What Happens When You CAN’T Get Home?

TEOTWAWKI, SHTF, whatever you want to call it happens.  You are 50, 150, 1500 miles away from your home and family and immediately recognize what is going on and have the best intentions of returning to your loved ones.  Countless articles have been written on how to make this happen, what gear to have and strategies to use when the power is out or routes are clogged.  BUT what if, WHAT IF you simply cannot get home?  What if it takes months or years to reunite with your family or what if you NEVER see them again?  Crazy talk or just an uncomfortable possibility many refuse to discuss?

I know what you are thinking, nothing will ever keep you away from your family and I too feel this way.  Yet what if a major injury immediately befalls you or a devastating event makes it completely impossible to travel home.  Do you have a plan to survive alone?  Does your family have a plan to survive without you, maybe for months or years?

Here’s my take on this.  If I’m traveling and a major SHTF event takes place which keeps me away from home for an extended period of time or even indefinitely I will be secure in the fact that I have set my family up for success.  They will have the benefit of all of our preps and the training that we have endured together, if for whatever reason we (through extreme dislocation and circumstances) never again reunite it will be very hard to swallow but something we are all aware of.  In today’s day and age of instant information and instant connections I know this is hard to fathom, but if T-SHTF it will happen more than many what to admit.  Are you prepared?  Discuss…

 

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    • J on May 9, 2014 at 11:25 PM
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    A very good topic, albeit as difficult one to think about, much less talk about. This has crossed my mind, as I travel with work, sometimes internationally.

    We are mostly set up for bugging in; all the neccessities are in for a good long, if somewhat spartan existence. We have family and close friends around to look out for whoever is home (I would be the one most likely away in such a circumstance).

    We also know, in a bugout situation, where the others would go. While the plans could be rehearsed as far as packing (who does what, what is REALLY neseccary etc) I am pretty confident the wife and kid could get it done and get out if needed.

    Other than that, I simply have to trust in what we have learned, our training, and the network we have set up for such a God Forbid situation.

    Not an easy thing to contemplate, but that is what we do…try to think about and prepare for the unthinkable.

    • Echo5Charlie on May 9, 2014 at 11:27 PM
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    I don’t have my faith in my preps. I have plans, gear and training. I have tried to prepare those around me.

    Having said that, I could die in the first seconds of an event. Someone will benefit from my preps. My wife, brother and pastor know what we have and have maps. If none of us benefit, I did my part.

  1. That’s an important subject, PJ, and it’s something I’ve often thought about, because I’m on the south side of Houston, and my only family– my mother, sister, and nephew– are on the north side of Dallas. If something serious happened, I very well might have to hike up there. Just hiking along the highways, it would be a long trip. But it’s probably quite likely that I would need to actually hike AROUND the two cities, depending on what kind of chaos was going on.

    And they don’t prep at all, other than having possibly a week’s worth of food and water on hand. I wish I could afford to buy them a lot of food and water, and some guns and ammo, but I just can’t right now.

    And the other thing is what Echo5 pointed out– it’s very conceivable that we could die early on, and our families would have to survive without us.

    • The Maj on May 19, 2014 at 12:05 PM
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    Plenty of unrealistic scenarios and advice on this subject. Glad to see folks here are pretty realistic about it. It is definitely something that I do not like to consider or even think about but the way my luck tends to run, I can see being away from home when the SHTF.

    All we can really do is plan and prep to the best of our ability. Make certain that there is redundancy and layering in the plans AND attempt to layer the responsibilities so that one loss / absence does not make everything fall apart. Still, easier said than done.

    In my case, I move to my family. They remain stationary or bugout according to our plans and I follow. If the situation is reversed and they happen to be on the road, then we discuss what will happen and/or what to do but I still move toward them. Luckily, the wife and kids never get over 90 to 120 miles away from home without me in tow. Even then, you run into the scenario of not being able to get back to your preps.

    Very tricky and touchy subject.

    • Brandy on June 9, 2014 at 2:14 AM
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    This is always on my mind when we leave for vacation. This is one reason I believe skills are so important. There will be no “googling” for info. when SHTF.

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