Bugging-In: The Ways and Principles of Survival In The Home
When things do go wrong, it is up to you to get a handle on it before it happens. Whether it's a thunderstorm, flash floods, or just extreme weather in general, there are ways to plan for natural disasters. It is up to you to consider all of your options in your situation. It could also, be a choice of bugging in over bugging out and could be a difficult decision when a grid-down situation is imminent. However, in this article, we will go over events that force you to make the decision of either staying where you are or leaving your home and doing what you can to plan for everything in between. We are going to discuss and go through examples of Bugging-In.
We will also discuss the principles of survival that may help you while bugging in such as the rule of threes, the proposed timelines that you may be given to either stay or go and how to protect your home.
How and When to Bug-In
There are specific instances where you should stay in place, and it is up to you and your unique situation but, it is good to know what those potential events would be. The first consideration is being prepared well before disaster strikes. Having what you need should include necessities such as shelter, water, heat, food, first aid, and, self-defense, and in that order except for some required medications that would need to be taken daily.
The next consideration is understanding when and how to bug in. To understand that is to also understand the timeline in which you can easily prepare for most eventualities.
Natural Disasters
The onset of a natural disaster can be seen as destructive and damaging to property and people. A common example is hurricanes and tornados and wildfires. These individual events all require some kind of long-term preparation. It could also be to your advantage to look at how the community would respond to each event. Here are some steps to take:
1. Always candles and a way to heat the home in the event of a power outage
2. Have multiple forms of communication such as a CB radio or even a HAM radio or even a set of good walkie-talkies.
3. If there is a specific case where you are snowed in or near a flood and have it as a possible threat. Get to higher ground and if that is the case it is best to evacuate and at that point, it should be the main goal. But this will be expanded upon in a later sub-section.
Economic Collapse
This may seem too specific that a lot of things would have to be out of wack for a definite collapse to happen. It doesn't have to be a complete collapse of all infrastructure, but, one thing could lead to another. In economic collapse when bugging-In that would mean to be stocked up especially well with a focus on food, medical supplies, and having alternatives to going in the typical consumer route. In preparation for a collapse, the best kind of way to deal with it is by being self-reliant and living off the land and off-grid.
Here are the best steps to take Before and during a collapse:
1. Look into ways to use the land, and even if you live in an apartment, there are sure to be things you can do to work with neighbors. Something as basic as starting a community garden.
2. Using the surrounding environment around you, if you live in a place where land is accessible and you can use trees for your personal use. It is possible to grow plants and trees for many purposes. For example, a birch tree has a small diameter trunk that can easily be cut down and used for building. Over time, it will sprout new saplings that will then grow in more quantity.
Winter Storm/ Getting Snowed In
To elaborate on how a winter storm can affect your life, it is important to understand the way food gets to you. Regardless of who you are, you must rely on a grocery store to give you access to food and necessities that provides some kind of convenience. Imagine a storm that could snow you in or create traffic issues and make driving conditions extremely challenging. The best solution for this has three things, heat, food, and shelter. You should at the very least have food that is meant for emergency use for up to a week. Heat can be created by wearing extra layers, and shelter is also crucial to conserving body heat.
The Rule Of Threes and Bugging-In
The rule of threes is a set of principles that could help you in any kind of survival situation where the resources you have could make or break your situation, and it helps to organize the necessities in any situation.
Here is the rule three for survival:
· 3 minutes without air
· 3 hours without shelter
· 3 days without water
· 3 weeks without food
These principles are good and simple ways of looking at your to-do list before and during a survival situation where you have to ration and regulate your resources. The main resources that are a concern while bugging-In and staying in one location are shelter, water, and food. These are considerations that have all been discussed in previous sections. But there are specific examples of bugging-in which are maintaining 3 days of water and 3 weeks of food.
3 days of Water while Bugging-In
In a collapse situation or a near collapse situation, it is one thing to deal with minor inconveniences such as heat or cold and now climate control but, after that, another convenience that people look to is running water. 3 days of water is adequate when you have shelter but, when there is no actual stability it may be a higher priority, nonetheless you would only be able to have as much water as you can carry, so a water source is a priority.
3 Weeks Without Food while Bugging-In
It is completely possible to make it through life without food but it shouldn't be a goal to strive for no matter how healthy you are. The human body can be calibrated to be in a fasted state for 48 hours up to possibly 72 hours. But a person that has never done it before should only do it in a shortened 24-hour period. If you try to exert yourself while dealing with starvation, you could become sick and faint.
3 Minutes Without Air
The human body cannot survive without regular airflow, the body runs on it so well that you don't even notice it until something goes wrong. If you lose your ability to breathe, you realize how much of a gift it is. Here are common airway emergencies that will happen:
1. Allergic Reaction to Bee Sting: An allergic reaction to a bee sting also known as anaphylaxis is so dangerous and more than 100 people die from it a year. In recent years it has become harder to get EpiPen or epinephrine but, it is a must. The second to that is administering oxygen.
To administer an EpiPen you must be sure to remove the cap and the pen itself is marked as to which end the needle is located which is the orange end or red end. Be sure to inject the pen into the outer thigh and once the needle is plunged wait 10 seconds then remove the device. While holding the pen to the thigh does not move.
Choking: If you are in a situation where food is scarce, any food that is consumed could cause someone to eat too fast and something that is improperly chewed could get caught in the throat.
1. The appropriate reaction is to notice that the person is choking and the universal sign of that is when someone is clutching the throat, has labored breathing, and has blueish skin, the Heimlich maneuver must be done. To administer it to someone else it is important to get them standing and you must position yourself behind them.
2. Next, wrap your arms around the person. With your dominant hand make a fist with that hand and face the thumb side into the abdomen and it must be below the rib cage. The other hand must cover the first hand for support.
3. When thrusting, You must do it with firm backward action and go inward and slightly upward. In some cases, you must thrust enough to lift the person off the ground and repeat the thrust until the person coughs the object out. If the object is still lodged and the person is unconscious, CPR must be administered.
4. To administer the Heimlich maneuver on yourself, find a hard horizontal surface to lean your abdomen over and use it to deliver firm upward thrusts until the object is dislodged.
Conclusion
Overall, when bugging-In, it may have come as a result of investing as much as possible into what you have and where you live. Especially when living in a rural location, it is imperative to find ways to live off of the land and understand certain principles of self-reliance. All the information in this article is meant to inform a long-term plan that could be implemented point by point. Plan as much as possible to build up your gear and skills and even if it's just a little bit at a time it's better than not planning at all.
References:
-https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/wilderness-survival-rules-of-3/
-https://www.aafa.org/allergy-facts/