I thought I would share a recent story that might be of interest. Its a bug out/ in story full of mistakes and lessons (for me - I hope you guys would have more sense!)
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Kinshasa RDC 30/12/2013
We woke as normal to our baby daughter coming in and turning our light on (so its bright enough to read her a story!). Then showers, breakfast ritual etc...
My wife left for work only to return 2 mins later as our compound security wouldn't let her out. The sounds of automatic gunfire, heavy machine guns and mortars echoed around the city from several places. We guessed 2 or 3 km away, but still loud - we could even hear it from indoors - amazing we hadn't noticed earlier!!! The wife managed to contact our security officer who advised us that our Embassy had gone into lock-down due to an 'ongoing situation'. No more details were forthcoming.
OK... Right! We began to get organised... My wife now couldn't find her phone (having just used it 5mins earlier), and mine was out of batteries! Typical... then the usual (but more frantic than usual) search for the charger, and then the adapter... only to discover the phone network was down! Then we couldn't find the phone tree print-out and discovered our printed contacts list was out-of-date. Our radio handset doesn't work from indoors, and the sat phone was in for repairs. Hmmm... not a good start.
We contemplated various scenarios, and half-discussed them. At this point we knew nothing. Compound security knew nothing (in fact they kept asking us), we couldn't get on-line, didn't want to go outside and use the radio for 'chat'. Basically we were in the dark. Is this a coup or what? Pillage? There were rumours of an uprising, a pay dispute within the army, something political, invasion even. It had all happened here before. In fact DRC has been in a state of conflict for decades - the Second Congo War led to the deaths of millions - worst conflict since WW2.
So back to the scenarios. Most likely was that this would blow over and maybe we would just be stuck on compound for a few days. A more severe situation might disrupt food supplies, power and water - but we felt we were prepared for that. Actually those 'soft' scenarios didn't occupy much thought. The sound of gunfire and the 'not knowing' encouraged a wider-ranging and more pessimistic set of 'worst case' considerations.
Scenario 1: Safe Room - we have one but its basically a reinforced door and frame to our bedroom. Realised there was no food or water, or anything, in there. Stupid. But I never did like the idea of locking us all in somewhere with no way out. Although the door is pretty tough - you could get through the wall in five minutes with a sledge hammer, and even the door is only rated for... well I don't know, but not more than an hour. Plus our radios don't work from inside the keep. That was my mistake for the fuck up anyway! We had food and water stores around the place, so I made a mental note: Stock the Safe Room ASAP. But first I wanted to give us some basic strength, so instead I put the external bars back on the patio door, and wrenched my shoulder - great! Sat down dizzy with pain to contemplate other possibilities:
Scenario 2: Extraction/ Evacuation. The embassy might suddenly want to get us out of our house and/ or the country. When and how though? However that might all pan out, I decided to get the grab bag ready near the door. Shortly followed by the realization that although we had all the bits, they were not actually all IN a bag, partly because we use the contents for other things - camping, etc. My wife was still trying to get in touch with people on the phone/ internet/ radio so it was left to me to entertain our 2 year old (who sensed something was up and suddenly got very needy) whilst simultaneously packing the bag. At this stage NOT having fully packed wasn't entirely bad as I realised that the different extraction scenarios required very different kit. The most likely options seemed to be: (i) convoy to the airport for evacuation. Need passports, cash. Then my wife calls up "The Airport is under attack!", so... not that. Hmmm (ii) extraction by an armed response unit in armoured car to the Embassy for lock down there. Half expected to hear my wife call up "The Emabassy is under attack" but no... not yet at least :p I considered other options too, like (iii) driving to the boat yard (we have shares in a little motorboat) to get over the river to Brazzaville in the other Congo. I'm happy on the water - I even feel safe there, so this remains an option in my mind should the SHTF. At least we knew that if we did make it out, we could get back to civilization i.e. this wasn't going to be a total collapse, and probably not a prolonged lock down without extraction/ evacuation - which informed to some degree the contents of the bag. However, again worst case, it didn't seem impossible that the Embassy could be over-run, or, if under siege, there would not be enough spare security personnel to venture out to extract us etc. So in the back of my mind was the possibility of (v) needing to be self-reliant i.e. NOT being extracted and (again worst case) my family being attacked in our home by armed aggressors. We might then have to self-extract - maybe make our own way out by car and drive to Angola or hide in the bush, wade down the canal/ sewer out back to the river... or whatever. If this really was a possibility then shouldn't we go sooner rather than later? At that stage there were too many unknowns to make good decisions, but its funny what went through my mind - the seemingly secure suddenly seemed so fragile.
