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© 2010 Security Whip
I’ve carried a bug-out-bag (BOB) with me for years now, so you would think that it would be an easy topic to write about, on the contrary it’s a very complicated subject. I guess that’s why you see numerous articles across the Internet from people asking what a bug-out-bag is, what the contents should be, and do I really need one. To make the subject even more complicated people use a myriad of different names for bug-out-bags, such as, Bail Out Bags, Ditch Kit, Go Bag, 72 hr kit, Get Home Bag, Every Day Carry (EDC), Get Out Of Dodge. (G.O.O.D) and the list goes on.
In its simplest form, a bug-out-bag is literally a bag of emergency supplies/gear that “you” believe would sustain you in an emergency situation or catastrophic event to get you from point A to point B. Is a bug-out-bag going to save your life, maybe, maybe not? I don’t know if I’ve read where a person stated that a bug-out-bag absolutely saved his or her life. Nonetheless, in the event of an emergency if you have a bug-out-bag I can almost guarantee you, that you will be more prepared than 99% of the other individuals in the same situation. You will also have a psychological advantage as well, so while the majority of people may be frantic because they are unprepared, you able are to move in a confident manner because you took the time to prepare.
So what’s my philosophy on bug-out-bags? When I design and build bug-out-bags I build urban bags. The reason is quite simply, I live in the suburbs and need to get from the city back to the burbs or from the burbs to my bug out location. In either event, I’m not heading off to the woods, so my bags will consist of items for that particular task. My bags will look like any other bag, I want to blend into the crowd and be just another brick in wall.
Sit down and think about your average day and where you spend the majority of your time. For me, I spend the most time in my home, driving in my vehicle and at work. In reality I spend about as much time away from my home as I do in it. So, it might make sense to have a bug-out-bag located in your vehicle, your place of work, and your home. For some that might not be practical, it may be better to carry one bag to each of your locations. This is totally up to you, but its something to consider.
So what’s inside a bug-out-bag? I promise, that no two people will agree on the contents of a bug-out-bag. Why? Because each one of us has different opinions on what’s important and each of our situations is different based on things such as location, geography, personal needs, where we are going, etc. Having said that, I do believe that most people (not all) will agree on certain “core” elements of a bug-out-bag. After you obtain your core items what you add after that is entirely up to you.
Core items should include the following:
- Light
- Fire
- Communications
- Navigation
- Water
- Food
- Clothing
- Signaling
- Shelter
- Tools
- First Aid
- Money
*You will notice right off the bat that I did not add a weapon to the core elements. From a security and liability stand point; this bag will generally be lying around possibly unattended or in a vehicle, so it’s probably not a wise idea to keep a weapon in the bag. But, here again this is entirely up to you.
You can easily buy pre-made kits off of the Internet to get you started, but I personally prefer to build my own kits from scratch. The problem I have with pre-made kits is, how can a whole survival kit cost only $40 bucks when you can’t even purchase a good backpack for less than $100 now days. It just doesn’t add up. Plus, in the event that a disaster does strike, I don’t want to have to guess if my equipment will work or stand up to harsh conditions. A bug-out-bag should be something like an investment.
The main things that I consider when building a bug-out-bag:
1. Weight
2. Durability
3. Cost
You will inevitable have a number of problems related to an emergency situation and the weight of you bug-out-bag is going to top your list, not at first mind you, but later when you become exhausted. To help with this, you need to “field strip” everything in your bag including the bag itself. Remove anything that is unnecessary to your survival such as packaging surrounding your gear, as an example ITS Tactical has a great video on field striping an MRE. Don’t stop there, go through your entire bag and do the same with everything in the bag.
What’s in your urban bug-out-bag?
Thanks
Security Guy
In times of emergencies it’s very unlikely that you will be able to remember the information you need, let alone find all of your critical data. For this reason its imperative to have all of your important papers in a safe location. Additionally, you need to make copies of all of your data and save it to some type of electronic media. Most people opt for the USB drive, they are small, easy and can hold a lot of data. But what information should you put on it? Below is a list of documents to get you started.
