6 Reasons Why Bugging Out is a Bad Idea

It’s no secret that I feel bugging out should NOT be your first reaction to an emergency situation. After all, I’ve written an entire e-course about sheltering in place. In my opinion, you should stay put most of the time, and for good reason.

Now, let me state clearly that I also understand there are some situations where evacuation is likely the best idea. A few examples include an impending category 5 hurricane bearing down our your town, a nearby wildfire heading your way, or perhaps a tsunami. Most other situations that I can imagine dictate a sheltering in place strategy. The purpose of this post, therefore, is to explain several reasons why bugging out is a bad idea…

1. The vast majority of your gear, equipment, and supplies will be left behind. While you should have a plan in place to take the most important/critical gear with you, unless you’re evacuating in a fully-stocked motor-home, you’re going to be leaving a lot of it behind, which really negates the advantage of having acquired your preps to begin with. In fact, you may be little better off than the average family who packed hastily… well, almost. Besides, I assume that you’ve spent a good deal of time, effort, and money acquiring your preps… just to leave it? No way!
2. You’re leaving behind your best known shelter option. Unless your home was destroyed or otherwise made uninhabitable due to said disaster (such as being crushed by a tornado) there’s no guarantee that you’re going to find a better option wherever you end up. Obviously, you should have specific places to evacuate to–such as a friend or relative’s house or hotel–which certainly increases the odds that you’ll have a roof over your head but, like I said, there’s no guarantee that their house is still standing, habitable, or even that you’re welcome regardless of prior arrangements… or even the fact that you were [fill in the blank’s] best man at their wedding. There’s no guarantee.
3. You know your area, the house, and your neighbors better than anywhere you’re evacuating to or moving through. Personally, I’m not the most outgoing of neighbors and I don’t know everyone’s name but I do recognize faces regarding who belongs and who does not (for the most part). I probably wouldn’t have a clue wherever I evacuated to. Likewise, it should go without saying that you know your area better where you live than you do anywhere else (unless you recently moved, for example, and are evacuating back there). In general, where you live now you know the people, the roads, the stores, the back roads, the culture, maybe the authorities, and so on. Where you are is what you KNOW.
4. You could be traveling great distances to get to your evacuation spots. I’ve seen people with some really ambitious bug out plans, in the range of traveling several hundred miles or more to get where they want to be. I think that’s crazy if you ask me. Granted, my own evacuation plans include trips of about 200 miles which is asking a lot too. Heck, even bugging out on foot ten or twenty miles can be a multi-day chore and that’s not even considering medical conditions that inhibit travel, injuries acquired during the trip, weather conditions that force slower movement or no movement at all, and anything else that might make a simple “hike” turn into a real “trek.”
5. Disasters can turn the nicest of people into the worst of people. Like it or not, disasters bring out the worst in people when they become desperate and scared. People who would have given you the shirt off their back yesterday may literally try to take yours from you today, especially if it’s for their kid’s sake. And, the worst part is that the already bad and/or shady people will use this situation to their advantage… after all you’re an easy target being out in the open, out of your element (the places and people you know), and probably traveling with your family. You may not want trouble but trouble may find you.
6. Plan A may turn into plan B, plan C, and eventually just wing it! As much as I believe in planning to prepare for a emergency, including evacuation destinations and multiple routes, who knows what you might encounter. The routes you’ve selected could be congested with traffic (especially if you’re not among the first to leave), roads could be blocked by floodwater or felled trees, they could be purposely roadblocked by the National Guard or local authorities (or even bad guys posing as the law), or otherwise inaccessible for whatever reason. Now, you’re just praying to get to somewhere safe. Besides, who knows if you’ll be able to re-fuel if you’re traveling long distances, find food to eat, water to drink, etc. Certainly, you can and should minimize these types of problems by packing the aforementioned supplies before you leave.

I want to be clear: I don’t want to say that you should NEVER consider bug out as a part of your overall plan. Not at all. I have my plans in place and you should as well. I simply believe it’s usually not the best first option. Do what you will.