Email a copy of 'My Recent Experience Bugging Into A Disaster- Part 2, by J.W.' to a friend
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Good article, J.W. Two important things I learned (I live in the same area as you): get gas early and don’t rely on the forecasted path of the storm. Oh, and afterward, I bought a bigger genset so I’ll have AC next time!
A lot of very interesting points brought up.
Of course, the key to making any plan successful is getting out before the actual event, or you will be sitting in the midst of that 3 lane wide – miles long gridlock with all your goodies.
And therein lies the rub – knowing when to run.
Its relatively easy in the face of a pending hurricane to decide to leave, but what about potential catastrophies such as threats from North Korea that haven’t materialized yet, or the FED manipulating interest rates that have us on the brink of collapse, or even a fast spreading pandemic?
Any of the outcomes associated with these potential life threatening events could make things dicey if you are caught on the wrong side of the fence…with the masses, and everyone tries to leave at the same time.
Not many will have the fortitude to just decide its time to get out while the getting is good…and with your BO location hundreds of miles away, you would need to leave earlier than most.
regarding when to leave, I offer only this true story.
I was discussing this same thing with two friends: when do you decide to go? Friend 1 said, “I guess that depends on whether you are a pessimist or an optimist.”
Friend 2, who is Jewish, replied, “Well… the optimists went to the gas chambers.”
Think about that for a minute.
Very good analogy………three types of people pessemists, to the left, optimists to the right, and in the center are realists, those people who see both sides use some common sense and “get r done”. Preppers are the realists…..who never quite fit in with the shepple, and take their own path……..
With all the hype, drama and cries from state and local government, north central Florida seemed spared. Fearful panicked people are a given, no gas, water, food, are also a given. So, what are the “unexpected things you don’t plan on”? Also, what protection and clean up did you have to do at your house before, during and after the hurricane? Was there something different about this one, than the other 8 storms you have been through? Lessons learned?? Thanks.
Unexpected things might be tp, or an extra set of anything that was loaned out or taken by a relative who forgot to tell you. It’s the Rawls law of two is one and one is none. Plan for yesterday like you are going to need more tomorrow…..works every time.
To me ‘evacuating’ is basically volunteering to become a refugee. If you have people depending on you for protection, it is your job to do whatever you can to protect them from becoming refugees. Fathers, are you listening? Mothers, are your husbands honoring their responsibility?
Everyone who reads this site needs to at the very least have a small portable solar panel. The Anker 21W Dual USB Solar Charger or something similar is perfect. Small enough to always have with you, 2 USB outputs so you can keep your phone and other small items charged up.
I’ve used the 15W version for the last 18 months anytime that we go to the field to train. It’s survived a combined 6 months of New Mexico and Fort Irwin deserts being thrown around on vehicles and in my ruck sack. The one charger was fantastic for keeping multiple phones in the Platoon charged as well as rechargeable batteries for my DAGR (GPS) and other gizmos.
J.W.
Thanks again for your articles. I printed them out and reread them over to the point of highlighting what I can learn and apply, and there is alot.
You described clearly how I felt living nearer to Interstate 75. It was like the ‘Law of Inverse Distance’, the closer one is to an event’s epicenter the greater the effect felt. Except what got me was how far the ‘radius” were and how they overlapped from metro area to area. Sorry if this sounds like a physics lesson but I bet there are reports written by study groups on the ‘Spillage Effects of Hurricance Irma Due to MSM Reporting” complete with graphic diagrams, somewhere.
By late Tuesday and into early Wednesday gas stations were emptied. A twenty minute across town trip took roughy two hours. Time seemed to slow down when the hurricance gradually turned northward pushing the predicted arrival time a day later into Sunday night. Luckily it’s landfall was just north of the Everglades and path was thru the less populated areas (from what was reported). Somewhere it rained alligators.
The stock photo accompanying your articles is iconic and instructive. Why weren’t the south bound lanes opened up to north bound cars sooner? Same question for Hurricance Katrina and others.
While going thru a hurricance warning on the east coast a while back the local authorities issued a mandatory evacuation that clogged up I-4 between Daytona Beach and Orlando with 50,000+ cars, etc.,. What if the hurricance or winds caught these stranded evacuees in the open? Not a pleasant scenario but the point is to prepare for yourself.
The southbound lanes were kept open for gasoline tankers to deliver to sold-out stations so people could buy gas to get out of town.
And I thought I traveled with a lot of fire power!
