SHTF Emergency planning: The 72 Hour Bag

[Captain Maltese]

We haven't had one of those threads for a while. SHTF literally means Shit Hits The Fan. Or, when really bad things happen. It used to refer to really big bad events but while we have had few of these, the number of mid sized bad events keep cropping up all the time and everywhere. And while it is never the end of the world as we know it, millions of people unfortunately lose everything they have and need to go elsewhere fast. This particular thread deals with 72 hour bags, some times also called BOBs and other things too. The concept is to have a bag tucked aside in your car or wardrobe or wherever, than can be dragged out at a moment's notice because it is time to GO before you are swept up in something bad.

I have previously looked at various options for such a bag, some of which seem outdated now. This time I suggest the following basic specs for this project:
- it should be a backpack with two shoulder straps. While a shoulder bag is good for carrying some supplies too it is less suitable for heavier loads and for adding unplanned items.
- cost of bag and contents should be kept to a minimum, to make it feasible for anyone and everyone to have one
- size should be within 5-6 gallons, to make it easier to tuck discreetly away in a car or small home. And even so, the goal should be to not fill it more than 2/3 before you tuck it away. This is to allow extra items that you did not plan for; needs change, but you might also have to carry stuff for other people like your children, parents and other close relatives and friends. If the pack starts out full you have no flexibility other than dumping things you consider vital.
- weight should be kept to a minimum. Again, you do not know what else you will be carrying on your journey. Could be important items, could be you need to help support loved ones. Plan for what you really need and no more. Not to mention that if you are spending three entire days on foot, every gram saved could ease your burden and speed you along.

There are multiple purposes a 72 hour bag needs to fill. The main one is to help you be on the move and on the way toward a safer place than you are leaving, within a time range of 72 hours - three full days. That's no small requirement; it means you need to stay fed, warm and somewhat sheltered under very unpredictable conditions. You can of course hope for a speedy untroubled journey, friendly help and safe company under good roof all the way, but planning for worse conditions can only be called wise. Some extra items of low weight and volume could come in very handy if they improve your chances and/or comfort.

I intend to make a series of fairly short posts on this topic covering contents and escape routes, but it is not meant to be a one man show. Feel free to make comments and additions as it progresses.

[Captain Maltese]

A 5 gallon pack is even smaller than a child's schoolbag and is usually called a daypack; good for walks along city streets or a nice park path. They tend to be poorly padded if at all, have only basic shoulder straps and few compartments. This however keeps them lightweight and cheap. And if you find yourself shoved into a crammed bus or car, you are unlikely to have to part with it for storage elsewhere in the vehicle. For this project I have chosen a very simple bag of that design, and its weight is 140 grams which is practically nothing. See above pictures, I bought it this week at Søstrene Grene for 9 USD , which in my country is less than the cost of one beer at a pub. There's no pack straps, no waist strap, nor any chest strap, and the shoulder straps are basically unpadded. The pack can be folded into itself for minimal size storage but the only thing that matters for this project is that it seems to holds about five gallons. It definitely isnt much but meets the specs and will serve as our platform for this project.

If you are a crafter or rigger or artisan the potential for changes and adjustment of this pack is endless. However we'll avoid that here, other than some easy but important tweaks.

The first thing you should put into the bag is a foam sitting plate or failing that a reasonable stiff rectangle of plastic - or even cardboard. Yes, you can sit on it and have a dry and clean butt, but the big point is that it stiffens up the pack making it better to wear. It also protects your back from sharpish objects in the pack. If you have one of those packs with a built in back plate, disregard the above.

The second thing is to put on an individual marker somewhere on or near the top. A red band, a cheeky badge, a heart, a flag, all that matters is that it help you find your bag among other similar bags when you are in a hurry, when lots of people are grabbing bags right then, or when it is rather dark. Imagine the lights turning off when you are in the subway. How you fasten the marker I'll leave to you.

The third thing is an innocuous 3-4 feet of string, band or thin rope. No matter what your backpack looks like it should be enough for you to secure a rolled up jacket or thin blanket on top of your backpack by tying around the top of the shoulder straps.

The fourth... well. Putting on a nice name-and-address tag is normally a good measure for when you travel. In a state wide emergency situation I can virtually guarantee noone will see it as their duty to reunite people with mountains of lost luggage. You are better off making sure there's nothing in the bag you will really miss if it gets lost.

[Captain Maltese]

There are a million backpack packing list suggestions out there, and most of them are of little or limited use in the most likely SHTF scenarios. You are not going hiking, heading innawoods, dealing with a Mad Max style civilisation breakdown or a holiday. You ARE leaving your home not knowing what will happen next, and without a guarantee you can come back home eventually. It is grim, but specific.

We can hazard a guess at what might happen. The moment it is clear to your area that a bad thing is about to happen - water's rising, there are flames in the horizon, sirens are ringing, you receive alerts on your phone and/or radio, many helicopters in the air, military convoys, the works - a large number of people will start leaving their homes. Traffic volume out of town will explode. Best case, your car or bus leaves and drives away in an orderly manner. Worst case, the road is blocked for one of many reasons so emergency transport can't get in and everyone has to leave on foot. What it means is that a) you are no longer in control of your transport method or even your travel route, and b) you will be surrounded by LOTS of people. Meanwhile, local things like shops will likely be closed or sold out. Public facilities like bathrooms or water faucets may not be available to you for parts of your journey.

