Great mental exercise, and this is following on the heels of some of the other threads this week that have got me thinking.

*Structure Fire: Immediate evacuation with the clothes on my back and hopefully some shoes and a cell phone in my hand.

*Wildfire: Urgent evacuation (usually some advance notice) with BoB bags and car. Relocate to nearby local relatives/friends.

*Chemical Spill: Immediate evacuation uphill & upwind with clothes on my back, or shelter in place if needed.

*Natural Disaster (Flooding, Earthquake, etc.): Immediate evacuation, probably on foot, to the least unaffected local area or shelter. Eventually you will be able to access your home, if it's still standing. Take BoB's if possible.

*Local Civil Unrest: Evacuate away from population centers, possibly to a hotel or campground at least 1-2 hours away. Load car with BoB bags, self-defense, 72 hours of food/water, and camping gear.

*Terrorism: Evacuate away from population centers, probably to a remote campground or relatives/friends in another area. Load car with BoB bags, self-defense, maximum amount of food/water, and camping gear.

The one common theme I am seeing is how valuable my BoB bags and hiking boots will be. Stripped of my home and vehicle, at least I can try to hoof it somewhere safe with some minimal comfort and security. At this point I don't have any rural property, so I'd choose to "bug in" unless the circumstances required me to evacuate. First choice for evacuation would be to local relatives/friends, unless I wanted to put some distance between me and the problem. At that point I'd consider heading to a more remote area of the state and shacking up at a hotel or campground, probably with a lot of other people. Even if I did have rural property away from my area, chances are by the time I got there it would be occupied by someone else.

Nonetheless, I feel somewhat safe in my location, as I'm already away from major cities and can access millions of acres of public land within minutes. I should probably be more worried about a bear getting into my stash of energy bars and canned ravioli, to awake in the morning with no breakfast, and worse, no COFFEE! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />