Great post.

This is the type of question I been asking myself recently, but more along the lines, what if the disaster were to happen when I'm at work.

I'm 17 km from my home as the crow flies, which is a walkable distance. I normally take the metro, two changes and three trains, home to work about 70-90 minutes. By car when there's no traffic the same journey can take just 30 minutes. I've done it in less but I'll not say how fast I was going at the time. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

During the last metro strike the journey to work took nearly two hours and closer to two and a half for the return at night. This is a "normal" event, people are upset and frustrated, yes, but it's far removed from a "panic" or evacuation type situation. I can scarcely imagine how I would get home in such an event.

Equally ( denial may be a factor here ) I have difficulty envisaging a panic/evacuation type scenario for the city of Paris. I mean if a terrorist overtaken plane where to crash, what would it crash into. Ok there's the Eiffel Tower, while being tall doesn't hold the people the WTC did. It would be a blow to the country, but would it actually create the same scene as of the WTC. I don't think so. There's little to no chance of volcanic, seismic, tsunami activity in the region so that's not a worry. The Seine has been known to flood in the past and even a few years ago it threatened to be a problem, actually the Seine was allowed to flood higher up the country in order to save Paris. Unfortunate for those living in the Somme region who where worst hit. But that event didn't invoke much concern for the citizens of Paris.

So should I prepare something, gut reactions say yes but what I am I preparing for? Get out of Dodge and get home when whatever scenario hits basically. Again I could just as well hunker down and ride it out, whatever it is. I'd rather try to get home and hope my family get home too and we ride it out from there.

So like I said it's 17km, call it 20km with all the twists, detours and so forth. I've gone to work on the metro as per usual, so all that neat gear is in the car, I've some pretty good stuff in my briefcase, thanks to many posts on the subject. So in short in order to bug out to home I got to walk and lug my briefcase and gear with me. Now while I do carry all this stuff with me, taking a metro is one thing carrying it on foot for said distance is altogether something else.

So do I put together a bug out bag at work with a good pair of hiking shoes, and raincoat / poncho.

What else?

For your info I EDC the following:

On my person:
Wallet = cash, credit cards, space pen, 2 sheet of write in the rain.
Knife Eickhorn PRT
SAK Tinker
Small pocket knife Smith and Wesson "Pocket Protector" ( this lives in the same pouch as the SAK)
Nuwai QIII or Surefire E1e
Bic lighter.

In my Briefcase:
Doug's PSP with photon II
Leatherman PST
Streamlight TT2L
100ft of 550 Paracord
Small FSK
2 x 500ml water bottles
2 x energy bars
2 x Match safes with lifeboat and strike anywhere matches
Maps, street of Paris and large scale for surrounding area.

Keychain:
Leatherman micra
Aluminium Whistle
Arc AAA
P38
Keys.
Blue Glowring

I'm probably short in some areas, but isn't building your kit an ongoing process. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />