Bug out bags! 💼

The preppers call them bug out bags or go bags while the Federal Emergency Management Agency calls them emergency supplies kit and American Red Cross a Survival Kit. What they ultimately are is a set of core supplies one can grab and put in their car and truck and get out of the way of danger quickly — and sustain themselves and their families — turning the time of emergency.

I don’t per se have a full bug out bag, although I am getting closer to having enough duplicate equipment stored in my truck for camping that if I were to need to leave in a hurry, I could gather up a few clothes and supplies and be good to spend several weeks in the woods, traveling, or doing what I need to do. Probably the thing I most lack in my truck in food and clothing, although both of those things I probably could gather up and be on the road in 10-15 minutes in an actual emergency. I would also need to grab the propane tank which I don’t store in my truck for obvious reasons.

I was kind of glad last summer that I was far out of town during the disorder and riots in City of Albany. While much overplayed in the media, and living safely in the suburbs, I really didn’t want anything to do with it. I was quite happy to be sitting in the Adirondacks next to a fire, sipping a cold beer, listening to the news briefly on my radio before switching it off onto another podcast. It’s nice knowing that I know a lot of places, some very off the beaten track should things get really bad in my neighborhood.

Do I think there is much to worry about over the coming week with the Inauguration and civil disorder? I really doubt it, despite the politically motivated exaggerations and Cassandras everywhere. Despite a lot of rhetoric, all the evidence suggests the system still works, and where there might be minor flare ups from time to time, things are pretty quiet and it’s well oiled machine that does what it does every day. We will have a peaceful change to Biden as our president and rhetoric will be just that. But it never hurts to be prepared.

Things do happen, and they’re not always widely predicted. Last summer, a tanker train full of styrene lost it’s cool and was damaged and started to leak out, prompting an evacuation near the plastics plant some 5 miles away. If the whole tank had leaked out and the wind had shifted, maybe I would have had to leave home quickly. I did monitor the story but decided no further action was required because it was too far away. But it was a reminder the danger is never all that far away.