My Solution, your mileage my vary: Stage things in various places like your home and cars so if shit happens, you can quickly grab the things that makes sense for that situation.
Here's a high level of what I have and where I have it in some common categories. I'll list out specific contents below.
- First Aid: We have a kit at home and a smaller kit in each car and in my bug-out bag (BOB). If for some reason we will not be within easy access of one of our cars, we'll grab a first aid kit from a car and put it in a bag we're carrying.
- Extra Clothing and toiletries: There are bug-out bags for my wife and I in a closet next to our front door and a get-home-bag (GHB) in each vehicle for the primary driver of that vehicle. If we are taking an extended trip, even just a day trip, we'll get the get-home-bag from the other car so we'll both have one.
- Food and Water: If we're going more than a few miles from home, we carry an everyday-carry bag (EDC) that contains some basic survival food items. Our BOBs each contain additional food items. Each car has a few gallons of water that we rotate out, and we always carry a stainless steel water bottle we could use to boil water.
- Basic Camping/Survival Gear: Each car contains an emergency and a camp kit. These include blankets, tarps, cordage, small camp stove, water purification tablets, multiple ways to start fire, etc. We also have more extensive camping equipment staged in our garage that we can easily get to in an emergency situation.
In review, here are the places we have things staged:
- Everyday Carry Bags (EDC) - these bags travel with us if we're going more than a few miles from home. It might just be your laptop bag or purse.
- Get Home Bags (GHB) - these bag mostly stay in our cars and will be helpful if we get stranded away from home.
- Bug out bags (BOB) - these bags stay at home and can be quickly grabbed if we need to evacuate the home.
- Car emergency kits - these stay in the cars and contains items helpful in an auto emergency.
- Car camp kits - these stay in the cars and contains items that would be helpful if I needed to live out of my car for a few days or hike for more than a day to get back home.
- Our Home
Let's run through some common scenarios and see what we have access to when.
House fire: we just need to get out. Everything is replaceable and we will stay with family or in a hotel, not camping in our yard.
I'll grab my EDC which is always close. It contains my laptop which I'll need for business continuity (I'm self employed). If we can get to the BOBs which contain additional weather-specific clothing we will, but otherwise our goal is to get out of the house and live.
Earthquake: I'll grab my EDC and will try harder to get to my BOB than I would in a fire, but hopefully I'll be able to get to my BOB after the fact, even if I have to bust through an exterior wall to get to it. One of our cars is always parked outside of the garage so we should have access to its GHB, car camp kit, and additional water.
Tornado Warning: We'll grab our EDCs and BOBs and go to the basement. Our EDCs each have an emergency whistle attached to a lanyard to make them easier to find. (Loud whistles are a good way to attract attention if buried under rubble) There is also an emergency radio, larger crank lanterns, and flashlights stored next to our BOBs. We can take those as well.
Quick Evacuation (less than three minutes): There are a few other scenario where we might need to quickly evacuate (chemical spill, etc). In this case, we'll grab our EDCs and BOBs. If we are evacuating by vehicle, we'll have water and a camp kit already in the vehicle. If we can't take a vehicle, I'll grab the camp kit from one car along with some water and carry it as far as I can before deciding what should be shed and what should be kept. Depending on the situation, I may shove my BOB in a larger alice pack so I'll have a larger pack to work with later.
Evacuation (less than 15 minutes): If we're taking a car, we have things staged and can pack up everything including a kitchen sink in less than 15 minutes. We will shed things down the road if not needed. If we're not taking a car, it will likely be similar to the Quick Evacuation. I may do a different article about how we have things staged for an evacuation.
Take all of the above scenarios and apply them to your office or place of employment. Or while you're driving or on vacation. What will you have with you and what will you need?
If one of those events occurs or one of us gets stuck at the office or in our car overnight or for an extended period of time, we have access to a change of clothes, toiletries, water and emergency food from our EDC, GHB, or car. If we have to evacuate from the office to someplace else, or try to hike home, we can repack our GHB with items from our car camp kit that will be needed.
You can never account for every situation, but with the modular approach, I feel like we'll have easy access to things we'll need, when we need them, and can easily shed the things we don't need.
Here's a current inventory of what we have in each of our packs and stage locations. There are some small differences between my bags and my wife's so I'll list them both. The important thing in my opinion is not what bag or box something is stored in, but if we have access to the things we need, where and when we need them.
