# When Is It Time To Evacuate?



## PrepperForums (Nov 21, 2014)

Some people will always choose to shelter in place no matter what the circumstances are.

Are there times though when you *should* consider evacuating?

What would make you decide to evacuate? How will you know when it is time to do so?


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

When the city is on fire from horizon to horizon, and the wind is blowing directly toward you, it might be time to evacuate.


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

Nuclear fallout/blast could be one. Hoard of looters about to over run me. Other than that I have water, land, fruit and nut trees. I would loose a lot by leaving.


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## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

I'm to old, fat and stubborn to leave. I'll die where I'm at taking as many sheople and looters as possible.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

During the many years that we lived on the Gulf Coast, we never evacuated due to a Hurricane...because we were prepared. 

My parents lived many more years on the Gulf Coast after I left and the only time they evacuated was when my old Dad was dying from cancer and he left to visit make the rounds and visit his children and grandchildren. The Hurricane was just an excuse to do it and I'm glad for the extra 4 days I had with him. He died shortly after he returned home.

For me, Slippy Lodge is my Alamo.


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## stowlin (Apr 25, 2016)

Where I live I can see the Golden Gate bridge. If its backed up I waited too long.


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## Urinal Cake (Oct 19, 2013)

The bigger question is why would you evacuate unless you have a place to evacuate to.
Remember, if you can't defend it, you're just holding it for another that can...


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## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

When your cell phone don't work and the net is down, we're in deep doo-doo.jmo Like most, I'm not going anywhere, its fight or flight. I'm to old to run.


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## Targetshooter (Dec 4, 2015)

sideKahr said:


> When the city is on fire from horizon to horizon, and the wind is blowing directly toward you, it might be time to evacuate.


I agree 100% , and when you know your home will be destroyed by a storm , nuked other then that sit back and " Lock & Load " .


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## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

stowlin said:


> Where I live I can see the Golden Gate bridge. If its backed up I waited too long.


If you can see the Golden Gate bridge from where you live ....... you have already waited too long.


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## stowlin (Apr 25, 2016)

I'm intrigued by those who intend to bug in. My applause. I read their post with great interest. Can't wait to be at that stage in life.


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## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

We already have pretty much what we need. Done with all the window shopping. Much to the dismay of retailers.


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

If you live in a densely populated area and you've thought enough ahead to have a stash of preps well outside the city. If you're like me with few close neighbors you hold at all costs because the preps are on the property.


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## Medic33 (Mar 29, 2015)

if you need to ask this question the answer was last Thursday.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Chipper said:


> I'm to old, fat and stubborn to leave. I'll die where I'm at taking as many sheople and looters as possible.


DITTO, minus the fat.

Always thought there would be at east one more firefight, go as a warrior like my ancestors believed, to Valhalla.


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## Medic33 (Mar 29, 2015)

might be easier to say I'll die were I am at, drunk, happy and full of holes.


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## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

If its nuclear you better plan on bugging in until the radiation levels drop several weeks to several months later. Then get the hell out of the city. But do you have a place to go?

If you are bugging in and its TOTEOTWAWKIT (or how ever you spell it) then you may want to bug out with supplies if intelligence is telling you their is a horde larger than you can defend against coming your way.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

I do have a place to go if needed. My plan is to bug in though.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

My basic plan is to bug in due to health requirements and I can't walk far enough to do any good. 
As far as bugging in, I realize that I need to be aware of my surroundings. I also realize my 
neighbors may very well be a problem. For this reason I have a bunch of these printed up on 
heavy paper to staple along the way out (one one way out) of my subdivision.







As far as radiation from a nuke, once the radiation is low enough to evac, it's almost low enough
to survive. 
I don't really have anyplace I can count on to evac to. Maybe, but who know for sure. Your BOL
may be wiped out or who knows what might make it unusable. But I do know I might have to 
evac if the water gets up to the back door.

You need to decide on trigger points that will tell you get out of Dodge or hunker down or whatever.

Some of economic trigger points I use are if you hear of banks restricting how much cash you can take
out of the bank or banks closing for a day or so for no good reason. Another is state governments
failing to pay employees or giving IOUs; supermarket shelves not being replenished like usual, city 
water systems shutting down for no good reason. Same with other utilities.
One trigger I get real interested, two triggers I get nervous and spend extra money on certain supplies.
Three or four triggers= time to bug out or hunker down and hide.
As far as when


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## Sonya (Oct 20, 2016)

Camel923 said:


> Nuclear fallout/blast could be one. Hoard of looters about to over run me. Other than that I have water, land, fruit and nut trees. I would loose a lot by leaving.


If the blast were an isolated event then bugging out might be in order. If it was the result of war and there were multiple hits across the region then you would probably be much better off staying where you are unless you are within the blast perimeter. The impending food shortages/disease/violence will be far worse than the fallout in most places.


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## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

paraquack said:


> My basic plan is to bug in due to health requirements and I can't walk far enough to do any good.
> As far as bugging in, I realize that I need to be aware of my surroundings. I also realize my
> neighbors may very well be a problem. For this reason I have a bunch of these printed up on
> heavy paper to staple along the way out (one one way out) of my subdivision.
> ...


I like your sign. I have added it to my collection. I will try to upoad some of mine.


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## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

I made a biohazard/quarintine sign Michigan specific to mark my house but the system would not let me upload it. I guess the uploads are back to kb instead of megabytes. Lame.

It may pay off to get some of that caution tape to mark the perimeter. Make some extra signs for your neighbors??? Using laminated signs may be a good way of psy-ops to keep people away.


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## TG (Jul 28, 2014)

Signs like these should clear-out your whole neighbourhood :vs_laugh:


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## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

FEMA aid sign
View attachment FEMA AID SIGN.pdf


Michigan Quarantine sign.


