15 minutes...

Scenario: Your neighbor’s house has been on fire for ten minutes. The fire department hasn’t shown up and the wind is blowing in a direction that you think might mean trouble. You expect that you'll need to be gone in twenty minutes, or become a victim of the firestorm.

With an outside observer watching the fire  so you know its status, you run into the house and figure you’ve got minutes before your stuff might go up in flames.

What do you take in 15 minutes?

60 minutes...

Scenario: You’ve heard it on the car radio’s news and know it’s happening in your neighborhood. As you drive home you see rioting and looting going on less than five blocks from your house. With kids at home and your significant other stuck in the traffic coming from roadblocks around the riots, you make the call to grab the kids and family pet and head out to the in-law’s place a couple miles away.

You can see smoke in the distance so you know there’s a good chance everything you take may be everything you have if your house goes up in flames. What do you take in one hour?

24 hours...

Scenario: The wind has changed direction, the fire lines are broken, and it’s blowing your direction. The teams are working hard and might be able to slow its progress. Then again, one bad day of high winds can cancel out their progress.

You choose not to take the chance and succumb to a normalcy bias.  This is how you get packing to leave with one day to go.

7 days...

Scenario: There’s a fire in your county. Unfortunately, your entire state has fires that are burning and resources are scarce. You have an insider, a neighbor who works with the County as a dispatcher and they look grim as they tell you that this fire is too big to fully contain. He estimates a week before things get to your area.

The neighbor confides that firefighters are only defending homes that have a metal or terracotta roof and since your development doesn’t, that he and his wife are packing up to head out.

You decide to do the same. Here's a checklist of how to prioritize your items in one week.

Mitigating Threats to Systems of Support

Specialized resources and procedures exist for those who live in areas that have seasonal threats, or regional threats. Most of these threats include wildland fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, mudslides, sinkholes and hurricanes, and mitigating regional threats has become a way of life for those residents.

Other threats are not as easily anticipated. These threats include ones that would have a high impact, but may occur infrequently. These issues are often ignored. Known as HILF Threats - High Impact, Low Frequency Threats - a continuity of operations strategy should be in place to address these, because they may require evacuation. Wildland fires, for example, can strike anywhere.

All strategies should include the timelines we suggest of 15-60-24-7 as rules to follow when events overtake First Responders, requiring you to evacuate or die. Here are some of the elements which are covered in detail within 'Beyond FEMA: A Survival Guide for the Rest of Us'

Think Smarter, Work The Problem Now

If you had to leave your home today – right now – what would you take? What if you had fifteen minutes? An hour? A single day or a week? What if you were never coming home? What if your life depended on what you brought with you? Making the right choices in the time you set for yourself is critical and this guide will help your planning, providing preparedness items you’ll need for your forced evacuation.

Comms

While cell phones are great, the text messaging they use is more likely to work in an emergency. Don't forget your charger cords.

Alerts

If you know that an emergency is impending, try signing into your local county's alert system so that text messaging will keep you informed.

Power

Everything runs on power, most portable electronics charge off of USB. Wall cords and car chargers are critical, but small portable battery packs might be the best option of all.

Safe Destination?

Before you actually stop reading this site, make an appointment with yourself in the next few days to seriously think about where you'd go and who you'd stay with in an evacuation. Have two or four destinations in mind.

Evacuation Route Maps

Each of your destinations should have two to three different routes to get there. Mark up a map or two with a highlighter or with an ink pen so that you know where you're going and have options on how to get there.

Tools of the Trade

Things can get pretty tense in emergencies. Tools of the Trade may also include legally owned firearms as well as rescue items such as crowbars and claw hammers...

Water

Planning for a gallon or two per person per day... then double it. Easy way to move water, buy those 2.5 gallon containers with the handles on top from the grocery store.

Medications

Don't forget your household's critical needs. The last thing anyone wants is an asthma attack or Grandpa's heart medications to go missing.

