A lot of people think that if they have their bug-out bag packed and a general idea of where they want to go, they’re ready. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Oh, they might manage to get away from their home and maybe even to get out of town; but they probably won’t make it to their bug-out location. They’ll either give up and end up stuck in the wrong place, or they just won’t survive.

Bugging out is a complex task that takes planning and preparation. It is even more complicated if you’re taking off at the same time as thousands of other people, as in the case of a general evacuation from the path of a major hurricane.

If you want a successful bug-out, you not only have to think of what you are going to do, but how everyone else out there—all those unprepared people—is going to react. That way, you can develop your plan in such a way that you manage to avoid a lot of problems. In addition, you have to have alternate plans for just about everything you are going to do as things never seem to work out quite the way you want.