It all comes down to the category of the hurricane when it comes to evacuation. 1,2 not really worried.3 getting iffy. High 4 depending on where you live and the strength of your house/roof takes some serious thought if you plan to stay. Category 5 you’d be a fool to stay. (I’m in Lee county, on the water less than 10 miles from the Gulf. My takeaway,forget having any large shade trees within falling distance to your house. After cat 3 a large oak was leaning towards the roof. Cat4or5 it would of come through the roof. Even after the power comes on don’t expect I stores to be fully restocked for a week or more. I think this along with lack of gas surprised a lot of people. In a hard hit area you’ll have no power and no cell services. A radio doesn’t cut it. To know what’s going around you you can’t beat a TV. Does anyone know of a battery operated digital tv? I’m not joking about the feeling of isolation that sets in if you are living in the area of destruction. While cat 1or2 is nothing to sneeze at you have to experience cat 3,4,or5 to begin to understand the meaning of hurricane.
Eviant 7 inchMobile TV
It seems by reading this gentlemen’s account that bugging out comes with serious consequences.
One; you need a place to go
Two; you need fuel for serious range–600 miles at least
Three; Portable shelter since leaving will be slow just due to the number of people.
However the Hurricane gave advanced warning and people still panicked for days.
This shows me that an event like a dirty bomb or a NK nuke in San Diego the best strategy is to stay put. But with that hit the stores and top off your supplies.
I have been in a huge traffic tie up when I-15 in Utah was out and it took 10 hours to get to Las Vegas.
In my opinion leaving is a bad strategy at least right away.
Let the panic and chaos calm down.
Being stranded on the roads is a good way to get killed.
RE: The Club – a good, and less expensive substitute, is a 4 ft plastic coated steel security cable with crimped ends to form eyes, available at Lowe’s Home Depot, Walmart, etc. Crank the wheel, feed one end through the steering wheel spokes, feed one eye through the other eye (trapping the wheel spokes in the loop of cable so formed) and padlock the loose end eye to the brake pedal with whatever you decide is the best padlock for the job. I wrapped the upper half of mine in bright orange tape to make it more visible; if someone sees it through the driver’s side window there’s less chance they’ll even attempt to steal the truck. As for picking the lock, they would have to do that kneeling on the ground with the door open because the padlock is at floor mat level, but with a key it takes only seconds to unlock.
The cable coils up into a loop so it’s easy to store between the passenger seat and the console.
Plus, a second, or third, or fourth cable can be used to secure items inside the truck – run the locking cable eye through the eye of another cable after feeding the 2nd cable through one of its eyes to form a loop, padlock the locking cable eye to the brake pedal. Easy way to secure smaller stuff like toolboxes on the floor, and cables are available in 4, 7, 15 and 30 feet. The longer ones are handy for securing stuff in the truck bed, loop the cables through the built-in tie down brackets. Pro Tip: get several keyed-alike padlocks, the more the better; check the padlock displays in Lowe’s, HD, etc. and you’ll often find an entire display box of padlocks all of which have the same key code. If you don’t get them all at once you’ll never be able to get them later.
Using cables to prevent theft isn’t bulletproof, but a couple minutes spent looping cables and locking them prevents “snatch and grab” thefts.
A number of years ago, I saw a video demonstration of why the club and associated methods of locking the steering wheel was not effective. Using a hacksaw, the demonstrator cut through the steering wheel in about 10 seconds, and removed the securing device.
Thank you JW for these very fine and usefully informative articles.
I like your take on firearms but I’m guessing you’ve not driven or been stopped in, say, California with your preferred arrangements on Conditions 0 and 1. Sadly I must go with all Condition 4 while traveling.
I hope you will continue to be safe and look forward to hearing more from you.
Thank God I live and mostly travel in Free States. On my return home a couple of weeks ago to Wyoming after a class reunion in my old home state of Missourah, I was rear ended in Missourah on I29, I was open carrying a S&W 9mm as usual and the Mo.Highway Patrol Officer asked to removed the gun and then unloaded it and removed the mag before I got into his car to make out the report, after which he gave the gun back and never once asked why I was carrying it. I also had a Para 45ACP and a Browning Hi Power in my car as well as an AR15 in a soft case in the trunk which had to be pried open to retrieve my AR. I was then given a ride into a small town for lodging by a Deputy Sheriff, he hauled me and all my guns in and he only wanted to talk about hunting. Ain’t Free States Great! Trekker Out
A major problem with the club is that 30 seconds use of an hacksaw ON THE STEERING WHEEL defeats it. The CLUB is hardened steel but the wheel is soft plastic and soft steel tube.
Masterlock and others makes one with 2 grapplers at each end which requires more sawing. Gorrilla has one that levers against the dash. There are also several pedal style locks that are much more secure than wheel based. But the issue w/ pedal locks is that more sophisticated thieves will load vehicles onto flatbed trucks/trailers so these do little to stop a determined theft — most auto trannys can be put into neutral w/ a position override button (manual tranny clutch pedal locks are superior in this repsect) and secondarily w/ idle that’s typically enough gas that the vehicle can be driven onto a tow trailer, etc, w/o needing to use a slow winch.
