Following a disaster or impending disaster (storm, fire, or flood) your home is the first and best place to keep your family safe.

Your home provides:

• • • A warm and clean space.
    • Familiarity (which is valuable for physical and emotional wellness).
    • Protection from violence.
    • A space for all your tools and other belongings.
    • A community of neighbors who support each other.

Staying at home also helps you avoid the risks of traveling. In the event of a disaster, you should stay home for as long as possible. There are some circumstances that may force you and your family to leave your home. 

When you might consider bugging out: 

• • There is civil unrest near your home 
  • A natural disaster is putting your home at risk
  • Wildfire in your area forcing you to evacuate
  • Hurricane heading for your area

Excerpt from: Poor Man's Bug Out Escape & Evasion by Jason Ross

Deciding when to leave your home is a balancing act. If you leave too early, you lose the safety and security of your home and risk losing some of your gear unnecessarily. If you leave too late you risk being blocked in by heavy traffic. 

You must determine where you are going and how you will get there BEFORE you leave your home. Leaving without a planned safe destination means you will likely end up as a refugee. This is the worst possible outcome. 

A good bug out location provides shelter, warmth and familiarity. Small rural towns with fewer than 10,000 people have the best chance of staying safe and orderly in a disaster or collapse. The farther a town is away from a big city, the more likely it is to be safe from civil disorder. 

Tip: Consider a town that's greater than one tank of gas or 300 miles away from a big city. Bonus points if you store food or other preparation items at your destination beforehand.

You MUST have a plan to get to your bug out location. 

• • Plan several possible routes and have a paper map you can use to get there.
  • If it's further than a tank of gas from your home you need to plan accordingly.
  • Make sure that your vehicle can accommodate all of the gear AND your family.

DO NOT leave your home if you're not entirely confident you can make it to your intended destination. That is how you and your family end up as refugees.

Here's a great cheat for deciding whether to bug in or bug out from "Beginner Emergency Survival Preparedness" by Jason Ross.

Once you've made the decision to leave your home, you should do everything you can to remain with your vehicle. If your family has two vehicles it may make sense to bring both. You can carry more gear and have a backup if one breaks down. 

A car...

• • Allows you to bring some of your preparation items (Food, clothing, shelter, water)
  • Travel quickly (when compared to walking)
  • Provides some protection (isn’t bulletproof, but will keep the rain off your head)
  • Is warm and clean (beats sleeping with your head in the mud)

You could consider travelling in an alternative vehicle, such as a motorcycle or ATV to avoid traffic, however, the amount of gear you can bring is considerably less. Plus smaller vehicles do not provide protection from the elements, and you still risk running out of gas. 

The very last option is bugging out on foot. This should be avoided if at all possible. Even if your last resort is to travel by bike or with a wagon, keep your wheels as long as humanly possible. Riding a skateboard beats walking. 

Bugging out on foot is extremely slow, exhausting, and dangerous. 

If you must travel on foot it is critical that you travel as lightly and as quickly as possible. 

A bug out bag is NOT a wilderness survival kit - its purpose is to get you to your intended destination as quickly as possible. Light is right.

To sum up the question of bugging in or bugging out: 

• • Plan A is to stay home as long as possible.
  • Plan B is to travel by car as quickly as possible to your planned destination.
  • Plan C is travelling in ANY vehicle (moped, bike, skateboard, Cousin eddies supped-up 4 wheeler... whatever it takes to avoid walking).
  • Plan D is travelling by foot.

Hope this helps get your mind moving in the right direction.

As always, don’t get caught without a plan. 

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