Here’s a question for your weekend cogitation. Actually, here’s two. No, make it three:
1. What are some key differences in items you’d put in a bug-out bag and a bug-in bag?
2. Given your location and circumstances, how do you decide whether you’re more likely to need to bug out or bug in?
3. Assuming you conclude that you’re more likely to have to bug in than bug out, is a special bag for the purpose even necessary? I mean, after all, if you’re bugging-in can you presume you’ll already have everything you need right at hand in your home?
Here’s why I’ve been thinking about this: When I lived on my glorious hilltop in Cabin Sweet Cabin, and when I was in that borrowed fifth-wheel in the high desert, nearly every emergency scenario I could think of involved staying put. I was on high ground. In the middle of nowhere. With local resources.
Now … different situation. I’m in a small town and not that high above the normal level of the local river. Something happens (big storm, flood, earthquake that shuts off power and water), I most likely could just retreat to my upstairs and “bug in.” OTOH, something happens (really big flood, earthquake that damages the house, etc.), I could potentially be forced, or impelled, to bug out. But it’s a tossup.
Having both a bug-out and bug-in bag is a great thing. Or having a dual-purpose bag. But assume both resources and bag space are limited here.
BTW, I’ll answer question 3 for myself. I do think a bug-in bag is needed, just to have emergency gear handy in one spot. I might, in theory, have all the food, water, and flashlights (always flashlights!) I need right here in the house, no bag needed. But what if I were forced to retreat upstairs? Nothing up there but a cat and a lot of junk waiting to be hauled away. That’s where the bug-in bag goes.
A bug-in bag could also be helpful at your office, your mother’s house, etc.
Claire, I live in a rural area and fully intend to bug in. I have what I need mostly in my pockets and to a lesser degree in my car. I like to keep the bare essentials on my person. When I leave home I always make sure I am equipped to walk back if necessary. Good footwear is a must. I have flashlights, knives and a multi-tool along with my sidearm with me always, home or away. First aid equipment, some freeze dried food and a few tools are in the car. During winter my car has a sleeping bag and a backpack with a change of clothes. The clothes are vacuum packed in plastic bags to reduce their bulk and to insure that they are dry when I need them.
There is no reason not to have one bag that fits both needs. Taking an “all-hazards” approach to disaster planing lets you figure out what best fits your needs.
a Bug in bag should cover your basic needs: light, heat, food, water, tools (radio, hatchet, multi-tool, extra batteries, etc), legal documents, duct tape. Bugging in has the advantage of letting you have even more “extra” stuff you don’t have to move. All that food in the pantry and that re-loading gear for example.
The bag then fills the needs you have for bugging out in a hurry as you have everything in one bag so you can go.
Take the time to visit your local government center and get a look at their Emergency Operations Plan and see what they have rated as the most likely hazards facing where you live. See what their plans are for them also.
You say you now live in a low area near water. Floods are possible. But how possible? 1:500? 1:20? that makes a difference. is there a flash flood possible? If so, that hatchet makes even more sense. Moving up in the home is good, but unless you have a door in the roof you can get trapped in the attic, it’s good to have a way through the roof.
Many times short term hazards are dealt with by “sheltering in place”, say a tanker truck over turns or a train de-rails. lots of studies have found that you can reduce your exposer by turning off your heat/ac, closing your windows, going into a windowless room and putting a wet towel at the base of the door. It works even better in well insulated homes.
A good source of info on that can be found at your Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC).
A key thing to keep in mind is your bug-out bag should be something you can carry and may be something you have to carry onto a bus with 40 of your neighbors if it becomes something like we see in Hungry.
I recommend a bag with in a bag set-up.
Hope that gets the juices flowing.
I like to think that my “Get Home Bag” in the truck is more important than my “Bug Out Bag.” Luckily, my house is nearly situated in the highest elevation in the area. So as far as flooding, if it where to get that bad (Noah’s Ark type flooding would be required)… you’d see me floating away in my kayak.
BTW, Claire, off topic but I lost my favorite dog this week (a 4 yr old pug) to HGE. If you ever get caught up and feel like doing a dog portrait again, I’d love to pay you to do one.
My bug-out bag forms the core of my hunker-down kit. But for hunkering down I have a large amount of water, plywood, food, and other things that wouldn’t exactly fit in a bag. I just try to keep the house stocked. Of course, right now my financial situation is forcing me to dip in to some of my stock. At least I had it available.
Hey May i please make a few comments? Not everyone is in the same
situation that we are in so you may not
be able to do all of this. First of all we
kinda redid our house a few years ago.