With those being the key factors I am dividing the list into priorities from high to low. Here's the short version. Later posts will expand on them.

1. Life items: key official paperwork, and unreplaceable private papers like family photo albums etc
2. Everyday items: what you never leave house without overnight normally. Phone, money, medicines etc
3. Food and drink
4. Warmth and protection against the elements: Clothes, rainponcho, etc
5. Hygiene articles and first aid kits
6. Additional useful items

[Captain Maltese]

Priority 1: Life items

If you are going for a weekend trip or even a vacation, you leave home in the assumed certainty that you will come back soon enough. If you are fleeing and not knowing if you can come back, there are things you cannot afford to leave behind. These fall in two categories.

Official paperwork. These prove who you are, what you are, what you own and what is owed you. Identification papers, passports, school diplomas, licenses, proof of qualifications, marriage papers, birth papers, house deeds, insurance papers. In theory, the relevant national and state and county registers and the relevant companies who issued it all have copies of everything. In reality, a major emergency might make those copies hard to obtain. Especially if their local facilites where the info is store has been destroyed. But even if the facilities you seek are perfectly fine, they might be temporarily too busy for contact because of the ongoing emergency. Your simplest way to ensure you have proof of these papers existing is to simply copy them to paper, put it all in a ziploc bag or preferably a waterproof one, and put it in your bag. That way you can show them to the face of whatever official demanding proof before something important is to happen. Like being allowed back to your home, or be allowed into a hospital to see your loved ones.

Second to making hard copies, and with little more work, is to scan all the documents and put them on a memory stick of some kind. That way if your papers are lost during the journey you can still produce them. Since you now have the paperwork on file you may as well encrypt it and store it online in a cloud or in your email account or send it to someone you know. Except for the memory stick this is all zero cost. As for the memory stick you can keep it in your pack, but it would be even safer in your pocket since you are not guaranteed to still have your pack when you wake up in an unfamiliar place. Or get two memory sticks and double your safekeeping? If you argue that you have already saved this stuff in your local bank, then that is fine. You should do that. Unless there's been a major emergency, in which case those lock boxes might not survive and your own copies in your own backpack become pretty vital.

Personal paperwork. Official paperwork can be replaced eventually. Personal paperwork is irreplaceable. Those photos of your grandparents are probably on paper, even if your own are on file. Old diaries, love letters, your children's drawings, you know better than me what will be sorely missed in your case. There's no room for thick old photo albums in your backpack, but again modern technology is your friend. Scan the paperwork or take good photos of it, and put it in the earlier mentioned electronic storages. There's also something else; all the things you own that you put money or personal value into. Even if it burns or drowns you will still have the photos. And in the case of the stuff that is worth money, your insurance company is likely to be quite interested in what you can and cannot document that you have been owning. How long will it take you to go through your home and take 2-3 pics in each room? Added insurance rarely get cheaper than that. Gun owners might want to take a photo of their guns' serial numbers, as getting your gun back from a police shipping crate full of undocumented lost and found guns could be tricky otherwise.

Some other things. There's little of personal value that you have room to bring on an emergency escape, and you would not normally be safekeeping it in a small backpack in the back of your wardrobe. But a few keepsakes are important enough and small enough that you should bring it. Like your grand-grandparents' wedding rings, a signed Babe Ruth ball from the 1920s is worth a LOT, and so on. Don't pack it, just think it over, then write the name of these things on a big piece of paper and keep it at the top inside the back. Once the sirens start wailing and the evacuation bus stops in your street, the time for thinking of what to bring with you is gone but that piece of paper might remind you.

[Captain Maltese]

Priority 2: Everyday items

Let's say you are visiting a friend and staying over for a night or two. Every facility you can wish for will be present there. But still you carry some stuff with you. It isn't much much. Keys. Cell phone. Change of clothes. Medicines you take every day. Let's take a second look at these items though.

Keys: sure, got your front door covered. And your car. But are all your keys there? Do you have a safe, a garage, a gun safe, a bike? Ideally you should have a full, spare set of extra keys stored in the bag. I know, you'd normally never part with your main keys. But those are not normal conditions any more.

Cell phone: Communication device, radio, notepad, flash light, entertainment center, GPS and map and compass device, information storage. If you are alive in 2023, you probably consider your cell phone important enough that you'd have it operated into your ARM if you could. And it certainly is vital in everyday life. In an extraordinary situation, even more so, but it becomes an unreliable ally. For one thing, it is an item vulnerable to most of the things you are under threat from: water, fire, shock, violence, theft, robbery, lack of electricity. For another the systems this miracle of technology depends in its turn on infrastructure that is also not infallible: cell towers and state and nationwide coordination systems. Cell towers run on batteries and engine fuel backup systems and are often placed smack in the middle of town. Getting them back in business is a top priority but when half the state burns or drowns, there are a lot of top priorities. These systems can also be easily targeted by hostile forces through direct attack or jamming. Basically, hold on to your cell phone at all cost in an emergency but don't be surprised if you don't get a signal or can't get through. Also DON'T use your cell phone for entertainment under emergency circumstanced unless you are actually plugged into mains power at the same time. You may end up with an empty battery at at time when your future, or your loved ones' future, are changed because one single vital phone call could not get through.

