Bugging Out - Part 2 - Decisions | Readiness | Vehicles

In a disaster situation, your ability to assess the scenario will be critical to the outcome of your survival. The key to a swift and efficient evacuation will stem from a smartly planned, comprehensively recced and well rehearsed plan. As mentioned in Part 1 = You Bug-Out when there is no other option other than self preservation!

Having a strategy/plan in a time critical and stressful environment will aid clarity of thought. Your plan should be simple and robust, with the inclusion of differing routes and options. These should be pre-recce'd and rehearsed. Only then will you be able to establish how long your transit time will be, your estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) and most critically, how much lead up time you require to ultimately pack up and Get-Out. Once planned, ensure everyone in your family or group is fully briefed of the plan, do not revel at being the family 'oracle' of knowledge! I always try to include at least 3 options, or 3 routes!

The time you have available, prior to disaster striking, will dictate your speed of evacuation/bug out. Poised At Readiness, In order to establish an escape time-frame, I always adhere to some form or Readiness State. This allows me to gauge my intensity and speed of evacuation. This can range from 1 minute to several days and beyond.

Your readiness will depend on the current scale of threat. Is it minimal, likely, severe or imminent?
You may only have minutes to get to safety or the particular situation may be a rolling event, constantly changing from day to day. Failure to act will only leave you bogged down in an ever more complicated situation. Examples of time critical evacuation include the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Residents literally had minutes to get out. Whereas an example of an urgent evacuation may include a survivable yet devastating weather event, such as the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. Meteorological prediction enabled a warning time sufficient for large scale evacuation to occur, but time to react to avoid traffic was a problem.

Once the decision has been made to evacuate, your method of movement should be as robust as possible. A robust method of travel should be used with its own contingencies. Personally I adopt a tiered approach. My primary form of bug out will be by Car. Should that break down or is rendered 'out-of-action' then the bicycles with trailer will come into service. If the Bicycles break, then its on foot – You get the picture!

HAVE A PLAN - GIVE YOURSELF OPTIONS – NOTICE TO MOVE TIMES – ROBUST TRANSPORT
So what are your plans?