Bugout Bag Contents You’ll Need to Survive an Urban Disaster Scenario

[Richard]

New post I thought you guys would like. Although security poses a problem (firearms) in the UK, I think the rest of the article still applies pretty much anywhere.

Quote:I’ve never been one to condone bugging out on foot in a disaster, especially in an urban environment. However, there are several scenarios where bugging out of a city on foot could be necessary and it’s a good idea to at least think about it and have a plan just in case you ever do find yourself in this scenario. Today we will be going over the most important bugout bag contents that you will need in order to safely evacuate a city in the wake of a serious disaster scenario.

First things first…

Before getting out your pack and doing inventory on your bugout bag contents, your first plan of action should be to determine if bugging out is really the best plan in the first place. Bugging out of a city after a disaster is extremely dangerous, especially if you are on foot. This should only be attempted in the direst of situations.

A good rule of thumb to help you decide when it’s time to bug out is to simply ask yourself a few basic questions:

“Do I have a place to go and is that location secure and stocked with supplies?”
“Is it worth risking my (and my family’s) life to switch locations?”
“Do I have a way of bugging out in a vehicle?”

As you can see, this isn’t a decision to be taken lightly and the answer will be different for everyone and in every situation.

Urban bugout bag contents

Your bugout bag needs to be designed with the most basic survival priorities in mind: Food, Water, Shelter, Fire, Security and Sanitation/Medical supplies.

Food – Your focus for an urban bugout is to simply get out of the city as quickly as possible. Your food needs to be set up to support that goal. Don’t plan on cooking. Don’t plan on even boiling water unless it is absolutely necessary. Fires draw attention, the smell of food draws attention; and the last thing you want to do in an urban bugout scenario is attracting attention to the fact that you have food and water. It will bring eyes on your camp and it’s very likely someone will decide that it’s worth the risk of taking them from you.

The types of foods that you will want to bring require no field preparation, pack a lot of calories into a small serving and don’t take up much space. Things like Trail mix, nuts, hard cheeses, candy bars and protein bars are all great ideas.

Water – In order to survive an urban bugout scenario you’re going to need to carry as much water as you can as one of your primary bugout bag contents. Most survival guides will usually tell you that ways to purify water are much more important than actually carrying water. If this wasn’t an urban bugout scenario I’d tend to agree.

The problem is that cities typically don’t have a lot of sources of clean water once the utilities go down. Even if you happen to come across a small pond or pool on the way out of the city, that water is very likely to have run-off chemicals in it that cannot be purified like you could if it were river water.

Boiling and charcoal purification will work well on biological contaminates, but chemical contaminates are a completely different ball game and typically cannot be filtered in these methods. Bleach and water purification tablets are also generally useless against chemical contaminates.

This doesn’t mean you don’t need to carry various ways to purify water. Once you’re out of the city water purification gear will be invaluable. However, this is an urban bugout scenario, and again, your main goal should be getting out of the city, not scavenging for water. Bring enough with you and don’t take any chances with “city water”.

Shelter – In most guides you’ll see recommendations to carry various forms of shelter material like tarps and emergency blankets. Although these will be extremely useful once you’re out of the city, they need to stay in your pack until you’re out. A big tarp or emergency blanket is like a big neon sign telling everyone that passes by where you are. Don’t advertise your shelter.

First and foremost, a shelter (for an urban bugout) is extremely temporary. At most you shouldn’t be sticking around any one place for more than a couple hours at the very most. Your chances of being found by someone go up every minute you are stationary. In fact, I would actually recommend to not even bothering with shelter if at all possible.

Again, your goal is to get out of the city, unless it’s absolutely critical to shelter down, skip it. You’ll make better time, you’ll save resources and most importantly, you’ll be much less likely to have a run-in with other people.

You can read the rest here: Bugout Bag Contents You’ll Need to Survive an Urban Disaster Scenario