TonyDedo said:
Remember, I'm in the middle of the city. If I bug out, I'll be taking refuge in a hotel room or high school gym, not the middle of the woods.
This seems like a mistake to me. Even if you're just planning for a local disaster or long term power outage, what makes you think that the Motel 6 across town or the local high school is going to be in any better shape than your own home? Most urban areas are five meals away from total disaster - meaning that within 48 hours all available resources will be depleted by the population density through consumption and illogical hoarding. Metropolises rely on a constant, daily influx of products - by truck, train and plane (and sometimes boat). When that influx stops, desperation sets in fast.
Matches, matches and more matches. As far as I'm concerned, any bug-out bag should be built around water, shelter, fire and food - in that order. You have no method of water purification (short of boiling, and you'll run out of stove fuel fast if you do that). Ditch one of the water bladders and invest in a quality backpacking filter.
Keep the crank radio but lose the police scanner. In a disaster situation, you'll get far more useful information off the weather bands than the police channels. In a public emergency you'll learn more from AM radio.
You've got a lot of gadgets. Cell phones, MP3 player, USB hard drive...
If the power's out for a week, how are you going to charge this stuff? It becomes dead weight fast. Wouldn't it be better to back up your data
now and keep it stored in a remote location? Check out services like MozyPro and give yourself one less fragile electronic paperweight to worry around when the worst case happens.
My main critique here would be that you're planning for a disaster but assuming that relief and rescue will be right around the corner. Emergency services were stretched to the limit after Katrina - imagine what would happen if a hurricane hit the entire east coast with the same force. You might be on your own for weeks or even months. No, you probably won't be, but you
might, and isn't all of this planning supposed to be insurance against what
might happen?
There might be a refugee camp set up somewhere (at a hotel or high school gym, for example), but experience has shown that the relief camps are the worst places to be if you've got any other option. Assume that everything valuable that you're carrying will disappear if you seek refuge in an easily accessible, publicly announced location or camp. Cell phone, gone. MP3 player, gone. Firearm, gone. Cash, gone. You have to sleep sometime, and being prepared also makes you a prime target for those who didn't plan.
Don't stick around in an urban environment. Plan on spending at least two weeks in as sparsely-populated area as you can find. Disasters bring out the best and the worst in people and since you have no way of knowing who's on their best and who's on their worst, you have to assume everyone you meet is in a bad frame of mind. That being said, any emergency plan that
relies on the decency of strangers isn't the best kind of plan. You seem to be aware of this, since you're including a firearm and a lot of ammunition (way too much, in my opinion).
Add matches, a lighter, a few emergency candles, a water filter and toilet paper.