Someone mentioned that should I need to evacuate my home, I would be going to a shelter or something...is this viable and what are shelters like? I have never been in one. I have no family or CLOSE friends in the area. I have a bunch of friends and acquaintences...they may provide shelter but most are severly underprepared. Your opinions? I live in an suburban area (Irvine, California).

public shelters:<br><br>picture your high-school gymnasium, now add 300 folding cots, Now add 500 shocked, confused, injured, displaced refugees who have just lost everything that means anything to them of all ages demanding why the authorities have let this happen to them and wanting to know why something hasn't already been done to fix the situation, Now add three days and the onset of extreme hunger due to lack of adequate food supplies, sleep deprivation due to over crowding and armed national guardsmen keeping the peace.<br><br>Caution this may be an exageration or not.<br><br>public shelters will be set up in any public building left structurally intact with a large enough interior space to house a few hundred cots or sleeping bags. They will be setup by the Red Cross and the National Guard probably in that order.<br><br>You will be housed and somewhat fed in this environment and when Uncle Sam sends in aid it will be showered on these locations first.<br><br>OTOH, if you are even remotely prepared with someplace to go that is outside the damage perimeter then you will be much more secure and comfortable even if you have to hike for a day or two to reach it. Some place like a friends place in a suburb, a cabin on a plot of land you might own that you can reach by 4X4 or Mountain bike, A cached camping supply in a self storage shed in a near-by suburb that you can reach by mountain bike and a pre-determined and evaluated camp-site in a suburban wood-lot or rail or highway right-of-way. All of these options would be preferrable to me over the shelter. At least until the aid starts to arrive from Uncle Sam. People in shelters will be much more amicable after they are getting well fed and there are obvious signs of an effort by Big Brother to set things right.<br><br>I'd rather dance with the wolves than try to sleep with the panicked sheep.

The only things that my first thoughts say you left out are:<br><br>1. The level of "whine and complain" in the shelter will be absolutely astounding.<br>2. The authorities will tell you what they think you need to know only when they think you should know it (knowledge is power).<br>3. The authorities will ensure that you have nothing with which you might hurt yourself or others (think airport security on steroids).<br><br>Not that I have an opinion on this or anything......<br><br>When Andrew approached Louisiana in 1992 I executed my own bug out plan, leaving for a site of known availability 90 miles inland. Best decision I ever made.<br><br>Alan

Skunk,<br><br>Avoid shelters if at all possible. A few underprepared friends are a better alternative than a mob of under/unprepared strangers and un/underprepared local/state/federal government relief agencies.<br><br>Take care,<br><br>Andy

Do you think your friends have enough space in the back of a closet where you could store a Rubbermaid tub or cardboard box of stuff? Tape the box shut, label with your name, and put in the bottom of the hall closet.<br><br>They may be unprepared but you don't have to be. You could remedy that by leaving a few things at their place. How about a change of clothes, extra socks & underwear, some bottled water, backpacking stove, some canned goods, pasta, matches, lighter, flashlight & batteries, portable radio, knife, rope, tarp(s), wool blanket(s), first aid kit, leather gloves, Boy Scout Fieldbook, day pack. All of this would easily fit in a 12"x12"x24" box. <br><br>Probably could fit a few more things in that would be useful. Bandanna, water purification stuff, trash bags, space blanket, mediations, etc. Look at the Red Cross 72 hour kit recommendations for ideas.<br><br>Might include a few things that you could share with them so they don't feel left out. A LED flashlight would be a cool gift that would be useful. Maybe a Swiss Army Knife.<br><br>Maybe suggest they put together a similar box with clothes that fit them that they can leave at your place so they can run to you if they have a problem?

Since you may end up at a shelter you would be much better off recognized as one of the individuals in charge of the shelter rather than one of the poor helpless victims. If you become involved in a Community Emergency Response Team or a Ham ARES / RACES club or the local American Red Cross or even the National Guard you will be quite busy helping others but you will get first access to aid and supplies and will be much better prepared than nearly anyone else and you will be a member of a larger team that will support you.

I totally agree with miniMe. Becoming involved with your local emergency response group(s) gives you a much better understanding of the difficulties of dealing with an unprepared mass of "victims", provides a degree of respect and authority for you and allows you to assist rather than be one who needs assisting. <br><br>I am involved in my local ACS (Auxillary Communication Service, an ARES/RACES group). We meet weekly on a radio communication net, and have group meetings to preplan emergency service responsibilities. Diverse membership and ideas greatly contribute to the plans. Training and simulations help in the event of a real emergency.<br><br>I have signed up for CERT training this fall. This consists of 8, 3 hour training sessions on topics including Disaster Prepardness, Disaster Fire Suppression, Emergency Medical Operations and Triage, Search and Rescue, Team Organization, and a Disaster Similation.<br><br>Being involved is probably the best way to assure your own safety, make your own prepardness planning realistic within the context of your community, and contribute in a positive way to your community. <br><br>Sometimes Bugging Out may be the best plan, but most of the time Bugging In to help may be a better solution. <br>

Minime,<br><br>Good suggestions. With one noteable exception. Avoid the National Guard. I can give you thousands of reasons to do this, but the only ones that apply to this scenario are these:<br><br>1. In a civil disaster, you may be called on to do things that you have no training for. As an example during Hurricane Elena, National guard troops provided security in some of the shelters. The guardsmen were not MPs, nor were they infantry, or any other MOS that might have some training in security. They were clerks. People, mostly guardsmen, were hurt as a result.<br><br>2. After Hurricane Andrew guardsmen were sent out to patrol against looting. They were issued rifles, but no ammuntion. Guess what happened?<br><br>3. You may be called out when it is you who are in need. An aquaintance of mine, who was rendered homeless during recent floods, was called up the day after his house washed away. He wisely refused to report in, but is still in the process of getting off the NG's excrement-list.<br><br>4. You may not be in any better shape than anyone else. Guardsmen (in my experience) recieve food and water the same time everyone else does. And the same amount...subsistence rations, when they are/have been working very hard for long hours.<br><br><br>I love Guardsman, heck I am one, because I love what they (try to) defend, but the Guard is the least trained, least equipped, least professional, and most poorly led outfit in the US military. They are more an attempt to stockpile half-trained soldiers who can be easliy and cheaply exploited in times of emergency, than they are a viable military force.<br><br>Take care,<br><br>Andy

Minimi, great suggestions.<br><br>I thought about joining all of those :)<br><br>Air National Guard, not sure about, because I may leave California and immigrate to the US, not sure if it would transfer over.<br><br>My school has an emergency comms group, but the door is ALWAYS locked and the contact people never get back to me. Not the type of group I would like to join, IMO.<br><br>The city has an emergency group that seems quite involved and meets once a month. Unfortunately, it is on the same night as a campus fellowship meeting so I haven't checked it out yet.<br><br>The question is will the smaller civic groups be able to adequately help, or are they (like the National Guard, who were my heroes of the LA riots) usually thrown to the wolves (sheep)?

Resqman,<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Do you think your friends have enough space in the back of a closet where you could store a Rubbermaid tub or cardboard box of stuff? Tape the box shut, label with your name, and put in the bottom of the hall closet.<p><hr></blockquote><p>Heh. A "Bug-Over" Box. That's a pretty neat idea. Thanks!