Most people who prepare for emergencies own some sort of bug-out bag. Maybe it lives in a closet, the trunk, or next to the front door. Mine would be no different in that respect and has certainly seen all three spots at some point in the past.
But owning a bag doesn’t mean you have a bug-out plan.
A bag gives you supplies. A plan tells you when to leave, where you’re going, how you’ll get there, and what happens when something goes wrong along the way. That second part is where I think many of us come up short.
I haven’t had to evacuate my home during a real disaster, so I can’t claim hard-earned experience here. Still, the more I look at bugging out, the less I think the bag itself is the hard part even if the knife you buy could literally save your life some day.
Staying Home Should Usually Be Plan A
Your home has a lot going for it: You have shelter, food, water, tools, clothing, bedding, medicine, and all the other stuff you’ve collected over the years. You also know the neighborhood; you know the roads, the people nearby, how to get places, what roads are good or bad, and so much more.
Leaving gives most of that up.
Once you’re on the road, you’re counting on your vehicle, fuel, open roads, decent weather, and a destination that’s better than your home, which means staying put must be quite dangerous. You may also be dealing with worse than normal traffic, unexpected road closures, unwanted breakdowns, and even hundreds or thousands of other people trying to leave at the same time and all surely going the same way as you.
That doesn’t mean staying home is always best because a wildfire, flood, chemical spill, gas leak, structural problem, evacuation order, or loss of needed medical care could make leaving the truly safer choice. I’ve written before about whether you should stay put or bug out during SHTF, and I still think the basic question is obvious at it’s core: which choice puts you in less danger right now?
The mistake is waiting until an emergency forces you to decide.
You should already have some idea of what would make you leave, such as an evacuation order. Maybe floodwater reaching a certain road means it’s time to go. Or perhaps you leave before a wildfire closes your primary escape route. Your triggers will depend on where you live and what threats you realistically face.
The point is to think through those choices while you’re calm, not while everyone is tired, scared, and trying to decide whether the smoke outside looks worse than it did ten minutes ago.
You Need Somewhere to Go
Saying, “We’ll get out of town,” isn’t much of a plan. Where exactly are you going?
A real bug-out plan should include at least one known destination and, better yet, a backup. That might be a relative’s house, a friend’s home, a hotel outside the affected area, a campground, or property you own somewhere else. And if you want to be extra cautious, then having a place to go in each cardinal direction (north, south, east, and west) is the best choice.
What you don’t need is a secret bunker hidden in the mountains. You need somewhere you can get to and somewhere you’re welcome. That last part matters because showing up at a relative’s house with four people, two dogs, and a hand out may not go over well if nobody talked about it first.
Distance matters too. If your house catches fire, you may only need a hotel a few miles away. But if a wildfire or flood affects your whole area, ten miles may not be enough. A larger disaster could force you much farther from home, especially problems like a hurricane or earthquake.
That’s why I like thinking about evacuation in levels rather than having one giant bug-out plan for everything.
That is, a local problem may mean staying nearby for a night or two, but a regional emergency could push you into another county or state. Clearly, a major disaster might mean leaving for a longer period and taking more supplies. That difference in situations call for drastically different decisions … decisions that only you can make.
Routes matter just as much as destinations. The fastest road on a normal weekday may be the worst route during an evacuation. Bridges, railroad crossings, construction zones, low-water crossings, narrow roads, and busy intersections can become choke points as well. So, you’re going to want alternates.
Drive your alternate routes before you need them because you may find that the road you assumed was a good backup has one sketchy bridge or a steep hill that your car just won’t crest during a winter storm.
Fuel is another simple problem that can ruin an otherwise good plan. I like the idea of having a minimum fuel level and treating it as part of preparedness. If that level is half a tank, then half a tank means it’s time to fill up. It’s what I do, but you have a different tolerance threshold; I only hope it’s before the low fuel light comes on.
During periods when evacuation is more likely, keeping the tank fuller makes sense, such as hurricane season in the southern states. The main goal is to avoid depending on a gas station after the emergency begins because stations can run out, lines can get long, a power outage can stop pumps from working, and stopping to get gas is time wasted.
Make Getting Out the Door Easier
This is where a pre-packed bug-out bag earns its keep. Although a bag gives you a set of supplies that are ready to take with you, which is why I wrote an entire bug-out bag book on the subject, the real beauty is the time saved and hassle avoided when you’re stressed and in a hurry.
But there’s certainly more that can be taken should time permit. Start to think about what you’d take if you had ten minutes to leave, then what you’d add with thirty minutes, and what you’d load if you had an hour. The exact times aren’t important; it’s the thought process that does.
Regardless, your fastest load out should cover the things you can’t afford to leave behind. That could mean medications, identification, important documents, water, communications gear, cash, clothing, pet supplies, and whatever else your household depends on. All of this can be grabbed in a matter of minutes if you’ve staged them properly. A bug out bag helps immensely.
Then, if you have more time, you can add food, extra water, bedding, tools, fuel, more clothing, and other supplies. This type of segmented checklist works better than having one enormous list because emergencies don’t give everyone the same amount of warning.
The problem, however, is having enough space for everything. Add in people, pets, bags, and whatever else, and you’ll soon discover you have no room left for anything else. You really must test your load out plans before you need them or risk being highly disappointed when the time comes.
It also helps to keep important items where you can reach them. A bug-out bag buried behind Christmas decorations in the attic isn’t “ready to go,” no matter how good the contents are. A more accessible location, wherever that is for you, is a better choice.
The same goes for paperwork. Insurance policies, medical information, prescription details, vehicle paperwork, emergency contacts, property records, and account information aren’t exciting survival gear, but they may matter far sooner than half the gadgets in your bag. You can create a binder, add scans to a USB jump drive, or even store this information on the Cloud if you wish. Just remember that the more places and more accessible this information is, the more susceptible sensitive personal information can become.
Medications deserve special attention, especially as we age. If someone depends on a prescription every day, leaving it behind can turn a manageable evacuation into a much bigger problem. (If you’re an older adult, consider the advice I wrote about in my latest book.) I suggest adding shelf-stable medications to your bug out bag and, if need be, to your key chain as I wrote about here.
Kids, pets, older family members, and people with mobility or medical needs may change the plan drastically. Whereas a healthy person with a backpack may be able to walk several miles if the vehicle fails, a family with young children, an elderly parent, or someone using medical equipment may not have that option. Your plan has to fit the people involved.
You also need to account for people being away from home when something happens. One person may be at work while another is shopping and the kids are at school. Cell service may be overloaded or unavailable. Thus, everyone should know where to meet, who picks up whom, and who to contact outside the area if local calls don’t work.
Keep important phone numbers on paper too. I know we all have everything stored in our phones now, but that doesn’t help much if the phone is dead and nobody remembers a number.
Then practice leaving. You don’t need to turn Saturday morning into boot camp. Grab what you think you’d take and load the vehicle. Seriously. Give it a try, see how long it takes.
You’ll probably find something wrong. Maybe a bag is buried in the basement. Or maybe nobody knows where the document folder is because it got buried in the back of the file cabinet. Perhaps the dog won’t get into the carrier all of a sudden. Suddenly, the ten-minute evacuation plan takes half an hour. That will be an eye-opener for you.
And that’s the point. Fix what didn’t work and try again later. A real emergency is a terrible time to discover that your plan only worked on paper.
Yes, a bug-out bag still matters. I wouldn’t have written a book if I thought otherwise. But the bag is only one part of leaving safely and efficiently.
No matter what, you need to know what would make you leave, where you’re going, how you’ll get there, what you’ll take first, and what you’ll do if something doesn’t work out.
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