This would not be complete without discussing alternate power options. Of course you carry a charging cable with a USB plug at all times. But do you also carry a mains power plug for it? In an emergency you have a better chance of finding a mains plug hole than a free power plug. A thousand other people nearby may be looking for charging too.  So bring that plug in your pack, you probably have a number of them floating around the house anyway. Other things you CAN carry:
- a charging bank (ten bucks?)
- a crank charger (five bucks) which is agonizingly slow for loading a giant cell phone lithium battery, but ten minutes of cranking and wrist ache could get you that life or death phonecall.
- a combination charger with battery and crank and/or solar charger
- an emergency radio (mine cost 25 buck) with radio, flash light, battery, crank and solar.

Flashlight: I know, we all have cell phones with flashlight in them now. Well most of us. Personally I also carry a tiny torch year round on my key ring, and in the dark half of the year I have a more substantial flashlight on my belt because neither of the other ones will illuminate much at 50 feet. For a 72 hour bag the biggest issue is, how to remember to renew the battery at least once a year so it doesn't go dark when we need it most? Any torch will do better than none. My preference is a lamp that has an USB plug so I can easily recharge it. I also have alternatives, like a tiny solar torch and even a hand crank one. The last one I expect to work in pretty much any and ever condition short of lava or being stomped on by elephants. But, any flashlight you put in your pack will be good enough if you have the discipline to check it once or twice per year.

Change of clothes: This is one of those things that sound small but can fill your entire pack. Don't let it. One set of clean underwear, tee shirt and socks will do wonders for cleanliness and comfort after a couple of days. Also, or alternatively, you can go for a very lightweight set of long underwear or whatever the sports stores call them these days: it's basically a pair of slacks and a sweater in very thin material. They will keep you warmer as an inbetween layer, and in a pinch they can also work as outerwear if your main set is too wet/dirty/torn/bedraggled. It's a lot better than being naked.

Medicines: If you don't use meds on a regular basis I envy you. The rest of us will have to bring our meds along with us in an emergency, and as soon as our walking stock runs out we have a problem: renewing it. In your pack should be any proof you have that you are getting prescribed meds, in what quantity, and what doctor at what facility is signing under for that. (If you travel far now and then, this is the same as the meds paper you may have to show when boarding flights.) Remember, you are in an emergency and the doctor AND that facility may no longer respond to calls. You will make things a lot easier if you can right away show that new doctor elsewhere what your medical situation is.

[Lyrical]

I'm a bit of a crazy prepper myself. No bombshelters and the like and i don't have 2 years worth of supplies.. but my home was rebuilt and when I did that i made the basement a self contained and hurricane/tornado resistant shelter. Plus I do have enough basic food supplies and essentials as listed by the Canadian Red Cross to be prepared for at least a couple weeks...

This is what the Canadian Red Cross says:  https://www.redcross.ca/how-we-help/emergencies-and-disasters-in-canada/be-ready-emergency-preparedness-and-recovery/get-an-emergency-kit

Essential items for your Emergency kit

Here are suggested items to assemble your emergency kit at home. You can also buy Red Cross emergency kits

• Water 
• Food (non-perishable) and manual can opener if this includes cans 
• Mask(s) and hand sanitizer 
• Special needs such as medications, baby needs, extra glasses, etc.   
• Important family documents (i.e. copies of birth and marriage certificates, passports, licenses, wills, land deeds and insurance) 
• A copy of your emergency plan (people panic under pressure and forget essentials so this is important)
• Crank or battery-operated flashlight, with extra batteries 
• Battery-operated or crank radio 
• Extra keys, for your house and car 
• First aid kit 
• Extra cash   
• Personal hygiene items 
• Pet food and pet medication 
• Cell phone with extra charger or battery pack 

[Captain Maltese]

I'm a bit of a crazy prepper myself. No bombshelters and the like and i don't have 2 years worth of supplies.. but my home was rebuilt and when I did that i made the basement a self contained and hurricane/tornado resistant shelter. Plus I do have enough basic food supplies and essentials as listed by the Canadian Red Cross to be prepared for at least a couple weeks...

This is what the Canadian Red Cross says:  https://www.redcross.ca/how-we-help/emergencies-and-disasters-in-canada/be-ready-emergency-preparedness-and-recovery/get-an-emergency-kit

That's some pretty good lists right there. Some of those items are planned for detailing in some of the coming posts in this thread. Putting a copy of the entire emergency plan itself in the bag is a great idea and I'll shamelessly add it. Also that link will be added to the final post's 'Further reading' element. Thanks! I'll be very glad for further additions you might have.

[Captain Maltese]

Priority 3: Food and drink

Conventional wisdom, and military rule of thumb, is that you can go three days without water and three weeks without food. However after those first three days without either you will be in radically worse shape. Depending on local environment you could start becoming dehydrated within hours, and regardless of environment your body has  safety measures than clicks in after about 24 hours of no food. Hunger is one thing; you also become weaker and slower as your body's stored quickly available energy is spent. This is a very bad thing in an emergency situation. The good news is, your body does not actually need warm food or warm drink. Even if the comfort such things bring is considerable.