- Birth Certificate
- Marriage License
- Drivers License
- Education Diplomas
- Divorce Papers
- Social Security Cards
- Passport/Green Card
- Naturalization Documents
- Will
- Living Will
- Power of Attorney
- Mortgage or Real Estate Deeds of Trust
- Vehicle Registration
- Tax Returns
- Property Tax Statement
- Personal Property Tax
- Bank Statements
- Credit Card Statements
- Retirement Accounts (401K, TSP, IRA)
- Investment Accounts (Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds)
- Recent Pay Stubs
- W-2’s
- Government Benefits
- Alimony Income
- Child Support Income
- Appraisals of Personal Property
- Rewards Accounts (Frequent Flyer Programs, Hotel Rewards)
- Mortgage Statement
- Lease
- Utility Bills (Electric, Water, Gas)
- Car Payment
- Student Loan
- Alimony Payments
- Child Support Payments
- Property Insurance
- Rental Insurance
- Auto Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Health Insurance ID Card
- Record of Immunizations
- Disabilities Documentation
- Dental Records
- Current Military ID
- Military Discharge DD 214
- Resumes
- List of important phone numbers
- Web browsers book marks
Once you have all of your documents on the USB drive we then need to encrypt the data, which I will discuss in a follow-up article.
Thanks
Security Guy
I was reading the paper this morning and California is again getting hit with devastating forest fires. As someone who likes to be prepared, it got me thinking. What would I do in the same situation? If I had to evacuate my home in 10 minutes or less, what would I take? And, could I grab everything I wanted in such a short time? To get a better feel for this type of situation, here is snippet from the USA Today article.
Lane Butchko, a retired resident without a car, recounted desperately fleeing a half-mile down a mountain road before a motorist picked him up.
“I grabbed my dog and we ran for our lives. I forgot my teeth,” he said. “We were going at a full gallop and halfway down I fell, tripped on the dog’s leash. When I got up, I felt the heat of the fire on my back and I saw a tree burst into flames.”
Its quite obvious that Mr. Butchko had less than 10 mins to prepare, he only had time to grab the dog. So, would you be able to walk away from your home confidently in 10 mins? I’ve provided a few examples of ways to better prepare. As always, the lists are never exhaustive, they are designed to get you thinking.
- Do you have an evacuation plan? Go over it with your family and practice.
- Is your emergency kit ready and located where you need it?
- What is your communication plan? Do the kids know who to call? Do you have an out of state contact?
- Do you have a “meet up” location? You should actually have two meet up places incase the first is inaccessible.
- Do you have your important documents in a central location?
- Are all of your personal affairs in order? Home insurance, will, etc.
- Is your vehicle prepared and does it have any emergency equipment?
The whole point is to have some type of plan so you aren’t completely caught off guard if something bad does happen. If you aren’t sure where to begin or how to start an emergency plan, go check out Ready.gov. They have both online forms and down loadable forms which will help in designing your plan.
Thanks
Security Guy
It may be the economy, the perceive increase in natural disasters or just the overall mood of the country, but there seems to be a resurgence of interest in underground shelters. USA Today has a story about one individual in California who is selling space in his “13,000-square-foot refurbished underground shelter formerly operated by the U.S. government at an undisclosed location near Barstow, Calif., that will have room for 134 people.” Click on the link to get the full story.
Most everyone agrees that you should store “soft” copies of your important personal data on some type of portable drive in the event of an emergency. Documents such as drivers license, DD 214, insurances, birth certificate, etc all come to mind. But what type of portable drive should you get? Well, look no further! LaCie a maker external hard drives of has come out with the LaCie XtremKey. It’s described as being “constructed with zamac, a metal alloy composed of zinc, aluminum, magnesium and copper that’s so strong, it can withstand the pressure of a 10-ton truck”. Not a bad way to protect your data.
The Internet is chock full of information and tools that can potentially help people in their everyday lives. Google Earth is one of those invaluable tools and quite frankly if you aren’t utilizing Google Earth for your emergency planning then you are missing the boat. Government agencies, law enforcement, and corporations used to spend large amounts of capital to obtain high quality satellite data, but now they use Google Earth and so can you, for FREE. To get an idea of how these entities utilize Google Earth, read some of the “case studies”.
Now, I don’t want to imply that I think you should throw away your national and local maps, but instead use Google Earth to compliment maps that you already have. You can plan out your entire evacuation route, a backup route and all of your Points of Interest (POI) along the way. POI’s might include places such as, ATM’s, gas stations, grocery stores, and even your cache sites. Then print out the satellite photos of your route and place them with your maps. Or if you have a GPS system that accepts coordinates, add the entire route into your GPS system.
Other ways to use Google Earth:
- Discover alternate routes
- Locate hiking trails
- Find forests to escape into
- Locate train tracks
- Find rivers, streams, lakes or ponds
- Locate alleyways
Did I mention that there is also an iphone application, which is also FREE! Now get out there and create yourself some digital maps and start planning!
