Escape Plan

[Taz Baby]

Have you thought of or do you have an escape plan? A place that everyone knows where to go if you get separated? A way out of your house that is hidden that only your family knows? As we are building our house we thought of an escape door that will lead us to the outside, which is hidden from plan view inside the house. We would not be seen from outside until we are a good distance from the house. Without given out what it is I can say that if we are invaded by an intruder inside the house, we have a room to go to inside that will have an escape way out to the outside. We also have several places away from the house that everyone in our group knows to go there if we are separated. Each is in an area that no matter where on the property they are if attacked a hidden hideout is close by. I was just wondering how many have thought of this and have put it or are planning on it in your plans. I think it is very important that everyone has this.

I saw somewhere on another forum that someone had gotten a free cabin cruiser boat and dug a hole in their back yard far away from their house and buried it. Planted grass on it and then parked an old pick up truck on top without the tires and on blocks. When you looked outside that is what you saw. But this is how they used it. You crawled under the truck and lifted the hatch on the cabin that had a patch of fake sod over it that blended in with the grass around it. Then went into the cabin of the boat. Now it was set up with everything you needed even a bathroom just like if you had the boat out in the water. The air came from outside that was several pipes running up to the top of the ground where the truck was. Anyway I thought that was a great idea. Another one I saw was someone had built a fake floor in their bathroom floor that dropped down under their house that was close to a big culvert that they could crawl into and come out on the other side of their yard.

What are your thoughts on this?

[Sniper-T]

Be careful with what you bury. Many things are not designed to handle the pressure of several tons of dirt pushing down on them (or sideways). your underground 'oasis' can turn into a tomb.

That said, if I ever have an influx of spare money, I want to put in a 100 yard tunnel from my house, out to my garden shed. It will be set up as a shooting range, with an access/egress at either end.

[Taz Baby]

How to Build a Super Top Secret Bunker under Your House


http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Build-a-Super-Top-Secret-Bunker-under-Your-/#step1

[4suchatimeasthis]

I have daydreamed about doing that, "someday" when we build...not sure if I could get the hubs on board though. Right now we are working to get the barns done, fences, the driveway, etc. Right now it's just a dirt path, no joke, and gravel it turns out is pretty expensive if your driveway is long! So the next several years will be working on all that stuff, and me being home with the little ones (we have 4 kids between us, 2 in school and 2 still at home, including a 3 mo. old), but building a faux log home is on the 10 yr plan. Maybe by then I can convince my husband to consider something like an escape route. If we ever did decide to, my brother in law is a builder, and father in law is a mechanical engineer, pretty sure we could work something up that would do the trick. The closest I could probably get would be talking him into having an access passage from a root cellar to like the garden shed. We do have an over abundance of wild honey suckle, that stuff has created massive hedges (like 6-8ft thick, and just as tall, taller in places it goes up the tree's) that grew around old fence lines. It makes me wonder if that stuff couldn't be used to disguise an entryway or something. Not sure, just kinda thinking out loud....

Anyone see that movie "Red", with Bruce Willis? I *loved* his crazy friend with the bunker, the entrance to it was the hood of an old junked car. I always thought (before I watched the movie) that would be a really cool place to hide "stuff", in a junkyard, in plain sight sorta.

[Echo2]

I have cashes here and there....but they are at buildings that I have access to.

I second the "careful what you bury" thought.....I've seen a shipping container squished....and I've seen one float out of the ground.

If you have friends in the area....store a lock box or cabinet at their place....even if it is exterior....that you can get to.

[realist]

The thing that I have been looking at are the plastic culverts, they are tough and the larger ones that I could fit through are smooth instead of ribbed on the outside. Now if you lived on a hill they you could bury it on a slight slope and slide down it much easier on the knees. You would want it to be a slight slope so you could climb back up if needed. They come in 20 foot lengths but they are pricy.

Sniper a friend of mine and I were talking about indoor or underground ranges and think that a reinforced 40 foot Conex would work great. Since it would cost so much to use concrete to support it the metal Conex would be the next best thing.

[Echo2]

You can buy the damaged concrete culvert pipe for little or nothing....the state wont accept it on jobs....and they have to dispose of it.

A bag of hydro-cement would repair most large chips.

A guy in my AO got some from a local supplier.....free....they loaded....he paid to move...and for the crane to handle. He used them for a bridge to his cabin.

