Survivalism, Bug off Bags and I am legend.

[baldy]

After watching "I am legend", and doing some google/wikipedia research my brain is buzzing about building up a Bag Off Bag. Emergency kit to grab as you head out after a major disaster.
Anyone thought about this in depth?
What must have item would you not leave the house without?

[puppydog]

Paranoia Deep Destroya!

I try to not think about these things in too much depth, to be honest. If the world is gonna implode, so be it.

But if I HAD to put something in a bag, it would be Will Smith, he's already made it through a few situations where the world was doomed.

[erske]

Anyone thought about this in depth?
What must have item would you not leave the house without?

This kind of thought have been known to occupie way to much of my mind...

But the one must have item must be a knife!!!!!

[Gelert]

Don't get too paranoid. Most people will never encounter such a situation or be dead by the opening credits, running around a city with an M4 is for the privileged few.

Any survival course will tell you that three things interlink to create a survivor: kit, knowledge and mental attitude, and the latter is the most important. There are some very real threats, but to let them weigh too much on one's mind is actually worse for your survival, because the paranoia, stress and insecurity is sure to shorten your life expectancy, whereas unless in the small chance it happens, a smallpox attack on big cities won't.

The first step is to make a threat assessment that realistically takes into account what you might face and identify and pre-plan your actions on a particular situation, even if they run counter to the flee-to-the-hills mentality. Blind panic cuts no ice with vampires.

Having your bug out bag and heading out for some Ray Mears/Andy McNab/McGyver fantasy involving rubbing two boy scouts together to make a fire is fine and all but unless your home is structurally compromised or under direct threat, you're best off staying put - filling the bathtub with water, for example and let's face it, how much food and kit can you carry as opposed to just generally have around the house? And on your way to this survivalist idyll in the backwoods, how much radiation/germs/gridlock/terrorists/zombies, let alone other survivalist loons and worst of all pissed-off, hungry suburbanites (=food?) will you have to face?

All this said, my place is chock a block with outdoors stuff, and having done some wilderness medic stuff I have a fun size trauma pack somewhere under the bed. This is all just by-the-by, not as a concession to impending doom, but I do have a small waterproof go-bag containing a head-torch, cyalumes, paracord, a swiss army knife, duct tape, nitrile gloves, a pocket first aid kit, tuffkut shears, space blanket and kendal mint cake. If I go anywhere with my mountain jacket, there is a whistle and compass tied on and a multitool somewhere as well. Within the last twelve months I've had cause to use everything in it several times apart from the space blanket and mintcake, so it's rather functional and less fancy than it would first seem.

There are plenty of people who are dead because they've worn themselves out lugging around mahoosive survival kits without a clue of how to use them or the good sense to have what's needed to hand, and plenty who are alive because of improvisational ability when caught out with a rusty penknife, some duct-tape and an used elastoplast. But if you want a reasonable off-shelf go-bag, then you'd do worse than look at the Canadian Red Cross's 72h emergency backpack. I believe MEC in Canada sell it as well.

[Dave Noisy]

I've always assumed i'd be one of the zombies....

[JP]

i am quite into this stuff to be honest, the roots being in the wilderness survival stuff i was taught when i was a wee nipper.

It shocks me how dependant we are of all the modern services. How long would we last if the water sources were polluted beyond use? Without electricity? Gas?

At the moment i am resigning myself to the fact that if something would happen i would be fucked because living in area like Manchester which is already almost too polluted and dangerous to survive

[prenna]

After watching "I am legend", and doing some google/wikipedia research my brain is buzzing about building up a Bag Off Bag. Emergency kit to grab as you head out after a major disaster.
Anyone thought about this in depth?
What must have item would you not leave the house without?

I'm a survivalist nutjob like JP so I've thought about this quite a bit. The main thing is to get scenario-specific. What are the most likely situations which could force you into fleeing with your BOB? Once you've mentally run through these situations you'll be able to get an idea of what you need in a BOB.

You also need to take into account that a BOB should be designed for 24 to 48hours of survival. After that you need to have a destination and contingency plan in place.

As Gelert has said, most situations will be best served by staying in your home and keeping that secure with resources for long periods of living without power/gas etc.

Here's an interesting thread about Bug Out Experiences in New Orleans after Katrina

Also the BOB forum on http://neardeathexperiments.com/ will give you lots to read through too.

Also if I might be so bold, my own Livejournal Survivalism Community has some great info on a variety of survival related topics.

[bronco]

I guess it might be a pretty good idea to stock up on an electric generator and some fuel. So that you can still surf VF after your laptop run out of battery .

[Gelert]

Like JP I spent a lot of time as a kid doing wilderness survival things, but as time goes by and I got increasingly sucked in to the rat race I've gotten very rusty and would probably benefit from refreshing the knowledge.

There are a few small companies offering some high-quality training in this field, one of which runs locally, but of course the reality of balls-to-walls longer term survival involves setting traps, hunting and fishing and ina no duff situation I'd feel justified in killing animals if needed - but for training for an eventuality that is unlikely, I'm not so sure.

[JP]

I'm a survivalist nutjob like JP

hehe, no i am not a survivalist nutjob at all

The wilderness survival stuff was just a normal thing to do for a rural hunting (boo!) guy in finland, the deep dark forrests will kill you if something happens and you end up there on your own. I never thought it was a big deal to have some basic skills on how to survive, navigate etc in the nature, but recently i have started thinking about it again because i think i am forgetting a lot of the skills now...

I've never read a book or anything like that Maybe i should though!

[fredrikw]

[puppydog]

Also remember to have sex with a doorknob on a very small building(assuming no pavement or bicycles are nearby). At least that's what I think this is depicting.

[Gelert]

Yes, fredrikw, of course, why do you think I included the space blanket in the go bag...

[fredrikw]

Yes, fredrikw, of course, why do you think I included the space blanket in the go bag...

aah, clever

[nes]

on a similar note, anyone know how/ where to get non-leather fire gloves??