There is an old adage, that I occasionally think about, which is very pertinent to Bugout Survival Gear and our emergency preparedness packs. That adage is: "It is better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it."

In late June or early July of 2023 I had a potential customer that was corresponding with me regarding one of our bugout bags. It was a woman from Hawaii, who was communicating with me via the BugoutSurvivalGearKits Facebook page, and had many questions regarding the value of purchasing one for herself. Specifically, she had doubts about her ability to utilize the many components of our Bugout Backpacks -- it seemed she was looking to justify the expense.

I am not a pushy salesman. I do not know -- maybe that makes me a bad salesman, but I am only interested in selling Bugout Bags to someone who is genuinely interested in purchasing one. I take great care to create as good a value as possible, and I tried to impress that point upon this woman. I explained that the bag was chock-full of items that are universally useful in emergency and survival situations, most of which are easy to use and fairly self explanatory. Many items in our Bugout Survival Gear kits can definitely be used to different effect, depending on personal levels of expertise in survival skills and adaptation (MacGyver comes to mind, here) but they all also serve pretty self explanatory functions too, such as rope, a tarp, or a blanket. Besides, who is to say you will not come across a situation where your equipment can be utilized by someone helping you?

In the end, this woman politely declined to purchase one of our emergency kits, citing expense and a lack of confidence in her ability to use it.

Fast forward a few weeks, and in early August of 2023, a series of wildfire broke out in Hawaii, predominantly on the island of Maui. In the end, the fires swept over 17,000 acres of Hawaii, killing over a hundred people, destroying nearly two thousand homes, and causing over five billion dollars of damage. As the media swooped down into the affected areas, the personal stories began to pour out, and as someone who always travels into the wilderness with my bugout bag, or at least has one ready to go in my car and at home, I kept noticing an underlying thread: absolute and complete unpreparedness.

It seems that everyone was caught unaware. Most survivors cite an almost total lack (and in some cases a total lack) of time to prepare. What little time they had, if any, they were only able to grab one or two precious things; usually just family members. In the process of fleeing, vehicles were typically ditched at some point. Many residents had to decide between braving the searing heat of the fire, or jumping into the sea; some were bobbing in the water for hours and were, ironically, without drinking water for many more afterwards.

This is when my mind really starts to go through the items in my kit. My water canteen would be of obvious benefit. The blanket could have been used to keep the flying embers off of me or others, during the worst of the firestorm, and ropes and carabiners would have been used to tether everyone to the shore, should we have had to enter the turbulent water. The tarp could be used as a relatively aseptic please to treat the injured, or could be fashioned into a stretcher; the first aid kit would have definitely helped with that (zinc ointment for burns, iodine for cuts and scrapes, etc). The possibile uses go on and on.

But alas, it seems nearly no one had a Bugout Bag ready to go.

Granted, no one but God could have predicted this particular series of events. Undoubtedly, the survivors of this traumatic situation must have learned their lessons, and surely will be more prepared for the possibility of another.

However, those who have not experienced an emergency survival situation of this type mostly live in denial of the eventuality of their need of an emergency bag. Learning this lesson the hard way is, as the statement suggests, hard -- but it does not need to be this way. Bugout Survival Gear offers you a selection of universally useful, pre-built safety preparedness bugout bags that will be worth their weight in gold, when disaster strikes.

I hope this woman from Hawaii made it through unscathed.