Evacuation Plans

SirFishAlot

Your plans for evacuations are the most crucial and decisive tactic that can either make or break you in a time of a crises. Never count on dependable road conditions when an evacuation is eminent. The old Navy SEAL phrase “two is one and one is none “ should always be on your mind in this stage of planning. When we think of packing up and leaving it’s usually for a certain event that we want to avoid. But imagine if there were multiple events happening at once. Do you have alternate routs to take? What are the dangers that could be encountered on the way? Will there be civil unrest at this time?

While you plan, do it in steps for each possible event you can experience in your geographic location. In my case for example, I live on the outskirts of a fairly big city that’s just full of questionable and troublesome folks. In an event I will need to get out to a safe location will depend on what type of event it happens to be. Say Three Mile Island goes into a melt down. I will base my main direction of escape away from the fallout area according to the prevailing winds. I also know that everyone else and their kin will be doing the same. Now we can assume most people will travel the main routs out of town with possible traffic jams due to accidents. I do not want to be held up for too long waiting for traffic to clear. I do have precautions for this such as a radiation monitor, NBC suites, iodine tabs and masks for the entire family. The RV I will be driving will have certain protections against fallout and will help out incase there is a delay in escape. My windows are tinted so others around me will not see my protective gear in use so they don’t get any wrong ideas when they are panicking. Now that we’ve established an event, what if for some unseen reason it is happening during a torrential downpour and the roads are flooding out. Did I plan for routs that are on higher ground? What if an extreme thunderstorm is in the area and they are calling for possible tornadoes? Did I plan on routs where there is protection to run too along the way? Can I drive under a bridge or culvert to protect against strong winds and hail. How about a severe snowstorm? Do I have a safe rout that the RV can handle? The answer is yes to all of them. My planning consist of every possible event having its own color coding. I will pick the proper color code and go through the checklist. For each event, I have other possible events that are color coded to go by also. A good example goes like this. A dirty bomb goes off in the city. I get out my manual and pick the color code (Orange), which is for NBC attacks. I then go to color code (purple) for dirty bomb/radiation leak, I then go through my checklist. Step one: gather family and administer proper medication. Iodine tabs for radiation poisoning. Step two: Dawn on proper protective gear. Step three: Both my Wife and I keep watch on current events and take readings of wind direction. Step four: we head out to motorhome. I will get in the RV and turn on the scanner, CB radio, TV, GPS, and computer and begin to relax and clear my mind. Step 5: tells me to access the situation such as wind direction, fallout, weather, traffic and road conditions. During this time I will be using my map and the intelligence gathered from scanners, media and communications to mark down the blast site. Then with the wind directions and speed verified I plot out the fallout area . Step 6: tells me to choose what color to pick that represents a certain wind direction. I see no wind. (temperature inversion), this falls under the color green. I am now instructed to find the epicenter of the blast and widen the circular fallout area evenly around it. I now see that I am well within the fallout radius and immediately go to step 7: which is color coded with more situations and actions.

The blast happened just 8 city blocks north from my location so I must go south which is another code green. Under this color code, I see more color codes to choose from. The weather is good but we did have some extensive flooding along the main routs near the Conestoga river so I am directed to color code brown. Now this color code tells me to take route 322 indicating to have the least chance of flooding and is higher in elevation than the other routs I can choose from. Plotted along this route are important places like rest areas, bridges or tunnels to park under during hailstorms and alternate routs and such.     

As I drive this rout, my copilot (wife) will monitor the communications, weather, news and road conditions. Say there is an accident we picked up on the scanner or C.B that’s ahead of us, we will immediately plot out an alternate rout then swing back on farther on down the road. Now with the event consisting of radiation fallout I can pretty much write off returning to my home location for a long time. I can choose to go to my parents that are three hours away to the west of Lancaster or I can just go it alone in my motorhome.                 

In an attack like this and the way it effects the financial world I would best my family by being with my parents so we could work together should things get worse. Now that I lost my job and means of making money the next step would be looking for a new form of employment or bartering and then coming up with another evacuation plan for my new environment. As you can tell, my planning is very intensive and detail oriented. The better the plan the better the chance you have getting to that safe zone. Some people have a fixed safe zone like a camp out in the woods which is after all, way better than to have nothing. I chose a motorhome so I will have the convenience of a home but with the flexibility to pick multiple safe zones due to the current circumstances. I do not like limitations as it can directly effect my family’s life and well being. One concept that’s worth looking into is the one my whole family chose to use. My parents and each of my sisters husbands have there own little travel trailer suited for their needs and their family size. Each trailer is stocked and ready for most emergencies. We are able to mobilize at a moments notice to meet at a certain rally point and then caravan our way out of harms way. We can communicate with each other from cell phones to CB’s and two-way radios. We can set up at a site and share power from our generators and create a defensive position for security at night while taking turns being on watch. There is security in numbers so the more the better. From here, the sky is the limit so all you need to do is sit down, study your environment, realize the dangers in your geography, have an intensive plan written up for all types of events with the family and follow it to the ”T”. Now that you think you are prepared, give yourself a test. Find a country in the world that is under civil unrest. Watch for events that could effect innocent people in that given country. Now go to another country that is experiencing terrible weather anomalies. Next, Interact as if they’re happening around you. Go to your prep list and plan your escape rout in mind of those multiple events. You will need to have great intel gathering abilities to make that lifesaving evacuation. An array of communications and scanners will help greatly for intel along with a good network of individuals to fall back on incase of a failure in those electronics. Knowledge is power so use all your resources to find out as much as you can for each event. Any problems you may run into now can be fixed during peace time so when the time comes where it will matter you will have all the bugs worked out and have confidence in your decision makings. There will always be something that will throw a wrench into your plans which is why you should keep your mind sharp and flexible so as to act and make decisions at a moments notice…