This article was originally posted at offgridsurvival.com
Having an emergency evacuation plan is a crucial step in being prepared. In my opinion, it’s one of the most important elements in any survival plan. But I know, I can hear it now…. A number of people are probably getting ready to comment on how they’ll never leave their home, how bugging out is not plan, and how they’ll defend their home to the death in any situation.
Listen, just like most people I would much rather be in the safety and security of my own home. But to ignore the fact that an evacuation may someday be inevitable is not only shortsighted; I think it’s a major hole in any survival plan. To truly be prepared, you must consider the possibility of having to evacuate your location.
While I would much rather stay in my home, there are so many different scenarios that could make that impossible, I feel it’s irresponsible not to plan for the possibility. If the SHTF, having a plan of action is going to put you 20 steps ahead of the mindless morons who spent their time watching T.V. thinking nothing bad could ever happen to them.
Government Issued Evacuations:
If you waited for the government to issue an evacuation notice, it’s probably too late. The last thing you want in any emergency situation, is to get caught up in the chaos of the crowd. Mindless morons will be everywhere, it will literally be like the zombie apocalypse that so many survival websites like to talk about.
Think about how crazy people act during the holidays. If people can’t even manage to go shopping on Black Friday without trampling each other in the doorway of a Walmart, what do you thinks going to happen if the government issues an evacuation notice?
In a report from the Mineta Transportation Institute, the agency found that everyone of our major cities was negligently prepared to handle any type of evacuation, especially ones that hit with no notice.
“Spontaneous evacuations of New York City and Washington, D.C. following the 9/11 terrorist attacks demonstrated that U.S. cities are not prepared to manage the sudden influx of traffic into roads and highways following a no-notice disaster,” said Dr. Anurag Pande, one of the study’s authors. “For many years, anticipated events such as hurricanes have been the basis for evacuation planning. Now we see increasing interest in evacuation planning based on hypothetical no-notice events.”
While this really shouldn’t be a shocker to anyone who is a regular at this site, I include it as a wake up call for those who have not formulated an adequate evacuation plan.
Emergency Evacuation Planning:
Your personal strategy for dealing with disasters and threats will depend largely on your situation. While every evacuation plan should be custom tailored to your unique situation, your location and your most likely threats; there are a couple of things that everyone should keep in mind.
The decision to “Get the Hell out of Dodge”
This one thing is probably the most crucial part of your plan. Deciding when to go should be an important part of your planning process and needs to be thought of now, not when your in the middle of a full blown crisis situation. The trick is to weigh what factors and threats will determine when and if you should leave your location.
In any evacuation, timing is everything. You must be able to recognize the signs of an impending disaster, and then have a plan in place to deal with it. Do you have a plan?
Evacuation Routes
Keep in mind the quote from above…. “U.S. cities are not prepared to manage the sudden influx of traffic into roads and highways following a no-notice disaster.”
Read the full article at http://offgridsurvival.com/emergencyevacuationplanning/
For and opportunity to practice YOUR Emergency Evacuation plan, join thousands of others for T-REX 2012 … a scenario-based TEOTWAWKI exercise.
I’m involved in EmComm (Emergency Communications), and have heard the discussion of evacuating the cities for some time. The one point I’ve never heard addressed is where, exactly, are these people to go? Sure, if you are evacuating part of a city, those folks may go to the part which is not being evacuated, or to other near by cities, but if the entire city needs to be evacuated within DHS’ 48 hour window, just WHERE are they to go? I don’t think we have any spare cities lying around to put them in!
My best guess is that the interstate highways will turn into a parking lot and dormitory for those without a plan or those who waited until the last minute to get out of Dodge. If that isn’t the situation you want to be in, then you need to have a workable plan that you can test BEFORE an evacuation is declared.
Bear
Well, I think that just getting all the people out of the city when catastrophe is headed for it (the city), about all they can do is hope as many people will get off the “X” as quickly as possible. To quote from Finding Nemo… “Swim Away!” Where? Who cares! ANYWHERE but here! Historical examples show that friends and relatives outside the affected zone account for a huge portion of displaced persons. Secondly, in America, the hotels/motels and RV campgrounds fill up for hundreds of miles outside the zone. For the rest, they sleep in their cars or wherever they can. The government response, as demonstrated in Hurricane Katrina, is to identify ‘Safe’ zones and “Encourage” refugees to go there. Secondly, the mobile pop-up ‘Relief Centers’ follow. Those who have prepositioned retreats will fare the best, obviously. Keep CASH on hand. Absolute last resort is the government relief center, for there you can plan to surrender your rights, your means of self defense, your ‘excess’ personal belongings, your privacy, and your dignity.
Or to use another analogy, kicking the can down the road does buy time to do a more thorough job of solving the problem. I suppose that’s a valid approach as long as you realize that the problems are not solved just by evacuating the city.
Bear
I am new to prepping, and this is one of my shortfalls. I have some land that has plenty of trees, water etc… Just no means to put any shelter on it right now. I’m hoping God gives me some time, or my wife might just find out how to make a field expedient shelter…