Finally got some more news via the internet. At first this was the BBC in London, then tweets started appearing. Unknown forces attacking the airport, military barracks, and the national radio station... hostages... a brief announcement from some Prophet that he was going to liberate the Congolese from the Rwandan Kabila. Hmmm so its' an attempted coup... great!
I necked some painkillers and went back to packing the bag, whilst simultaneously attempting a giant floor puzzle with my daughter to distract her, occasionally trying to catch up with news, and all the time listening to the gunfire - some of it getting pretty close (there was a brief exchange that sounded two blocks away at most, and made me wonder if we should get away from the windows).
So the bag the bag. My thought process was so jumbled all I can do is describe exactly what ended up in it, in rough order of packing:
-story books and games
-mosquito net, mosquito repellent, paediatric anti-malarials, Doxycyline, malaria test kits and Co-Artem treatment, digital thermometer
-blanket
-baby wipes
-head torch and two other tactical type torches (yes too many... but it does get dark early here!)
-emergency rations and snacks (various fruit bars and flapjacks)
-stainless thermos and water filter bottle (2 liters total)
-lock knife
-pepper spray
-$2000 cash
-passports, driving licenses and i.d.s
-child's life jacket
-2 sets spare clothes for my daughter
-1 set spare clothes for me
-tooth brushes and child's strawberry toothpaste (Bizarrely the toothpaste took some time - I initially put in two tubes; one for my daughter - the strawberry one - and then one for us, then got worried about the weight, chucked out ours, remembered how disgusting the strawberry flavour is, put ours back in again, then thought 'that's silly its only a bad taste'... thought about it some more, then decided that I consider this further if there was time as there was a coup in progress as there was a coup in progress and perhaps there were more important things to worry about!)
-hand sanitiser gel
-travel towel
-GPS
-a compass
-rubber door wedge
-waterproof note pad and pencil.
Then I went to the medical chest and stared for a while at the kit. Realised we have enough to set up a local health center, including airway management, traction devices etc. etc., but no actual first aid kit! Decided to grab just the 'Trauma Bag' and 'Up-country Medicines Pouch' only. Overkill if we were just going to the Emabassy, but hey, they were good to go! However, neither provided for the basics (which can of course still hospitalise you if untreated) i.e. no plasters...
The next thing on my to do list - and I was conscious it was vital but somehow kept putting off - was to get everyone changed into more appropriate clothes. I was in shorts and flip flops, my wife was in smart work clothes, and my daughter was in her pink fairy costume - getting her to wear anything else was going to be quite a battle!
Radio handset and phones were ready to go last minute. Key bunch too, with Resqme, whistle/compass, CPR face shield, peanut lighter, penknife and torch (my wife, perhaps not surprisingly, laughs at this).
That's was it, all, tout, nada mas.
Then the gunfire abated, and things started to calm down. The army had basically killed a few hundred kids (armed with not much more than sticks by all accounts) who sacrificed themselves for some 'Prophet's' ego - or at least that was the official story. Very sad, but sadly not uncommon, and for us just a storm in a teacup with some valuable lessons.
Strange to look at what's in the bag now the urgency has passed... In reality we may have had more time to pack and I might have remembered some things... Probably would just have brought more food. Equally possible was that we would have had LESS time to pack!!!
So... my first thoughts on what I SHOULD have added - including some VERY serious omissions. Honestly I can't believe how stupid I am looking at this now, and to think I even looked the packed bag over several times and felt reasonably satisfied!
-Adapter for cell phone plug;
-Charging/ power cables for GPS and radio handset;
-Sun hat for daughter;
-Suncream;
-Spare set of clothes for wife (sorry sweetheart!);
-More bottled water (even though I did pack a filter and it's rainy season);
-Instructions for the medicines (very bad omission - they are in a separate documents wallet) - mostly I know what's what except for, critically, the pediatric doses;
-Full contact list stored in all cell phones;
-Coffee - without this I would have had severe headaches for a couple of days;
-A portable multi-/solid- fuel stove and cooking gear;
-Spoons, cups and bowls
-First aid kit. And whilst on the subject the lidocaine would have been pretty useless without a syringe...!
-Multi-tool;
-Survival blanket or basha;
-Cord;
-Gaffer tape "If gaffer tape doesn't fix it - you're not using enough!"
-Maps;
-Sat phone.
