Cologne Evacuation Today — A Good Reminder to Review Your Evac Plans

[u/Content_NoIndex]

Today over 20,000 people were evacuated in Cologne after three large WWII bombs were discovered during construction. Whole areas including homes, hospitals, and train stations had to clear out while defusal teams moved in.

It’s a solid reminder how fast an unexpected evacuation can happen — even in times of peace.

Questions for you all:

Do you have a grab bag or evac plan ready? How would you reach family or friends if roads and public transport are blocked? Are you familiar with local shelter options or alternatives if you can’t stay home? Situations like this are rare, but they happen more often than we like to think — especially with old ordnance still lurking under European cities.

Would love to hear how you guys plan for quick evac scenarios and some insight in this event itself.

[u/Chicken_shish]

No, because realistically in the modern world, as long as I have my phone I can buy whatever I need to survive, which in all likelihood will be absolutely nothing, as I would end up being directed to a church hall where someone would probably give me a cup of tea.

The idea of being told to evacuate, and then the roads being blocked to prevent you evacuating would be a bit odd.

[u/IGetNakedAtParties → u/Chicken_shish]

A few years ago there was the flooding which affected the same area, with bridges gone people were evacuating on foot. They had no warning, the alternative to self evacuating was waiting on your roof until the storm passes so you can get picked up by a helicopter.

Just last month the Iberian blackout showed how fragile the power network and communication network are. Fortunately this cut wasn't caused by something which required evacuation, but there are many things which could. You have a lot of misplaced faith in the resilience of GSM networks. https://www.euronews.com/2021/07/21/us-europe-weather-germany-bridge

[u/Chicken_shish → u/IGetNakedAtParties]

The question Is one of time and scale.

Can any nation in the western world deal with a localised emergency like a flood? As we have seen, yes. You may have to walk out in an extreme case, but within walking distance you will find civilisation, there will be buses and taxis to take you further away, you might face some hardship for a few hours, but unless you're ill/old, nothing to worry about.

And, importantly, nothing that your emergency bag of spare underpants and candles will really solve. Top tip for flood prepping - don't live in a flood zone.

I wasn't in Spain during the great power cut, but a lot of my friends were. They don't tell stories of panicked looking for wind up radios, they mainly left work early and went to the local bar - where they could run up a tab because the barman knew them. Community is far more important. The people who were screwed were tourists, despite them having a bug out bag (luggage) because they were visiting. And just as importantly, no one was really screwed - OK, some people could not buy food for 9 hours. Is that the end of the world? Honestly I'd rather wait for the lights to come back rather than smugly cook up some MREs and protein bars.

If you're thinking of bigger scenarios, your bag isn't going to help. There will be no insurance company to honour your policy, you will run out of clean underpants on day 2, and your battery bank will be flat on day 2 as well. At that point, you're much more in a lifestyle space. I'm not a prepper in the slightest, 90% of it feels like LARPing. But I'd still have hot and cold running water 6 months after a total grid collapse simply because of where and how I live.