Drink: What you should primarily bring is water. Best choice of this is bottled and sealed water from the grocery; no fizz, no additives, just plain clean water. While tap water is - very arguably - safe for drinking, it is not as clean as bottle water due to many reasons and after a year in your backpack it may not be very tasty. It's not just about the water though. Bottled water comes with a bottle which means they are highly disposable. Between hikers, sports people and just plain hipsters there could be a heated discussion on what a water bottle should look like. Shape, weight, material, strapping, yadda. With a bog standard plastic bottle from the grocer you are free to discard it the moment you get a new one. Or you could refill it. The point is, you won't be spending backpack weight and volume on retaining the fancy one even though you get fresh bottles with water in them. Because that is what'll most likely happen if you are in the evacuation phase; someone from a govt or private organisation will be handing out water bottles because that is simply the most efficient way to distribute water.

Drinking water should be clean because you might also need it for washing. However if the water you have at hand is quite foul tasting because of some of many reasons, there's a couple of things you can add to it. First are cleansing pills for killing bacteria and microorganisms. Unless you have a military source the place to find this is where they sell pool supplies. Add a single pill in your full bottle, wait two hours, and it should be safe to drink. Also, many places now sell tubes of effervecent pills with various tastes and vitamins and they do a lot for the taste of the water you put them in.

Hot drink: I am not greatly opposed to bringing a thermos of hot coffee or such. It does weigh a bit and takes some room though so be ready to ditch it if you are about to walk several miles. The real question is, will you have time to make a fresh pot of coffee at the moment you realize your life might depend on how fast you can get going? The chances of getting to refill the thermos with hot stuff until you are in safety are also slim. As for MAKING hot drinks I'll get back to it further down.

Food: I am in a bit of trouble illustrating this meaningfully as very few who will read this will shop groceries in Norwegian stores. Worse, my idea of what is in US groceries is really limited. As mentioned at the start, you don't need warm food for just a few days. This means that provided you can eat what you bring as it is, there is no need for a stove. Or fuel for a stove, or optionally matches, or a pot to put on the stove, or water to add to the food to make it edible. This saves weight, space, and money. It also means you will need to fill your pack with stuff like meal replacement bars, trail mix, chocolate, dried fruit and so on. A few food items can be mixed with cold water though, like some cereal mixes. Carbs is really all you need; protein, vitamins etc are not required for just a few days.

How much food do you need for three days? We have data on this, energy-wise. A three meals military field ration tend to contain 3000-3500 calories (kcal actually), which is a lot but intends to feed someone who goes on long marches with very heavy packs and equipment to carry along in what could be winter. By contrast a United Nations emergency three meal ration lies in the 2000-2200 range, and is typically given to someone sitting in a camp with few strenous tasks. Basically if you get official prepackaged meal rations you will be good for a long time, nutrition-wise, although you are not supposed to live off them for more than 30 days. Let us hope that will be irrelevant.

So let's say 2000 calories. One 100 gram block of chocolate is 500 calories, a King Size Snickers is 440. This is high density, no preparation, ready to eat food and my only objection is you should not store these in your back for more than half a year since chocolate can go bad that fast under certain circumstances. A Great Value Mountain Mix weighs 733 grams. And if I got the specs right it has 19 servings of 180 calories each, which is a total 3420 calories for one pack. Wow. But while chocolate and nuts can cover your energy needs, I strongly suggest adding something with some fibre and juice to chew on as slow hours pass by. Dried fruit, alternatively dried meat, fulfills that need and also contain a lot of nutrition. So yes, carrying dry cold meals for three days is not a biggie, it just takes a little calory counting.

What you should not pack is salt stuff. Crackers, snacks, it is tasty but also thirst provoking and that is not a good thing in this situation.

Now if you decide hot food and hot drinks definitely should be on your menu, you should still strive to make it as little cumbersome as possible. To make hot items you need a stove, fuel, optionally matches, and a pot to put on the stove. Plus water. In the stove department you have a lot of small sized alternatives at most sports stores.
- Hexamine stoves. Folds into a pocket, runs on high energy tablets, and works well with a metal cup for pot. Some react to the fumes.
- Alcohol burners, can be small enough for a pocket, runs on alcohol, runs longer and hotter, well suited for a pot or pan or kettle.
- Gas burners. Can be VERY compact by themselves. Requires gas tanks, but allows for multi dish meals.

The thing is, you may have no control over when or what to eat. Are you on an evacuation bus headed toward a hotel room with all facilities, or the hotel garage with a one inch mattress and strict orders not to make any kind of fire? Are you spending the night outdoors at some place where making light at night might be unwise? Bringing a stove gives you options for making delicious coffee, tea, instant soup, pancakes etc. I feel it is a wise thing to pack - as long as you don't only bring food that needs heating. Worst case, you can always ditch it. None of the above mentioned stoves should cost more than a tenner if they are store available.

[Oniya]

Right - so, about water.  (This is something I learned about when I was doing antimicrobial studies).

You can use ordinary unscented bleach to disinfect water.  It's the same principle as the chlorine treatments that they do at municipal water plants, only small-scale:  2 drops per liter/quart.  As noted in the link, you can often find a medicine dropper in emergency kits

[Captain Maltese]

Yes, I'm a fan of bleach, it has many uses. Another disinfectant option is to leave the (clear) bottle in sunlight; the UV element of sunlight is quite effective at killing stuff. Yet another option is to add a minute amount of table salt, but salt water is not very good for drinking. It IS however a key element in holy water, should you need to rinse a wound. But then, you can do that too with bleach.

