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California recently had a situation with the potential for a dam to rupture during heavy rains. Almost 200,000 people were ordered evacuated on short notice ... you grab what you can and go. The evacuation was only for a few days, but had the dam breached it might have been a lot longer. In the short term people helped. In the long term this might have changed, as folks did not have the supplies they needed. Do you follow the herd to the closest large city ? Do you head to higher ground in the foothills ? Do you take any firearms ? If so, what do you take ? Would you shoot anyone trying to take your goods ?
 
Interesting thoughts. Having strived to not put myself into their particular situation, I can only say that mine is a bug in situation with a fall back location within walking distance and at the ready.
If I did indeed need to "roll" from here I have a 32 foot motor home gassed and semi ready to go, the needed items could be transferred and gone fairly quick,, sands the family pictures on the wall.
I see where I'm at as safe from most everything but a forest fire, although I keep a pretty good defensible space. In case of such an event, the motor home is the game plan.
Load and go, but the fall back location is close.
 
Do you follow the herd to the closest large city ? Do you head to higher ground in the foothills ? Do you take any firearms ? If so, what do you take ? Would you shoot anyone trying to take your goods ?

These are all excellent and difficult questions, ones which I haven't thought about in an unreasonable amount of time.
 
I'm going to be rather impolite with my response, this is not directed at the OP but rather my opinion of what prepping has become in general.

There has been far too much emphasis on buying things to store, and use when "SHTF", it's just the flip side of the normal problems we have as a modern consumerist society. There is too much focus on the acquisition of crap, warehousing crap in barns and on rural properties. While I think some of this is prudent, it doesn't lead to anything. It's just a lot of dead weight sitting around, and god forbid you need to move.

One of my favorite statements over the last few years: "Stock is the enmity of every retail business." There's a carrying cost to keeping a bunch of stuff around, over time things go bad, food dries out and becomes less nutritious, ammo gets corroded, guns wear out, and depending on how you're storing things, there's a cost, whether it's property taxes or rent.

In general, my major focuses over the last few years has been dumping my excess, things I don't use, and can't find a re-use for get sold, things that are worn out get junked. If something is replaced, and there's a need for it, it gets replaced by the highest-end-lowest-drag product I can find. (not necessarily the most expensive, just something lighter and stronger)

This has had a profoundly positive effect on my life, everything I consider a "must have" fits in my jeep. I have some extended stuff, that makes life easier that fits in my teardrop trailer. As a consequence, I can drop what I'm doing, load up the jeep and not worry about coming back, and this gets to the OP's question: if my house is destroyed by the flood, the only reason I have to come back is if there's something to rebuild, will I have a job there if I return? Will there be enough insurance to rebuild? Or is there an economic incentive to go somewhere else?

Always plan to never come back, and learn to be comfortable with it. Yea, it might suck, but when you have an attitude that most of your things are disposable, you can make better life and survival choices.
 
I'm going to be rather impolite with my response, this is not directed at the OP but rather my opinion of what prepping has become in general.

There has been far too much emphasis on buying things to store, and use when "SHTF", it's just the flip side of the normal problems we have as a modern consumerist society. There is too much focus on the acquisition of crap, warehousing crap in barns and on rural properties. While I think some of this is prudent, it doesn't lead to anything. It's just a lot of dead weight sitting around, and god forbid you need to move.

One of my favorite statements over the last few years: "Stock is the enmity of every retail business." There's a carrying cost to keeping a bunch of stuff around, over time things go bad, food dries out and becomes less nutritious, ammo gets corroded, guns wear out, and depending on how you're storing things, there's a cost, whether it's property taxes or rent.