Thanks
Security Guy
Washington D.C. awoke to an earthquake this morning around 5:00AM. Luckily it was small as earthquakes go, only 3.6 in magnitude. It should serve as a little reminder to us that the planet we live on is in a state of constant flux. Preparing for natural disasters should make sense to everyone, just like having car insurance does. I don’t drive my car around with the fear I’m going to be in an accident, but if I am in an accident, I know I have insurance to cover the damages. The same should holds true for disasters, being prepared is like having your own personal insurance policy.
So how can you prepare for an earthquake? The Red Cross provides a few basic tips for us:
- Become aware of fire evacuation and earthquake plans for all of the buildings you occupy regularly.
- Pick safe places in each room of your home, workplace and/or school. A safe place could be under a piece of furniture or against an interior wall away from windows, bookcases or tall furniture that could fall on you.
- Practice drop, cover and hold on in each safe place. If you do not have sturdy furniture to hold on to, sit on the floor next to an interior wall and cover your head and neck with your arms.
- Keep a flashlight and sturdy shoes by each person’s bed.
- Make sure your home is securely anchored to its foundation.
- Bolt and brace water heaters and gas appliances to wall studs.
- Bolt bookcases, china cabinets and other tall furniture to wall studs.
- Hang heavy items, such as pictures and mirrors, away from beds, couches and anywhere people sleep or sit.
- Brace overhead light fixtures.
- Install strong latches or bolts on cabinets. Large or heavy items should be closest to the floor.
- Learn how to shut off the gas valves in your home and keep a wrench handy for that purpose.
- Learn about your area’s seismic building standards and land use codes before you begin new construction.
- Keep and maintain an emergency supplies kit in an easy to access location.
Additionally, always have a fire extinguisher in your home and ensure everyone in the family knows how to operate it.
Thanks
Security Guy
Apparently, I am a horrible prepper! We are now in the grips of hurricane season, so I tell myself I better go check out the pantry to see what we have on hand (I know, I’m already late!). To my shock we had very little in the way of can goods let alone the staples needed to survive an extended power outage. I guess even the best of us tend to slack off now and then.
After coming up with a short-term list of items and consulting with the wife, I came up with a pretty extensive list that I believe we should have in the event of an emergency. It’s definitely not an all-inclusive list, but I think it will get us through a two-week period. I’m sure all you long term preppers will get a kick out of my list.
Canned Food
• canned beans
• canned chicken
• canned meats
• canned seafood
• canned broths
• canned evaporated milk
• canned soups
• canned juices
• canned fruit
• canned brown bread
• canned vegetables
• pasta sauces
• canned pie fillings
Dried Food
• dried soup mixes
• instant potatoes
• instant oatmeal
• dried pastas
• dried vegetables
• powdered milk
• dried meat
• bouillon cubes and granules
• spices
• sauce mixes
• pesto mixes
• instant pudding mixes
• dried fruit
• dried mushrooms
Shelf Stable Food
• cereals
• raisins
• applesauce
• crackers
• couscous
• rice
• instance coffee
• tea
• jams and jellies
• mustard and ketchup
• nuts
• boxed juices
• snack and energy bars
• peanut butter
• salsa
• syrups
• olive oil
• oil
• vinegars
• cracker bread
• shelf-stable Parmesan cheese
• honey
• salt
• pepper
• flour
• sugar
• grits
• cream of wheat
• yeast
• baking soda
• baking powder
• corn meal
Thanks
Security guy
Melinda over at A Prepper’s Home Journal graciously accepted an offer to be a guest poster. We had been conversing about how much water would be necessary in the event of a disaster. Here is what Melinda and her family are working on with regards to emergency water.
One of our first goals as newbie preppers is to store up enough drinking water for our family for 14 days. The first thing we did was to start rinsing and refilling empty soda bottles with tap water, marking the date and storing them in a kitchen cabinet. We also started buying an extra 24 pack of bottled water each time we went to the store. So far we have four extra cases of bottled water, which is 12 gallons. We also have 18 2-liter soda bottles. That seems like a lot but it only works out to about 8.5 gallons.
Just how much water do we need? Let’s look at this a little closer. The general rule of thumb is that the average adult needs to consume 64 ounces of water daily, which is about 1.9 liters. So, we’ll figure about a half-gallon per adult per day. We also have a 5-year-old and a baby that’s just shy of her first birthday. I am going to figure their needs as adults too just for the sake of simplicity. That means there are five of us, needing about a half a gallon of water a day, minimum. That works out to 2.5 gallons a day, times 14 days, I’m rounding up to 3 gallons to take into account our two cats. So, the final tally then, 3 gallons a day for 14 days comes out to 42 gallons. That’s a lot, and that’s just water to drink.
