bug out bag......what to put in it?
- Thread starter Bilko 123
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Yeah. we have ARES over here as well for the Amateur radio Service's national organization guidelines. But the nuts and nolts of coordinating emergency communications is done between officials at the local level and the local amateur clubs.
Regarding water storage there's another trick that kills two birds with one stone, so to speak. If using 2 liter plastic bottles (or 1 liter bottles) Once you've cleaned and filled the bottles with water (or if using store bought bottled water) place in the freezer. When the electricity goes out you have a supply of ice in the freezer (and it also keeps the freezer fuller which also helps) to maintain the cold a bit longer. If needed it can be transferred to an ice chest to help maintain special meds that need refrigeration, and in any case, it's still safe drinking water as it melts.
Living in a very active earthquake zone i have a bag i keep stocked up in case we need to make a quick exit.
The contents change depending on the season, not much need for a sleeping bag here in summer so i replace that with more water.
I also have 2 tents, a winter one and a summer one made of reflective material to keep it a little cooler.
Off the top of my head roughly this is what i keep year round:
Pretty comprehensive home level First aid kit with 2 weeks supply of prescription medicine (regularly rotated).
Water filters (2 in case 1 fails) and purification tablets
Box of 6 x 1.5 Litre bottled water
Food, exactly what changes as with the prescription medicine it's regularly rotated (should also say i also include food for the dog)
Washing stuff, soaps, shampoos, toilet paper, hand wipes etc
Shelter (as above different tent depending on summer or winter)
Sleeping mats
Sleeping bags and/or wool blankets
Clothing (again depends on the seasons)
Couple of flashlights with spare batteries and car charger
Camping stove, cutlery, pots and pans
Sun block (stays in as i regularly get sunburnt ever in winter)
Duct tape
Paracord
Tie-wraps
Few basic tools like wire clippers, adjustable spanner, knife, shovel etc
Tarp (extends camping area)
Mosquito spray/treatment
Radio
Spare batteries for phones etc with car chargers.
Copy of all important documents
Sounds like a lot of stuff, but it's basically my backpacking kit with bells on.
Should also say that the plan is to stay near one of a few places i know of with out of the way natural wells.
I wouldn't drink straight from them but that's why i include water filters and treatment tablets.
I figure with that lot we should be ok for 3 days.
If we're out the house for longer than 3 days then it's probably fallen down or burnt to a shell, if that's the case then certainly before 3 days was up, we would have moved to one of our other houses or will be staying with family/friends.
If it's still standing then the chances are we would have needed the bag to get out while the after shocks hit.
We're on the top of a hill so flooding is not a worry, so it's really only in the case of a fire or earthquake i envisage needing it.
Hopefully it's a waste of time and never gets used.
The contents change depending on the season, not much need for a sleeping bag here in summer so i replace that with more water.
I also have 2 tents, a winter one and a summer one made of reflective material to keep it a little cooler.
Off the top of my head roughly this is what i keep year round:
Pretty comprehensive home level First aid kit with 2 weeks supply of prescription medicine (regularly rotated).
Water filters (2 in case 1 fails) and purification tablets
Box of 6 x 1.5 Litre bottled water
Food, exactly what changes as with the prescription medicine it's regularly rotated (should also say i also include food for the dog)
Washing stuff, soaps, shampoos, toilet paper, hand wipes etc
Shelter (as above different tent depending on summer or winter)
Sleeping mats
Sleeping bags and/or wool blankets
Clothing (again depends on the seasons)
Couple of flashlights with spare batteries and car charger
Camping stove, cutlery, pots and pans
Sun block (stays in as i regularly get sunburnt ever in winter)
Duct tape
Paracord
Tie-wraps
Few basic tools like wire clippers, adjustable spanner, knife, shovel etc
Tarp (extends camping area)
Mosquito spray/treatment
Radio
Spare batteries for phones etc with car chargers.
Copy of all important documents
Sounds like a lot of stuff, but it's basically my backpacking kit with bells on.
Should also say that the plan is to stay near one of a few places i know of with out of the way natural wells.
I wouldn't drink straight from them but that's why i include water filters and treatment tablets.
I figure with that lot we should be ok for 3 days.
If we're out the house for longer than 3 days then it's probably fallen down or burnt to a shell, if that's the case then certainly before 3 days was up, we would have moved to one of our other houses or will be staying with family/friends.
If it's still standing then the chances are we would have needed the bag to get out while the after shocks hit.
We're on the top of a hill so flooding is not a worry, so it's really only in the case of a fire or earthquake i envisage needing it.