Last Minute Items

If you stage everything by the door, on the way out of the house consult the next list to see if there's anything you can grab last minute.

Checklists

Part of your advance planning should be to make checklists of what you think you'll need for a day, a week and a month away from home.

Pets

Don't forget Fido and have a way to carry the cat in a car carrier - once you try and drive with a cat loose in the car you'll never do it twice.

Trail Bikes and Quads

If you're a disaster movie fan, go watch Deep Impact again. That dirt bike really came in handy before the asteroid flooded the East Coast didn't it?

Get in touch

15 minutes...

As an exercise, take fifteen minutes and time yourself setting things aside you think you should take if you had to leave your house right now, either on foot or in whatever vehicle you have access to right this minute. If you rely on public transportation, only assemble what you think you can safely carry.

If I had 15 minutes...

15 Minute Timeline

60 minutes...

Same rules as above apply for the 60 minute exercise. If you start with your previously completed bugout bag you save 15 minutes immediately, giving you more time to decide what else to take.

If I had 60 minutes...

60 Minute Timeline

Checklist Action
Stage your gear (bugout bag and/or a security kit if you have one) where it was immediately in sight.
Grab an extra pair of boots and socks, a jacket and gloves (work gloves may come in handy in an emergency)
Recon and 'toss' your medicine cabinet, taking things of interest. 'Toss' is cop talk which translates into conducting a rapid search.
Grab frozen food ('safe' proteins like beef or precooked meats, or frozen vegetables) and pack it into anything you can in order to keep the other fridge items cold. Proteins like cheeses, yogurt, and non-poultry lunchmeats are prioritized because they give more long term energy and are hard to replace.
Fill up water containers or take as much water as you could carry once other items are packed. Remember the guide of one gallon per day per person.
Grab critical paperwork such as birth certificates, social security cards, insurance documents, car titles, etc.
Go through dirty clothes and set aside what was coming with, clean or dirty. Preferred: wool socks, really effective and expensive layers like sports performance clothes.
Quickly 'toss' the pantry and spices, picking food items to bring. Same for the medicine cabinet.
Think about tools which you could take. Things which could be important might be axes, crowbars, rope, automotive tools in a tool bag.
Fill up water containers or take as much water as you could carry once other items are packed. Remember the guide of one gallon per day per person.
Check your car and assemble your items for packing up.

After Action Considerations for ‘60’:

Examine your items and think about what can go into your bugout bag and what would go into your car. Next, assemble your items you need the most and include them into your bugout bag / security kit if that's where they belong. If you don’t put them into the bag, write down where they are and see if creating a list helps your time. These could also be used as the foundation for your first 72 hour bag, popularly known as an ‘Earthquake Kit’ or ‘Hurricane Kit’.

BackPDF Print Done... Now What?

24 hours...

This is more of a weekend exercise broken into two days because nobody wants to stay up all night. It is also an excellent way to unclutter one's life. If you don't prioritize some things as important enough to take with you and cannot assemble them in 24 hours, chances are you don't really need them and they can become long term storage, donated to charity, or listed on Craigslist or eBay. Bugging out should be considered strategic, not permanent. Creating a layup point (LUP) in advance near where you live can mitigate your risk of traveling long distance in one leap. Also consider having items staged outside of a specific area you live in, perhaps at a friend’s home, a storage unit. It can be as simple as a well wrapped package stuck into a hole in the ground.

If I had 24 hours...

