As I mentioned in a post last week, in the vast majority of situations, you are much better off staying home than evacuating or bugging out. However, there are a couple of different situations that come to mind where evacuation is prudent, such as a coming hurricane or a threatening wildfire.
One of the key elements to successful evacuation is to get out early. As we’ve seen in the past, it doesn’t take long for roadways to get backed up for miles. Authorities don’t always take action quickly enough to keep that under control and the result is sitting in traffic for hours on end, going nowhere fast.
Don’t wait until you’re told to evacuate. Recognize threats early and take action on your own. Grab your evac kits and hit the road.
Just as critical though is having a plan of where you will go and how you will get there. If possible, coordinate plans with family or friends well ahead of time. Establish agreements whereby if something happens in their area, they can come to you and vice versa. If for some reason that’s just not feasible and your plan is instead to hunker down at a motel, make sure they will allow pets if you have them. Don’t forget to have alternate plans as well in case your primary choice is booked up.
Know every single possible route from your home to your chosen evacuation location(s). I’d suggest your first planned route NOT involve major highways or Interstates. By taking the back roads, you’ll probably get there quicker.
As I’ve said here time and again, make your plans NOW and practice them before you need to implement them.
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You’ve hit the nail on the head with this one. IMO, the key to a successful evacuaction is recognizing the threat early and getting on the road BEFORE everyone else does. If Katrina taught us anthing it should be this fact.
Katrina also taught us to not rely upon the government to save us in the event of a major emergency. They can quickly become overwhelmed.
Katrina taught me that Local government (Mayors , Police ) can mess up even worse than Federal government FEMA tells you up front they won’t be there for 3 days and state has to ask them to come in. First response is local if they mess up its big problems.