I live in a fairly risky area. But in truth most people do. Terrorists, earthquakes, power outages, brush fires, the possibility of an earth-shattering comet. Not to mention the possibility of JEB Bush being elected someday.
So right now, right this instant, are you ready to bug out?
I have a grab bag with a couple of bottles of water, my ‘spare’ credit cards and (oddly) white socks.
Are you ready?
Always - DeHusband used to be in the Air Force so that’s the way he thinks. I tend to keep things containerized, like a basket full of all prescription bottles. And we keep a partially packed suitcase (toiletries, underwear, socks, paperbacks) in the closet closest to the front door. We’ve spent a lot of time in hospital, and you never know if the phone is going to ring in the middle of the night. We have elderly parents living far away. We also have a small amount of money in cash, in case we have to get on the road quickly. It woulnd’t be pretty, but we could be out in 10 mins. I suppose in a disaster situation, it would take 20 mins (gather animals and photos).
(And shouldn’t this be in IMHO??)
Living as I do in Southern California, I am always prepared for the random earthquake/race riot/Raider game. There is a bug-out bag in the truck at all times, along with regularly rotated MREs and bottled water. We go camping quite often, so there are packed equipment boxes in the garage with stove, propane, tents, bags, etc. The house has flashlights/candles, batteries, etc.
We are ready for anything short of asteroid collision. 
The General Questions forum is for questions with factual answers. This is more of a survey, so I’ll move it to the IMHO forum. I’ll also edit the title of this thread to make it more descriptive. Please try to choose more descriptive thread titles in the future.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
now I want to know what the original title is.
Define bug out …
I’ve got mini survival kits in the car (pared way down since I’m not in the boonies anymore) … very mini as three diapers won’t get me far.
In NYC? Of course I am—got an overnight bag at my desk with batteries, radio, flashlight, overnight stuff and—most important!—an extra lipstick. Just hope the next blackout or attack doesn’t happen when I’m away from my office . . .
I’ll probably do the same thing I did with the Blackout. Head back to Brooklyn and defend my house with a bat.
We also camp a lot, so I’m prepared that way, and I know I have about 12 small propane bottles out in the garage (and 2 propane lanterns and a propane stove), but I’m low on regular batteries for the battery-operated lanterns and the radios. I do have plenty of candles, too.
I have plenty of canned food, but not much bottled water at the moment. I do know how to tap into the water heater, though. That’s 50 gallons right there.
I have two cats, but only one cat carrier. I’ve been meaning to get a second one, but I never take both of them anywhere together. Depending on the type of emergency, I’d probably leave them to fend for themselves. If we were evacuated to a shelter, we most likely would have to leave them behind anyway.
I’m not prepared from work.
At home we each have a 72-hour kit made using Red Cross Guidelines. We don’t have all this stuff, just what we thought we would need. Each of us have one bag, it’s a little larger than a back pack, but not as big as a suit case. Lots of families in our area use backpacks. One per family member.
Freakin’ hamsters ate my post
Short version: I’ve been a safety officer at several companies and have lots of first aid and emergency training. Plus my grandfather is a geologist. So I’m intimately familiar with the Pacific Northwest’s seismic risk profile. My wife and I were just talking about this a couple of nights ago; she was amazed to learn that I am constantly aware of where I am and how I would need to respond if a major earthquake were to strike. I know my exits, I identify dangly shit on the ceiling that could come loose, I recognize plate glass windows, I select heavy furniture to get under, and so on. This all happens subconsciously. I’m confident that if the Big One hits, I’d be able to set aside my panic and follow my plans and training, doing what needs to be done to survive and help others. My wife was very curious about how I can do this, because she is not comfortable with living in earthquake country; she apparently prefers not to think about it.
When a mod changes the thread title, the original title is preserved as the header for the first message.
Wow. I figured this thread would have zero responses. I am totally unprepared to bug out, but I have lots and lots of bottled water in my basement (which is only accessible from the outside, so it won’t be easy to get to in an emergency). I don’t have anything set aside in case of trauma!
Did you all have this set up pre-9/11?
I guess I’d better get something put together so I’ll look like I was prepared when the world as we know it comes to an end, huh?
Both of our vehicles have basic survival kits with three days’ rations, basic survival equipment, and 100 rounds of ammunition packed at all times (the guns aren’t stored in the cars, but it’s easiest just to grab the firearms on the way out rather than have to pack ammo, too.) We also have partially-packed duffle bags ready to go at home. More importantly, though, we also have contingency plans so if something comes up when we’re all separated we know where to go and how to hook up as soon as possible.
If the need arose, we could evacuate the area from our workplaces immediately, though we’d obviously be a little worse off as far as equipment goes. If it happened while we were at home, we could be out in 15 minutes or less.
Unlike the majority of people who would, of course, open this thread, no. I don’t have anything ready to go. In fact, my family’s disaster supplies are woefully scattered and nonexistent (and you might notice I live in a hurricane area.) During the last ice storm we were all like “you know, we should really put a box together, cause it was real hard to find the flashlights.” And once the lights came back on, what did we do?
Well, we threw out everything in the fridge and took a shower. 
I know, bad us. We’ll regret it some day.
I think my fiance’s parents have a bunch of stuff in their basement. Water, food, a generator, “protective devices,” etc. We, however, have almost none of that. I mean, really; if we followed the Red Cross guidelines, we’d need an entire room. Since our house only HAS five rooms (including the bathroom). . .well, that’s just so not happening right now.
Horribly unprepared. But then again, all I would want is my cigarettes anyways. Oh, and a lighter. I like to fantise and say that I will McGyver all and anything that I would need in an emergency.
In all seriousness though, I do need to be more proactive in that category. I don’t even have basic band aids. I get a cut and I wrap it up with ductape and toliet paper. Electrical tape if its really bad.
I rarely have food in the house. I shop for food practically on the go. I eat what I buy that day, hence nothing gets left over. My car is habitually hovering on Empty and I rarely put more than 5 bucks in at a time. Hold over from my college days. Didn’t ever have more than 5 bucks at a time then and its still a force of habit now.
Where I am, I think there’s little chance of earthquakes, brush fires and Bush filials. And if a comet hits the earth I’m probably dead whichever. But the reason I don’t have anything packed is because I’m too disorganised
Wow.
Say, need a crazy guy with a bat to tag along?
It just occured to me while reading this that I am where all of you would be heading! If there was a scenario where I had to leave here, I’m afraid there would be no other place to go! 
Actually, if something “Big” did go down I could probably be out the door with enough to get by for a day or three with just a little notice, but other than that we are not prepared for anything special.
Overheard in the public restroom: “That’ll leave a skidmark all the way to the treatment plant!”
This is why we have them. We moved to the Houston area just over a year after Hurricane Alecia. After the first couple of severe storms and Hurricane watches and warnings, we learned to have things on hand in the house. After we had kids we learned to have them ready to go. When the kids were no longer babies and the power would go out (about twice a year here) we would haul out the bags and if the flashlights didn’t work then we’d replace’em and the kids loved getting to eat the “emergency rations” from their bags. It’s a power lesson in preparedness if you play the “if this were a real emergency” game with the kids. For the time of the outage they can only rely on whats in our bags. They learn to remember water, something to play with, dry clothes, toilet tissue, and so on.
Yup, but that is simply due to my travelling in remote areas and my being too lazy to clean out my SUV. As far as ever needing to bug out, the possibility is remote where I live, though you never know when a toxic tank car will derail when passing through town.