Airstream as the bug out home

[SouthForkAS]

been there. done that. and ya can't beat a custom AS for buggin out :-)

[comprose]

Hi Idroba,
Glad you were able to get out. We here in the Puget Sound area have been watching the devastation, and the firefighting efforts, with a lot of concern. Hard to imagine that the total fire area in Washington is equal to the area of the cities of Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles combined. Many thanks for starting this thread - - great information in it. Stay safe and hope your home and property made it. You might consider a follow-up posting so we know (hopefully) that you all are OK.
Mike & June

[Plan-B]

Keeping in touch with your exodus. I am hoping the best for your home. Your summer has been a living hell. You are always welcome at my place but Michigan would be an overkill drive to escape your situation.

[Foiled Again]

I'd send our pending tropical storm/hurricane to your area. You could surely use the rain.

I might have to bug out to the high ground (about 12 feet above sea level here.


Paula

[Antique Pedaler]

Originally Posted by AWCHIEF

Hope the situation improves for you. Seems there is no paradise, imperfections and dangers exist everywhere. Living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast my Airstream is definitely my bug out pod. I keep the fresh water tank full with fresh water (changed monthly), a two week plus supply of WISE foods and nearly ready to go. I also keep a minimum of ten gallons of fresh gas on hand to top off the tank before hitting the road. Batteries are kept properly charged and make sure I have at least one full propane bottle. Additional bottled water and food enough for two weeks, clothing and weapons kit top off the list. Most is presorted, packed and ready to load out. I can be fully loaded and on the road in less than an hour. There is no way to be fully prepared for all contingencies but we can be as proactive as the situation allows. As I write this there is a hurricane in the Atlantic that is very loosely projected to possible come this way. If it does I will be ready to move.

Camille took out the house I lived in as a boy, 4 doors east of Bouvoir.

[idroba]

Many thanks for all your good wishes. The information from home is sketchy yet but I am hoping that the wind which came through yesterday with a frontal passage did not push the local fire more in my direction. More smoke is invading Montana where I am now.

It has been an exceptional summer. Ten days in a row over 100 F (one 111) in late June, then many more in July and August. More 100 F days in one summer than in the past ten years. And virtually no rain since late May. Something like 100,000 acres burned locally since one dry lightning storm started 150 to 200 fires about two weeks ago. Fifty homes burned in Kamiah, about 30 miles from me. My friend who runs the Forest Service recreation section and who I do volunteer solar work for lost her home in those fifty.

The Forest Service campground I bugged out to last year is closed due to another fire, and straight line winds which caused major damage to it. The wonderful campground hosts were gone already as one of the couple died there of heat stroke in the ten days of heat in June. Their camper would have been crushed by a falling tree in the straight line wind that hit a week ago, had they still been there.

I know it sounds dramatic but none is made up. We are having a rough time in Idaho. Central Washington is probably worse. I feel terrible for the three firefighters life loss in Washington two days ago. I would give all the homes in my small community, including mine of course, to recover one of their lives, and I know my neighbors share my feelings. But it is not to be.

Rob

[LucasS]

I was born and raisd in Charleston, Sc until Hurricane Hugo huffed and puffed and blew our 150 year old+ home down to the 3' thick brick walls. Of course my stubborn father waited until the last minute to finally evacuate (I mean literally the National Guard was at our door saying GET OUT NOW). That was my first experience using an RV to bug out...I think back then we only had our baby 24' Aljo tag trailer. Needless to say my Yankee father had had enough of tropical storms and hurricanes and took an immediate job transfer to Fresno, CA. I will say this much about this horrible town...no, and I mean, NO, natural disasters to worry about here.
When I lived in LA I lived through a few earthquakes but I bought a condo in an earthquake proof buildling and worked in the US bank building (so I never actually got to feel them...just gentle swaying...though I saw video of what was going on down on ground level and OMG).
Then when there was the Y2K-end-of-the-world panic my father (by then we had upgraded to a '99 Fleetood Avion 38' FW) had the RV locked, stocked, and loaded in case the world went to pot...when they were trading it in on the Newell it was hilarious to find a ton of non-perishables, batteries, etc. we'd completely forgotten about.
Still, I keep my Airstream stocked with the same amount of emergency goods because you just never know. Case in point I have to have my house tented and exterminated so guess who'll be camping across the street in his RV? lol....here's hoping my new quiet gen-set doesn't bug the neighbors too much, but in this town's 102 degree weather you bet your ass I'll be running my AC....if only I had my installed twice as much solar panels...then maybe I could run one...maybe...but doubtful. Anyways, long winded story short, RV's are awesome bug out vehicles.

[kscherzi]

About 6 years ago the same smoke situation happened here due to a fire a get hundred miles north. After a week we bugged out to the coast.

[CJ Winch]

We almost had to evac 2 weeks ago due to fire. We hooked up the A/S to the truck ready to go and packed valuables/meds/clothes/pet food inside. I keep the A/S pretty well stocked, but now am keeping some clothes in it too. The less I have to pack in an emergency, the better!

[Nomad518]

I've always considered our AS part of our disaster recovery plan. I keep our battery fully charged at all times and our fresh water tank full. Although we are currently experiencing extended drought conditions, our greatest natural threat here in the Sacramento area is a flood (both the American and Sacramento Rivers flow through our area). Current El Nino conditions are setting us up for a repeat of the heavy rains we last saw in 1997 which did result in floods. Fortunately, we'll be able to see this coming with enough notice to bug out in an orderly fashion. With an hour's notice, we can get our AS out of storage and have it loaded with food, clothing, generators, and essentials for an extended stay if needed. I take comfort in knowing we have this backup available if it is needed.