Steering wheel locks if you point wheels to where a flatbed can’t easily maneuver to load or to where the vehicle in neutral would roll/be winched into another car/structure do help to mitigate such a theft despite being more vulnerable to defeats.
In defense of the club, its one layer of security. A good car alarm with radio transmitter to keyfob.
Also the club is steel and very effective defensive weapon too.
I have used them for decades and my vehicles have been left alone.
However, I like the road cams idea. Just another layer to make lazy thiefs go to lower hanging fruit
J W. We carry the same guns, except my shotgun is a rem 870 riot with 18 inch barrel. As far as a pepper spray, use ammonia in a garden spray bottle that has an adjustable tip. Ammonia does not degrade in a container, and is ten times more effective as a defense weapon…..from experience when used the person on the receiving end is 100 percent out of the fight. This can be a lethal weapon and as far as carrying, it’s a cleaner for the vehicle, police would not give it a second look unlike pepper spray.
At the expense of possibly blinding perps who can pursue civil action against you…
Adding to the list of what to watch for before, during and after a hurricance:
Panicking unprepared evacuatees starting five to six days before landfall.
Returning panicking unprepared evacuatees a day after landfall.
Weather forecasters creating panicking evacuatees with memes like “The NE quarter is the most dangerous.”. When you hear someone repeat that phase or a similar one, assume you’re in the presence of a zombie (one easily influenced by the MSM prediction paths which were way off for Irma.).
Storm surges. A hurricance rotates counter-clockwise so depending whelter you’re on the east or west coast it’s arrival time will vary. I heard St. Petersburg, Florida, has downtown poles marked off at eighteen feet where the surge will be. Something to think about next you’re in a traffic jam and glancing up at the water level mark.
Note: Roughly, if the sea level rises one foot or even a few inches alot of southern florida will be underwater. It’s that flat.
Pine and other trees falling from still flood water soaked soil and shallow tree roots.
Most of florida’s population lives on the coastline and a large percentage of them live on what was once considered Barrier Islands. A Barrier Island held together by vegetation, mangroves, seaoats, would have taken the blunt of hurricane forces, waves, ground winds. Today since condos occupy that small plot of sandbar don’t expect it to delay any hurricance forces. A direct landfall hurricane wound be like an explosion where the blast itself is minimal compared to the catastrophic after shockwaves and negative pressure vacuum. In a populated floridian city a sudden tornado came off the bay, not usual. It glanced by a fifteen story condo, the negative pressure broke all of the glass facade (glass spharell) and sucked out anything in the apartments throwing the debris a block away. The local morning edition newspaper had a front page photo but the evening newspaper reported everything was fine. ‘Nothing to see here, move along.’. Not good for tourism.
Idiotic comments made during Hurricance Irma, “Stop it with atomic bombs.” A hurricance is at least a thousand times more powerful so the effect would be to spread radioactivity.
The point is without Barrier Islands and people building on glorified large sandbars expect a new estuary inlet.
Disease from contaminated groundwater. Disease has killed more people than all wars.(Floridian brown and black vector disease carrying rats. Also ticks,fleas, mosquitoes, etc.,.). New Orleans had escaped piranhas from Hurriance Katrina and gangs traveling up around Lake Ponchatrain. Also during Katrina some of the spray painted markings indicated what houses had personal protection taken away?
Anxiety. Call it repeated post-tramatic hurricance stress disorder (head doctors would like that added to the list of psychosomatic money making ‘diseases’). Why do you think my post has so much verbiage?
Does anyone practice living without electricity for one day a week, a month?
Perhaps less emphasis on comfort AC; powertools I understand. First lesson I learned in Florida, do not fight the heat as much as going with it (Aikado sweating). You’ not in (insert state name) anymore.
There are websites out there specific to indigneous Floridian living. Most of the other info doesn’t apply as Florida is opposite environmentally to the U.S..
“Eat the Weeds” with Green Dean is an excellent and far inbetween website on edible local plants. Simlex/Catbrair is considered a thorny pest weed hard to get rid of but the one or two inches of it’s new shoot is edible. Forgitabout the bone hard root node.
I’m not sure if I can mention ‘Hamilton Books’ that has somewhere in the neighborhood of under a half million DISCOUNTED books. Books on drought resistence gardening, trapping to bushcraft skills. And the wonder of it all … some JWR books that while they last can be passed out to family and friends.
Adding to the list of what to watch for before, during and after a hurricance:
Panicking unprepared evacuatees starting five to six days before landfall.
Returning panicking unprepared evacuatees a day after landfall.
Weather forecasters creating panicking evacuatees with memes like “The NE quarter is the most dangerous.”. When you hear someone repeat that phase or a similar one, assume you’re in the presence of a zombie (one easily influenced by the MSM prediction paths which were way off for Irma.).
