Has anyone ever had to to "Bug Out"...in real life?

Photos and important papers on portable hard drive, and backed-up on another off site (Work, In-laws, etc..). Scrapbooking is NOT a bad hobby to have. Makes grabbing precious photos much easier. Have had to bug out because of forest fire a couple of times. Backpacks are easier to "grab and go", suitcases are easier to "live out of" at the hotel. If in an area prone to fires, talk to the local hotels to find out when peak season for them is. Ours corresponds to fire season. Makes it kinda hard to find a hotel, and they are more expensive. And farther from work.
We are were considering a pre-packed travel trailer, if we had stayed in that area longer. Just a bit easier to hook it up and go. Easier to find a place to park it and stay. Cheaper and more "home" for us (hotels SUCK for a family to live out of for more than a couple of days).

when i was in hawaii i got run out of my camp many times. grabbed what i could and haled butt down the trail
used that time once to go to the north shore and go scrounging at kuhoku training range. couple of times the state trashed my tent.
dumped my full can of coffee poked knife holes in my can goods and so fourth. some off the exciting times bieing homeless.
good thing for me i knew the trails better than the state cops

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Originally Posted by hayshaker

when i was in hawaii i got run out of my camp many times. grabbed what i could and haled butt down the trail
used that time once to go to the north shore and go scrounging at kuhoku training range. couple of times the state trashed my tent.
dumped my full can of coffee poked knife holes in my can goods and so fourth. some off the exciting times bieing homeless.
good thing for me i knew the trails better than the state cops

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you sound like a squatter or a bum and choosing to be homeless??

Yeah.
When: September, 1999 .
Why: Mandatory evacuation for Hurricane Floyd.
Where: Spent two days/nights in a shelter inland, Florida.
My son was three years old. If I was single, I'd have rode out the storm as usual...this was my first serious bug out. Turned out the storm stayed way off the coast of Florida and eventually attacked North Carolina...

DomC


Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by DomC

Yeah.
When: September, 1999 .
Why: Mandatory evacuation for Hurricane Floyd.
Where: Spent two days/nights in a shelter inland, Florida.
My son was three years old. If I was single, I'd have rode out the storm as usual...this was my first serious bug out. Turned out the storm stayed way off the coast of Florida and eventually attacked North Carolina...

DomC


Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

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So what did you take for supplies.?...done different?

This is kinda what I was getting at....Thanks for the response.

I took food for the baby, water, pampers, extra clothing, cigarettes (I quit smoking in 2001 btw), snacks, my SAK CHAMP, matches, BIC lighter, canned spam, rope, fak, money, credit cards, Nokia 5110 cell phone and charger, car battery charging cables, extra gasoline in containers, Coleman lantern, stove, flashlight and xtra batteries, sleeping bags, blankets, towels, toiletries, paper towels, tp, paper plates, plastic flatware, all my guns and ammo, important documents, beer, soda & ice in my big cooler and bags of beef jerky, trail mix. My bug out vehicle was a 1993 Plymouth Voyager Van. I remember it like it was yesterday...

DomC

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i was homeless and had a job a bum dos,nt work ok. and if campingout and surviving is squatting as you put it then yes i was a squatter.
that was at the height of the recession in the 80,s pay was little and rent was astronomical.
so i chose to camp out. i learned all my survival skills back then and have been learning since. and no i,m not ashamed of it either.
it was a life learning lesson.

A few years ago it seemed the whole state of Texas was on fire, my mother had to bug out in quite a hurry. My sons packed the guns that I had stored there, the ones they knew about anyway. Mom packed a quick suitcase with only a couple changes of clothes in it, my sister was visiting from out of state and she did the same. My mother was convinced she'd be back home within a day or 2. I live within 40 miles and didn't have to evacuate, although it came close a couple times. So housing wasn't an issue but I can tell you that motels filled up QUICK!

I think the biggest thing we miss is the family pictures, looking back we should have made digital copies. We talked about it several times but just never did it because theres always tomorrow!

We still come up with things that are gone and never realized until you need it.

It's been a couple years now but we still come up with things that are gone

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Originally Posted by shiftyer1

We still come up with things that are gone and never realized until you need it.

It's been a couple years now but we still come up with things that are gone

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I know how that feels. Happens a lot. Let me go grab my....oh wait...never mind. Don't have that anymore.

Starting a Photobucket (or multiple ones/sites) is a good idea. I don't have many pictures from Afghanistan anymore, but the ones I do are thanks to having them on the internet.

If flashing emergency lights in your living room window and cops pounding on your door at 2 a.m. telling you that there has been a train derailment with hazmat at the rail yard less than a mile from your home and you have 10 minutes to evac counts.... Yep about 5 years ago.

Funny thing this topic coming up,until apr of this year i lived in regina beach sask where that gas leak was on weds my house was in the blast zone woukd still be evacuated and who knows what kind of property damage

For document and pic storage....8 gig thumb drives for $8 bucks......on sale at Walgreens......saves a LOT of stuff.

Have several and one I keep up dating pic's on....
Pic's and "contacts' are what I miss the most with the 'puter crashes....