[Captain Maltese]

Priority 4: Warmth and protection against the elements

Local climate differences dictate that what's pointless for one reader could be vital for another. But emergency conditions can make what's normally pointless quite vital. A desert gets biting cold at night, a tropic paradise during a monsoon and/or storm can be cold as bone too.

We have already covered a minimum of clothes change, but mainly for cleanliness. To actually be warm you choose between three paths. Well you can choose all of them but at great cost of volume.

Sweater: Modern research, civilian and modern, have worked endlessly and tirelessly to come up with something new and better than a classic sweater. By and large they have failed. Yes, we have merino wool now, and fleece, and down, but a woolen sweater is still the only garment that can keep you warm even when it is wet. The trouble is that a woolen sweater takes rather a bit of room in a small backpack and they can quickly be uncomfortably warm. I am not going to give a decisive suggestion on this one. But for me, I'll put the thin sports sweater in the pack and leave room enough that I can add a real sweater at the last minute.

Jacket: Again you have to choose between comfort and volume. Today you can get VERY thin jackets that will protect you against rain and wind but only have a nominal warmth value. There are also some jackets that are deceptively thick but are mostly compressable air, that can keep you warm as long as there's no rain. Ideally you are actually wearing a suitably seasonal jacket as you leave house, so a jacket in the pack should be chosen for weight and volume.

Space blankets: Well science DID come up with something new. AKA mylar blankets, this aluminium-like foil is a great emergency item that is frequently found in first aid kits, ambulances and hiking equipment. In its folded state it has the size, weight and volume of approx a deck of cards. Basically you wrap the blanket around you, and the foil reflects your body heat back to you. It does work. But you have probably never seen one other than at a scene of accident, because these blankets are not comfortable nor wear resistant. Also, good luck folding it back to the same volume. They should cost less than five bucks a pop and are a valuable addition to a small pack with few other warming items. I'd prefer a jacket or sweater any day, but will still pack one as a big shiny sheet can fulfill other functions too.

Protection against the elements. We have already mentioned jackets. There are a few other garments that do some of the same jobs but aren't really clothing.

Ponchos: In this category there are two lines of thought; I think of them as military and civilian. A military style poncho is basically a big rectangle of plastic with a hood in the middle; it is meant to go over all the clothing and gear you are already wearing including your backpack. You look like a walking tent in one but this is what armies utilize for the wettest conditions. A big perk is that they are available in packages not much bigger than the space blanket. You can buy - or craft - versions of these with rope holes along the edges, that together with a little thin rope and some thin metal sticks give you a tarp. The civilian style poncho is technically a rainjacket with arms, hood, front opening, but often see through since they are popular as backups for traditional costume events. In these parts anyway. While they lack the durability of a proper rainjacket it is a handy piece of low volume low weight low price protection for a few days.

I know, a traditional Mexican poncho is quite different. But unless you already rock that most of the year it's not really relevant. And like trenchcoats, pea coats etc, they take far too much space to be considered here.

Tarps. A tent is a great thing to have in an emergency. Or is it? Yes, it protects against wind and bugs and rain and even some snow, but in a midsized disaster such as a wildfire or a flooding you are fleeing along the established routes of infrastructure - roads - along with many thousands others, and will most likely be offered some kind of accommodation even if it is a barn or a school gym. You are not heading into the wilderness, it would be a different story entirely, nor are you looking at many nights spent outdoors. Not as long as you remain in your own country, of course. So a tent might not be worth the weight, cost or volume of bringing it along in your pack. A tarp is a different calculation as weight and volume is radically lower, and so is price. It also has many other uses, as ground sheet or sun shade or even carrying item or a stretcher - a tarp is far thicker than the ponchos mentioned above. What you get with a tent that you don't get with a tarp is protection from insects or wet ground, unless your tarp is twice as big, and the wind will likely blow through the sides.

Bivvys. This is a relatively new concept. Soldiers and civilians alike needed something that offer protection but less weight and volume than a tent. Until a while after WW2, the soldier had a tenterhalf at his disposal, which was heavy but not that protecting since even when plugged to another soldier's tent there still was a lot of opening. But slowly a new concept came in, dubbed a 'sleep system'. This was basically a sleeping bag, some times also an inner sleeping bag, a sleeping pad and an oversized outer bag that took the protective role of a tent. It reduced the painfully heavy load of a fighting soldier by at least a little. This outer bag, known now as the bivvy, vary a little from army to army in design and quality. It is still bulky enough that it fails to make sense in a 72 hour bag as a default. I have one, it weights 4 pounds, but it is in the largest size so I can both sleep in it and have my entire backpack inside as well.

Civilian bivvys follow the same line of thought as a one person protection from the elements, but are designed with far lighter fabrics to less ardous specifications and so take less weight and volume. You can find these bivvys of good quality with multiple zippers and high water resistance but also as basically redesigned space blankets, which makes them great for emergencies even if they are too flimsy for camping. We are basically talking about tubes of material with one opening, and but for the shiny foil they would be quite similar to your ordinary large plastic garbage bags. Which, frankly, is not a bad idea to bring along in your pack if you don't want to invest 5-10 bucks in a space bivvy. It's better to look like a hobo for one night than be found in the morning. as an icicle.

