Do you have an emergency go bag?

Do you have an emergency go bag?

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Discussion

MC Bodge

21,552 posts

174 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
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At work I have a Swiss Army Knife (often lent out to people) and extensive collection of survivalist/prepper food.

Ok, so it is actually a large bag of canned soup(ring-pull lids) and instant noodles from Aldi, but i would be destitute and starving if I needed to spend money in the on-site sandwich shop every day.

Come the apocalypse I'll be the most popular chap in the office after the sandwich shop has been looted of humus and olives.

I'll also be able to slaughter a cow in the field at the back and fell some trees with the Swiss Army Knife.


Edited by MC Bodge on Saturday 20th December 13:58

Countdown

39,690 posts

195 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
quotequote all
LimaDelta said:
I don't have a bug-out bag/ditch bag/grab bag or whatever you want to call it, but I do have plenty of 'survival' type kit around the house. I think that yes, even in the UK, it is wise to take precautions. Ok, we are unlikely to be hit with a tornado, or earthquake, or asteroid, but it doesn't take much to cause major disruption to our infrastructure.

I'm no tin-foil hatter, but suppose there was a large-scale cyber attack (hardly beyond the realms of possibility, especially as many of our 'enemies' are unable to fight a conventional war)? No ATMs, no traffic signals, no internet or TV, no electricity. How long do you think it would be before the looting and mayhem started? a day? a week? I'll make sure I have a few litres of clean water and the means with which to protect my family thanks.
We have a freezer full of food and live approximately 400 yards from a fresh water supply and lots of firewood. My guess is that, if the worst came to the worst, we'd be fine for a week (assuming we have to share with family/freinds)

This is a world away from having a bag full of duct tape,paracord, and pants which I still can't understand why anybody in the UK (apart from fugitives) would need. in other words, I can't see how anything in the OP's survival pack couldn't be obtained at very short notice with cash.

jmorgan

36,010 posts

283 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
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Got any lectric to go with that freezer? Mine will keep 24 hours then it's 12lb black currants, some out of date pastry and som meat. Hopefully next door will have the custard.

Countdown

39,690 posts

195 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
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jmorgan said:
Got any lectric to go with that freezer? Mine will keep 24 hours then it's 12lb black currants, some out of date pastry and som meat. Hopefully next door will have the custard.
As long as it stays (fairly) shut the food stays frozen for a while. We had a power cut a few years ago and the frozen stuff stayed frozen for 3 days.

anonymous-user

53 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
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Countdown said:
As long as it stays (fairly) shut the food stays frozen for a while. We had a power cut a few years ago and the frozen stuff stayed frozen for 3 days.
+1

A modern chest freezer, full of stuff, and kept in a cooler location such as a garage will stay frozen for days before stuff starts properly defrosting.

RizzoTheRat

25,085 posts

191 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
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LimaDelta said:
I don't have a bug-out bag/ditch bag/grab bag or whatever you want to call it, but I do have plenty of 'survival' type kit around the house.
Same here, I've got a bag with a petrol powered stove, matches, cookset, sharp knife, cutlery, water bottles, sleeping bag, tent, rollmat pillow and torch in it...however I call iy my camping kit rather an emergency goto bag.


GG89 said:
So what survival kit do you have for when the traffic lights get switched off by hackers?
A motorbike smile


soad

32,829 posts

175 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
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Actually, I do have a hiking/outdoors backpack with the integrated CamelBak thingy.
It's still brand new, gathering dust.

Ayahuasca

27,427 posts

278 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
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An 'emergency go bag' to me suggests that it should contain a pooper-scooper, plastic ziplock bag, toilet paper and hand sanitiser.

Far more useful than some of the stuff posted here.

MC Bodge

21,552 posts

174 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
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As somebody who has a selection of camping kit, mountaineering gear, garage (& garden) tools, torches, maps and various modes of transport, including traffic jam busting bicycles (with which I can tow/carry the children or equipment) , I don't feel the need to have it all on-standby ready for the apocalypse.

I do, however, have some tools and other sensible things like a rope, foot pump, small shovel, duct tape(!), cable ties etc in a holdall in the car (a big boot is handy).

As somebody who has rarely bothered with Sat Nav, I will also be able to find my way around if the internet and GPS system fails wink


Ps. Has anybody seen or read The Road by Cormac Macarthy?

LimaDelta

6,507 posts

217 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
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MC Bodge said:
Ps. Has anybody seen or read The Road by Cormac Macarthy?
One of the best books I have ever read. Especially as a new father.

gtidriver

3,334 posts

186 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
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I also carry a bag when I'm out and about for the day, it's a maxpedition jumbo versipack, it carries my litre of juice in a camel bak chute bottle I've also got a leatherman oht, an led lenses torch a pack of wet wipes a small first aid kit a spyderco paramilitary knife,some snack bars, and a portable charger thingy. And my iPad.

98elise

26,376 posts

160 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
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Unless you live in an area prone to natural disasters, where exactly are people expecting to go with their go bag?

In your home you already have all the things you need to survive for a while, so what is the point of going rambo with 2 litres of water and a rape kit?

Also when your water/food/clean pants run out, then you're in the st anyway.

MC Bodge

21,552 posts

174 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
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Joking apart, I suspect that most people in the UK would not have a clue what to do if the electricity went off for more than a few days. As a suburbanite who likes the outdoors, I still wouldn't have all of the equipment and supplies required, compared with somebody like a farmer.

