Hey everybody. I've just been lurking around here for a while, but I thought I might as well post here real quick.

I live in Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish, La. We had a mandatory evac so it was a good chance to test my zombie apocalypse plans. Let's just say it was a good training lesson to a beginner. I learned alot about my needs and prep levels.

I had my BOB, cooler with 5 one gallon frozen jugs of drinking water and perishables from my fridge, a small duffle bag of clothes, and two cases of MRE's ready to go and packed in my truck in record time. I then had time to catch a 2 hour nap to prepare for the drive. When I woke, I ate what I could from the remaining spoilables in my fridge, unplugged everything in my house, turned off the pilot light to my water heater, flipped the breakers off, filled up the tub, locked up and bugged out.

Having been caught in the Rita evac mess in full stop traffic in 1:00-5:00pm Louisiana heat and humidity, I left around 10:30PM Saturday, after doing a quick stop to top off the tank (2 gallons) and grab a couple of Red Bulls for the trip. I got off of I-10 as soon as possible and headed north on hwy 27, up through DeQuincey, Singer, Merryville, then cut across into Tx to Bon Weir, where my parents live. There was never more than 3 cars in front of me, and only 3 times were there headlights in my review. Smooth sailing, made the average trip time.

We holed up in a low brick church that they attend there, and the weather never got worse than a semi-rough rainstorm. It turned into an overnight barbq more than a survival event, thank goodness.

Left there around 8:00AM this morning, and made an uneventful and speedy return trip home, once again sticking to off-the-beaten path roads and moving in odd hour travel times.

I just wanted to post and thank you guys for all the wonderful tips and lessons posted here that allowed this to be as smooth an experience as it was. Now if there was just a small page out there on how not to stand in a fire ant bed while answering a call of nature, which led to a very public indecent improv re-inaction of the dance scene from Footloose, everything would have been just rosey!

Thanks again for the wonderful stuff you guys post on here.

Truckergut

Welcome, and congrats on your preps and planning. Sounds like you got it all right. Lessons learned.

Welcome aboard.

I'm glad to hear that things went well. and the plans you made played out without a hitch.

Welcome and glad it all went SMOOOOTH!

Welcome Newguy!

While turning the pilot off on the water heater, next time maybe turn the gas off at the meter? Just in case...

Welcome sir to the forums.

Lee

Nice post. Welcome.

Hard to find a finer bunch of folks then in this post. Welcome.

As a new guy myself, welcome. Sounds like you were well prepared for the storm. I'm curious, how much of what you did to prepare did you learn from these forums or the ETS website?

John E

Actually about 80% of my methods and gear prep came from here or links I found on here. Everywhere else I went, though, credited this site or had links to it somewhere as the place to go for the best info. I'm just starting in on this, and you guys keep pointing me in the correct paths to take to learn the skills I need and the proper tools to get things done.

Thanks for the kind words, everybody.

Truckergut