Why You Should Stay Home the First 72 Hours (Bugging In When Your Town Goes Sideways)

When something big happens in your town, a storm that takes out power and roads, a chemical spill, a riot downtown, a long blackout, the instinct is to go out. Get gas. Get food. Go check on things. Most of the time, that's the wrong move.

For most families, the safest plan for the first few days is to stay home, stay quiet and let the chaos settle. Preppers call it bugging in. It's less exciting than a bug-out bag and a run for the woods, and it's the right call far more often.

01Why the first three days are the worst

The first 72 hours after a disaster are when things are most confused:

• Roads are blocked by trees, power lines, water or wrecks, and traffic lights are out.
• Emergency services are overloaded. If you get hurt or stuck, help may be a long time coming.
• Stores and gas stations can't run. Without power, registers, card readers and pumps don't work. Shelves that are working get stripped in hours.
• People are scared and stressed. Lines, arguments and worse happen when a crowd is fighting over the last of something. The longer a crisis goes on, the shorter people's tempers get.

After a few days, things usually start to stabilize. Utility crews and road crews make progress, supplies start moving, and aid arrives. Federal preparedness guidance for households has long been built around having supplies for at least several days on hand for exactly this reason.

02When bugging in is the right call

Stay home if:

• Your house is structurally safe (no serious damage, no fire, no flooding headed your way).
• There's no evacuation order for your area.
• You have the supplies to get through without going out.

03When it isn't

Leave if:

• Officials order an evacuation. Follow it.
• Your house is damaged, flooding or on fire, or there's a gas leak.
• There's a hazardous material release and officials tell you to leave (sometimes they'll tell you to shelter in place instead; listen to which).
• Someone needs medical care you can't give at home.

Bugging in isn't stubbornness. It's a decision you make on the facts.

04What your house needs to hold out

The point of preparing is so that staying home is easy. For at least three days, and better a week:

• Water: Ready.gov recommends at least one gallon per person per day for drinking and sanitation. Add more for pets and hot weather.
• Food you can eat without power: canned goods, peanut butter, crackers, cereal, and a safe way to heat things outdoors or on a camp stove used correctly.
• Light: headlamps and lanterns with spare batteries.
• Medicine: a week's supply of prescriptions where you can manage it, plus a real first-aid kit.
• Information: a battery or hand-crank NOAA weather radio, charged power banks.
• Heat or cooling plan: one room you can keep livable. See our comparison of power stations and generators.
• Sanitation: trash bags, a bucket toilet plan, hand sanitizer, if the water stops.
• Security: good locks you actually use, curtains you can close, and a plan for who in the house does what.

05Stay low-key

A house with a generator roaring and every light on is the only bright spot on a dark block. In a short outage that's fine. In a longer, uglier situation, it's attention you don't want. Run the generator in daylight when you can, keep the curtains closed at night, and don't advertise what you have. This is the idea behind the grey man approach.

Being the quiet, ready house on the block also lets you help your neighbors on your own terms, which builds the kind of block that gets through a disaster together.

06The plan in one sentence

Unless your home is unsafe or you're told to leave, stay put for the first 72 hours, keep your family fed, warm and informed, and let the worst of the chaos pass you by.

Sources (2)

Ready.gov: Water; Ready.gov: Build a Kit.

Related: 72-Hour Kit Checklist for Midwest Families