3 Last Minute Survival ScenariosWe know that waiting until the last second is not a good idea, but for some it is the only option. So we have taken three possible average scenarios and broken them down for you. All scenarios will include a family of 4 Mom, Dad and two kids under high school age living in the suburbs of a megaplex city You live in a suburban area of a mexaplex city first and foremost, where the hell are you going to go? If you are starting out with only a general idea of where to go, you are planning to fail. Knowing exactly where you are going and a little preparation are very much in order. Even if your plan is to squat on BLM land, National Forest Service land or private land, only having a general idea of where you are going is dangerous. You, see, in your suburb of a megaplex area, how many other people have the same general idea? Of those of like mind, most likely thats a very high percentage. So have something better than a general idea. Know exactly where you are going; and if its remote enough, you can hide supplies (not what you must have for survival, but that which you would like to have with you there) in the trees. You just need a cammo cargo net and some rope. Hoist it high into a tree, hidden by the foliage. The Free campground space can by used for 14 consecutive days at a time. Some park rangers interpret this to mean that you must leave the park; others interpret it that you have to move to another space in the same campground every 14 days. Either way, if you had to leave the park for one day, only to return the next day, that works, too. Next to consider is, what would prompt your leaving? Most everyone completely ignores this one because they believe that when the time comes, theyll just know. What is needed is a clear-cut definition of what event would prompt your bugging out. Even if you jump the gun and get to your survival location too soon, you can always go back to suburbia if you feel the coast is still clear. Some possible guidelines would be: war in Syria or Iran, a banking holiday, or if you see military troops in your town setting up checkpoints. Back in the day, there was an old hippie bumper sticker that said, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. It is also true that CNNFOXABCNBCCBSMSNBC et al will NOT have a news flash that says Martial Law will be declared in 30 minutes, so if youre going to boogie, do it now! Just remember, if you wait until there is clear unambiguous proof that its time to go, you just might find yourself in a traffic jam and no farther. For transportation, a minivan is not going to get you any place safe enough. Consider getting something more robust, such as an older pick-up truck (pre-1995 is best simple electronics, less susceptible to EMP and solar flares) with an extend-a-cab or club-cab for the kids. The RV market has collapsed. Prices have never been lower on used RVs of all types. With a pickup truck you could get a cab-over camper quite inexpensively. These slip into the cargo area of a pick-up. Most sleep 4 or more, have a toilet, shower, water storage tank, oven, range, sink, dining area, a closet and cabinet space. With the economy the way it is, watching Craigslistyou will find great bargains. Most people are paying in the neighborhood of $500 for an older but still serviceable cab-over camper. If a pick-up truck is just not something you can do, then you may want to consider a Coleman-type pop-up camper, which can be towed behind even some compact cars with ease (also about $500 on Craigslist). You can use either type of camper to store everything you will need to take with you to your bug-out location, and youll be able to just hook up and go when its time, no need to think about what to bring. Its the ultimate bug-out-bag. You can have hundreds of pounds of food and water and supplies in it, without having to crowd the supplies and the family into the minivan. Outdoor Clothing Sale at Regatta Outlet If the only water you have is a couple of cases, that wont do it. A case of water is about 2-1/2 gallons of water on average. How many cases can you carry? If you have a cab-over or pop-up camper, both have a fresh water tank to store in the area of 150-200 gallons of water. Check and see if the place you have chosen for your bug-out has any access to water lake, pond, stream, river, pump, well, etc. The average person, under Spartan conditions, can just get by on one gallon per day 2 quarts to drink and a couple of quarts for cooking and hygiene. Consider the water youll need if your food is dehydrated or freeze-dried! So for 4 of you, with a 200 gallon water tank, you would have enough for about 50 days. If all you have is freeze-dried or dehydrated items for food, you will want to have some items to supplement that, so that you dont experience appetite fatigue. We would suggest some of the following be added to your supplies for long-term evacuation: Also, throw into your packing some board games, deck of cards, books, etc., toilet paper and RV toilet sanitizer (blue stuff). If you have extra jeans, socks, shirts, sneakers, shoes/boots the clothing you bring can be used outdoors with ease as well as toiletries should also be packed. Dont forget to include a first aid kit. For some