The other night after an evening of reading the Survivor Forum and scanning the internet for ideas, I settled down for a good nights rest. My mind tossing around ideas of what I could do and how to do it.

Then an idea occurred that shook me up. What would I do if I had to bugout in 5 minutes? Really and truthfully, not a drill - full bugout in 5 minutes!

I'm laying in bed in my whitey-tightys, my jeans are on the chair across the room, shirt in the closet, socks in the dresser, shoes in the closet, cellphone on the night-stand. Medications are in my ditty-bag in the bathroom. Keys, wallet, FAK, BOB, DayTimer(calendar/phone#s), and FRS radios in my office (work from home). Sleeping bags & backpack (empty) in the closet. Cash in the freezer, camping Chuck-box and stove in the shop. No way I could be packed and rolling in 5 minutes. Not to mention the wife and boys.

What do you do every night when you are going to bed? Do you already have your clothing laid out for the next day? Is your equipment in place and ready to go? How much gas to you have in your Go-Mobile? (mine is never less than 1/2 tank)

Now if you will excuse me - I need to set out my clothes for tomorrow.

Ben

I would say, in all honesty, that if you have less than five minutes to get out, being dead hasn't caught up with you yet, or you have other things on your mind.

People like to watch things go from bad to worse. I take ten minutes when they are bad, and five minutes after I put my keys in the ignition, see the worse in the rear view. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

This question has been discussed here so many times before ... but I think you?ve checked the ets-archives, didn?t you? <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

To my personal handling of this theme I can tell you that I?ve storred several BOBs inside/outside the house, my office place, my car and even troughout the whole world (have to travel a lot).
I have some places to evacuate to if sh*** hits the fan and so on ...

In the ending I?ve to deal with a similar situation like you with your wife and the kids:
My wife didn?t care about it all. She?s a "sheep"! (But I love her soooo much!) <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> So I was forced to make grab-kits that hold permanantly anything needed for both of us.

So if I would have to evacuate in five minutes:
1. grab my wife (no matter how great her complaints about interrupting her sleep will be)
2a. grab the bag beneath my bag (contains cellphone, PDA, extended PSK and FAK, minimal clothings and a ditty bag with my wife?s "essentials")
2b. alarm those who live with us in our house (we have an internal alarm)
3. dress on with the clothings from the bag
4. leave the house
5. take the car or the motorbike or the bicycles or ...
6. head to one of our shelters

That all should take only a few minutes and we?re forced to proof it two years ago when a military hospital at close quarters where supposed to be target of terrorrist.

First off, let me say hello to everyone. I have lurked here for a couple of weeks, and I am impressed with the knowledge and tolerance that has been displayed by all.

Now, to the question at hand. To effectively bugout in five minutes is probably best illustrated by using a fire station as a model. Clothing ready by the bed, all persons ready and trained, and vehicle completely stocked and ready to go.

If an "incident" wakes you from a sound sleep, and you only have five minutes, you will not have the time or the mental alertness to start down a checklist of what to grab and where it is.

I have been in firehouses in the middle of the night when they have received a call. Getting the engine out of the barn is a group effort. Training and reflex get them on the engine. The group effort begins in the driveway. Do we go left or right?

I've done it in 10, 5 would be hard, particularly now that we have kids - some gear is always in the truck, shoes are right next to my desk, where my go bag is sitting, with the next days socks on top of it - jacket on hanger is in reach of the desk. Previous days pants and shirt go into the laundry in the MORNING - in the mean time, they are on the shelf next to the bed, with the pockets still loaded (flashlights, knife, keys, wallet, etc) - if I HAVE to go NOW, I'll put on the dirty clothes -wake my wife, pants on, shirt on, probably grab a spare pair of socks out of habit, grab my son or daughter, down the stairs, toss kids into truck, back into house, grab shoes, go bag, jacket - kids shoes and jacket. If I have time, grab cats - and I can go - notice something? I have not even bothered putting on my shoes and jacket - in a "get out in 5 minutes" deal - I figure I can put them on LATER - I have them, but

I do the same thing with the previous day's clothing. But since I live in earthquake country, I might have to get going in the dark, without power, while things are moving underfoot and falling over.

i keep my cloth's all set up boot's ,sock's ready to go.One pack by the bed upstair's and one down stair's by the front door. If fire and can't make it out the stair's{have fire exstingueser [SP] up stair's] it's out the window bag first.

<quote>I do the same thing with the previous day's clothing. But since I live in earthquake country, I might have to get going in the dark, without power, while things are moving underfoot and falling over.</quote>

The difference with living in earthquake country is that we can flee our homes, but then we're not going anywhere. When the big one happens, the bridges and overpasses will be down, plus land slides and traffic accidents will make all the other roads impassible. We and our neighbors will pretty much be standing in the street with our BOBs and asking ourselves WTF do we do now? Actually, this isn't really right, we'll be helping to rescue our neighbors. I just graduated from our local CERT/NERT and have been getting my neighbors organized. Still, I wonder about WTF we are going to do for shelter since we cannot plan on any particular buildings being inhabitable.

I can not agree more. Having been there - done that at a fire station. Having never done it at home, I am pretty sure that it could be done.

I have to admit old habits die hard - and I get up WELL before sun up. So I try to lay out my clothing for the next day (so as not to wake my bride -lest she loose the hounds upon me). So all I would really have to do is wake the wife [have her call off the hounds ;O)] , grab my boy, OUR BOBS get out.

As I wrote this I got to thinking that in a jumpsuit or coveralls for each of the family would not be a bad idea. You dont have find individual pieces of clothing and it could be "pre-packed" like BOB appearal. I think I just found my next "project" SWEET :OP EPI

Jumpsuits might work well. Lots of variables (weather, anticipated emergencies, local terrain, etc.) Jumpsuit with vest might be able to carry essentials, in case that is all you can get out. (Imagine a military pilot with his/her flight suit and survival vest.) Good footwear probably would be essential.