In the event of a major wide scale disaster, many preppers envision themselves grabbing their bug out bags and hitting the road.  We are all guilty of it.  For some reason the idea of leaving everything behind and depending on your knowledge and preps sounds thrilling.  Perhaps the feeling of true freedom, or just the thought of escaping from the mundane, makes us want to believe that we would thrive as a band of survivors in a remote location.

In some cases, when the area you live in becomes inhabitable (fallout, flooding, etc.) the above ideas might hold true.  Most likely though, in a scenario that causes wide spread chaos most of us would be better off staying put. When you think it might be time to bug out, consider these 10 reasons you should bug in instead.

2. Security – Your home is your castle.  You can spend time fortifying it now so that you are ready when the time comes.  By the way, the tips from my post How to Prevent Burglary apply even in a shtf scenario.

3. You’re in Charge – Continuing from my last point, every castle needs a king (or queen ).  That would be you!  Traveling to a bug out location other than one that you own means that you are going to be on someone else’s turf.  While under stress, people can become just as dangerous as the crisis itself.  It’s always a good idea to have your own bed to sleep in at night.

4. Community – At home you know who your neighbors are. Hopefully you have gotten to know them well enough that you can rely on some of them.  Your chance of survival is always going to be greater when you are working together.

5. Supplies – No matter how extensive your bug out bag and preps might be, you are not going to be able to bring everything with you if you leave.  Yes, I know some of you lucky preppers have fully stocked bug out locations, but most of us don’t.

6. Lay of the Land – It is a definite advantage to know which areas are safe and which aren’t, where you can find supplies, etc.

7. Friends/Family – Disasters don’t happen when we want them to.  They just happen.  Your family/friends could be working or cut off when it happens. If you bug in, you and all of your loved ones will know where to go and how to get there.

8. Danger of Travel – If many people are trying to evacuate an area at once you can easily run out of fuel in traffic.  If that happens, you will be a sitting duck for looters.  At the very least you might end up sleeping in your car instead of your bed back home.

9. Fuel – Depending on the duration of the disaster, you might even need to siphon the fuel from your vehicle to barter or run a generator with.  If you don’t have a generator yet, I suggest reading Why You Need a SHTF Generator.

10. Property Protection – No matter how long a disaster lasts, things will hopefully return to normal at some point. When that happens you won’t have to worry about coming back to a property ravaged by looters.