Storm surges. A hurricance rotates counter-clockwise so depending whelter you’re on the east or west coast it’s arrival time will vary. I heard St. Petersburg, Florida, has downtown poles marked off at eighteen feet where the surge will be. Something to think about next you’re in a traffic jam and glancing up at the water level mark.
Note: Roughly, if the sea level rises one foot or even a few inches alot of southern florida will be underwater. It’s that flat.
Pine and other trees falling from still flood water soaked soil and shallow tree roots.
Most of florida’s population lives on the coastline and a large percentage of them live on what was once considered Barrier Islands. A Barrier Island held together by vegetation, mangroves, seaoats, would have taken the blunt of hurricane forces, waves, ground winds. Today since condos occupy that small plot of sandbar don’t expect it to delay any hurricance forces. A direct landfall hurricane wound be like an explosion where the blast itself is minimal compared to the catastrophic after shockwaves and negative pressure vacuum. In a populated floridian city a sudden tornado came off the bay, not usual. It glanced by a fifteen story condo, the negative pressure broke all of the glass facade (glass spharell) and sucked out anything in the apartments throwing the debris a block away. The local morning edition newspaper had a front page photo but the evening newspaper reported everything was fine. ‘Nothing to see here, move along.’. Not good for tourism.
Idiotic comments made during Hurricance Irma, “Stop it with atomic bombs.” A hurricance is at least a thousand times more powerful so the effect would be to spread radioactivity.
The point is without Barrier Islands and people building on glorified large sandbars expect a new estuary inlet.
Disease from contaminated groundwater. Disease has killed more people than all wars.(Floridian brown and black vector disease carrying rats. Also ticks,fleas, mosquitoes, etc.,.). New Orleans had escaped piranhas from Hurriance Katrina and gangs traveling up around Lake Ponchatrain. Also during Katrina some of the spray painted markings indicated what houses had personal protection taken away?
Anxiety. Call it repeated post-tramatic hurricance stress disorder (head doctors would like that added to the list of psychosomatic money making ‘diseases’). Why do you think my post has so much verbiage?
Does anyone practice living without electricity for one day a week, a month?
Perhaps less emphasis on comfort AC; powertools I understand. First lesson I learned in Florida, do not fight the heat as much as going with it (Aikado sweating). You’ not in (insert state name) anymore.
There are websites out there specific to indigneous Floridian living. Most of the other info doesn’t apply as Florida is opposite environmentally to the U.S..
“Eat the Weeds” with Green Dean is an excellent and far inbetween website on edible local plants. Simlex/Catbrair is considered a thorny pest weed hard to get rid of but the one or two inches of it’s new shoot is edible. Forgitabout the bone hard root node.
I’m not sure if I can mention ‘Hamilton Books’ that has somewhere in the neighborhood of under a half million DISCOUNTED books. Books on drought resistence gardening, trapping to bushcraft skills. And the wonder of it all … some JWR books that while they last can be passed out to family and friends.
Ps.
… forgot to include under indigneous weeds Mullein leaves when the Sears catalogue pages run out.
Oops,
Sorry for the double post as I’m new to posting (hence the PTHSD verbiage on a rare SHTF Floridian post topic) but I thought it significant to expound the virtues of Mullein leaves when there’s not a Sears catalogue around.
Then again, as Selco writes on his SHTF School blog in a survival situation it’s not exactly high on everyone’s ‘things to do list’ after a few weeks.(Health concerns otherwise.)
Seriously, since I’m ranting & raving I strongly recommend SHTFschool.blog by Selco. JWR reviewed it awhile back. Selco is a real person and sincere, “good people”. Note: He emphasizes skills, both mental and body, over gadgets.
One last rant, if SHTF comes to Florida forgittabout AC being available for long. It’s a luxury bought down by out-of-towners in the last century ( u’ thought I was gonna say the “Y” word) … or was it air-conditioning that made it convenient for masses of people to come down Flager’s railroads? Either way I wonder about the aquifers, etc., supporting the infrastructure. (I’m not a tree-hugger.).
Heck, everytime Jacksonville, Florida, flushes it tiolets lakes dry up southward, literally.
Thanks for posting
This was a good series — the biggest takeaway here for me is that Florida isn’t really suitable for a SHTF location excepting a very narrow set of circumstances from location to home construction to home ventilation, etc…
So while it’s fine to “live” there, I think most preparedness minded folks would be well served to view the state/their residence as a vacation home and make long term plans elsewhere.
Just imagine a long term grid down scenario with no forewarning of hurricanes, limited supplies to rebuild any destruction, plus all the environment constraints of attempting to survive in that environment (both people/pop density and nature)…
*Only issue w/ vacation home is that evacuation will always be bottlenecked in event of any disaster…