After having lived in Eastern NC for about 6 years I’ve already gone through an ice storm, two hurricanes, and innumerable near miss hurricanes.   I haven’t actually evacuated yet but evacuation is always a real possibility.   I figure there could be a period of discomfort, leaving or coming home where you could be stuck somewhere.

Some call it a “Bug out Bag”. I call it a “Get Home Bag”.  At any rate you should investigate putting one together for yourself.  You never know.   After much studying and consideration these are the items below that I put in my kit.  The kit will probably always be imperfect to some extent and may need tweaked but for now……….this is it.

Bug Out Bag

• Lithium charging bank – for charging cell phones and radios.
• Jackery Power Station – this is the one item that doesn’t actually fit in the bag.  But it’s going with me in the truck or camper.  Charging of all items including a laptop, or operating one low power AC item such as a light.
• Laptop – This is a windows tablet.  Inexpensive, light, small.  In a pinch I may just grab an old Win Vista era laptop with Ubuntu Linux on it.  Bigger and heavier however I can do a lot more with it without an internet connection.
• Laptop charging cables – can’t use it if you can’t charge it. 
• USB Cables – micro usb and mini usb and cell phone
• Power Bars – protein bars to supplement.
• Knife Fork Spoon –  take metal utensils.  Plastic melts, and breaks.
• Batteries AA, AAA, 123 – for radio, and GPS
• TV Tuner – Hook this to laptop and you can watch local TV with even a wire antenna.  Gotta get your news somehow if the SHTF.   This will be much more useful on an Ubuntu laptop than the Windows tablet.   In fact it may not even work on the Windows tablet.
• SDR + Antenna – an SDR will allow you to listen to darn near anything.  Radio, police, fire, emergency, public works, shortwave, CB, NOAA weather,  ANYTHING.  Trust me.  You want this in your kit and you need to know how to use it.
• Mini Stove – You may need to heat up your food or boil water or make coffee.  Nuff said.
• Baby Wipes – If you can’t shower, you’ll be glad you can wipe down.
• Stainless steel cup – You’ll need a cup to complement your mini stove.
• 1 liter water bottle– this fits PERFECTLY inside the stainless steel cup saving room in the bag and of course you could store a whole bunch of stuff in the container as well. Ideally though you’ll start with it full of water.
• Toothbrush toothpaste – brush your fangs.
• GPS Garmin eTrex30 – I already had one of these but having a satellite road and trail map might save your bacon.  And it can use AA batteries which are also in your kit.
• Shortwave + antenna – Not just a shortwave radio but an AM FM as well.  Other radios may have emergency weather or Ham radio bands but you can also do all that stuff with an SDR radio.  In fact you could eliminate the radio if you have an SDR and a means to keep your laptop powered.
• Coffee Packets – Not going anywhere without coffee, bro.
• Ready to eat meals – Lots of choices here.  I just threw up a link to Mountain House.  Your mileage may vary.  You can even order MRE’s.  Try to keep the size and weight down though.
• Water Filter– If you don’t have a Sawyer water filter in your bag, you gonna die.
• Lighter matches – you need a way of making fire.  Coffee won’t brew itself.
• Pillow – camping– They are so small and lightweight, why not throw in the kit.
• Towel – having a small lightweight towel could add some creature comforts to your life.
• Flashlight – I’m not going to link anything here but I strongly recommend OLight. Best lights and most are USB rechargeable.
• Paracord
• PocketKnife – Multitool – Swiss Army knife all the way
• First Aid Kit – bought mine at Academy Sports and it has other items inside as well (see below)
• Compass + Whistle (inside 1st Aid kit)
• Space blanket– lots of choices here but these space blankets keep most of your body heat inside. Staying alive, Staying Alive, ah ah ah ah……………….

Here’s my kit.

Give me your thoughts and ideas!