra cash, grab the prescription meds, clean out the pantry of canned goods, and a stop in the garage for an extra propane cylinder I'm out the door...

I have Important Documents copied,& stored with Friends/relatives in other states.I have Fire Insurance.I have a Small GOP(Get Out Pack),I have a Steel Shed with Camping/Survival Gear located well away from The Bldgs,I have a Concrete Cache that I'm Presently working on.I Have Survival stuff in a Storage Facility,Located a few miles from Home.I have 2-50gpm Sump Pumps,hoses&accesories,7500W-Generator/Fuel/Cords,400 gal.Water Tank.If No one is Home,of course I can't use this stuff but there are 2- Hydrants within 100' of my Home,4 Engine Co. within a Mile of Home.I'm More worried about Flood,Namely a Large Tsunami that would Come up The Ballona Creek,& Overflow into my Neighborhood.Geographically Speaking,my home is in The L.A. Basin,Basin Meaning -Water in/Water out,Theoretically It is Quite possible as,That is how the Basin was Formed,To begin with!

GOP, thats a new term, but fits what I have. My BOB so to say has less gear than some since its mainly for those situations where you have to go but if I were t actually bug out I'd take more than just that one pack. My bug in or bug out gear consists of multiple layers of gear.

I made a Bug-Out kit based on the Ready.Gov recommendations, a long with some additional items of my own choosing.

My main BOB is a duffle bag which contains the following:

-Copies of my important papers and cash in various denominations and types
-(3) 3 Liter jugs of water
-Food for at least 3 days
-Mess kit and pocketrocket stove with fuel canister and lighters
-Two changes of clothes (in dry bags) with a heavy fleece jacket
-Stuff for water purification
-A winter hat, light work gloves, heavy gloves
-Toiletry items (soap, comb, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, mirror, ect)
-A light weight synthetic sleeping bag
-A metal Nalgene bottle and belt case
-Toilet paper
-garbage bags
-a big tarp
-some basic hand tools (pliers, vice grips, adjustable wrench, screwdrivers, a Leatherman multi-tool)
-a sewing kit and first aid kit
-duct tape
-550 cord
-disposable ponchos
-a white painters suit with dust mask and goggles
-an AM/Fm/Shortwave radio
-a GMRS/FRS/WX radio
-Garmin GPS
-Two LED flashlights (Gerber Omnivore and Surefire LED G2)
-Spare batteries
-an Estwing camp axe
-an 18" Stanley Fatmax pry bar
-A Henry youth size .22 rifle with 200 rounds of CCI ammunition

I keep it by my back door with my boots and jacket. I basically set it up so, if I'm asleep in bed, I can get dressed, grab my EDC on my dresser, then grab my boots and BOB on the way out the back door, finally getting to my truck...all in essentially one quick linear motion.

I'm single now, but if I had other members of the family I would also make up a backpack BOB for each of them. The biggest things for them would be to make sure they have their own food, water, clothing, bedding, flashlight, cash, and a two-way radio for basic communication...then whatever else they might need specifically (medication, toys, ect).

I was right outside of New York during 9/11 and it was amazing how fast it could go from calm to complete chaos. I figured that, if I was ever in a situation like that again, I would want to be able to grab my stuff and get away as quickly as possible (hopefully, before most other people start clogging the roadways). The longer one waits the exponentially worse things can get.

Why by the back door, is the back door in your bedroom? I got back again to the house fire scenario, you may not be able to get out of your room, the BOB should be right by the bed so you can grab it if you have to go out a window.

If the place is on fire and I'm in my bedroom, I'm not sticking around to grab my BOB...I'm going right out the window next to my bed. In the low oxygen situation present during a house fire, it's best to just get out as fast as possible, rather than to try and lug a heavy bag out the window. Especially since as soon as you pop open that window it's most likely going to cause the fire to get bigger.

I'd rather just get out into the fresh air as quickly as I can. After that, I can get over to my back door, open it up, and grab my bag right there. The bag is close enough to that back door that I can grab it without even going inside.

I have some supplies where they can be quickly loaded into the cars and a binder with checklists and important documents in it.

The checklists are sorted as follows:
1) Who's responsible for packing it (you, me, whoever gets there first)
2) Priority (pets and people first, books and games last)
3) Location (e.g. living room, northeast bookshelf, middle drawer)
4) Items