Hopefully it's a waste of time and never gets used.
You know your situation better than I do so this is as much a question as a suggestion; even though you're on a hill where you won't be personally flooded, couldn't a local flood disrupt normal services to your home? Elect.? Water/sewer? Availability of groceries? Etc.?
We do get floods here, usually the first heavy rain after the summer is pretty bad as inevitably all the drains are blocked with rubbish that's piled up all summer.
In Athens though it's unlikely there will be a flood severe enough to dramatically affect food supply.
For water i have around 800 litres of fresh water in my various tropical fish tanks.
As above i wouldn't to drink it straight out of the tanks, but i have filters, purification tablets, bleach and equipment to boil the water in, so i'm confident we have enough water for a few days if needs must.
Electricity supply is very inconsistent here, but to be honest that's a good thing as it means you don't depend on it and have alternatives.
I have a small generator for essentials like the freezer, we have a fire place with plenty of wood to keep us warm in winter (doesn't tend to get THAT cold here anyways).
It worse when we get power cuts in summer, as mid 30c's to mid 40c's is not exactly the most comfortable of sleeping environments.
It's not really much more than a inconvenience though.
Sewage over flowing would have to be pretty bad as we are on the 4th floor at the top of a hill, and as i remember the saying poop runs downhill
If food supply becomes a problem though then i'll grab my fishing stuff, set a few traps at the mountain and teach the dog how to catch rabbits.
Yeah, that sounds like here. And hurricanes come during hot weather. It gets to be a little more than just an inconvenience though if the power stays off more than a few days (it was off for over a week here after Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and for over 3 weeks in some areas after Hurricane Katrina in 2005) as one of my diabetic meds needs refrigeration. I've thought of installing a 200 amp, natural gas emergency generator hard wired to the house as a back-up. They're not uncommon here, although most people rely on smaller gasoline ones such as you referenced.
A few decades back when I lived in near Bridgwater in Somerset, there were quite a few multiple day power cuts, lots of contaminated water/no mains water, fortunately we had a river nearby to boil up.
There were a few airborn chemical alerts, had to stay inside and seal house etc.
Before my time there were explosions of a train carrying asbestos, quite a few people died.had long term health problems caused by the now airborne asbestos fibres.
As far as an actual bug out bag goes, i think more usefull when travelling, i remember my motehr had one and she had to use it in earnest a few times when snow trapped her in office and she couldnt leave,
I think its fair to say that most people on this forum carry an edc/possibles/survival kit on a daily basis, but its not always to help themselves, but the responsible thing to help others as well.
I remember at uni cycling back from lecture, an OAP fell down on the pavement just in front of me and couldnt move, some other pedestrians stood there and exclaimed oh dear, anything i can do, no, oh well and moved on, but I had poncho and emergency foild blankets to give her shelter from cold and rain untill the ambulance turned up.
There were a few airborn chemical alerts, had to stay inside and seal house etc.
Before my time there were explosions of a train carrying asbestos, quite a few people died.had long term health problems caused by the now airborne asbestos fibres.
As far as an actual bug out bag goes, i think more usefull when travelling, i remember my motehr had one and she had to use it in earnest a few times when snow trapped her in office and she couldnt leave,
I think its fair to say that most people on this forum carry an edc/possibles/survival kit on a daily basis, but its not always to help themselves, but the responsible thing to help others as well.
I remember at uni cycling back from lecture, an OAP fell down on the pavement just in front of me and couldnt move, some other pedestrians stood there and exclaimed oh dear, anything i can do, no, oh well and moved on, but I had poncho and emergency foild blankets to give her shelter from cold and rain untill the ambulance turned up.
The 'Big Picture' website from the Boston Globe has many photo galleries of disasters worldwide.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/disaster/
If anything can be drawn from these images it is that folk who live in the 'third world' will first grab...
1. their family members
2. items of high value (such as a sewing machine)
3. items of practical value (such as cooking pots)
Folks who inhabit the 'first world' are generally troubled most by the loss of...
1. family members/friends/pets
2. irreplaceable family artefacts (the ashes of relatives, photographs, diaries etc.)
So from that I'd suggest that a decent first aid kit, a good and up to date knowledge of first aid (preferably learned on a hands on course rather than from youtube videos and such) might help to get your family and friends through that first hour before the emergency services manage to get a handle on things.
Putting some thought into what you'd miss most if your house burned down to the ground tonight and storing or making copies of things accordingly.
Good footwear! someplace where you can easily get it either on your way out the door or once you are outside.
Warm clothes, a decent wooly shirt and a raincoat for each family member.
