J.R.R. Tolkien wrote “It does not do to leave a dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” This was the quote that really attracted my attention on a SurvivalBlog article that in turn leads you to Kevin Reeve from onPoint Tactical’s piece on urban evacuations. Conveniently done up in a pdf file for portability, he quickly goes over the basics for those who haven’t thought it out before.
For those of you who haven’t lived in an urban area, let me tell you that bugging out is different. When you and 100,000 of your closest friends all decide that it’s time to be elsewhere at once, it looks like every SF movie from Panic in Year Zero to The Stand. Gridlock doesn’t quite do justice to the condition of the roads. Even knowing the “back way” won’t help, because trust me, you aren’t the only one who knows it. If nothing else, there’s an app for that.
If you live in an area that is subject to flooding, wildfire, hurricanes or any of the other fun things that nature tosses our way on a frequent basis, going over this information and researching more would be a grand way to spend some of that New Years downtime.