Emergency planning - escape route/go bag

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All you need to go is gas in the car, cash and documents in one place, and a plan for meeting up if cell phones don't work. I have a small emergency kit in my car as well (foil blanket, first aid, tools) and sneakers at work.

We have water treatment gear but that's for staying, e.g. if utilities give out.

It's good to be prepared but you need to prepare for real scenarios, not movies or heroic fantasies. Survival is mostly about staying warm, dry, and clean.

Where are you planning on driving this car?

[Anonymous]

I have had multiple go bags packed for various reasons over the last few years. It is not crazy. Make it light and practical. It is likely you will need to walk a hundred miles or more to get far enough away from DC. Baltimore is 40 miles from here. There are few roads out of here, and they are backed up on a good day.

[Anonymous]

We have caches of gear and food scattered around a 100 mile radius. You never know what direction you need to bug out. Also have a code word to let the family know when it’s time.

That works for many events unless it’s some zombie thing. Then it’s just point and shoot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What exactly does your husband think is going to happen in which he needs filter straws and guns?

OP - pretty sure he thinks the water is going to be poisoned and that all the Republicans with guns will be coming to get Democrats. OR we will actually be at war with a foreign adversary on US soil.

Plan is to get the hell out of dodge and go to our family house by the Canadian boarder.

Not a good plan. You need a much closer safe place.

[Anonymous]

We do have a go bag. I think of it more like if there's a weather emergency or something and we have to evacuate, I don't want to be running around the house looking for things then. So, it just has some money, passports, other important documents that would be hard to replace. It's just generally helpful to not have things all over the place.

[Anonymous]

I booked a flight on Virgin Galactic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have had multiple go bags packed for various reasons over the last few years. It is not crazy. Make it light and practical. It is likely you will need to walk a hundred miles or more to get far enough away from DC. Baltimore is 40 miles from here. There are few roads out of here, and they are backed up on a good day.

Finally, someone who actually lives here and drives a car. If I were planning to bug out, I think a dirt bike would be the only thing with a fighting chance. Even an ebike would be better than a car.

[Anonymous]

I've been thinking I need to prepare bags but that's because I live in Colorado and after this non-winter we're having it's going to be a bad year for fires.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had multiple go bags packed for various reasons over the last few years. It is not crazy. Make it light and practical. It is likely you will need to walk a hundred miles or more to get far enough away from DC. Baltimore is 40 miles from here. There are few roads out of here, and they are backed up on a good day.

Finally, someone who actually lives here and drives a car. If I were planning to bug out, I think a dirt bike would be the only thing with a fighting chance. Even an ebike would be better than a car.

A mass evacuation event would be gridlock, sure. But in a lengthy power outage, you can drive to someplace else. Or, ideally, you have the supplies to stay put for 3 or 4 days and then drive. Keeping gas in the car is pretty basic prep for a lot of different scenarios.

It's fine to plan around the idea that roads will be clogged, but it's almost always going to make more sense to shelter in place a few hours or days until traffic dies down and then drive, instead of try to bike 100 miles or hike overland or whatever you're picturing. There are very few scenarios where it's unsafe to wait indoors, but safe to be moving at walking speed outdoors for days.

[Anonymous]

Our go bags would have guns but it would be rifles for hunting. We also have antibiotics. We have a farm/camp a couple of hours away that we would go to. It’s already pretty well stocked.

The issue of course would be getting out of the DC area.

[Anonymous]

Op - we do have a whole house generator on natural gas so hopefully our house would continue to have power even if the power grid was out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had multiple go bags packed for various reasons over the last few years. It is not crazy. Make it light and practical. It is likely you will need to walk a hundred miles or more to get far enough away from DC. Baltimore is 40 miles from here. There are few roads out of here, and they are backed up on a good day.

Finally, someone who actually lives here and drives a car. If I were planning to bug out, I think a dirt bike would be the only thing with a fighting chance. Even an ebike would be better than a car.

A mass evacuation event would be gridlock, sure. But in a lengthy power outage, you can drive to someplace else. Or, ideally, you have the supplies to stay put for 3 or 4 days and then drive. Keeping gas in the car is pretty basic prep for a lot of different scenarios.

It's fine to plan around the idea that roads will be clogged, but it's almost always going to make more sense to shelter in place a few hours or days until traffic dies down and then drive, instead of try to bike 100 miles or hike overland or whatever you're picturing. There are very few scenarios where it's unsafe to wait indoors, but safe to be moving at walking speed outdoors for days.

The problem is that everyone else will have the same great idea, but not have enough gas in their car. The roads will be littered with abandoned vehicles. You aren't going to drive out of this area if the SHTF. Walking is going to be slow, about 20 miles a day. For every day, you need to carry food and water.

[Anonymous]

Really you just need valid documents and cash. A large supply of water at home and a backup generator. Maybe some antibiotics. There’s almost no scenario in which evacuating an area at the same time as everyone else is successful in time to save you from whatever you think is coming; by that time it has arrived. People who survived mass extinctions did so because they left before it became impossible to leave—before it looked like the best course of action.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do have a go bag. I think of it more like if there's a weather emergency or something and we have to evacuate, I don't want to be running around the house looking for things then. So, it just has some money, passports, other important documents that would be hard to replace. It's just generally helpful to not have things all over the place.

In my mind, someone robbing your house is more of a statistical likelihood than whatever event OP is worried about—isn’t a bag of money and your passports too easy for someone to steal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What exactly does your husband think is going to happen in which he needs filter straws and guns?

OP - pretty sure he thinks the water is going to be poisoned and that all the Republicans with guns will be coming to get Democrats. OR we will actually be at war with a foreign adversary on US soil.

Plan is to get the hell out of dodge and go to our family house by the Canadian boarder.

I would be a lot more concerned about your husband's mental health than any of the threats he fears. Lord.