Evacuation Destination And Bug Out Bag

Practical Disaster Prepping-Part 3

The simplest and least expensive option is to stay with family or friends who live far enough away that a local disaster won’t affect them. Make it mutually beneficial. They agree to host you in an emergency, and you agree to host them. This could be immediate family or an aunt, uncle, cousin, classmate or friend. It could even be an ex … but that might just be trading one catastrophe for another.

Regardless of whether you can stay with family or friends or in a hotel, here are a few considerations. Although finding all of these is unlikely, if possible find a location that is:   

1. Close enough that you can get there on one tank of gas or electric charge.
2. Outside large metropolitan areas and away from major highways. During an extended period with no utilities, city populations will evacuate in huge numbers.
3. Away from areas prone to hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions or proximity to nuclear or industrial plants … in other words, Antarctica.

A Bug Out Bag is a small bag filled with essential disaster preparation items. People often picture someone trekking through the forest wearing a backpack, but that’s not the goal. Even if you starred in a survival TV show, bugging out into the wild is a last resort. The purpose of this bag is to have your essential items in one easy to access spot whether you shelter in place or throw it in a car. In the book, 25 items are covered in detail but here are some examples: first aid kit, water bottle, filter straw, lighter, head mounted flashlight, duct tape, garbage bags, multi tool, toilet paper and pepper spray. Although you can buy preassembled Bug Out Bags online, you already have many of these items and can build your own customized bag for less.

Something that’s often forgotten is that we need to have our critical documents in one place so we can quickly grab them along with our laptop or a backup drive from our desktop computer. As a minimum, our documents should include:  

• Passports and other IDs
• Birth Certificates
• Medications and medical insurance information
• Home and automobile insurance information
• Titles for automobiles, homes, etc.
• Social security, bank and investment account information

One of the most essential items is your cell phone and a way to keep it powered. It allows you to stay aware of what’s happening and whether you need to evacuate. It also allows you to reach police, fire and medical emergency services, to coordinate with family and friends, and to have GPS navigation. During a major disaster, the cell phone network may fail, so here’s a critical hack. Cell phone companies now offer satellite backup service for a small additional monthly fee. This allows you to use your phone even when the cell towers go down. In Disaster Prepping For Dummies, we cover satellite backup options and use. We also cover having a combination evacuation/vacation destination and using Airbnb to help fund it. This could be anything from a cabin to an RV lot.

Dave Stevens

Dave is a retired Navy Commander, F-18 pilot and served as the Strike Operations Officer for the Persian Gulf. He did the TED talk "How Do We Prevent Our Inevitable Extinction," wrote the bestselling Fuzed Trilogy (in development as a TV mini-series) and the newly published Disaster Prepping for Dummies.

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