In general, my major focuses over the last few years has been dumping my excess, things I don't use, and can't find a re-use for get sold, things that are worn out get junked. If something is replaced, and there's a need for it, it gets replaced by the highest-end-lowest-drag product I can find. (not necessarily the most expensive, just something lighter and stronger)

This has had a profoundly positive effect on my life, everything I consider a "must have" fits in my jeep. I have some extended stuff, that makes life easier that fits in my teardrop trailer. As a consequence, I can drop what I'm doing, load up the jeep and not worry about coming back, and this gets to the OP's question: if my house is destroyed by the flood, the only reason I have to come back is if there's something to rebuild, will I have a job there if I return? Will there be enough insurance to rebuild? Or is there an economic incentive to go somewhere else?

Always plan to never come back, and learn to be comfortable with it. Yea, it might suck, but when you have an attitude that most of your things are disposable, you can make better life and survival choices.

This is a very good point. I had definitely become absorbed with accumulating guns, ammo, mags etc and have tried to shift my thought process. The focus changed but the same problem existed, there wasn't any method to my madness. I have tried to narrow things down to what I consider necessary and store them in a way I could load them into my vehicle and move. I'm certainly far from being there but i'm getting closer. So many "neat" items wind up being space whores or only useful in very specific situations. I try not to fall into this trap and am open to ways others have succeeded.
 
This is a very good point. I had definitely become absorbed with accumulating guns, ammo, mags etc and have tried to shift my thought process. The focus changed but the same problem existed, there wasn't any method to my madness. I have tried to narrow things down to what I consider necessary and store them in a way I could load them into my vehicle and move. I'm certainly far from being there but i'm getting closer. So many "neat" items wind up being space whores or only useful in very specific situations. I try not to fall into this trap and am open to ways others have succeeded.

The biggest offender for me for a while was camping gadgets. I camp as much as I can, however, what I realized after a while, was that the focus on having so much crap, requiring multiple-days of prep, was cutting into my camping time, and reducing the frequency. My winter camping gear has now been pared down so it fits in a Molle II large ruck. (winter sleeping bag, sleeping pad, ground cloth, tent, winter outers, etc) and my summer gear fits into a Molle II assault pack. (LW bag, hammock, clothes etc) I'm much happier with this arrangement. For a while I used to carry a ton of crap I never needed: spare batteries, battery chargers, solar panel accessories, etc etc. This stuff is fine if I'm going to be in the field for weeks, it's unnecessary for <week.

With some creative thinking, you can do a lot with a little, but when dealing with gear, a lot means you can only do a little.
 
I have a kit and a good process I found was to make a list of bookmarks of what I needed, and then I would see if I could find tools that did double duty. For example, I found a knife at Andy and Bax that has a steak knife, spoon, fork, toothpick, tweezers, and a smaller working knife for cheaper than those things on their own. I am pretty strict when it comes to what I need to survive and often times I have found I can use things for multiple uses. I can use heavy fishing line not only to fish, but also to make snares with, etc.
 
I have a kit and a good process I found was to make a list of bookmarks of what I needed, and then I would see if I could find tools that did double duty. For example, I found a knife at Andy and Bax that has a steak knife, spoon, fork, toothpick, tweezers, and a smaller working knife for cheaper than those things on their own. I am pretty strict when it comes to what I need to survive and often times I have found I can use things for multiple uses. I can use heavy fishing line not only to fish, but also to make snares with, etc.

What works better than fishing line is a net. You should check what the regs are, but a cast net will get you a lot more fish than anything else. (human powered anyways) The real trick is to find one you can also use as a hammock.
 
I prep for two different things! I totally agree with you @AMproducts that if your on the move to much stuff is not effective and I try to keep it simple as I can and only take what needs to be taken. As far as bugging in I am guilty as charged I have water, food, ammo, plywood and the such to do what I have to so that I can survive. Chances are living in the PNW like your self if the big one hits we aren't getting out unless you hike out. In that scenario I think its better to stay put.

If things go south to the point of no return I will grab my go bag and be gone (with like you said the necesities to survive)
 
What works better than fishing line is a net. You should check what the regs are, but a cast net will get you a lot more fish than anything else. (human powered anyways) The real trick is to find one you can also use as a hammock.

That sounds like a great idea. Have any links to what you're talking about?
 

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