I hope she loves you mate. When she discovers that you yanked her out of the house before she can do her hair, makeup, select her dress, handbag etc she will probably divorce you, and alimoney your ass to the max. Arguements about Tornado's, Earthquake's, Tsunami's, Civil Inssurections, TEOTWAWKI etc will I fear, not cut any ice with the lady.

I'm not a big proponant on "bugging out" anywhere. I feel nice and safe in my secluded home. Where I have everything I need close at hand. However, as someone mentioned "when you gotta go you gotta go" ..... I am assuming we would be allowed to take our own vehicle....If so I would grab my survival/camping backpack. a few of the large plastic bins I already have full of necessities I might need. Wool blankets, clothing, tarps, food/cooking items, misc survival stuff etc etc. Also, two of my pre-filled 6 gallon water jugs and a couple of cases of mre's. Lastly, my CCW and a few various firearms and ammo.

That's why I would start with the dog first. It's a lot easier to get Ranger ready to go outside in public than my wife.

Additionally, since my wife is perpetually 5 minutes late for everything (and yes, I already tried setting all the clocks in the house 5 minutes ahead), would some of us require the 10 minute warning?

Leigh,

She is not into the beauty thing, she just over packs. We would end up with so many boxes of stuff that we would not be able to get the items we actually need. She insisted on packing for me for several Cub Scout camp-outs. It is always an unhappy situation. It was difficult to get to the items we needed.

My vehicle has too many issues for me to trust it 100%. If I could replace it, I would, but that isn't in the cards for a few months, so plan B is in my buttpack around my ribs for use as a chest rig, my backpack against my spine, and my boots on my feet.

Even if my car was in topflight shape, that would be plan B. And at each break, fresh socks. Fresh socks are good. Even if they can't be fresh fresh, tie/clip them to your ruck and let them dry.

Easy, Hook up the fully loaded pop-up camper to the truck and the always loaded quad/bike trailer to my wifes AWD van and go. There is always 50 gals of stabilized gas on the bike trailer, even with todays prices we don't let our vehicles get below a 1/2 tank. We both carry two cases of 1 litre bottles of water in our vehicles. The only things that would need to be loaded are guns and ammo. We'll have food, medical supplies including perscription meds, tents and tarps tools including a chainsaw, extra clothes for the whole family (bought cheap at goodwill and easy to rotate without a lot of expense), 50 watt solar panels, communications and most comforts of home.

Your pop-up camper would be a real luxury if your didn't get stuck in traffic while trying to leave. I assume there's a plan B?

Bug-out bag and motorcycles perhaps?

Pop -up camper is lifted with 31 X10.50 15 tires which fit my truck and is fully off road capable. I've 4 wheeled that trailer places I wasn't sure I could take it until I got there. Things kinda get rattled around when you do that, but things are secured pretty well. Obviously alternate routes are part of our disaster plan. Fortunately there are plenty of old mining and back roads that converge at different points. I know a lot of folks don't have that luxury, that's one reason I left the city.

When you are trying to get several million people out of a congested area you'll have problems with traffic.

The post says:

"If you were given five minutes to gather everything important in an emergency and leave your home, would you be prepared?''

They do not specify if the emergency is a 'survival- emergency'(like floods, tornado's, etc.) Or a 'normal' emergency, like a house-fire or bomb-alert.

In a survival situation it's likely to be serious and long-term.
Therefor you should take your available survival supplies, like BOB, water, food, clothing, etc.

If you're house is on fire, for example, it's likely to be a short-term situation. The Fire Departement is on route and can put the fire out fast, and usually with minimal damage.
(At least in the Netherlands, don't know how the American fire-fighters work.
The home's in Holland are not primairly made from wood/timber, unlike the houses in the US, so if there is a fire, damage would be less.
Also we use a so called 'High-pressure' firehoses, that can put out the same amount of fire, but with less water damage.)

All in all, if you're in such a situation (short-term), the emfhasis should not be on survival equipment or stuff that can be replaced, but on things that you can't, such as photo's, insurance papers, etc.

OFF COURSE, YOU SHOULD ALLWAYS GET YOURSELF AND OTHER PEOPLE IN SAFETY, BEFORE EVEN THINKING ABOUT EQUIPMENT AND OTHER STUFF!

Good planning. The first big decision in planning for a potential survival situation is NOT to live within a city. Some folks however have no choice, and these are the people who are at a greater risk, (whether they are prepared or not) having to deal with a mass exodus scenario. If I lived in a city, I would own a motorcycle as a BOV. At least you'd have a better means to travel through traffic gridlock.