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Originally Posted by oldsoldier

If flashing emergency lights in your living room window and cops pounding on your door at 2 a.m. telling you that there has been a train derailment with hazmat at the rail yard less than a mile from your home and you have 10 minutes to evac counts.... Yep about 5 years ago.

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So did you have a "go bag"...or make one after the fact?

Yup camping with a bunch of elementary students in tents in Lancaster when AGNES hit I stayed in the tent (Andre Jamlet) with a green horn kid as a partner and basically sleeped inside the tent for two days of pouring rain... We were Ok for a canvas cotton tent with a bathtub floor - by day three I had enough - turns out the teachers had forgotten about us as we had stocked food in the tent. All the kids had given up prior and because I insisted of bringing my own equipment we did far better. I have spent 3 trips in the woods and came out on top each time in hurricanes.

One of the worse things that could happen when you are away from hone is to run into a disaster and being unprepared. The wife and I were camping in Gloucester County, Virginia (we camp there for 7 months out of the year, no full time campers) on 8/25/11 we were told we would have to evacuate the campground by 8:00 am Saturday , one of my friends asked us to go home to his home in Richmond, VA. I had my ‘get back home” backpack which I carry with me in the car, also grabbed my laptop computer and MyFi (internet web connector), my 12 volt deep cycle boat battery and emergency 12 volt electrical kit (400 watt inverter, with 2 USB chargers, a couple short extension cords, a 7.5 watt light bulb and socket, and a compact light dimmer) and since them I replaced the incandescent light bulb with an LED dimmable 5 watt (40 watt equivalent) candelabra bulb, and a small LED night light bulb., all previously packed in a plastic box ready to go at any time. Also took my dual band VX5R ham radio 6 mete/2 meter/440 handy talkie, with battery charger and rubber duck and spare, J-Pole dual band portable antenna rolled in its own pouch, speaker mike, and assorted connectors, all packed in a pouch ready to go at a moment’s notice. Packed some cloth, water, grabbed some food, raingear, my wife packed some cloth, her prescription and w were ready to roll on the 4 wheel drive SUV, and away we went to Richmond until the storm passed. There was another couple with us and they took enough food to feed half the county. As soon as we got to my friend’s house the wind picked up to about 85 mph wind gusts according to the news, trees were coming down all around the house, including one that pool down the transformer on the house next door and that’s when we lost power. The power was out for 5 days, but my friend had 2 generators and we got one going right away so we could watch the news on the TV and power the well as well, we used the second generator to a hookup direct to the water heater so we all could take baths, I had my laptop to check weather maps and the weather, and my ham radio for communications as well.
At least two people had died and several homes had been heavily damaged by tornadoes. Eleven communities were evacuated, and 600,000 customers had no power in Virginia.
Good thing about an RV is that the refrigerator goes from 110 volts to propane during a power failure so we didn’t any food spoil, we were able to go into the campground on the fourth day after being evacuated and run my small generator to keep the food frozen, and because the freezer was full of food it kept frozen for those 4 days. The campground was closed for a period of seven days but hardly suffered any damaged, while some places looked like they were mowed down by a giant lawn mower.
Bugging out worked really great because everything but clothing, food, and water was pre-packed and ready to go, as a matter of fact, all my stuff is kept in the car, and if I need something out of the kits, I put it right back so it is always ready at a moment’s notice.
What would I so different? Not a thing, I already replaced my bulbs in the electrical kit from tungsten to LED, and that was the only change, otherwise I have this kit 7 months out of the year in my car, including water. One thing I forgot to mention that we had 2 dogs with us and my friend has one, the other couple has no pets. I just grabbed a bag of dog food and their bowls.
I figure that any time during the hurricane season we are susceptible to hurricanes or tropical storms due to the fact that we camp 12 miles from the Chesapeake Bay, and being on the river, we are susceptible to the storm’s surge and it could be a whole bunch of feed of water, but we have 20 foot banks, anything over that and we are swimming.
Mike.

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Originally Posted by hunter63

So did you have a "go bag"...or make one after the fact?

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Already had them. Actually had my daily driver set up as a BOV with food, water, personal supplies and such for 3 weeks on board at all times even seasonal clothing and pet supplies. Shelter, cooking gear and all. We basically just grabbed the BOB's and the pets loaded them up and headed out after getting dresses. Luckily we didn't have to use the tent for shelter but had the CSX railroad put us up in a local hotel for the duration.

Makes me wonder if anyone actually "had" to bug out.....and why?

Yes, had to escape from my house and town from a wildfire that had entered the town.

What happened....? (TL;DR version below)

In 2011, Slave Lake, Alberta, Canada:

May 14th - A wildfire approximately 4km East of the town starts in a cutline beneath some power-lines. The fire was later ruled as arson, but that is a whole other story. The fire is initially small, but soon grows to several hectares in size. There is a large ominous cloud of brown smoke to the East of town around 5pm. The fire department and crews respond and the fire is brought down to manageable size overnight. Crews are putting out muskeg spot fires, but this is a big job and expected to take another day or more to ensure an "extinguished" status is put on the fire. At least one house on an acreage is lost, as well as a fire department owned pickup truck and pump. During the afternoon of this day, I was sent home from work early as our boss had decided to close up shop due to the fire. I packed a bag of bug-out clothes and put some pictures by the door just in case an evacuation order was issued.

