Bugging Out

Many people see advance preparations for bugging out as being overly cautious and a bit on the dramatic side. However, if history has taught us anything, life-changing events can happen in the blink of an eye and those people who just assumed that life would carry forever in the same patterns are those who get left behind or killed. 

Having a bug out plan is not just a case of being ever ready, but is a sensible precaution to take care of you and those around you in the worst-case scenario.

Key Decisions to Make

When you start thinking about what you'd do when you're bugging out, you should put together a comprehensive plan of action. When you're making your bugging out plan, you need to make the following key decisions:

• Initial base camp - when the apocalyptic event occurs, you're going to need somewhere to set up camp while you assess the situation, await for government advice and let the dust settle a little. While your home can be modified to become a temporary base, you will be better off out of town in case of looting, electrical failure or an armed attack on built up populations. Your base camp will need storage for food, a water source and to be relatively well concealed, so think woods or a local campsite for ease of setting up.

• Location of bags - the main part of your bugging out plan will cover the resources that you will take with you. Hopefully, you'll have time to stock up your initial base camp ahead of time, but there will be things that you'll want to have with you on your journey such as high calorie food, clean water and fuel for a fire. However, you don't know where you're going to be in the case of an apocalyptic event, so you'll need to have various bug out bags in different locations. You should have one in the house, one in each car you own and one in a secret location such as a neighbor's garden or your shed. This way you'll never be without your essential survival equipment. 

• Transport - given that the best strategy is to get out of Dodge as quickly as possible in a TEOWAWKI event, you'll need to plan how you'll get from your home to the initial base camp. While your car may seem like the obvious option, an EMP strike will neutralize any electrical objects so you'll need a back up like a bicycle or canoe if you live near to water. Again, if you can stock as many resources at your first base camp as possible, you won't weigh your mode of transport down unnecessarily as you're trying to make good your escape.
  

• Long term survival - your bug out plan should finally include a contingency section that caters for the scenario where you can't return home. Ideally, you should be able to convert your temporary base camp into a long-term survival camp with a running water supply and local sources of food, but you may need to plan to move elsewhere further away from civilization depending on the nature of the disaster. 

Above all, your plan for bugging out should be shared with all the people in your survival party. You may want to designate roles within your group to share the burden, both financial and physical, of preparation. However, make sure that you can trust the people who you give jobs to be ready on time, and it may be prudent to hold regular gatherings of your whole party to check on preparations and discuss any changes or ideas for improvement for your bug out plan.

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