[mitunnelrat]

Have you thought of or do you have an escape plan?

Yes, and yes. Multiple plans actually. Responses will differ from incident to incident.


A place that everyone knows where to go if you get separated?

Not for every situation. We still need to work on this.


A way out of your house that is hidden that only your family knows? I was just wondering how many have thought of this and have put it or are planning on it in your plans. I think it is very important that everyone has this. What are your thoughts on this?

I've thought about it, and its a great (even fun) idea, but right now its so low in priority for me I haven't even put it on a list. Most of my evacuation scenarios don't require that level of stealth, and there are other areas I need to put the effort into lobbying for and investing in.

[Gunfixr]

Nope. I guess we haven't really thought on this one.
Aren't really any secret ways out, not without doing some serious mods.
Hmm, only two doors, all the windows sealed up (damn burglars), crawlspace is so tight you cannot even roll from your back to your stomach, except in a couple wallowed out places. Plus, it gets water pretty regular.

Have to work on that one.

Thinking on it now, we do need to set up a "rondevous" (sp?) location, should we arrive home separately to find going inside untenable. A pre-planned meeting point.

[Taz Baby]

There are kinds of things you can do. If you have a crawl space under your house and it is dirt, You can build a door into the floor that you can get to it and you can dig a hole big enough to get into to hide. if you have kids, make them a tree fort or a fort into the ground. When I was a kid, My Dad showed me how to dig a hole and make it big enough to have a fort. He helped me and put plywood inside for the walls and ceiling. From the outside there was just a opening just big enough to crawl into with an old tire with leaves and pine needles and brush hiding it. When I was inside I would just pull the tire over top of the hole. The leaves and stuff was glued on it so it would stay. I even camped out there in the summer.

Culverts make good underground getaways. You can bury them shallow so they won't get crushed. Put vents in them on top for air. You can also put them together to form a maze so there are different turns and places to go to the top away from the house. Yes you can get them cheap and sometimes free. People have damaged ones they give away. All you have to do is cut away the damaged part and attach it to the good part of another one. I have seen the homeless people make their camps out of this in the woods.

[Onestep]

Can't do anything underground down here in much of FL, water table is too high.
You dig a few feet down and you hit water.

[Willie51]

^
dito

[Taz Baby]

I was born and raised in South Fla. Around Stuart and Ft Pierce. Don,t remember running into water. But did us a lo of catus for boobytraps.

[Stormfeather]

When I hit the lottery. . . these are the first people Im calling!

http://hiddenpassageway.com

The room under the stairs in the gallery is my favorite!

[Echo2]

When I hit the lottery. . . these are the first people Im calling!

http://hiddenpassageway.com

The room under the stairs in the gallery is my favorite!

that is some clean installation....beautiful work.

[realist]

Now if I just had a house that would be nice enough to have something like that would be nice. Maybe next year........

[bacpacker]

That is some fine work Stormy. I would love to have a house that those would look normal in. They'd be like a turd in a punch bowl in our current place.

[The Stig]

When I hit the lottery. . . these are the first people Im calling!

http://hiddenpassageway.com

The room under the stairs in the gallery is my favorite!

Those are amazing. So many uses from storm shelter to valuable storage to simply hiding out short term.

[ak474u]

Those are amazing. So many uses from storm shelter to valuable storage to simply hiding out short term.

We have an escape plan, it needs updating badly. Wife would likely beat me home, she works 6 miles away, and daycare is 2 miles from home on the way here. I could be up to 100 miles away at any given time, so updates are coming soon on the plan. We've moved since this one was made, I worked about 400 yards from home at that time, and I would have beat her home. She knows what to grab, (everything) and if in contact with me, she knows what to leave should I be close enough to stop and pick up a load of goodies. Obviously, the old "should I stay or should I go?" becomes an issue, and time is critical when you have a few million neighbors that are freaking out. She knows to be armed, fortify the door(s) while getting packed if there is time to pack, also to fill tubs etc. should she be prevented from leaving, what foods to take, we have dry goods packed in easy to carry tubs, 1 would last a week or so, it wouldn't be tasty, but it would feed her and the boy. She knows there is a tub of camping supplies in the storage closet that has important camping gear, and the sleeping bags sit on top of that. It will be at best a clusterF, and at worst, I'll have to come home and organize the bugout, but it'll be better than most Americans plan.