24 hour Timeline

Checklist Action
Take 15 minutes and stage your gear (bugout bag and/or a security kit if you have one) where it was immediately in sight.
Prioritize and organize beyond any existing 72-hour kit if you have one. Complete the 60 minute list first and then proceed.
Go through dirty clothes in the wash and prioritize, washing and drying everything you want to pack up. Extra points for wool socks, athletic gear, and antibacterial (anti-stink) items.
Set aside some toys and books for the kids.
Use logistics and divide up things per immediate need so you don't pack all your eggs into one basket. This works well if you've got a family that has multiple bags, since you have more time you take necessary items and divide them as equally as possible. Rubbermaid bins work fantastic for this, as do buckets or recyclable shopping bags.
Bring nonperishables like soap, shampoo, bleach, baking soda, extra toiletries.
Fill up water containers, perhaps stash/cache water on or near your property. If you get turned back, but the water's off, you'll thank me.
Divide up and repack critical items so that if one suitcase or bag was lost, all of one type of item was not lost.
Grab critical paperwork such as birth certificates, social security cards, insurance documents, car titles, etc.
Take a shower / get as clean as possible. Don't ignore security threats - this works best if another person is standing watch in the house while you do this. Getting clean now relaxes you and you don't know when you'll get another shower.
Go through paperwork carefully and, if possible, scan/store critical items like passports, vehicle titles, land deeds, trust and insurance information. Even taking pictures on your smartphone will help out.

After Action Considerations for ‘24’:

Spread the love: 1/3 at home + 1/3 at retreat destination + 1/3 stashed / cached = 100% peace of mind. Planning ahead and stashing some of your gear at a midway point, and stashing some at your planned destination for bugging out provides some flexibility. It also adds peace of mind. Of no small consideration are children’s needs. Extra clothing, special foods and toys, entertainment and for small ones, diapers, wipes and formula. These items are bulky and heavy, and could be placed at your LUP to keep things simple.

Back Done... Now What?

7 days...

This is where the rubber meets the road. All that limits the items you take is the conveyance method (vehicle / vehicles) available. Planning ahead means you might secure a rental truck if you choose to reserve it for the entire week leading up to your decision point while others deliberate about what to do. Special note: Even with seven days, you still sort your items by importance. That means what is most important goes in the 15 minute pile, what is next important goes into the 60 minute pile, you get the drift. If your timetable changes you could immediately snatch the most critical items, starting with your bugout bag and security kit which are always most visible. Same rules as above apply for the 60 minute and 24 hour exercises. If you start with your previously completed bugout bag you save 15 minutes immediately, giving you more time to decide what else to take. With 7 days however, you can really toss the place and figure out how to get everything out that you need as long as you don't get overwhelmed.

If I had 7 days...

One Week Timeline

Checklist Action
Stage your gear (bugout bag / 72 hour kit / security kit) where it was immediately in sight. If you don’t have a bugout bag, use the time to create one that you can safely carry.
Consider calling in sick this week so that you don't get caught away from home. Of course this is job dependent, but if you absolutely know there's a high chance of bad times coming, it's minor in the scheme of things.
Designate part of the house to stage items into three essential 15 / 60 / 24 piles. The garage comes to mind because it’s easy to roll up the door and roll out your gear smartly. The piles will help you prioritize what you need the most, cross-referenced with how it's going to be carried.
Stash/cache water around the property in extra water safe containers. Water is heavy and if you get turned back and must return home for some reason, counting on water to still be turned on in an emergency is a serious flaw to a good plan.
Inventory your nice to have and sentimental items. Think about how to stash them if you’re not taking them with you.
Stash/cache valuables / small precious items around your property that you don’t want possibly looted. Consider burying them deep enough to survive flooding or a fire, to be retrieved later, or just in hard to find areas.
Shower twice a day while the water and home resources are available.
Divide up and repack critical items so that if one suitcase or bag was lost, all of one type of item was not lost.
Go through paperwork carefully and, if possible, scan/store critical items like passports, vehicle titles, land deeds, trust and insurance information.

After Action Considerations for ‘7’:

Special note: Even with seven days, you still sort your items by importance. That means what is most important goes in the 15 minute pile, what is next important goes into the 60 minute pile, you get the drift. If your timetable changes you could immediately snatch the most critical items, starting with your bugout bag and security kit which are always most visible.

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