Blankets. Like sweaters, the selection of materials have become sizeable. Wool, fleece, synthetic and mixed this and that. It isn't that many contenders for what is practical here though. Much as wool blankets still are the best for warmth, wear resistance, fire resistance etc, they are also heavy and bulky and pricy. Meanwhile fleece blankets are so cheap they are disposable, can take very little space, and you can cut one into a makeshift garment with any sharp tool. Unlike space blankets they feel comfortable too. All you need to be aware of is keeping them away from fire which is their weakest point. For someone who must expect to move on foot there isn't a lot of better options unless you are ready to pay ten times more.

Sleeping bags. There's a million brands and models out there. If you ditch the blanket you have room for one of the smallest ones. Those are little more than a blanket in a nylon pocket, but they are cheap too and with a zipper down the side and bottom they can double as a blanket too. While the warmth effect is limited the comfort is great. If you buy or make a liner bag as well you'll find that even the tiniest sleeping bag can be made noticeable warmer.

Sleeping pads. Do you really need one? If your back does not enjoy random surfaces then you might. I have had many sleeping pads over the years and most weighed little but took more room than is advisable on the outside of an emergency pack, never mind inside. But recently I found one of the type you blow air into, but can compress to something sized like a large sausage otherwise, and that does seem like a good idea for even an emergency pack.

[Captain Maltese]

Priority 5: Hygiene articles and first aid kits

Hygiene articles: In terms of survival importance, staying warm and dry is certainly more important than being clean. Or? On the one hand, cleanliness is not necessarily vital. If you go to some holiday location, unpack and discover that the toilet bag is left at home then the holiday is not normally ruined. On the other hand, if you are fleeing some local disaster then retaining your daily hygienic routines could be important to help you keep a grip on the situation. Much much more important to your health is that since you are caught up in a mass stress situation, both the environment and the mass of people surrounding you can be health risks. That flood water you had to wade through probably whirled through the sewers and even worse places. All the people you share evacuation buses with, evac centers, soup kitchen, public bathrooms - it is bad enough germwise on a normal basis but now you are crammed together with all these people. Yes, it is better to get out though a throng of people than not getting out of a potentially life threatening situation, but a little cleanliness could go further for your health than it normally does. Cholera is just one of many nasty illnesses that crop up in disasters and it alone has probably killed more soldiers through history than bullets.

The pic above is stuff I assembled as an illustration for this. What you see is a ziploc bag functioning as a toiletries bag, a desinfection bottle, a wash cloth, an empty bottle for wash&go or similar, a small toothpaste tube, a lip balm, a travel toothbrush, a comb, some dry wipes, and some wet wipes. Your personal preferences are probably different and it is perfectly okay as long as you keep the volume down. For my part I'd if necessary ditch everything but the wet wipes, as I have horrid images of public restrooms that ran out of toilet paper about four hours before I set foot in there. Also, I can use a wet wipe even in a crowded bus for my hands and face where water and soap and towels can be cumbersome.

First aid kits: Again, priority is debatable. If you are in a situation where you NEED it, it belongs on the top. It's on 5th here because probably you won't need it; as long as you get out of the disaster area in time you probably don't have a greater chance of being wounded than in ordinary everyday life. Then again, disasters can be more than a bit unpredictable and a first aid kit is both a cheap insurance for yourself and your loved ones, and a reminded to yourself that you may have been shaken out of your ordinary life, but you are still someone capable and prepared to deal with the situation. Even if by just a little. You might even be able to help your fellow man.

I just bought the above first aid kit at the equivalent of a dollar store. It cost exactly two dollars and 43 cents and I consider it rock bottom for anything daring to call itself a first aid kit. The contents are: a pouch that is still roomy when this stuff is put back in, a pair of plastic gloves, a roll of gauze, contents list, assorted band aids, antiseptic wipes, pincers and a few compresses. This is a set meant for hikers or bikers who don't risk much worse things than falling onto some rocks, and it is enough to clean and patch a small superficial wound. With about a million other first aid kits on the market you can do a lot better without spending all that much more money, but this little kit is better and more useful than nothing and takes little of your pack space and pack weight. But tempting as it might be, don't bother with giant kits full of multiple standard items and advanced equipment. If you haven't trained to use the fancy stuff, you should not learn to use it on some unlucky person who think you have. Chances are you could do more hurt than heal. And noone needs twenty thousand bandaids in one single disaster.

[Captain Maltese]

6. Additional useful items

While the earlier mentioned items are considered necessities, there are some further items that could be quite useful to you. Weight and volume are still important factors.

Face masks: Most of us aren't that interested in what the authorities have to tell us about mask use any more. But we had face masks everywhere before the Great Covid Scourge too, for dirty work of all kinds ranging from cleaning our own bath to dusting out the garage to nasty medical tasks and so on. In an emergency there's a good chance of being exposed to filth and dirt too, either it is ash from a big fire to dust from a fallen concrete building or just plain old burning tires. Then again, sitting in a evacuation bus full of crying and coughing people from all layers of society is probably not going to be the most germ free environment you'll ever spend a day in either. Put a face mask in your pack, it won't burden you and I hope you won't need it. A bandana will do the exact same job if applied on your face but the signal you send could be a bit more ambivalent.

