{"id":860,"date":"2005-09-01T22:33:38","date_gmt":"2005-09-01T22:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-09-28T12:09:20","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T12:09:20","slug":"bug_out_kit_red","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=860","title":{"rendered":"Bug Out Kit Redux"},"content":{"rendered":"

I posted this back in 2003, and it seems particularly relevant today. So I’m reposting it, unchanged. I’ll think about some additions for folks in flood-prone areas, but one thing immediately comes to mind – a small, paddleable boat.<\/i><\/p>\n

Many of the folks I know have an abiding belief in survival; some of them become survivalists and center their lives around it, which has always struck me as kinda weird. But I find that I can often learn useful things from them, even if we may disagree about how central those useful things ought to be in one’s life. Put those useful things into a bag and have it at hand in case you need to ‘head for the hills’, and you have a “Bug Out Kit”.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an interesting discussion to have about apocalyptic fantasies, and our bizarre attachment to them. I mentioned some of the issues over in a post<\/a> on Armed Liberal. It\u2019s time for a longer discussion on it. <\/p>\n

But today, let\u2019s be practical and discuss what such a kit might consist of.<\/p>\n

First, you\u2019ve got to discuss purpose. <\/p>\n

The hardier among us assume that they will be taking to the field as a guerilla army defending against the invading Red forces, or the newly oppressive U.S. government under President H. Clinton. They envision living on venison jerky and fresh-caught fish and carrying enough weapons to put together a light infantry platoon.<\/p>\n

On the other extreme, some folks would just like to be able to get home in the event their car breaks down on the other side of town.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m somewhere in between. I live in Southern California, where we live on borrowed time \u2026 the earthquakes, riots, floods, or fires compete for the \u2018Disaster of the Decade\u2019 pageant, which we hold in Pasadena every Leap Year Day.<\/p>\n

For me, it’s not a “Bug Out Kit”, it’s a “Get Home Kit”. It\u2019s not unreasonable to assume that my SO or I may have to cover fifty miles to get home, and that having gotten home, we may be without water, power, or gas for several days to a week until the grown-ups can get their act together and take care of us.<\/p>\n

And to this I\u2019ll add the new layer of risk posed by a meaningful terrorist attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So the kits break into two parts: What we try and have with us, and what we have at home.<\/p>\n

What we have with us is primarily designed to get us home. Because I have children, unless I can be convinced that my entire neighborhood is a giant smoking crater, or communicate with someone who has my children and is getting them somewhere safe, I\u2019m heading home. End of subject.<\/p>\n

This is a small, cheap day pack that we can leave in the car or at the office.<\/p>\n

It contains:<\/p>\n

Light hiking boots (hell, we own them, and why leave them in the closet where they just take up space?)
\nSocks (I\u2019m likely to be wearing dress socks, and TG is likely to be wearing hose)
\nPants and a sweatshirt
\nA poncho
\nFive or six Power Bars
\nFive or six GU Gel packs (food you squeeze)
\nTwo bottles of water, and some water purification tablets
\nTwo bandanas
\nA Leatherman multi-tool
\nA decent knife (Spyderco Delicia)
\n50\u2019 of 4mm perlon cord
\nA locking carabiner
\nMore first-aid stuff (pretty much what I carry in my motorcycle suit):
\n – 2 battle dressings
\n – 2 – 4 x 4 gauze pads
\n – 1 CPR shield
\n – 2 pairs nitrile gloves
\n – vial with core prescriptions
\n – bottle of aspirin
\n – Imodium
\nA spare pair of prescription glasses for each of us (what else do you do with old glasses?)
\nTwo black heavy-duty trash bags
\n4 – 6\u201d zip ties
\nScorpion Streamlight
\n2 spare lithium batteries<\/p>\n

\u2026and a partridge in a pear tree.<\/p>\n

Basically, with this kit, I could \u2018comfortably\u2019 cover 20 – 30 miles in a day on foot in pretty much any weather condition I\u2019m likely to face here in SoCal, bivvy for the night, and have enough stuff to do it again another day.<\/p>\n

We already owned everything in the kits, except the backpacks, leatherman, knife, carabiner, flashlight, and perlon cord. Total investment, maybe $150 each if you buy a good multi-tool. <\/p>\n

At home, we have:<\/p>\n

Water (5 extra 5 ga Sparkletts distilled water bottles; we use and rotate them when we change the water in the fish tank)
\nFood (a 20 ga \u2018tupperware\u2019 container full of canned and dried food, plus camping cooking gear, the car camping propane stove and a couple of propane cylinders)
\nFirst Aid (the big kit described here)
\nTools (a Sears roller cabinet full)
\nA wonderbar (pry bar) in the bedroom closet, in case we have to pry open jammed doors
\nA shutoff wrench that fits the city water valve
\nA crescent wrench swedged onto a wire loop at the gas meter<\/p>\n

If I were to add antiterrorism to the kit, I\u2019d consider adding:<\/p>\n

Potassium iodide (antiradiation)
\nSome high-end respirators (not gas masks, but the ones with fine carbon filters)
\nFour or five sheets of Visqueen (disposable painter\u2019s tarp)
\nFive or ten rolls of duct tape
\nSome starter packs of a broad-spectrum antibiotic
\nA couple of Tyvek (disposable) overalls<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thinking about it\u2026<\/p>\n

JK Note:<\/b> Don’t miss his Super First Aid Kit<\/a>, either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I posted this back in 2003, and it seems particularly relevant today. So I’m reposting it, unchanged. I’ll think about some additions for folks in flood-prone areas, but one thing immediately comes to mind – a small, paddleable boat. Many of the folks I know have an abiding belief in survival; some of them become […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}