The bathtub upstairs did not drain, so
our builder just pulled the drain plug out. Which was and still is allright for
us. On the news last month they were
saying that you need about one gallon
of water per person, per day??So what
we have done is to bleach out the used
milk cartoons and then rensie them out
really well and started to store them in the old bathtub. If they get a hole in them you do not want them to leak all over your carpet either. In the summer time, we have gotton a few of those colman five gallon jugs and bleach them out again and then filled them up.
We don’t have the room for them in the house, so they have to stay out in
the garage. Well they freeze in the winter, so we can only do that in the summer time. Another thing. If you think that something may happen. Earth quakes are to hard to for tell, but do all of your laundry and then run your washing machine though again a
bleach wash.That will take care off all
soap residue and kill any germs. Run it
though a rensie cycle. That will take care of all the bleach. Then refill the washing machine and that will give you alot of water to drink. Lower the lid,so that dirt and dust can’t get into it.A few years ago we also got one of those big coleman lanterns that use
batteries.After watching the wilderness
family number 2 and there colman lantern that was gas, got knock over and started a cabin fire at 30 below, I wanted to be safe instead of sorry. Especially for ones that have young kids around that like to reach and touch
things and you can’t keep an eye on them all the time.
Well I am not sure if any of these ideas
can help any.God Bless.
Debby
I take a slightly different approach. I also keep a fairly well stocked “get home bag” in the truck that contains most of the things in a typical bug out kit, plus lots of add-ins (tools and truck tent, etc), since I have the space.
I also have a 6″ square black zipper case that fits in waterproof bag that goes with me just about everywhere. I tried to come up with the most effective survival supplies in the smallest amount of space and it basically has it all. It is small, light and I feel comfortable I could survive most situation using only it.
For my bugging needs I actually have a prep-closet (“bug closet” just did not have a good mental picture). I take a large closet that gets packed with very well organized shelves that contain many different versions of prep items. I have multiple size back packs hanging on a rack ranging from a mini-sling bag to a backpack-across-Europe sized packs. A shelf may be setup for say water purification. I will have katadyn filters, small filter straws, a 5-gal bucket setup with gravity filter, purification tablets, differnt sized carriers and bottles, etc. I started looking at all the stuff I have accumulated and realized just how many versions of things I have. They all have there purpose, but it really depends on the situation.
Depending on my need I grab the items I need and load up on the spot. I love hiking, camping, etc., so I get lots of practice packing from everything from a short day hike to a camping weekend. You get a really good idea what you need, what works, and how to balance the weight of the various items with your needs.
I tried many versions of Bug-out/Bug-in packs, but found them to always have problems. You forget what is packed. Things go bad (food, batteries, filters, etc). The bag is too heavy to use in a realistic situation. The bag is packed for the wrong event (summer bug-out vs. winter bug out).
I can fill up the right sized bag, with the items I need in just a few minutes. I use this technique many times throughout the year and it just gets easier the more you try it. I know exactly what options I have, and don’t have to carry a bunch of extra weight I will not need. The only real downside to the way I do it is it does take up space, but I think it is worth it.
I have one bag appropriate for in or out….I’ve been bugged in thru a tornado and a flood and noticed that in weather situations that turn dire there usually isn’t a lot of time to be rustling around for anything…..
Like you, if it’s in one place and I know where that is, it’s a time saver even if you are bugging in……mine’s a grab and go whether it’s out the door or just up/down the stairs…..personally, no matter where I’m living at the time, the initial intentions are to bug in as long as possible, familiarity feels more secure…..
Right now, I’m not to happy with the weight of it….but I put it on an practice walking around with it for hours each week, great exercise LOL……
We are with the bug-in folks. I do keep bug-out bags packed in case we had a family emergency and had to leave in a hurry. Some of our family lives several states away and if there were an emergency we’d have to leave quickly and I wanted to have at least 3 days worth of supplies ready to go. I try to keep my supplies in one closet so if I need something in a hurry, I don’t have to search the house over for it.
I’m with Ragnar on the get-home bag. If I have to bug out from my home location, we’re into an “bug-out-armored-transport” scenario. Never mind bags.
As for “bug-in”: I store my water/food/gear where it’s fairly accessible and out of reach of water damage (in my location, water damage might be from a malfunctioning washing machine; if it floods this far up the mountain, we’re gonna need arks) and such anyway. Arms and ammo are prepositioned around the house simply because this is a remote rural area and if some home-raiding goblin _does_ appear we aren’t waiting an hour for cops to show up (my landlord has referred to me as his alarm system: he figures if someone does break in — and survives me — the noise will alert him in time). For me, a bug-in-bag would be redundant. But someone in a single story building on a flood plain (or insert your specific situation) may need to be sure they put supplies in the attic (to include a battery or gas powered recip saw to get onto the roof if things get even worse). Tornado Alley=storm shelter. Earthquake Zone=reinforced safe room. Desert=water supply. Far North=winterize. Los Angeles=kiss your ass goodbye.