of you it will be a military medic/field surgical kit, for others it will be some antiseptic, gauze and tape, depending on your skill level. Scenario #2 In this scenario, there is no need to have a bug-out time definition. But you still need to know what to look for so that you know when to hunker down. So, again, some pre-defined conditions bear strong consideration. What to do, when such and such a thing happens, including a rendezvous place for children to meet you for picking up. Food will be your biggest concern. Lets first deal with the having. Youll need to have food. Basically, nothing different than the previous scenario, although not having to consider transportation, you can store more of it. More importantly, youll need to be covert. Being in the suburbs means being around lots of people. Lots of hungry people. The smell of cooking can attract predators of all kinds: hungry neighborhood dogs and cats going feral, not to mention your neighbors, themselves, who undoubtedly are hungry. The smell of your cooking anything is going to bring people either knocking on or breaking down your door. What would you do if your kids hadnt eaten in a week and you smelled food? Cooking hot food in the suburban environment could garner you a lot of negative attention. For these reasons, ready-to-eat foods (jerky, dried fruits and vegetables, cookies and crackers) are most desirable. For some of you that might be military MREs. We dont recommend them as a steady diet too much GMO and MSG to name a few but in this case they may be useful against hunger while maintaining a low profile. The power that pumps water to your house may well be disabled. That means that you will not have water coming from your faucet, nor to your toilet for flushing. The -Mart stores sell 5 gallon water bottles (like those used in water coolers) for about $5 each. Get yourself as many as you can, fill them and cover them up where you have your storage items. Refer to the above scenario for daily requirements. Also, fill all your sinks and bathtubs with water while you still have power. Place a garbage bag over the sinks and bathtubs to keep the dust out of the water. Often times forgotten, your water heater has a spigot at the bottom of it, from which you can access the water in there as well usually anywhere from 20-40 gallons of additional, usable water. Some rules about toilet water usage If its yellow, let it mellow. If its brown, flush it down. Save the water from washing up (gray water) to use as little as possible to do the flushing. Pour it into the bowl until the brown goes down. If you want to pour your gray water into your toilet tank, add rocks (too large to get into the flapper hole) or bricks into the tank so that they take up some of the unnecessary water space. Now, for these scenarios, here is a lesson in How Not to Be Seen (with a tip of the hat to Monty Python). For evacuation scenarios, if you are in a very secluded part of say, the National Forest or private land, its a safe bet that if you encounter other people who are not part of your group, you will be encountering trouble. So my advice would be, if people move in, move out and choose another camping sight. Avoid having large, smoky fires that would attract others. Do most of your fireside cooking during the day and avoid nighttime fires completely. Also, avoid loud talking, loud music, etc. Dont think that because you cant see anyone around you, its okay to play your Led Zeppelin CDs at 800 decibels and no one would notice. You would be surprised how far sound travels in the wilderness, without car noises, people noises, etc., drowning it out. For Suburban How Not to be Seen, use no nighttime lights, even if you have plenty of candles and flashlights. If you do need to illuminate something, do it discretely and for a short time, preferably in a room that has few windows. Its a good idea to put heavy drapes on your windows also, as long as there are no gaps. Avoid going outside and therefore being noticed. If you have a garage, put your car into it. A car parked outside lets others know there are people inside not what you want to do. The car battery can be used as a 12 volt power source if needed, and you can hook up a 110 AC power inverter to use as a house current power source. I dont want to tell the wife and kids what may be coming up in the future because I dont want to shake their world. Better to have them prepared than having to follow your instructions while they are in a panic. Like in the movie Knowing, when the little girls mother panics, grabs the kids and drives madly toward a cave she knows (so does everyone else), its not a good situation. It doesnt end well. Even if your family thinks you are a tin-foil-hat-wearing loon, if you have at least told them in advance what the trigger point would be, when that point arrives it will be that much less of a shock and they will be apt to be much more on board when the time comes. At some point theyll have to face it anyway. Better they be prepared than blissfully ignorant until that point. Scenario #3 Way to go! From the authors of Surviving Survivalism How to Avoid Survivalism Culture Shock, available at survivingsurvivalism.com linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 