Dear Jim,
Greetings and thank you, to you and all your wonderful contributors of the past.
As most of us live in the ‘City’ or suburb of the ‘City’, there is a feeling of when TEOTWAWKI occurs, we will grab our G.O.O.D. bag get in our vehicle and head out to our personal retreat, hidden from the Golden Horde.
One quick question – when will the TEOTWAWKI occur? What date? What time? And how will we know it has occurred? As I have read most of the writings from the beginning until now, I seem to have missed that date, and time, so how will a survivalist know it is time to get out, just prior to the rest of the masses? Is there going to be a special announcement on the radio saying “Survivalist, please get your G.O.O.D. bag, and immediately leave, as we will have a surprise attack, by a hate-filled terrorist group in twenty minutes.” Or will we be informed, “A major 7.9 earthquake will strike our good community in 35 minutes. If you are a Sheeple, please ignore this message, and continue on your daily routine, until after this disaster.”
I don’t think either situation will actually occur, prior to the event. Even with a tornado, hurricane, flood, or forest fire, I don’t think anyone will know the exact course of mother nature, until afterwards. At that point, I think survivalist and Sheeple will be on equal footing to get out of town.
Think about Hurricane Katrina, and those who left when initially informed, and those who left when formally informed, versus those who stayed, until after the hurricane passed by, and then were informed that the levee had broken. New Orleans has been hit by many hurricanes, and will continue to be hit by hurricanes. When will the next hurricane strike that will in itself be an actual category 4 or 5, or cause a massive destruction of the pumps that keep the city safe from flooding.
The simple point I am trying to make, is that we do not know when we will need to evacuate, or leave for our planned retreat.
With that in mind, have we taken the time to practice our departure from the city? I am not talking about our driving the roads on a Tuesday afternoon, with little to no traffic.
As we are coming up to Memorial Day weekend. (BTW, Thank you to those who have given their all for my freedom). With that weekend’s higher freeway traffic flow we have the unique opportunity to practice.
As with all of our other practice and preparations (firearms/canning/gardening/hand to hand combat/first aid/radio communication), we need to practice our GOOD process.
First, if you have not planned on going anywhere, this is the time to at least plan on being one of the masses on the road.
Second, unless otherwise required, do not fuel your vehicle prior to leaving.
Third, plan on leaving, or starting to load your vehicle on Friday, after 4 in the afternoon. T
Fourth, after loading your vehicle, go to the gas station to fuel your vehicle.
Fifth, take the road you intend on using to get out of town.
You might be surprised as to how many others are using that road, to get out of town.
I used to live around the Los Angeles basin, and dreaded the three day weekends. My personal story is, I would go home (more than 300 miles away from Los Angeles) on the weekends. I left work at 1:00 , and it would take me about three to four hours, to get to a point on the highway, where I could drive the speed limit. This is at a point where maybe 5 percent of the population was leaving for the weekend. Multiply that by 10 (50 percent of the population trying to get out), and a true understanding of what would occur, if the populous of Los Angeles decided to leave en mass, because of some unknown catastrophe.
Think back to the pictures of New Orleans leaving before Hurricane Katrina struck. How officials opened up both sides of the highway and made it one way, out of New Orleans , in an attempt to relieve and facilitate the evacuation of the city.
Do you remember seeing pictures of the European countries, during WWII, when people started leaving, prior to an anticipated invasion of their community by the invading armies? Walking, the lucky ones with tractors, pulling trailers, and the roads clogged with refuges.
The bottom line is, practice your escape route, this Memorial Day weekend (other times include this 4th of July, Labor Day, or Thanksgiving Weekend). Just don’t do it when traffic will be light, do it when you anticipate traffic to be the heaviest.
Practice what you have learned, and learn from your practice.