Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Sheltering in Place - Deciding Factors

Sheltering in place becomes necessary when certain scenarios occur and you will need to know the different types of threats and be ready for them. Knowing the major threats to your survival will help you prepare ahead of time in order to avoid potentially life-threatening occurrences. Determining the threats that are a possible hazard to you and your family are a necessity in order to be properly prepared to make the correct decision as to whether or not you should shelter in place.

The major reason for sheltering in place is when the option of “bugging out” is not possible or could further endanger your health or safety. Sheltering in place may be your only viable option and you should be ready to make the proper decisions to avoid further risk.

Threats which require you to shelter in place can occur for several different reasons and will require quick thinking on your part. A couple of the deciding factors that will affect your decision to shelter in place will include:

1.) Travel to a safer location is not an option. You may need to shelter in place due to traffic congestion, infrastructure failure (road or bridges may be unusable, etc.), lack of transportation (vehicle breakdown or failure, no vehicle access, emergency transport services are unavailable, etc.) or travel may expose you to other hazards (chemical, biological or radiation).

2.) Insufficient time to evacuate and avoid the danger. In the case of a chemical, biological or radiation hazard, you may simply not have the necessary time to “bug out” and sheltering in place will be your safest and perhaps only option. Some threats, like tornadoes, will give you little or no time to avoid them or to get out of their path of destruction.

Knowing when you will need to shelter in place should be an important part of your family preparedness plans. Certain threats will not give you the time or the ability to avoid them. The decisions you make during a crisis or emergency can be critical to your survival.

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

4 comments:

idahobob said...

And then there are those of us that do not consider "bugging out" an option, because we already live in what is commonly known as "the boondocks".

Bob
III

Chief Instructor said...

Somewhat related to Reason #2 has to do with safety-related issues. If there is a fugitive in your area that is being pursued by police, OR if there is some sort of civil unrest (rioting). It is a spontaneous event.

We just experienced one of the fugitive deals. We went into lock-down (and lock-and-load) mode!

riverwalker said...

To: idahobob

Can't beat living in the "boondocks"!

Thanks bob!

RW

riverwalker said...

To: Chief Instructor

Fugitives on the loose and civil unrest are two important items to also take into consideration.

Thanks.

RW

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