My Everyday Carry Bag (Kodiak Gearslinger)
- $250 cash tucked out of the way in wallet
- Card with important contact numbers for family and friends in wallet
- Checkbooks for home and business
- AC/DC charger for my cell phone
- Extra glasses and prescription sun glasses
- Lighter
- Emergency Whistle
- Mini-mag flashlight
- Folding knife
- Leatherman tool
- Work gloves
- Ink pen
- Carpenters pencil
- Sharpie marker
- 4X6 index cards
- Laptop
- Laptop Charger
- Wireless Mouse
- Stainless Steel Water Bottle
- Single-serving Gatorade mix (6)
- Brick of Mainstay rations
My Wife's Everyday Carry Bag (Just a tote bag she uses to carry her lunch and papers to work)
- $250 tucked out of the way in wallet
- Card with important contact numbers for family and friends in wallet
- AC/DC phone charger
- Extra glasses
- Lighter
- Emergency Whistle
- Medium-sized Swiss Army knife
- Work gloves
- Ink pen
- Carpenters pencil
- Sharpie marker
- 4X6 index cards
- Stainless Steel Water Bottle
- Single-serving Gatorade mix (6)
- Brick of Mainstay rations
My Get Home Bag (Mid-sized Backpack, some things are just in the car)
- Ball cap
- Boonie Hat
- Bandana
- Two changes of clothing, weather appropriate
- Sweater
- Extra socks
- Comfortable walking shoes
- Cold-weather outerwear when seasonal (kept in separate sack)
- Needles/Thread
- Toiletry kit
- Fixed-blade knife
- Compass
- Starbucks Instant Coffee
- Lighter
My Wife's Get Home Bag (Mid-sized Backpack)
- Mini-Mag Light
- Ball Cap
- Foldable Sun Hat
- Two changes of clothing, weather appropriate
- Sweater
- Extra socks
- Comfortable walking shoes
- Cold-weather outerwear when seasonal (kept in separate sack)
- Needles/Thread
- Toiletry kit
- Lighter
Difference: I keep my knife and compass in my GHB. My wife just keeps hers in her camp box noted below. She can grab them if she thinks she'll need them, otherwise she doesn't want to deal with the bulk. I still drink coffee, my wife does not. She should probably keep some tea in hers.
Car Kits (Same in both cars)
- First Aid Kit
- Fix-a-flat
- Glow sticks
- Jumper cables
- Large flashlight
- Road atlas
- Safety vest
- Emergency Poncho (4)
- Space Blanket (4)
Camp Boxes (Same in both cars except for as noted)
- Blanket
- Heavy Duty 10X12 Tarp (2)
- 100' of paracord precut to 10' lengths
- Small camp stove with fuel
- Folding Saw
- Firestarter
- Lighters (Generally keep a few in different places around the car)
- Stainless steel cup, plate, and spork
- Water Purification tables
- Duct tape (about 25' wrapped around business card)
- 3-4 gallons of water
- Fixed-blade knife (Wife's only as I keep one in my GHB)
- Compass (Wife's only as I keep one in my GHB)
My Bug-Out Bag (Mid-sized Backpack)
- Two changes of clothing, weather appropriate
- Sweater
- Ball cap
- Bandana
- Emergency Blanket
- Emergency Poncho
- Cold-weather outerwear when seasonal (kept in sack next to BOB)
- Stainless Steel Water Bottle
- Brick of Mainstay emergency rations
- Work Gloves
- Fixed Blade Knife
- Lighter
- Firestarter
- 100' Paracord cut in 10' lengths
- Starbucks Instant Coffee
My Wife's Bug-Out Bag (Small Backpack)
- Two changes of clothing, weather appropriate
- Cold-weather outerwear when seasonal (kept in sack next to BOB)
- Sweater
- Ball cap
- Bandana
- Toiletry kit for both of us
- Emergency Blanket
- Emergency Poncho
- Emergency Ration Bars (3)
- Stainless Steel Water Bottle
This is where we currently veer off course compared to many people's bug-out bags. I view these bags as necessary for quickly fleeing the house in the case of a fire or tornado, not as something that contains everything we might need to survive in the wild in for the next few years.
Once safely out of the house, we should almost always have access to one vehicle which contains additional camping/survival gear and a better pack. It will also contain water. If it's just a natural disaster, we likely won't need any of that as we'll just go to a family member's home.
These bags are also smaller and lightweight bags so my wife can easily handle them if I'm not home. If there's a tornado warning and I'm not home, I don't want her trying to get a 20-pound BOB from the closet to the basement. I want her to grab a small bag with some clothes and basic things she may need. If she can get my bag too, that's great. But if all she has is her bag she'll be OK for that emergency.
My last bit of advice ... don't feel like you have to do everything at once. Start with a bag or a backpack you already own. Don't have one, start with a grocery bag. Just start!
I tend to prep in spurts and started about two years ago. It's taken us this long to accumulate what we have, and we still don't have what we feel like we need, but we're a lot better off than we were.
Don't wait. Just start!
No comments:
Post a Comment