[idroba]

Just an update. The fires are upriver a few miles from my home now and the Forest Service is laying hose lines and pumps for each house in case it breaks loose and makes a run. I talked to one person who said my house looked fine and very defensible. He said he wished that they all were as good. That helped how I feel about things. Information on the actual fire location is quite sketchy as they cannot fly due to the smoke and no one knows just where it really is now.

I had gone back today for more meds and med devices I use that I didn't take last week when I left due to the smoke. The smoke was even worse today and I could not stay long. It was very hard to talk or walk any distance. The bad air quality is off the charts they say.

The Airstream remains a great joy of self containment and the Montana Forest Service campground is very nice. The smoke situation here is not great, but a lot better than at home. There is one handicapped spot in the campground with power. The host says I can use it if I need to have the Air Conditioning on, but I think I am ok for now without power. Others might need it more than I do.

[Lily&Me]

Stay safe, everyone.


Maggie

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by idroba

I had gone back today for more meds and med devices I use that I didn't take last week when I left due to the smoke.

That brings up a very good point. When you bug out for any natural disaster (hurricanes in my case), take all of your meds with you even if you only expect to be gone a couple of days. Not everyone will be as lucky as idroba who was able to go back for his.

It's also a good idea to carry copies of your prescriptions (your doctor can make copies of them for you if you tell him why you want them) just in case you need to get refills someplace you normally don't. That includes eyeglasses or contact lens prescriptions; easier and cheaper to carry a copy of the prescription so you can get new glasses or contacts made anywhere than it is to schedule an appointment with an unfamiliar optometrist or ophthalmologist to get a new prescription wherever you bugged out to. Even if you carry spare glasses, it doesn't hurt to have the prescription too, so that your spares don't become your only glasses.

I also make sure to get my med prescriptions filled at a nationwide pharmacy chain (Walgreen's in my case, used to be Walmart pharmacy before my kid brother's hometown finally got a Walgreen's) because that makes it easier to get refills on the road, whether you're bugged out or just traveling.

[Plan-B]

Rob, I hope the very best for your home and for some reason I think it's going to pull out of these fires. It's lucky your home is on the river for endless supply of water for the U.S. FS pumps. And with Fenn up the road the FS has to consider that area sacred to do everything to stop it. Keeping fingers cirossd for you!

[idroba]

Protagonist's post is excellent advice, and I should have considered how long I might have to be away as well as just getting out ASAP. I really did not need the 200 mile round trip back into smoke with less than 1000' visibility. I did learn why the fire information is so poor, no one really can see where it is! We would love some wind to clear out the smoke, but wind causes more fire activity.

I am very grateful for those who work on the fires and hope that their lungs clear well after the events they go through. It is one dangerous and tough job.

I am also grateful that we have the Forest Service doing fire protection for everyone's benefit, both individuals such as myself, and the general public good.

We live in a wonderful country and care about one another.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by idroba

Protagonist's post is excellent advice, and I should have considered how long I might have to be away as well as just getting out ASAP.

Well, Hurricane Katrina taught me that every time you evacuate for a natural disaster, you must assume that you may not even have a home to return to when it's all over. So every evacuation means taking everything that you can't live without. Medications and medical supplies top my list of things I can't live without.

[idroba]

Time for another update I guess. I am still out of my home and the fire is still moving. Apparently they are back burning around the homes and have all of them sprinklered via gas pumps sucking water from the river. Unfortunately, very little information is available. The teams are too thinly stretched to spend much time posting on the web very much about the fire.

The big issue is the smoke, which is why I had to leave 10 days ago. The few numbers I have seen put it into the "hazardous" category, which is over 300 units of something or other. Last year a FS monitoring person told me she had measured over 2000 units, and had never seen anything like it. This year the smoke density was the same. The smoke has slopped over the Bitterroot mountains and today drove me from the FS campground I had been staying in. I was in Costco in Missoula about 2 pm and you could even see the haze inside the store (big store, you can see a long ways in it).

I decided to move to another favorite FS campground north of Seeley Lake MT. It was a mistake. Fires here too, and smoke. Tomorrow I am going back south and into central Idaho. There may be some smoke relief there.

I have been holding up pretty well but today was just too much stress. I have to get out of the smoke. I can't go home, my Airstream is my home for a while yet. I just need clean air.

From what I now understand most National Forests in Northern Idaho and state lands plus BLM lands will or are being closed to all uses as of today. They simply cannot risk people being out in the forests at all.

So, although you may not hear much about our disaster, it is quite real and the smoke is affecting people for hundreds of miles. The fires are still burning all over, with little chance of true containment until we get some significant rain, which may be weeks away.

I feel like a drama queen.

[nrgtrakr]

Thanks for the update. Stay safe and breathe as much non smoke filled air as possible.

[Plan-B]

We are all thinking of you, hang in there Rob. And get the hell out of there and find fresh air!

[Pricilla]

Be safe.
Well now I need to step up my game. Our Bambi is stored about 10 miles from the house, but it is ready to go.

One thing, I know that our 2013 Bambi is already wired for solar, but I have no clue on how to make that work. Can anyone help me out?