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Survival of the – Well… Luckiest?

When the SHTF – what do I do? Part 2

Ric Black

April 7, 2015

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When is bugging out not an option?

Too often we are faced with critical situations in our lives we have little control over or a means of rectifying it.

In a SHTF (excrement hits the oscillating blades) scenario that crisis centers on two choices Bugging In where you stay in your place of residence and tough out the situation or decide to hit-the-road and Bug Out either one can put your life and the lives of others at risk.

What are the right choices? I hope to shed a little light here.

In a civilization changing scenario where economic turmoil, catastrophic natural disaster, social unrest or a manmade situation we will be faced with our own and perhaps the survival of your loved ones and making the right choice is crucial.

We first need to understand there are going to be four (4) different groups of people discussed. We do this to differentiate how those life altering decisions will be made.

First let’s analyze what Bugging Out means.

When I was a kid I had a friend who like me didn’t grow up in the lap of luxury and one week night I was invited to stay over at his house. In the middle of the night I woke up thirsty and went out to the kitchen to get a drink of water and when I turned on the light it looked like an invading army of roaches headed for the hills – to me that was what I thought of as “bugging out” as a kid.

As an adult its where during a disaster you take your family and yourself carrying whatever supplies and items you think you need and flee to where you think you’ll be safe or at least away from the source of potential danger.

I spoke of four groups of people earlier and this plays an important role in our discussion.

Typical Bugging in Situation’s

1st – Suburbanites

A suburbanite is family living a normal existence in the suburbs of Any Town America. The father works, the mother sometimes does to and there are often children at home. Economic times have made keeping their house, the cars, paying monthly obligations tough and some months one of the parents works an extra job to make ends meet. They have little in the way of savings; have only the food they have in the pantry, refrigerator and maybe a freezer. The family minivan is 10 years old in need of repairs they have put off because junior needs his teeth fixed or Sally is experiencing puberty and mom needs to prepare her and both scenarios cost that extra money dad made last month and are not considered luxuries but necessities.

The unthinkable happens and an earthquake magnitude 7.5 hits and the public infrastructure is damaged beyond immediate repair. Do they leave or do they stay.

To me this is a situation where bugging out is not an option. Highways will be congested with bumper to bumper traffic for a dozen miles for up to half a day. Should the family chose this option and the minivan decide to give up the ghost they are stranded and likely to suffer for it.

They had no preparations simply because they couldn’t afford them.

2^nd – Mr. and Mrs. over 55

Now this too is a typical America family situation too. An aging couple of Baby Boomers whose kids have long ago moved away and have become the suburbanite family we mentioned earlier. They are semi-retired or permanently retired living on a fixed income or savings and live a moderately upscale lifestyle. They have a nice townhouse condo since downsizing from the family home, drive nice cars and spend leisure income they have enjoying their lives – he plays golf and she is involved in the community.

They are aware of the global situation and have prepared by keeping a stockpile of food and water enough to sustain them through just about any situation. They have home protection in the way of a handgun and shotgun safely secured in a wall mounted gun safe. They have a generator and 20-gallons of gasoline in OSHA safety steel cans ready to hook the generator to the hot water heater to run small appliances.

3^rd – Mrs. and Mrs. Mobile Home Dweller

This in my area in Florida is huge where people have moved from family homes to RV’s or mobile homes in large community parks.

This type of living has its drawbacks too. Like Mr. and Mrs. over 55 they live on a fixed income but don’t have the luxury of leisure spending. They also have space restrictions since they life in a rectangular accommodation from 200 sf motorhome or travel trailer – or 1,500 sf double wide. What they have for food, water and transportation is often limited.

You cannot pick up and go in a mobile home so you are restricted to where you are.

Hitting the highway in a 35-foot Class A motorhome getting 10 mpg won’t get them far during a disaster but at least their home will be with them wherever they pull off when movement is no longer an option.

4^th – Rambo Jack & Jane

This couple and their off spring live on a piece of ground in the unincorporated part of the county; they have a little extra land, recreational vehicles and maybe a few animals.

Rambo Jack is a plumber and earns good money, Rambo Jane is a full-time homemaker and the kids are not yet in their teens.

Rambo Jack has a personal stash of weapons and ammo enough to equip a small squad. He spent the family’s vacation money buying each family member a year’s supply of freeze-dried foods, has a well for water, several industrial barrels of fuel stored, went to the local gun range and taught everyone in the family to shoot and has survival gear for everyone in the rear of the 4×4 topper.

This is the type of person when disaster hits I am most leery of. They are likely to answer the door with a gun on their hip.

But they too are likely to stay close to the homestead they have prepared to defend against the zombie hordes.