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## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_Operations_(United_States

"Psychological operations (PSYOP) are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and individuals."

Read the whole information at the link above.* Interesting stuff.* You will recognize some of it coming from the political establishment.


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## preponadime (Jun 15, 2016)

Before the S in SHTF comes back down


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

I like the signs, and I too have quarantine signs etc. If the SHTF, I plan to talk (or not talk) to neighbors and put up signs on their houses too. Hopefully it will make it look as if a whole dang neighborhood is quarantined.


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## Joe (Nov 1, 2016)

I have to agree with Urinal Cake. Many preppers like us have spent years building up our preps for times of whatever may happen. I would hate to give it all away to the "grasshoppers" who have given no thought to prepare. I'll use up all my lead before I run.


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## warrior4 (Oct 16, 2013)

It would depend on the nature of the threat to be honest. As much as I think my area is fairly stable who knows what kind of chaos might ensue if the public panics. Bug in due to weather? Sure I'm confident I can hold out for a few days. A man made disaster might be a different story however. I try to keep an eye on the local, regional, and national news. Not that I really trust that the media, in fact for the most part I think they're more into selling fear than reporting facts. However I don't think it's wise to bury my head in the sand and not have any clue that something might be coming. If it looks like more and more unrest is growing I might get out of town.


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## Piratesailor (Nov 9, 2012)

I live on the gulf coast and would only head north in a cat 5 hurricane. I've seen what one can do. 

As for anything else, I won't leave. I now have acreage, multiple water sources, food supplies and an area that is easily defendable. Should I need to evacuate due to something else besides hurricanes, I'd take the boat and head south. It's fully contained with a water maker and a great bug out vehicle.


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## CGjennifer (Oct 9, 2016)

I am in NYC (sadly I know it is death trap). However my bug out bag is ready. I have some supplies in the apartment to last me months in the event that I need to bug in. I would leave in the event of a large scale terror attack or if the apartment complex I live in caught fire. Or if a WROL sets in. I do have a BOL down south. It is only a matter of getting out of the city alive in one piece and avoiding chaos.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Another scenario I just remembered about a possible Bug Out. Depending on where you live, you may not have a choice. I'm about 110 miles from a Nuclear power plant. I also have a bunch of chemical plants close enough by to be a serious threat. An EMP or a Geomagnetic storm from Coronal Mass Ejection will both probably shut down our grid. If a nuke plant is without electricity from the grid for as little as four days, over heating of the core will occur. Eventually we'll have another Fukushima. Chemical plants, I envision something similar happening.


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## Rick (Nov 5, 2016)

*When is it time to Bug Out and how do you prepare?*

This is a very hard question especially if you have extended family and are in a not so good area to try to remain in. I have decided to Bug Out under certain circumstances. I live in a flood plain area near a wide river that would be difficult to remain near under circumstances that combine bad weather with bad people, so I have had to decide to abandon a home that might otherwise serve us well should these circumstances arise. This has meant learning a lot of skills I did not have and building a *Bug Out Bag*, which is a very hard project to do if you don't have a certain amount of skills to enable you to do it right. Fortunately I have 25 years or so of backpacking and woodsman's skills to lean on and even then it has not been an easy thing to do. Fortunately, this picture is what a good Bug Out Bag should look like when you are ready to use it.









A lot of preparation skills and lists and equipment went into doing this, and the result is a light, well prepared bag which will provide for the medical and food and defense needs of my wife and myself for two or three days if we stretched the supplies in it, and allow us to get clear of the area around our house that would likely become quite unsafe for a period of time if we attempted to remain and defend our food and shelter.


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## Boss Dog (Feb 8, 2013)

Slippy said:


> ... For me, Slippy Lodge is my Alamo.


Some day you may find me laying dead in a ditch but, I'll be surrounded by a pile of brass.


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## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

I will not die on the run with no place to go.


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## Rick (Nov 5, 2016)

And neither will I. Bugging Out does not mean taking off in no particular direction fighting some desperate rear guard action. It means leaving only if it is necessary, and having a plan and a destination in mind when you do. It also does NOT mean running at the last minute with a screaming, drunken, looting mob on your heals either. What it does mean is a well planned retreat done in a timely manner in which you do NOT have to fight off a mob of panicked, hungry, thirsty, unprepared, armed and leaderless idiots who have decided that whatever THEY want to do is the law now. It means not only being well supplied with small arms and ammunition, but with improvised explosive and anti-personnel devices to not only make it VERY costly to attack your group while you are moving but to set up a defensive perimeter to make it impossible to attack your group at rest without suffering painful, debilitating injuries. There are many ancient devices which can be constructed with nothing more than a small forge and used to inflict SERIOUS injury to any group that decides to attack you. There is one in particular called a caltrop which can be made by the thousands and scattered behind your group which will cause SEVERE injuries to the feet of people pursuing you right through their boots, cripple their horses if they happen to be riding them, and cause serious injuries even to elephants and vehicle tires. There are many explosives that can be made with ingredients available at pharmacies, hardware stores, and groceries that can kill large groups of people at once and damage vehicles beyond repair. It is all about BEING PREPARED!!


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## onlinesafetydepot (Nov 11, 2016)

I tend to be skiddish about things, but I also don't like to be a sheep either.

I usually consider evacuating when I examine the evidence and find that my preparations are likely not adequate to keep me and my family from being put at significant risk.


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

PrepperForums said:


> Some people will always choose to shelter in place no matter what the circumstances are.
> 
> Are there times though when you *should* consider evacuating?
> 
> What would make you decide to evacuate? How will you know when it is time to do so?


With any decent amount of prepping your only call is to bug in. Why would you leave your thousands of man hours of preperations and a secure defensive AOE to run into the woods with all its problems?


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