Tools: In BOB bag discussions some people want enough hand tools to be able to head into the wilderness and rebuild civilization with only their own hands. Don't go there. Your job is to get out of danger and into safety as fast as possible and building stuff won't likely help at that. With a few tiny exceptions. What you MIGHT find useful are the tools half the planet already carry on a daily basis: A folding knife, a Swiss Army Knife or a Leatherman multitool. All those three can be found in countless brands, models and prices, and it really comes down to just a pocket device. That can, above anything else, cut things. It is humankind's oldest tool for a reason. Be it a rope or tough packaging or bread or meat. If a set is already permanently lodging in your clothes, stick with it. If you have one but rarely use it, put it in that pack. If you prefer a rigid knife that will be fine too. For my part I have a simple 'gas station' multifunction folder that cost about 5 bucks to keep in the pack, as I don't need it for any other purpose now.

Cutlery: Knife, fork, big spoon, little spoon, sucking straw, plate, bowl, cup, glass, egg glass, wine glass, it ALL exists in camping and hiking versions. It is a wonder we made it down from the trees without parachutes. So how much of all this are you likely to need in an emergency it takes you max three days to get to safety? All the food mentioned in an earlier post, chocolate and meal replacement bars and trail mix and such, can be eaten straight from the wrapper. And you drink your water straight out of the bottle. To save reading time I'll get straight to the point: there's only two items worth putting into any 72 hour bag: a wide cup or small bowl, and a plastic spoon. The cup/bowl you can eat a meal from or drink coffee from, the spoon is all you need unless you get served rare steak. And that is somewhat unlikely.

Map and compass: I have been lost more times than, well, many. In cities and in wildernesses. Not having a map or compass at hand was the reason much of those events happened. I've gotten a healthy respect for tall buildings, tall trees, heavy clouds and approaching night now because I have learned thoroughly what it means not to see far away and get any bearings. Do you need a map and compass? If you know your area very well then you can perhaps do without a map, at least until you reach the end of your known area. A compass is valuable even if you can barely use it. What you don't likely need is a topographical map showing hills etc; as long as the roads are drawn on it you should be good. Here you may argue that your phone has all you need, and it is true. As long as your phone has power. As long as your phone can reach the nearest cell tower. And as long as the emergency you are fleeing hasn't destroyed or incapacipated those towers. A GPS is rather more dependable, if you can use it. Call me oldfashioned but I'll always have map and compass in my pack. Even if I have my GPS at hand too. Paper don't run of out battery when I need it most.

Pencil and paper: A very low price low weight low volume addition. You probably won't be writing a lot unless that is how you cope with stress, but there are other things worth nothing. Like when the guy in the radio tells which roads are blocked until what hour. Why pencil? Because even if your pencil breaks you can write with the stubs. It also lets you write on more rugged surfaces.

Containers and bags: As you can see elsewhere in this thread I favor ziplock bags. You can see what is in them right away, they weigh nothing and take no more volume than what you put in them, and they are somewhat wetness resistant. Not unimportant in, say, a flooding. You can literally have dozens of these in your pack if you want to. But also other bags can surely be of use, as can containers under some circumstances. My one MacGyver trick here is a non-seethrough water bottle typical of sports store, which can certainly be an additional water flash if need be but in this case a container for valuables and stuff that can't get wet. Papers, keys, first aid supplies, dollar bills - and it is neatly camuflaged as a water bottle on top of that!

Reading material. 90% of a front soldier's time is spent doing nothing. If you are a regular commuter you know how slow time can go too. Even being holed up in an evacuation center could lose its exotic flavor pretty quick. You are likely to find some reading material - or a Gamestation or Sudoku generator - a welcome distraction and maybe a stress reducer. Having an entire library on a single memory stick plugged to your cell phone is a luxury past generations would have refered to as magic. Either way, even a normal book should fit into your pack if you havent splurged the space on other luxuries.

Weapons: This is on the bottom of the list because it is the only thing that could be considered controversial, but a gun is a bulky part of anyone's gear if they have one and needs to be mentioned. I'd rather not be part of a political fight in countries I don't live in, so I will stick to the following: if you need to carry on a daily basis under normal conditions, you probably need to carry in an emergency. Emergencies don't create criminals, they are already there, the emergency just makes it easier for them to find opportunities. At Hurricane Katrina it took the authorities nine days to come back to all the flooded areas. Looting started within two hours, the first robberies a couple more hours. If you DON'T carry a weapon on a daily basis in your area it is either probably because you don't want one or you just don't need one because it is safe, most likely the latter. As far as this thread goes I only mention weapons for one reason: Carrying on a daily basis is one thing. Carrying in an emergency while you are surrounded by highly stressed people is another. You might find that the evacuation bus, evac center, soup kitchen, any useful public facility has guards who are looking for 'trouble' and people with guns on their hips might be told to go away. Police and military MP might confiscate guns on the spot and any cops searching from looters from an armed helicopter might be a bit trigger happy. I'm just going with what reports I find from disasters all over the world here. So, bottom advice? Consider Concealed Carry to be the default option for those three days at least. Less stress for everybody, you most of all.

[Jerram]

I'm a licensed amateur radio operator and see a lot of SHTF fantasies from preppers on social media.  This will happen, sure as shit: preppers who have bought the super cheap VHF/UHF handheld transceivers will, if they can manage to program the radios, tie up the repeaters and legitimate emergency networks with 10-4s and Good Buddies until the power grid dies or the repeater batteries run down or fail.  If you're interested in two-way communication, take the FCC test for the entry level amateur radio license, you can pass it with two hours of study.  Or get a GMRS radio license, which requires no test.