I don’t think you can write a single article that covers all possibilities. At best, a very general purpose checklist for people to evaluate their own special circumstances.
Having 2 bags makes sense, you probably won’t need a tent when bugging in :p
I’d suggest having one “bug bag”, with food, water, bandages, etc, etc, for both in and out, then have a separate bag with only the things that you won’t have access to when bugging out, like that tent, “toilet bags”, etc.
When I was a kid I read too many stories of people who got trapped in their basements for days at a time by tornado damage, so even at age 7 I was grabbing peanut butter and bottled water the moment the sirens went off. Still do š
Unfortunately, my dad equates prepping with hoarding disorder, so my preparations aren’t nearly what I’d like right now. But that will change after I get my house built and can FINALLY be on my own again. I chose my land partly because of how secure it is, it has a stream but it’s steep enough there’s no flooding danger, it’s far from the main road, etc. I just need to get the time, money, stamina, and permits all in order at the same time.
Since we’re on the prep for whatever subject….
My heart lives in Colorado, even if the rest of my body doesn’t (at the moment)….the recent fires there reminded me to add “fire precautions/fighting” to my prep list……I am guilty of not giving it much thought (as often as all the other “what ifs”) and it’s probably the one thing I would be forced to bug out of, or at least understand it’s not something that I can tackle in any way by myself……I’m not as brave to face a roaring fire as I am water or tornadoes…..
Any situation that involves waiting for insurance companies to get going on, will take a long, long time before things are back to normal……
I live in the country in kind of a gulch where we all know and help each other as the situations require. My commute to work and back in all types of weather is really long so for me it is a go home bag in the car pus the normal emergency supplies. The kit consists of the following:
1. Pack
– primary, Alice pack
– secondary, Maxpedition Jumbo Versipack (in case the big
pack is lost it has stuff I can use to keep going)
2. Shelter – 9′ x 12′ MEC guide tarp, tent pegs, 50 feet of 550
cord plus poncho to use as ground sheet.
3. Hatchet Axe – Note when weather gets cold this is replaced
with a full size axe and bucksaw.
4. Fire Starter, at least two types and 2 candles.
5. Bedroll
– above freezing: wool blanket,
– colder temperature: sleeping bag,
– foam air mattress to keep shoulders and hips off the ground.
6. Knife
– heavy chores: Cold Steel SRK,
– light chores: Gronham Bird & Trout
7. Cook Kit
– cooking Pot with fry pan lid plus sierra cup, plate and pot
holder,
– leather gloves,
– fork & spoon stored inside the pot,
– Kelly kettle.
8. Compass plus a spare and a current map of the area.
9. First Aid Kit for body (basic medical supplies).
10. First Aid Kit for gear
– a sharpening stone,
– sewing kit,
– extra 550 cord,
– tube of seam sealer,
– multi tool (Leatherman crunch).
11. Extra clothing
– 2 pair of socks,
– heavy shirt,
– hat,
– 2 pair underwear,
– long underwear (if required).
12. Food – basic food staples like oatmeal, pasta, rice, tea,
bannock mix, spices plus what ever I can catch.
13. Water ā A small water filter and a canteen & cup.
14. Food Gathering ā Snare wire and a small fishing kit including
a yoyo fishing reel.
15. Personal hygiene ā Plastic bag with Toothbrush & Tooth
paste, soap bar & facecloth, sponge & plastic bag to hold the
sponge.
My wife has a similar kit in her car with a few things changed for her needs and every six months I drag our kits into the house and check the items for problems replacing or fixing as required.
I used to have much bigger kits until a few years ago when I came across a site called The Northwest Woodsman http://nwwoodsman.com/ and after trying camping their way I adopted their list with a few modifications.
As for home our bug-in kit is enough to get us through 1 month with 6 people. Yes there are only 2 of us the extra is for relatives that will inevitably show up with nothing.
While there are a few things that I have to resolve for the most part we are looking good.
A small suggestion-LED flashlights, and you can get LED bulbs/conversion kits at Wally World, if you have a favorite flashlight with an incandescent bulb. Battery life is increased by orders of magnitude(during a ice storm here a few years ago, the power was off over 4 days-I left an LED flashlight on for the entire time(for my scaredy-cat cat) and the batteries are still good.
I have sort of a bug-in house(was even more so when I lived out in the boonies a bit) by design and accident, really. Basic emergency kit stuff. A gift I got a couple years ago-a candle lantern, turned out useful,as did a kerosene lantern(you can warm stuff up over one, and keep a small room tolerable in winter). Bug-out/in stuff makes great gifts, by the way. I keep a lot of canned stuff around(always have). Home and car emergency kits, in my case, are similar,inmany ways.
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