Sitting yesterday for FIVE HOURS to get from Woodburn to SE Portland due to a few inches of snow yesterday, I had A LOT to time to think.
This experience completely convinced me that Bugging Out is a very, very risky plan.
Unless you can be 100% sure you will "get out" before everyone else tries to, there is no way to get out of a major metropolitan area.
As I could figure it, this FIVE HOUR delay to go less than 30 miles was under the following condiitions:
1) Far less cars on the road than would be there in the event of a major panic where people are fleeing the city;
2) Far less accidents than would occur when people are panicked;
3) Far MORE emergency responsiveness. Presumably, in a panic situation, the cops and fire departments will have more things to worry about than clearing the roads.
4) I don't doubt that during a true emergency, every "back road" would get similarly jammed up due to the sheer numbers of people trying to get out of the city.
Once you add in panicked drivers trying to swerve around each other creating more accidents than a snowstorm does, driving on the shoulders and getting stuck, stressed out and angry drivers likely leading to a few shootings thrown in...those highways will become, literally, parking lots. Then, people will start running out of gas, etc.
Since I don't think anyone can really count on "knowing" before everyone else does that its time to "get out", it convinced me that having a contingency to stay put is very, very, smart.
What do others think. I have to say, I was literally shocked at how quickly the whole highway system just shut down yesterday.
This experience completely convinced me that Bugging Out is a very, very risky plan.
Unless you can be 100% sure you will "get out" before everyone else tries to, there is no way to get out of a major metropolitan area.
As I could figure it, this FIVE HOUR delay to go less than 30 miles was under the following condiitions:
1) Far less cars on the road than would be there in the event of a major panic where people are fleeing the city;
2) Far less accidents than would occur when people are panicked;
3) Far MORE emergency responsiveness. Presumably, in a panic situation, the cops and fire departments will have more things to worry about than clearing the roads.
4) I don't doubt that during a true emergency, every "back road" would get similarly jammed up due to the sheer numbers of people trying to get out of the city.
Once you add in panicked drivers trying to swerve around each other creating more accidents than a snowstorm does, driving on the shoulders and getting stuck, stressed out and angry drivers likely leading to a few shootings thrown in...those highways will become, literally, parking lots. Then, people will start running out of gas, etc.
Since I don't think anyone can really count on "knowing" before everyone else does that its time to "get out", it convinced me that having a contingency to stay put is very, very, smart.
What do others think. I have to say, I was literally shocked at how quickly the whole highway system just shut down yesterday.