A book to while away the hours spent in the local town hall or school gymnasium.
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i really cant believe some people think there are no examples of people needing a bug out bag in the UK! i think the problem is people see videos of the crazies on youtube and dont want to be associated with that. but lets be honest if the zombies come or the world ends a bug out bag will not be much help. however should you get snowed in for a few days. stuck on snowy roads over night. evacuated by riseing water just like the last few months. accidental chemical release. terrorist attack? the list goes on. im not saying its going ti happen but the time would be much more comfortable if there was some prepardness.
i have a response pak in the jeep. i have in it.
hat, gloves and buff
food bars
leatherman
coffee
hexamine tabs
metal mug
noodles
lighter and fire steel
head torch
spare batteries
cordage
blanket under seat
it doesnt hurt to be ready and not reliant on others
i have a response pak in the jeep. i have in it.
hat, gloves and buff
food bars
leatherman
coffee
hexamine tabs
metal mug
noodles
lighter and fire steel
head torch
spare batteries
cordage
blanket under seat
it doesnt hurt to be ready and not reliant on others
Fire and Flood are the most likely events to necessitate emergency evacuation in the UK, both are common enough for it to make sense to have some emergency plan. I live in a block of flats and have twice had to evacuate due to fires in other peoples flats, on the first occasion having to be rescued by the fire brigade as my flat had completely filled with smoke forcing me out onto the balcony with no way to go but down.
You can't prepare for everything though, there is always the likelihood of returning home to find there has been a fire or a flood in the meantime. Floods in flats can also be an issue, there was a block near me evacuated after some scrotes stole the copper piping, causing widespread water damage.
You can't prepare for everything though, there is always the likelihood of returning home to find there has been a fire or a flood in the meantime. Floods in flats can also be an issue, there was a block near me evacuated after some scrotes stole the copper piping, causing widespread water damage.
I can spot a flaw in your bug out strategy.
Just kidding
LOL! I love my Jeeps, but you know what they say..... You wouldnt understand, its a Jeep thing!
Perhaps you haven't noticed the posts (or the links to official gov sites) warning that plastic (credit or debit cards) will be useless if the electricity is down.
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Mate I don't need to ask. I've been in areas hit by disasters. They definitely don't care about turning away sales as there is a line of customers waiting for the opportunity to buy anything at all left on the shelves. That's IF the shops are even open. Even without disasters I've seen stores regularly close because the computors were down and therefore so were the cash registers (tills) Gas stations (petrol stations) cain't sell fuel because the pumps won't work, etc.
Besides, even if they would swipe the cards in the manner you suggest, their banks no longer exept those paper slips.
Whether you want to admit it or not, our whole trade system depends not only on electricity but almost entirely on computorization down to the individual corner shop.
Furthermore currency, what will currency buy in the world of credit transfer, onus being on credit which is in effect a promise, promises get broken, but not all is lost so that ever so useful piece of plastic so many depend on could function as an ice scraper. But given world events it is wise to think how easily our infrastructure can be brought down and what of that infrastructure we so desperately depend on, fuel for example we all saw what a big mouthed ill informed minister did this year during the tanker strike, some parts of the country were without fuel for weeks after. Money, it's wise to buy now for the future and if that future doesn't happen, well as bush crafters, campers and general outdoor people what you have bought can be practised with, so there is no problems really in prepping and as bushcrafter's, campers and outdoors people, all that stuff you have you should be well practised in using as there is no point in having a gadget that when called upon to use, one has no idea beyond what the instructions on the back of the box say.
The credit card would work if it was a localized situation such as a few streets flooded. But I don't think people would be happily turning up for work if something more wide spread occurred. They would be busy doing exactly the same as you, getting out of dodge. The other problem would be that everything you suddenly think you need is exactly what everybody else thinks they need which means at the very least a long wait or worse not getting it or having to fight for it. Just look at some videos on youtube of sales openings, there is one I saw recently of people running in to get a tv on super promo. Everybody piles onto a small stack of TVs and fighting errupts with one guy getting his leg broken in the mayhem. Its amazing how quickly seemingly normal people will go crazy when under pressure. I would rather try to avoid all such situations.
But it all depends on what threat you expect is likely, its a very personal thing, if you expect there will only ever be a local problem that affects you (probably most likely) an you have plenty of money in the bank then the credit card will probably do you just fine at a cost.
But it all depends on what threat you expect is likely, its a very personal thing, if you expect there will only ever be a local problem that affects you (probably most likely) an you have plenty of money in the bank then the credit card will probably do you just fine at a cost.
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