Credit and debit cards would be useless.

The local squirrels and cats wouldn't last long.

The trees along the roads and in parks and gardens would be quickly chopped down and burned.

Life is mostly comfortable and convenient in NW Europe, so most of us do not have the need to use 'survival skills' or much in the way if self-sufficiency.

Like the need to prepare for enormous snowfalls in Most of
England, though, it is not really worth devoting your life to "prepping" just in case -unless it is a hobby.

Cotty

39,389 posts

283 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
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98elise said:
Unless you live in an area prone to natural disasters, where exactly are people expecting to go with their go bag?
To somewhere safer. It doesn't have to be a natural disaster, what about the London 2011 riots when there were rioting, looting, arson, mugging, assault & murder. I would want to be somewhere safer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots
98elise said:
In your home you already have all the things you need to survive for a while, so what is the point of going rambo with 2 litres of water and a rape kit?
But people will try to get at your supplies, can you defend against an armed gang attacking your house?

98elise said:
Also when your water/food/clean pants run out, then you're in the st anyway.
They are only supposed to be for a short time hence why some refer to them as 72 hour bags. But you could also procure water and food and clean your clothes, you are not limited just by what you carry.


anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
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I have a bag that would be useful for this kind of stuff, and I have most of that stuff.
Problem is the bag is in a cupboard and the stuff is strewn around the property.
So if the st was to hit the fan I could do with a few hours notice to remember where it all was.
A rifle and an assault rifle would probably be the most useful come a real st-fan interface to stop other stealing your whiskey and sweets and to help steal other people's whiskey and sweets when yours runs out.

Countdown

39,690 posts

195 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
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Cotty said:
98elise said:
Unless you live in an area prone to natural disasters, where exactly are people expecting to go with their go bag?
To somewhere safer. It doesn't have to be a natural disaster, what about the London 2011 riots when there were rioting, looting, arson, mugging, assault & murder. I would want to be somewhere safer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots
98elise said:
In your home you already have all the things you need to survive for a while, so what is the point of going rambo with 2 litres of water and a rape kit?
But people will try to get at your supplies, can you defend against an armed gang attacking your house?

98elise said:
Also when your water/food/clean pants run out, then you're in the st anyway.
They are only supposed to be for a short time hence why some refer to them as 72 hour bags. But you could also procure water and food and clean your clothes, you are not limited just by what you carry.

Using your example of the riots;

Where would you actually "go"?
Wouldn't you be more worried about leaving your house unprotected?
What item listed in the OP's "Go Bag" (duck tape, paracord, etc....) is going to be of any use?

Short of a mega-cyber-attack everything is available in the UK using a CC. And if there IS a mega cyber attack the best thing to do woud be stay at home. Ergo "Go Bag" relatively pointless IMO.

The only people who I can think of as needing a go bag are those who need to escape from specific PEOPLE and go "off grid" (the police, the mob, Jehovah's witnesses etc).

Cotty

39,389 posts

283 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
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Countdown said:
Using your example of the riots;

Where would you actually "go"?
Wouldn't you be more worried about leaving your house unprotected?
What item listed in the OP's "Go Bag" (duck tape, paracord, etc....) is going to be of any use?

Short of a mega-cyber-attack everything is available in the UK using a CC. And if there IS a mega cyber attack the best thing to do woud be stay at home. Ergo "Go Bag" relatively pointless IMO.

The only people who I can think of as needing a go bag are those who need to escape from specific PEOPLE and go "off grid" (the police, the mob, Jehovah's witnesses etc).
Anywhere where there was not rioting, looting, arson, mugging, assault & murder. Just out of London, Sutton, Basildon, Reading, Lake District etc. You are only limited by your imagination, just go somewhere else. You could catch a flight somewhere for a holiday while it all blows over.
House and contents are insured. I have all my photos on a memory stick, everything else can be replaced.

In the UK we have no need of a go bag or bug out bag. If you did it would probably be what you would take for a weekend away, change of clothes, wash kit, phone, maybe a laptop and money or credit card.

Its this sort of thing people are watching and panicking, prepping etc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S56y0AzwdVk

Cotty

39,389 posts

283 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
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Countdown said:
I'd drive to a hotel 50 miles away and book myself in with a credit card. Then I'd use aforementioned credit card to buy clothes and food. Then I'd ring Aviva Home Insurance and ask them to sort me out with replacement accommodation.

Perhaps I'm thick and lack imagination but, short of nuclear war or some other ELE, I can't think of any situation where a liberal application of money couldn't fix things.
Why didn't everyone in New York do this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1xkugQk4ck

red_slr

17,122 posts

188 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
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I guess its a bit like people who do martial arts. Its a hobby first and a means to protect themselves second.

Some people collect stamps, others like to keep a cupboard filled with crackers and jam...

smile

soad

32,829 posts

175 months

Monday 22nd December 2014
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Since leaving the Army, Reacher has been a drifter.

He wanders throughout the US because he was accustomed to being told where to go, when to go and what to do for every day of his life from military childhood to military adulthood. He also felt he never got to know his own country, having spent much of his youth living overseas on military bases and at West Point. He usually travels by hitchhiking or bus.

As a drifter, the only possessions he carries are money, a foldable toothbrush and, after 9/11, an expired passport and an ATM debit card.