I live in San Diego and recently had to evacuate because of the fires. All is well at my house. Many weren’t so fortunate. We packed up the usual papers, pictuers and back up drive with emergency bag and clothes. When I had the safe open to take with me what I could I knew I could not take everything and had to choose. So faced with that scenerio what would you take?
I chose:
the carry pistol, A G30
the AR carbine with Noveski barrel
My dad’s Colt Woodsman from the 1930’s
My thought was carry pistol, carbine and irreplaceable weapons. What would you do?
Our important papers are in a firebox in the safe so it’s easy to pull and take. As for guns the last time we had to evac for a hurricane I took my primary weapons, a few that couldn’t easily be replaced even though they are insured and then I caulked the safe and prayed for the best.
Do you have an evacuation list? With enough time and planning I am sure I could find enough room to get most of my collection out along with other important valuables. At the very least the high price tag items and the items with sentimental value. Lucky for me some of my high end 1911’s also double as my carry guns when I am out of state.
G19, G26, AR, and one lockable ammo can stocked specifically for grab’n’go.
Beyond the gun safe, that’s a general question each of us should ask ourselves.
Earlier this year, we formalized our “family emergency plan,” which covers both shelter-in-place and evacuation. We review it every three months. An eye-opening exercise, and I recommend it.
Been doing this for 6 years and I will never forget the 343 of my brothers that died that day. CFD firefighter 13 years now. Every thing in the gun room that is black go’s. We are down to 10 min’s thats 17 AR’s and more than can count 5.56, 6.8, 204r , 9mm, oh and dont forget the water.
I would really like to know when a house is totally lost like what we have seen in these fires and those people have the typical gun safe with protection of 1200 degrees for 30 minutes what damage would you find inside that safe? Could one even operate the combination lock?
You would not believe some of the things in a ice box that are in good shape after a house fire.Some of the house still standing. But compleat loss is just that. those folks have a good chance of every thing beening lost.
This grab and go thing will hold ture for any EMG. I will never be able to stand down. My wife asked me all the time if I will ever be normal. I figure this is now normal for me and the kid’s.
From what I have seen, which is only two safes in house fires, the firearms were re-buildable with a little work. Varnish on the stocks melted as well as plastic parts and pieces. The electronic lock required a locksmith to open, the traditional lock was fine.
Living 2 miles from the Atlantic, I’ve dealt with this myself. I generally wind up with two rifles and two pistols. The rifles, one 16" and one SBR go in my Eagle discrete bag with one of the pistols and the other pistol goes on my hip.
I keep meaning to get one of the Noveske Dep cases for just such an occurrence, but then I realized I’m currently getting almost the same amount of gear in a MUCH smaller package.
I keep a number of long guns in soft cases in my safe along with ammo cans and a prep’d packs with pistols. In the event of an emergency we only have to grab the packs, cases, cans, and food stores. My wife thinks I’m crazy but I don’t care, we live in an area where a large scale fires (like Cali) happen every year.
In my opinion – and YMMV – many of us consider evacuation to be more probable than it actually is.
Unlike areas that regularly deal with flood, fire, hurricane, etc., where I live there are very few reasons that my family would need to bug out. We’ve studied (and mapped) potential hazards and targets, and we’ve concluded that our best shelter and most defensible position is right here.
That said, we’ve prepared for two evacuation scenarios: light (one or two people, via either two wheels or four wheels) and full (family, via four wheels). Our grab’n’go bug-out packs are subsets of our shelter-in-place stores – that is, an ultra-minimalist, necessities-only setup for a light evacuation, with added supplies for a full evacuation.
If we do evacuate, our destination is not a mass shelter – that’s the last place we want to end up. We’ve mapped primary and contingency routes, rendezvous sites and shelter locales – a calculated evacuation, if you will, not a random dash.
Finally, whether we evacuate or stay put, our over-riding concern is our own survival and defense. Nothing is irreplaceable but the lives of my family. Sentiment and altruism have no place in our plan because we believe that the future, whatever it looks like, will belong to those who prepare with that in mind.
Same as I did during the Katrina evac here a few years ago…I took EVERYTHING…Most were stored in cases but I kept a 1911 on my person,and my M4 leaning on my leg in the truck during the trip.Wife had a P14 in her purse the whole time…
I also live in hurricane ally and like others here it pays to be prepared. As my safe items as well other personal doc.s, what is mine is mine and you can’t have it, and I won’t let you take it, so everything goes, loaded.