There are a few other things to take into account. Most preparedness sites (including FEMA) recommend a full gallon, per person, per day. This amount includes water for cooking and for hygiene. That bumps the total up to 70 gallons for our family.
There are also other things we will need water for, especially if we decide to shelter-in. If we were completely without running water, we would need water to flush the toilet. According to my maintenance man hubby, we would need a minimum of 2 gallons of water for a good solid flush. Say we had to flush at least twice a day, that’s 4 gallons a day. For a two-week period that’s 56 gallons!
If an emergency really did last 14 days, we would need to wash some clothes. With a generator we could run our washer, but a better option (to conserve fuel and water) would be to use a washboard. Pioneer Living has an excellent instructional post on this. I tried guessing how much water was used and figured about 6 gallons: 2 in the washtub, 2 in the boiling pans and 2 in the rinse pan. We generate a lot of laundry here with 5 people, but in a crisis we would only wash necessities. If we did laundry twice a week and didn’t do a water change during the process, that’s 24 gallons during the emergency. Then there’s dish washing to consider. We have a stash of paper plates, cups and plastic utensils, but there would be cookware to keep clean. I just tacked on a gallon a week for simplicity’s sake.
So, our 14 day needs look like this:
Drinking, cooking, hygiene: 70 gallons
Toilet Flushing: 56 gallons
Laundry and Dish washing: 26 gallons
Grand Total: 152 gallons
152 gallons is a lot of water. Just to give you an idea, a standard bathtub, filled to the top, holds about 100 gallons. Based on this, we’ve decided that the best plan for us is to continue buying bottled water and refilling our soda bottles as we are. We are also going to invest in a “water bob” which fits in the bathtub and holds 100 gallons of water. It’s made from food safe materials so this could be drinking water or used for cooking and hygiene as well. It’s a great solution in situations where we have some advance warning, such as hurricanes. In addition to the water bob, we’re adding some collapsible 5-gallon containers, and a 5-gallon camp shower.
Along with concerns about having enough water, we need to make sure we have clean water. A supply of bleach and some water purification tablets are on our buy it now list, and a good water filter system is at the top of our buy it as soon as we can list. The bottom line I suppose it that in a sheltering-in situation, you can’t really have too much water. It’s always best to have more than you think you’ll need, because you have no way of knowing how long a situation will last or what other things may happen to increase your needs. Better safe than sorry.
Melinda
When you first begin to prepare you are probably like most people, completely lost. You have no plan and no idea where to start or even how to begin the process of getting prepared; the one thing you do know is, that you have this overwhelming feeling to do something. Everyone’s motivation for getting prepared is different, some are concerned about “earthquakes” for others its “The End Of The World As We Know it (TEOTWAWKI) you name the event, it doesn’t really matter, the one commonality we all have is a need to be prepared.
For guys the first thing we generally do is build a bug-out-bag, why, because its gear oriented and we love our gear, plain a simple! For women, it seems like you concentrate on food storage and food preparation. I’m not trying to be chauvinistic I’m just pointing out what seems to occur based on gender when first starting out.
One of the simplest and most overlooked things you can do to prepare for a disaster is to have an extra set clothes in your car and at work. And the best part about it is, you probably have everything you require in your closet already.
So what’s the big deal about having an extra set of clothes? It doesn’t matter if you work in a high-rise or in a warehouse; in an emergency situation protecting your body from the elements is paramount. I would hate to think that I had to walk 10 or 20 miles from my office to the house in dress slacks and some nice shoes. The same holds true for the ladies, a dress and high heels isn’t the proper outfit for a natural disaster. Lets not forget that disasters never happen at opportune times, it’s always at the worst possible time.
Now, if you are like me your first inclination will be to get the worst set of clothes you can find and throw it in your car…don’t do it! The clothes you select should be some of the most comfortable that you own. This includes shoes, socks and underwear, there is nothing worst than walking around with a pair of underwear or a pair of new boots that continually rub and chaff your skin.
The following is a list of items that I have found to be particularly helpful, maybe you will too!
• Hat
• Boots or tennis shoes
• Belt
• Cargo pants or jeans
• Shirt, preferable long sleeve
• Socks
• Underwear
• Rain Jacket
Once you have all your clothes together make sure and put them into a water proof bag, zip lock freeze bags work well or you can get a high-speed vacuum sealed bag which will compress everything down, even better. Good luck and be prepared!
Thanks
Security Guy
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