Staying in the city/town V Bugging out.

I have heard a lot of talk in regards to bugging in when you live in the city or town. My opinion is that if you live in a city or town, you need to get out. If you live in a high rise apartment, you have few options of escape. Barricading yourself in sounds like a good idea, but 1) you will need to get out to find a supply of water & food 2) your toilets will not be working 3) if you need to cook you will need a gas supply or similar, & 4) someone can easily burn the place down with you inside.
The same goes for your average house, you can not protect your self from fire & you can't stop some mob driving a truck through your house!
So if you do live in city or town, & sincerely believe that sooner or later it will all go to hell in a handcart, then now is the time to start planning WHERE you will go, HOW you will get there, & WHAT you will take with you.

DO NOT plan everything too tightly around getting out & getting to your destination by vehicle. You may break down, you may have to ditch your vehicle. If this happens, then you will have to finish your journey on foot, & you can only carry so much food, water & gear.

By all means take extra gear with you in the vehicle if this is your mode of travel, but make sure that every member of your family/group also has their own backpack of necessary food, water, & equipment. This in my opinion should also include any child that is big enough to carry something.

Who Carries What? This will take some thinking about. Do you have some people just carrying water? Do people carry gardening tools as weapons or do you remove the helves & stails & make new ones when you reach your destination? Some people may not have a firearm, but they could carry extra ammo for those that do. Do you have a designated medical person who will be carrying the bulk of medical supplies? Same with food, can some people be responsible for carrying the bulk of the food supplies? Can you add trekking trolleys to your gear?

There is a lot to think about, but rather than write it all down here, I will just say this 1) whatever you choose in the way of equipment & tools, try & make sure it is sustainable. 2) Carry the bulk of your foods as dry foods, but make sure you carry some trail foods that do not require cooking. 3) remember this, when packing for the trail there must be a compromise between two principles; minimum weight & maximum self-reliance.
Keith.

 

Well as you point out, there is the risk that your retreat will be broken into & everything lost, but it is a choice/alternative. We have our gear ready to go just in case the survival situation dictates that we leave our "retreat"! But many people do not have a retreat, they will simply be escaping the city & going bush. Yes I guess you could find some place in the countryside to dig a cache, but I don't like the idea of being separated from important supplies. Certainly IF you can make it back to your cache & the cache is just food provisions, then this could be of some help.
Keith.

 

"bugging out" immediately is not always the best decision, if everyone else is doing it you could find the roads clogged and no spare food or drink anywhere, it might be an alternative to remain behind, in hiding "hunkering down" until the rest have left, then you can make a decision when things have settled whether to stay or go. it might be that everyone-or nearly everyone- has left and you have the place to yourself, in that case-why leave?? have a look around and see what been left behind, who knows what you might find?