Why, When, Where & How Are You Planning On Bugging Out?

[B2Tall]

I'd like to bug-out right now but I couldn't get jack for my house at this point! :biggrin:

 

[Wysiwyg101]

My family and I are toast. When I started researching getting my first handgun and she realized I was serious her admonishment was, "Just don't become one of those survivalist nutbags.If you do, then we won't be together long." We live in an extreme suburban environment around DFW. In an extreme case of emergency where bugging out is the only option, everything within 50 miles is also suburbia. Where would we go? We don't own a cabin in the woods somewhere. Shoot, there aren't many woods close by anyways.

I can't even get any of the people in my own household interested in figuring out what to do in case of fire, much less a bugout situation. We are toast. And I just don't see any way to change that. So, for those of y'all who survive in the post apocalyptic world, I wish you the best of luck and skills.

 

[BluesStringer]

My family and I are toast. When I started researching getting my first handgun and she realized I was serious her admonishment was, "Just don't become one of those survivalist nutbags.If you do, then we won't be together long." We live in an extreme suburban environment around DFW. In an extreme case of emergency where bugging out is the only option, everything within 50 miles is also suburbia. Where would we go? We don't own a cabin in the woods somewhere. Shoot, there aren't many woods close by anyways.

I can't even get any of the people in my own household interested in figuring out what to do in case of fire, much less a bugout situation. We are toast. And I just don't see any way to change that. So, for those of y'all who survive in the post apocalyptic world, I wish you the best of luck and skills.

I was born and raised in LA County, so urban sprawl was even more sprawling than the DFW area. We left in '92 one month after the King riots ended. That wasn't the reason we left, just the latest in a long list of things that always had us saying, "We need to get the Hell outta here." It was serendipitous that we had a friend opening a business in Alabama that he was willing to pay us to help with the start up, so Bama it was, but it wouldn't have been if the state didn't meet some general criteria, like gun-friendly, more conservative state government, generally good economy, but without out of control growth that could wipe out the small-town feel of most of the state in short order, something both of us had seen in parts of CA and other states we had lived in up to that point.

Though our area is much less-populated than LA or your area, our circumstances are similar, except I don't count the in-town living as meaning "we're toast." It means we have to adapt in different ways than those who plan to bug out. It is counter-intuitive for both of us to approach strangers, like new neighbors for example, but we've adapted to that as part of our preparedness plans. It doesn't mean giving up every secret we have for after a crash, it just means that when a crash happens, I won't be a stranger to any of them when I approach them again with the ability to offer help in protecting our neighborhood. The fact that I wasn't a stranger to any of our neighbors came in handy for them last April, when six of the 10 houses that border our property were destroyed in the 'nado swarm storms. Our house was spared and we could've locked down and told people to go away when they asked for help, but the fact that many of us helped in various ways makes me much more confident that we'll do fine in a wider disaster like an economic collapse that brings on civil collapse.

I'll give ya that I am fortunate to have a wife who is on-board with making disaster plans. She has also taken every defense training course I've taken, as well as the survival training I mentioned in the OP, so she's just as capable of being an asset to the defense of our neighborhood as I am. I won't do what a lot of guys around here do when that subject comes up with someone, which is usually something offensively glib like, "Trade her in on a new model." That's a tough one to comment on not knowing you. The only advice I'd offer is go about making your plans without her participation, maybe even without her knowledge. Learn how to approach your neighbors, even if they don't seem like the kinds of people you'd normally associate with. Whatever you do though, don't accept being "toast." Survivalism isn't only about knowing how to escape and evade in the woods, or hunt your own meat, what have you. In fact, it's not about any one specific thing at all. It's about adaptation to survive within the circumstances you are most likely to find yourselves in. The only thing it's *always* about is forcing you out of your comfort zone. Make your uncomfortable zones as comfortable for you to deal with as possible before TSHTF, and you'll be well on your way to knowing how to adapt to survive any situation, even urban living in a post-apocolyptic America.

Blues

 

[MamaLiberty]

Not going anywhere

Didn't plan on living this long... lots of things worse than dying. I'll stay here, where I've become part of a voluntary community. None of us has a great deal of control over when or how we will die.

We ALL have complete control over how we will live. I will live as a sovereign individual... a self owner, a non-aggressor.

 

[S&W645]

Need to know basis. And nobody needs to know but those involved.