Things I don't have, that I wish I did have at the time:
Wind-up radio;
Some way to charge phone, radio, GPS off-grid e.g. solar, wind-up...;
Phrase book - Lingala;
Gun - seriously. Although with a family in tow I would prefer the 'grey man' approach - blending in with other refugees, so perhaps only a pistol for serious last-ditch situations. Grrrr... just remembered we're white in a predominantly black population - kinda hard to be grey! I do have a paintball gun which I used for SFX purposes - and have marbles that fit perfectly - also refillable caps which I might put peeper in one day. Still - its hardly a gun.
An additional water filter - the pump type - our filter bottle works by sucking so can't really filter water for other people or puposes.
(since writing I now have all these things except the gun
although I hear that it only takes 50$ and an hour at the market to get an AK47):
And again this is only a list for us for that particular situation. I guess I'll think of more stuff upon further reflection.
LESSONS:
*Run through scenarios first, on paper, in your mind, with family - different situations, timescales, seasons, modes of transport etc will require VERY different kit. Of course we knew we should have planned before - but neither of us really wanted to seriously consider the need, as that would be somehow... unsettling!
*Hard to pre-guess scenarios - maybe better to work back from various end-goals e.g. "Family safe back and back home in England."
*Have kit check lists for these different scenarios. Because we regularly use some of the things that should be in the bag - like the head torch. Or some things are stored in different places; rations are in the freezer, passports and cash in the safe. And as I said different scenarios demand very different kit - extraction by boat might mean life-jackets for kids. In our case the bag needed to be small enough to fit on a plane or helicopter as hand luggage. Climbing over a wall or two to get out or sneaking through bushes and concertina wire might make a full Bergen tricky...
*Actually PACK your grab bag. Seems obvious - but I bet I'm not the only one who knows they have the kit ready, even all in one place, but hasn't actually committed to packing.
*Think and rethink the kit - prioritise - then remove some, then remove some more, leaving space for last minute things like food. My medical kit needs serious thought - its bulky - and there's no actual first-aid kit. You MAY need first aid, you WILL need food and and water.
*If you have kids remember they will smell your fear(!), and at least one adult will probably be fully distracted looking after them. Also, if your kids need carrying, then you can't carry as much kit, obviously! Might be only one bag for three people.
*Sort out Contacts Lists. Only had close friends and colleagues in our phone directories - and suddenly the circle of people we needed to contact expanded dramatically. Also remember to keep phones charged (I've had a mobile for 20 years and still not figured this one out!)
*Communications. When we most needed a security announcement and phone tree activation - the networks were down. Not sure of the solution. Maybe repeated messages at intevals over the radio? Skype? Carrier pidgeon? The sat phone will help here - a different radio?
*Would be good to know what the various contingencies are for exctraction / evacuation and what kinds of events trigger them. Also plan for self-extraction as well as shelter in place, active resistance, disperse and run / hide etc
*Get training before you need the skills you don't have! Kind of obvious - but I suddenly became aware of my limitations when seriously considering various scenarios. Biggest thing for me was wrenching my shoulder - I'm not as fit and flexible as I should be.
*I'm going to find time to rehearse various bug-out scenarios. I would recommend the same - making them as real as possible e.g. set an alarm to give yourself 10 mins, 1 hour, 12 hours or some random unknown amount of time set by someone else, to pack. Seems silly, but maybe play a war film in the background on full volume, or run around the block several times first - something to try to get the adrenalin going. I thought I knew exactly what I would do - its was very very different when the SHTF for real (even if it turned out to be a storm in a teacup - the urgency was real).
Much of the above may seem rather paranoid/ over-anxious - perhaps it was - but at the time we knew very little - even our compound security looked worried - and all the time the sounds of fighting getting closer....
That's it - hope some of it was useful
And if anyone is interested - the medical kits in detail:
Trauma Bag: Israeli banadge, C.A.Tourniquet, Quick Clot, shears, spray wash antiseptic, No.2 & 3 dressings, conforming bandages, tape, gauzes, gloves, forceps...
Medicines Pouch: Co-Artem, Amoxycillin, Metronidazole, Co-trimoxazole, Ciproflaxin, Mebendazole, Asprin, Paracetamol, Co-codamol, Ibuprofen, Naproxen, Tramadol, Diazepam, Pseudoephedrine, Domperidone melts, Cetrizine, Metoclopramide, Loperamide, dextrose, anti-acids, ORS tablets, Lidocaine cream, Antibiotic Eye Drops, Terbinafine cream, Lidocaine 1%, smelling salts, antiseptic cream, Chlorhexindine.
