Do you have a "bail out bag" or "bug out bag"? What's in it?

In My Humble Opinion
41

No, and I think the idea is a bit paranoid.

I do enjoy occasionally flipping past “Doomsday Preppers,” though, and I am continually entertained by one thing: everyone on the show goes to amazing lengths to prepare for what they say is a very certain apocalyptic scenario, yet they all disagree on what will happen.

“I’m doing all this for the obvious forthcoming financial collapse.”

“I’m doing this for the obvious forthcoming dirty bomb.”

“…the obvious forthcoming global pandemic.”

“…obvious forthcoming zombie attack.”

“…forthcoming nuclear winter.”

And so on…

42

Some more mundane things that can and do happen:

  • fire
  • gas explosion
  • fire nearby that releases toxic chemicals
  • floods
  • carbon monoxide poisoning
  • heart attack / stroke / etc

Having a bag ready so you can leave immediately without looking for stuff you may need would be really helpful in those cases.

43

All these things could happen, but a bug-out bag isn’t going to help me in any of these situations. If there is a fire, explosion, or toxic cloud, I’m getting out of the house immediately and seeking safe shelter-- which there is plenty of considering I’m in a dense urban area. If there is a flood in DC that affects my fifth story apartment, I’m assuming the world is ending and I’m not going to worry about it. If I have a medical emergency, I’m going straight to an ambulance and a family member can bring me a toothbrush later.

Maybe in rural areas this would make more sense, but the idea that I’m going to be sitting under my space blanket eating an MRE on some sidewalk in DC while my house burns down is pretty absurd.

44

It happened in New Orleans…

45

With a bit of warning.

Someone gave me a few MREs, so I tossed one in each car. I figure if you get stuck on the side of the road with no cell service, at least you can have a snack. If they weren’t free, I probably wouldn’t have bothered.

46

While I’ve seen some people on the streets of Luanda that certainly look like zombies, the reason to bug out of Angola would likely be some sort of revolution that we would see well in advance of any danger. That said, the items I have in our "lets get the **** out of here are:

  • Passport
  • Laminated color copy of key passport pages ( 1st page and the page with the current Angolan visa )
  • Cash in USD, AOA, & ZAR.
  • Medicine bag ( bug spray, malaria pills, ibuprofin, etc. )
  • Cellphone and chargers
47

Rather than simply dismissing the notion of a bug out bag, you might consider preparing one that contains things you think you would find useful. Maybe if you called it a “pre-packed overnight bag” you’d feel more comfortable with the idea.
Simple preparedness is so easy, yet people always have some justification for blowing it off.

48

I have to admit that this thread made me decide to toss an old comforter in the trunk of the car. Our county is really good about keeping the roads clear in the winter, but it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared for a breakdown, I suppose. But if I can’t spare 5 minutes to throw my toothbrush and some clean underwear into a tote and grab the critters and their kibble, having a pre-packed bag isn’t going to make much difference.

49

A friend of mine used to scoff at the notion of preparedness – until tornadoes hit her area of Tennessee with little warning and caused a lot of damage. The stores were out of everything, she had no food or water set by, had to wait several miserable days before help made it out her way. It left a deep impression and she now keeps some stuff for emergencies.

There was a SF Bay Area couple a few years ago who headed home with their two children from Seattle, decided to take a little short-cut from Grant’s Pass over the Coast Range to the coast highway, where they had arranged for an overnight stay at a hotel. Not understanding how isolated they would be, they stopped at a gas station for directions to the route they wished to take and didn’t even fill their gas tank. Made a wrong turn up a logging road, got stuck in the snow and that was that. No cell service. After several days of waiting and exhausting their fuel supply, burning their tires for warmth, etc., the husband left the vehicle (big mistake) in the hope of finding help. He died. The wife and children were found, barely alive.

Just down the track to the west of me, the population lives with a very real tsunami danger. You can bet I’d have a BOB if I lived down there. If Cascadia lets go, they’ll have roughly 15 minutes of warning to get far, far uphill.

I live in the Coast Range. I like it here, and I accept the risks.

I think people mistake preparedness for fear. That’s too bad. As ScumPup pointed out, it’s so easy to take a few precautions against the unexpected.

50

It might be helpful if we described when we think we would be using a bug out bag (I call mine the emergency bag.) I’m not planning for a zombie invasion.

After hurricane Isabel came through in 2003, I had to drive down to North Carolina to look at the remains of our family properties there. For over 100 miles there were no gas stations or stores open, we had to double back to fill up before entering the devastated region. When I got there, there was no dependable water around, no electricity, debris everywhere. Every building was shattered into splinters. If I had lived there and had needed to move my family suddenly in the middle of the storm it would have been very useful to have some prearranged items ready to go.

It took maybe two hours and a hundred bucks to create a bag that could help keep my family dry, fed and safe in an emergency. Well worth it.

