How, when, and where should you bug out – very few prepping questions are more deceitful or perplexing!
I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a bug out location that we’ve purchased and fully stocked. I’m betting that MOST of you out there don’t have a bug out location ready to go.
But when we talk about where do we go if we need to bug out, there’s a couple of things we need to hit first. I’ve established in blog posts before that bugging out rarely looks like you think it will. It’s (almost) never walking down a trail in the woods or on a deserted road strewn with leaves with your brood in tow behind you with each family member carrying his or her Bug Out Bags, and you all are looking for a better place to “do” this crazy thing called life.
Don’t picture The Walking Dead (without the zombies of course) as what bugging out will almost certainly look like. 999 times (or more) out of 1000 it won’t.
You don’t ONLY bug out when it’s TEOTWAWKI. Sometimes we bug out because of natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. Other times we bug out because of because of dangerous circumstances like riots or nuclear reactors gone wrong.
Sometimes you Bug-Out because the polar vortex has decided to visit your area and your furnace couldn’t handle the stress of heating your house to 80-90 degrees warmer than the windchill outside and you have young children.
Because there are many reasons to bug out, there are also different places to which you can bug out.
Where Can You Bug Out To?
Well start that by asking yourself how long do you plan to Bug Out for? Are you just trying to get out of the house when there is an event (like a protest) that you want to be away from the house for? Or are you looking at getting away for a night or more.
Where should you bug out?
(1) Movie Theater 
No, I’m not kidding. Though, Put-Put, go-carts, or any other short-term activity away from home would work for a short bugging out. Having lived through the Ferguson Riots, there were a couple of nights that I wish that we would have done something like this. There was one night in particular when we didn’t need to be out for even a whole night, but on a night of protests we had protesters in our front yard with police helicopters overhead shining lights into our yard, I wish we would have left. It scared the children. This would have been a simple solution to the problem.
Where should you bug out?
(2) Friend’s or family’s houses
In almost every single instance of you needing to bug out overnight or longer , this is your SINGLE BEST OPTION. Even if it WAS TEOTWAWKI, staying with a friend off the beaten path is better than other more dangerous options – which I’ll talk about later.
Some stipulations for this:
Have different friends lines up for different types of situations.
– If you live in a hurricane prone area, you’ll want at least one friend who is out of the hurricane danger zone. If you live in a wildfire area, your friend should be in a zone that’s safe from the wildfire. The same goes for if you live in a floodplain.
– You want one house to go to in each direction from yours North, East, South, and West. Really? Yes. If the nuclear power plant to my northwest melts down and I need to evacuate, I’ll need to go to the south and/or east. If the New Madrid fault near where we live decides to decimate our area, I can’t go south or west, that’s where the devastation would be even worse than where we are. I need to go north or east. You get the picture.
– You need to have an agreement with these families that you could show up on their doorstep if something radical happens where you live. Don’t show up with the having prior clearance to do so. Depending on the situation, you may be met under less than friendly terms if you don’t have a prior agreement.
– Consider making a reciprocal agreement. If something happens in their area, they can come to your place.
– Consider stashing some extra supplies – especially if you plan to go somewhere if it really does turn out to be TEOTWAWKI. If you trust the family with which you plan to stay with (And I sure hope you would), to not get into your stuff, ask them if you can keep items that you may want to use in case you ever end up there. If they don’t have room, seriously consider renting a a storage unit.
Where should you bug out?
(3) A Hotel 
If you’re new to an area and you don’t yet have nearby friends which whom you can stay, or you want to take bugging out and turn it into a vacation so the kids aren’t scared, then consider a hotel. It costs more than staying with a friend. It’s not a long-term solution, but it is a viable short-term solution.
Where NOT to Bug Out
Even this morning when I was browsing Facebook as I was looking over my page, answering comments, and scheduling a post, I scrolled through some of the other posts out there. Someone asked this exact question – “I don’t have a bug out retreat. Where should I bug out to?”
The reply after mine was, “I’m going to go live in the woods 30 miles away from me.” I want you to stop and thing about this for a moment. The reason that we prepare our houses, the reason that we stockpile food and other items is so that we can survive WHERE WE ARE.
What I want you to realize is that bugging out – especially if it is TEOTWAWKI and you never plan to come back to your house again, is a decision of last resort. Survival expert, Selco, who survived the Balkan War didn’t bug out and that is part of what kept him alive.
The thought of taking your family out into the woods to live, especially if the end of the end of the world has happened, will complicate things unnecessarily and will actually take away a lot of the natural security you have in your home. Add to that that you have supplies in your home. Do not think that you are going to go out into the middle of the woods and live off the land. Too many people seem to have that idea. You will end up killing each other on hunting expeditions instead of killing game.
What About You?
Do you have any experience bugging out? Do you have any suggestions on where else people can bug out?
I agree that it’s much smarter to identify locations north, west, east, and south. I’m working on that right now. I would like to identify two routes (one that we get to via the interstate and via county highway) to each. Each will be a city that has both hotels/motels and campgrounds. Even if we don’t have a tent, we couild at least park the car. There’s no such thing as an ideal spot – your route there may be blocked, you don’t know what kind of emergency you’ll be facing, you may not have the right supplies with you, etc. I think it’s much smarter to plan multiple options.
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