The Basics of Bug-Out Preparedness by Eric Power
If you look on the internet these days for pretty much anything, you'll be linked to 2,187,243,539 sites that claim to have exactly the information that you need. This is no less true when you look up Bug Out Bags.
Here's a little background on me: I am a prepper. (sshhh....don't tell anyone OK?) I started getting into the prepping mindset around 2007 when I started hearing about the failing economy. The general decline of society is something that has concerned me for a while now, as well. I also remember a 4-month period right before Y2K when I started storing gallon water jugs like mad (no extra food, just water!), and prepared a lock-down/security procedure for the two-bedroom apartment that I lived in at the time. Looking back, it all seems silly, but never mind that right now! I could see the writing on the wall and it didn't (and still doesn't) look all that fantastic. So my wife and I started looking into being prepared for whatever might come our way, be it natural disasters, hyperinflation, societal collapse, and/or *GASP* ZOMBIES. And this time, making sure it was done the right way.
If you live just about anywhere in the United States, it's probably safe to say that you've noticed a colder-than-typical winter this year. Climates throughout the Midwest and the East have been bitterly cold, and characteristically warmer locales such as the South and Southwest have experienced a very unusual cold snap that has left them reeling in utter confusion, with some locations getting snow and ice for the first time in decades. Southwestern Ohio received a substantial brunt of the Polar Vortex, punishing us with subzero temperatures, even harsher windchill and dumping more snow on our heads than we've seen in quite a few years. 
