Some people think that we, preppers, are out on the fringe of society, while others believe that we are the only ones that are really prepared for anything and everything that Mother Nature or our modern society may throw at us.
What Does Bugging Out mean
Essentially, bugging out is deciding to abandon your home because of an unexpected emergency situation, man-made or not. Bugging out is a term used to describe the plan of action and the gear that is on standby to account for any and every eventuality that may arise.
As a prepper, the most important item that you should have is a bug out bag (also referred to as BOB or survival backpack ) ready to go in your home. It is wise though, to have secondary ones in strategical places, such as in a vehicle, in a garage, at work, a second house… These bags contain everything that we need to bug out, to reach safety, and to survive when normal means of survival are cut off for any number of different reasons.
Hurricane Katrina really ushered in the modern bug out mentality
While there have been preppers as long as there have been natural disasters and civil unrest, this community of people didn’t really start to add to their ranks as rapidly as they did immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and absolutely devastated that city in ways that many people couldn’t have ever imagined possible.
Folks started to recognize that climate change is causing storms to become even more devastating, even more dangerous, and even more deadly than they ever used to be in the past. Mother Nature is very, very angry and she’s taking that rage out in the form of super storms, natural disasters, and major environmental issues that have the ability to devastate urban areas and beyond – creating dangerous situations for the people living in these areas even after the storms and natural disasters have subsided.
Planning to bug out
The prepper mentality really revolves around creating plans of action that give you the ability to adapt to any and every eventuality should survival become a necessity.
Bug out bags always include a water supply (usually 72 hours of freshwater for each person in the party, and purification tablets for hundreds of gallons more), food for 72 hours – usually in the form of military MREs, freeze-dried foods, or preserved foods that can last for years without spoiling – and shelter equipment that can keep people safe in any weather condition they may encounter until permanent shelter can be arranged.
Bug out bags can also usually include some kind of fire creation tools and technology, a first aid kit, simple tools including knives, hatchets, and multi-tools, and plenty of lighting and communication tools to help make life a little bit easier in these very stressful situations.
As highlighted above, there usually isn’t ever one single bug out bag ready to go, but instead multiple bug out bags created for redundancy and to spread out the load necessary for the survival of a family unit or a small group of people.
These kinds of bags should be regularly inspected at least every six months or so, should be replenished with new equipment on an annual basis or biannual basis, and should be upgraded as necessary to take full advantage of all of the bug out tools and technology available at any one particular point in time.
Some people feel as though these kinds of bags – and this kind of bug out mentality – just doesn’t fit with modern society. But as we saw in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, for example, it really doesn’t take much to catch us on aware, catch us unprepared, and have an entire city devolve into an anarchist kind of state almost overnight simply because we are cut off from shelter, cut off from clean water, and cut off from food.
We live in very uncertain times these days. It’s important that you do everything you can to protect yourself, protect your loved ones, and protect your future by creating your own bug out plan and bug out bag to leverage should the need arise in the future.