51

I have all the stuff that they suggest, but I don’t have it consolidated into one bag, on the theory that the only real natural disaster that we’re prone to is tornadoes, and having it in one bag if a tornado hits us in our house isn’t likely the deciding factor to our survival.

Anything else is either local to us (fire), and assuming there’s time enough to put my pants on, we can rely on credit cards, bank accounts and friends and family to help, or things like blizzards, etc… that we’ll see coming in advance and can do more preparation if need be.

I will admit that we have much more in the way of emergency lighting/heating/cooking options after being without electricity for a day or so last winter due to an ice storm. We couldn’t really go anywhere, and couldn’t really do much except read via flashlight and eat cold food. So now we have battery lanterns, a crank-powered (and battery) radio, a propane space heater (had that already), and a propane stove. If nothing else, we can make coffee and drink it in moderately well lit surroundings.

52

It’s funny, I was thinking the opposite, that such a bag could make sense for urban people, but not out here in the sticks. Like, I could see needing to evacuate a city, kind of, if I get really creative. If there was some disaster that affected most of a large city, I’d rather leave the area and maybe go camping or whatever for a few days while they sort that shit out. But out here (nowhere, Missouri) the only danger I can think of we’d really face would be a tornado. And a bug-out bag isn’t going to help me, there.

The fuck? How in the world did they manage to get so far on a logging road that they couldn’t find their way back? Wouldn’t you just follow your tracks back to the main road on foot as soon as you got stuck? Burned their tires? This is nuts.

53

Well . . . I’ve lived here in the woods for a long time now. In the past 30 years, an earthquake destroyed our house, we evacuated for a large fire that came within a few miles before being stopped, and a 500 year flood that isolated us for a week or so. Among other things.

I don’t have a bug out bag. I have never wished for a bug out bag. For these particular crises, common on the west coast, here is my experience:

Earthquake: you will virtually certainly not be injured or dead, and all your stuff will be right there. Just a bit messier than before. Okay, astonishingly, unbelievably more messy. In our case, it was just like our house was picked up by a giant and shaken like snowglobe and then carelessly dropped. You will probably not have electricity, gas, or water. Keeping a food-grade barrel of water lashed to something anchored to ground is not a bad idea. You will not want to leave, you will want to start cleaning up.

Fire: at least for a wildfire, if you are at all proactive you will have many hours to pack up and get out. If you are stupid and stubborn you can wait until the firefighters arrive and give you ten minutes. Then, yeah, a bug out bag might be good, although you are just driving to a hotel, or worst case, a school gym set up with cots.

Flood: your power will go off and you might not be able to leave your house for awhile, so lay in some battery lanterns and some board games. Also the drinking water thing. My sister lives on the Russian River, but on high ground (on low ground the houses are built on stilts), and every few years she has to kayak to the store for a day or two. If you are in a flood plain or on the beach, my advice is move. A bug out bag won’t save your ass.

As for dirty bombs etc., those are fantasies. Anybody forget we have a military capacity something like 1000 times bigger than any other country’s? Still not feeling safe, huh? That’s a problem no bag is going to solve.

54

It wasn’t a logging road, it was simply a small road through the mountains that was not plowed during the winter. They were taking a short cut. They were urban people unfamiliar with snow, who made a lot of ignorant mistakes, one after another. It was pretty tragic.

55

Actually it was a logging road, one that was supposed to be closed during the winter. The gate to close it had been vandalized so the gate was open and not locked, which was one of the many sad occurrences that led to the tragedy. They got confused while on the small road through the mountains and turned up the logging road mistakenly. They got stuck, so they couldn’t turn around and make their way back out.

56

We keep coming back to the idea of a bug out bag “not saving your ass” as being a reason for not having one. To which I reply, how would preparing a bag with a change of clothing, some basic toiletries, a day or two of meds (if you use any), and a few protein bars or other stable food hurt you?

57

I am not worried about zombie hordes or dirty bombs or all the rest. I’m concerned over one big, big earthquake that is overdue for our area. I’m not worried about it at all if I’m home. I will be fine. However, if I’m away from home, I’d like to have what I need to get back home. That is why I keep what I keep in my car – including a BOB.

ETA: So I guess mine is more of a Bug IN Bag.

58

Well, no, I wouldn’t be harmed. But I can throw those things together in about 30 seconds if I need them, so why bother?

59

Exactly. It would take you 30 seconds, so why not do it now when it isn’t an emergency?

60

:smiley:

Ok, let’s say I throw a toothbrush, a pair of panties, and a couple of granola bars in a bag. Clothes are seasonal, I wouldn’t want to pack the wrong thing for the apocalypse, so that will have to wait. I put this bag in my closet, and hope I remember where it is a decade from now. Then the Big Bad Thing happens, and I…hole up in my safe, comfortable house where I have plenty of food, gas, and water. And a toothbrush!