5 Bug Out Bag Tips

5 Bug out Bag Tips

Be Prepared by Planning Ahead

When faced with any natural disaster, whether it be an immediate evacuation or shelter in place, you need to be prepared ahead of time.  The amount of time and planning that goes into the preparation of a Bug out Bag cannot be minimized into the few seconds or few hours you may have.  Even with a few hours available, it is highly likely you will not have the frame of mind to gather the necessary things or be able to obtain the things that you don’t already have.  Therefore, planning ahead and being prepared with an already packed Bug out Bag ready to grab is vital.  There are several key things you need to remember:

·         No piece of survival equipment is of value if you don’t have it with you.

·         Expect the worst, but hope for the best.

·         Be ready to depend on no one else besides yourself and your Bug out Bag.

Determine Your Bug out Bag Needs

The key to planning for any emergency is to think of each possible situation and determine what your needs may be.  Once you have determined your needs, get ready to begin planning and packing your Bug out Bag, placing it in a strategic area to meet the needs it was prepared for.  Think of some of the following possibilities:

·         Last minute evacuations, whether it is a hurricane, potential tornado, or even an explosion at a plant can give you anywhere from a minute to a few hours to grab and run.  If you’re leaving in a vehicle, you need to think about what all you may face on the road, which may include sitting in your car on the side of the road with no gas or stores for hours or days, or sitting through the very event you were evacuating from. 

·         What if you were in your vehicle and found yourself stranded miles from safety due to an auto accident or auto issues in general?  Would you have what you needed in your vehicle to be able to sustain the walk to safety?  Having a Bug out Bag in the vehicle at all times for this scenario is an excellent idea.

·         What about your dorm or office?  We cannot plan on where we will be when disaster strikes, so it is important to think about every possibility and plan for it in advance.

Determine the Length of Necessity and Contents of your Bug out Bag

The standard advice from disaster relief organizations is to prepare enough supplies to last at least 72 hours.  The reasoning behind this is according to their statistics, this is the amount of time it may take them to reach people who have been affected by a disaster to offer help or rescue services. 

The contents you choose for your bag will vary depending on what area or region you are from and what types of disasters you are more prone to.  For example, in some regions along the coast, preparing for a hurricane evacuation, flash flood, or chemical plant explosion may be more common.  Yet in other areas, preparing for a tornado, mud slide, or wildfires may be more common.   In addition to having to survive a disaster evacuation, a shelter in place can occur in just about any area as a result of nearby house fires, blackouts, severe storms, chemical plant leaks, or other natural disasters. 

Where you evacuate will determine many of the needed contents of your bag.  It may be a local shelter, hotel, relative’s home, or in the worst case scenario, the wilderness.  You will need to plan on each of these scenarios when choosing your supplies.  Having enough items for the transit, as well, is vital.  Getting together adequate supplies now will give you a sense of relief and certainty your family will be prepared in an emergency.

Keep Your Bug out Bag Ready

Having a Bug out Bag means having it ready to go at all times.  Picture yourself running out of your front door and needing to just grab it on the go.  Think about where it needs to be to ensure this is possible.  Make sure you have not taken things out of it at one time and failed to replace them.  Do a Bug out Bag check monthly to ensure it contains all necessary items and is ready to go.  Ensure your food and medications are not expired and determine if they need to be rotated or replaced.   Add things to it as you think of them prior to needing it.  Test the function of all electronics and replace batteries.  Make sure your Bug out Bag is ready when you are.

Have a Run-Through

One of the best ways to determine if your Bug out Bag is going to meet your needs is to have a run-through, a drill, a test.  Spend a weekend doing a test evacuation or shelter in place to see if you have everything you need.  Keep a list along the way to know what you need to add at the end of your test and what didn’t work well and should be purged or replaced.  At the end of the test, replenish and make changes according to your list, and have your Bug out Bag ready to go again.  This is a great way to ensure you and your loved ones are as prepared as possible.