May 15th - In the morning, all that could be seen from town was some wispy columns of white smoke. Meanwhile, most of us residents noticed another fire 20km to the SW of town that was quickly growing in size and approaching a hamlet on the south shore of the lake known as Widewater. The prevalent winds of the day were blowing from the South East. This fire soon grew to a massive size and took the attention of firefighters everywhere. Evacuations were being set up for the hamlet of Widewater, meanwhile the fire that started yesterday South East of town was getting the attention of one crew of firefighters. Around noon, the winds picked up, 70 kilometers per hour gusting up to 110km/h. Thats when things took off. The fire South East of town and the one near Widewater had began to explode far out of anyone's control.

At 430pm, SHTF in the town of Slave Lake. The power went out at about 4:40. The radio station that was giving the town updates on the condition of the fire but for some reason kept telling us "do not evacuate" lost power at the same time. Seriously, not 5 minutes before the power went out, the radio station had told us that there was "no need to evacuate" and that "there is no voluntary evacuation order". So the power went out, and about the same time, the streets suddenly were filled with orange-brown smoke. I saw several neighbours leave the front steps of their homes to look, confused and surprised, to the East, where all of the sudden there was a wall of flame and smoke (probably about 1km away and approaching fast). Pieces of burning pine needles, ash, and other debris were hitting me in the face. I grabbed my stuff and my family, and loaded into the vehicle. By 4:50, we joined bumper to bumper traffic that has us leaving town at a slow pace, but slowly to the center of town away from the fire. Going the other direction would mean driving into the fire. There was no oncoming lane, it was two lanes, one-way, out of town. Once at the center of town, we turned South and then West on the highway, which if you will recall, is straight towards the big fire threatening Widewater. We got about 15km down that highway before we were turned around and sent back towards our burning town, because the other fire was blocking our escape West.

Approaching Slave Lake from the west was a sight to behold. Thick black-blue smoke was now rising from the middle of town, and explosions and fire was seen high above the tree tops. Propane tanks, ammunition, and other pressurized containers, were exploding, turning the place into what can only be described as a true war-zone. Houses were burning to the ground in seconds. Seriously, I think this is as close to an actual war-zone that it can get. We are stuck in town with no safe exit, to watch as this fire burns past us. Eventually, the highway to the East opens up and we leave Slave Lake.

(TL;DR version: A third of the town of Slave Lake burnt down on May 15, including my house. I had to bug out, we escaped literally by driving through smoke and ash away from town. The time period between me leaving my house, and my house burning to the ground in seconds was approximately 13 minutes. It was bedlam. Things were exploding, sirens were blaring, and it was hell.)

What did you bring...?
Family members, dog, clothes, jug of water probably 4 gallons, left the family pictures behind and my guns (damnit).

Were we ready....?

In hindsight, no, we were not ready. It definitely did not help that the radio station for some damn reason said repeatedly, "do not evacuate". I had clothes and water ready and so did my family, and we were watching the fire the whole day. The time window for the fire to go from looking like it was not a threat, to engulfing the town, was 15-20 minutes. I looked outside and went for a walk to the edge of town to see what the conditions were like, and returned home. Not 15 minutes after I got back, the fire had entered the town. It did not look to me like it would happen that quickly or at all when I looked earlier.

Where did you bug out to....?

We drove 250km to the city of Edmonton, which was South of town. Normally the drive takes 2.5hrs. Due to the mass exodus of Slave Lake, the drive took 7hrs due to bumper to bumper traffic on the only highway leaving town.

How did you bug out ....?

Pickup truck.

How long.......?

We were gone 4 weeks out of town before we could legally return. The cops had the highways blocked off to prevent non-essential persons from entering the community. Obviously, returning serves only the purpose of assessing the damage, as my house, along with 1/3 of the homes in town, was levelled.

Were you alone....?

Had the family and dog. Everyone in town eventually evacuated. There are stories of people having to get dragged literally out of their homes. Some people on the outskirts of town stayed in their homes as the were safe from the fire.

Did it work for you and yours....?

We lived in a hotel for a month, and stayed in a friends house that did not burn back in Slave Lake upon return.

What do you do different these day....?

I do not live there anymore. Now, I am prepared for the most likely SHTF scenario in my new city, which thankfully is not wildfire. Always have water and emergency food on hand.

What do you figure the chances or the same thing happening a second time....?

Extremely likely. The wildland/ urban interface where forests and communities are increasingly intertwined is on the rise, and it could most certainly happen again somewhere else.

Grizz123 , where do you get off judging people?
I can't believe a mod hasn't addressed this.

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Originally Posted by Walter2

Grizz123 , where do you get off judging people?
I can't believe a mod hasn't addressed this.

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how did I judge him? All I did was put a title to his actions.

Let it go guys.