If you want to know what's happening half a continent away, an ordinary AM radio and a hundred feet of wire will get you there.

Otherwise, find a friend with a swimming pool and you'll have all the water you need.

[Captain Maltese]

Editing has not been my friend since the Elliquiy earthquake, so forgive me for the shape of this post. I intend for this to be the wrapup post of my lecture, but feel free to make additional comments or questions.

I assembled a fair bit of equipment as described in earlier posts and put together two bags; one I call 'basic' and one I call 'extra' which contains a few upgrades and additional items.

Basic pack:



What you see here is as follows: backpack, food bag (see below), 1 water bottle, a blue foam plate, a fleece blanket, bivvy bag, rain poncho, space blanket, cleanliness bag (dry wipes, wet wipes, folding toothbrush, toothpaste, desinfection fluid), several ziplock bags, matches, socks, papers map, head flashlight, first aid kit, multitool knife, several meds bottles, pencil, notebook, water cleansing pills, large folding cup, spork, face mask, 15 feet of this rope, and one strap.

This is approx 6000 calories of cold ready-to-eat food, enough for three days. It consist of one bag of dry apricots, three bags of nuts and trail mix, three 100 gram plates of chocolate and 18 bars of three types of meal bars. That's plenty variation for three days and you can walk and eat, no problem.

This is the bag when filled with all of the above. There's still some room left, for a thin sweater or rain jacket or a bag with a few sandwiches. The front pocket is empty so there's room for some goods there too. I wish I had remembered to weigh it.

Extra pack:

This is rather more substantial. Toiletries, bivvy bag, space blanket, water cleanser, rope, strap, socks, first aid kit, face mask, meds and ziplock bags are still with us. But there is now also an extra bottle of water, a small hexamine stove with fuel tablets, a metal cup that hot water and hot meals can be made in on the stove, the multitool knife has been replaced with a rigid blade, the head flashlight is replaced with a flashlight with both crank and solar and usb charging, the fleece blanket has been replaced with a sleeping bag, and the berry on top is a set of thermal underclothes. The warmth element of this bag has thus been greatly improved on.

The food list has lost the dry apricots and a pack of bars, but that's a whopping six soup cup bags, three oatmeal porridges and six Nescafe three-in-one coffees added because now we can heat water. The chocolate is also perfect for making a hot drink of. We are however still at a total of 6000 calories.

The 'extra pack' might look much the same as the 'basic', but this time it is full. Even with the front pocket in use I had to struggle to close the zippers.

So I did the obvious, and used that spare strap to put the sleeping bag on top. That freed a lot of space in the bag and made it more comfortable to carry too. It still weighs a little above ten pounds.

---

So that about sums it up for the packaging part. I promised a few lines about escape routes. Perhaps better termed evacuation routes for our use here. Basically it is the ways you can get out of whatever disaster you have found yourself in. Local government may have been helpful and provided you with information about some options, and that is a good thing, but it would be wise not to rely solely on it. Ideally you should have considered some of the things that tend to happen in your area and how things went down in the last few events. Here are some options:

1. Lets just drive out of here! Yeah. If the roads are still safe to drive, if the authorities haven't closed them down, if they aren't clogged with a huge number of cars with the same idea, if you can get fuel, if your car don't break down. Option number one for sure. Just make sure you have more than one.

2. Let's wait for the evacuation buses! Yeah. Remember all those evac buses who couldn't drive people out because they were flooded up to the rear view mirror? Get on the bus if it comes, but I hope it isn't your only plan.

3. Let's just stay here and wait it out! Too many families took that decision when the firestorm headed into their area, and paid dearly for it. Better to live than to die. Please? It will depend on the event, of course. Floodings are not the same as firestorms. But you might have to wait a while before the choppers start picking up people from roofs.

4. Do we really have to walk? In this heat? It should be among your plans. Traffic is the first thing that goes wrong in a disaster.

All of the above are viable strategies under the right conditions. All I ask you to do is consider what options you have now in peace and quiet, before you find yourself too late to go either of them.


Well... that's a wrap.

[AbyssDruid]

I grew up in a church that considered it important to not only have 72 hour kits in good standing at all times but also 6+ months of food stores for the entire family. It's a habit that has stuck with me even as a non member adult. My question is, what would you as an experienced prepper consider the essentials to successfully make a kit that was meant to be kept stationary(shelter in place situations)?

[Captain Maltese]

I grew up in a church that considered it important to not only have 72 hour kits in good standing at all times but also 6+ months of food stores for the entire family. It's a habit that has stuck with me even as a non member adult. My question is, what would you as an experienced prepper consider the essentials to successfully make a kit that was meant to be kept stationary(shelter in place situations)?

Your question is worthy of answering with an entire thread. I might do that. I have done so before but that thread is badly outdated by now.

Norwegian authorities have recognized that our times are more uncertain than in many decades and the Directorate Of Civil Protection has issued a list of emergency supplies they suggest everyone should have. For a 72 hour duration only, but add more food and water and it is still a good starter list.
DCP's list (in English)

Anyway, let me chew on it for a while, and that new thread might materialize.