TexasCHLforum.com

I've had to evacuate for hurricanes four times (Ivan, Rita, Gustav, Ike). In the time between Hurricane Ike and today, I have quite a few more firearms than I did back then. If another evacuation is necessary, I'd either have to only take some of them, or figure out the best way to take them all.

Except for three pistols, all the others (one revolver and 8 rifles, plus ammo and some accessories) are in my gun safe. The thought occurred to me that I might un-bolt the safe from its anchors, maybe cram a couple of pillows or something in there to reduce shifting, and cart the whole thing with me. I'd have to worry about the possibility of a thief making off with the entire safe once I reached my destination, but that's about my only choice, unless you have thought of something better.

What do you do?

I'd take the guns I could, leave the safe bolted down, with any remaining guns in it. With that said, I'd also get back home as soon as I could. If the guns safe ect... are stolen or damaged, call your insurance company. Just my two cents.

I'd buy enough cases for them all and take them with me.

Vic wrote:What do you do?

Move from hurricane country to tornado country.

I'd take the guns I could, leave the safe bolted down, with any remaining guns in it. With that said, I'd also get back home as soon as I could. If the guns safe ect... are stolen or damaged, call your insurance company. Just my two cents.

If there are any real sentimental favorites or rare items, I would make sure they stayed with me. Other than that, the safe -- particularly heavy and bolted down -- and insurance are how I would go.

During Rita, in a tiny Toyota (smallest Toyota made) I brought 4 desktop computers in the trunk, about 40 pistols and 5 to 8 rifles and 3 shotguns, 2 short 2-drawer file cabinets with important papers, and some electronics ... but ... shampoo, soap, razor, extra clothes etc stayed home, they were replaceable. Important photos all previously uploaded to photobucket accounts, so those were left, extra clothes etc can be used as packing, you can buy an iron later at any WalMart.

The Annoyed Man wrote:

Vic wrote:What do you do?

Move from hurricane country to tornado country.

Yeah, that way you don't get enough notice of a incoming storm to worry about the guns, just your skin...

Grew up in East Texas and lived in North Texas for awhile... I'd rather have a few hours notice than wake up to a freight train coming my way.

I would take what I needed and those that could not be replaced, secure the rest as best I could and trust insurance.

Of course it's worth me saying that it'd have to be a REALLY big storm to get me on the road with some of these folks.

Now that I'm done pickin' around.....

On a more serious note, I'm with the "bring the sentimental favorites along; leave the rest in the bolted down safe and let the insurance take care of it" crowd.

Vic wrote:I've had to evacuate for hurricanes four times (Ivan, Rita, Gustav, Ike). In the time between Hurricane Ike and today, I have quite a few more firearms than I did back then. If another evacuation is necessary, I'd either have to only take some of them, or figure out the best way to take them all.

Except for three pistols, all the others (one revolver and 8 rifles, plus ammo and some accessories) are in my gun safe. The thought occurred to me that I might un-bolt the safe from its anchors, maybe cram a couple of pillows or something in there to reduce shifting, and cart the whole thing with me. I'd have to worry about the possibility of a thief making off with the entire safe once I reached my destination, but that's about my only choice, unless you have thought of something better.

What do you do?

Unless you're right on the coast and subject to storm surge, why do you feel the need to evacuate? These days the evacuations are overreaching and in some cases nearly hysterical in their scope. I grew up on the coast and in those days we evacuated to places the authorities now want people to evacuate from. The last time they called for a mandatory evacuation around here, far from the coast, many of the people who followed orders ended up in a 15 hour traffic jam, and were at far greater risk than they would have been staying home. And in spite of the fact that the hurricane came nowhere close and we didn't get so much as a gust of wind or a drop of rain we were under an 8 PM curfew for at least two days. As a result of the traffic jam they skipped the "mandatory" evacuation order for the last storm, which tells you how overreaching and unnecessary it was in the first place.

VMI77 wrote:Unless you're right on the coast and subject to storm surge, why do you feel the need to evacuate?

I work in IT. The place I work for has another location in Tyler. We pack up all the servers and set up shop in Tyler. The downside is that, during any "mandatory evacuation" (such as Gustav, where the storm didn't even come here), I still have to evacuate (and put the servers at some risk), but the upside is that the company pays all expenses (moving truck, hotels, diesel, per Diem) as well as double-time.

If I didn't have to evacuate, there might be times I wouldn't. I agree that some evacuations are unnecessary.

I'm curious about this situation with class 3 devices. I'm still trying to figure out all the laws around these untill I can afford a trust and toys, but it seems to me that I would want to take extra precaution with something like a fully auto weapon. Would keeping it locked in a rifle box and taking it with you work? I almost see that as an "anything but leave it in danger" kind of situation. I'd rather turn it in to authorities than have it get stolen and then think about what gangsters hands it ends up in.

...I beat AndyC to THIS one...I will, at great personal sacrifice, agree to store all weapons for safekeeping when inclement weather threatens...two boxes of ammo must accompany the firearm...and it must be in working order with all locks removed...when the threat's over, call me at +4i-co4-8nzz and I'll return them posthaste...
...seriously, I'd take all of mine with me...loaded and as accessible as I could make them...but then I don't have as many as some of you do...yet...

Ike was the test for me on what gets taken and what stays.

I have access to cargo vans so I can pile in quite a load. It went in this order.

Guns and Ammuntion - all of it
Two 5 gallon water jugs
Two cases MRE's
Bicycle
Week worth of clothes
Various Tools
Surfboards - all 15 of them
Important Documents
Non replacable photos

Electronics and all other items are replacable material items that insurance can replace.

...I'd add a second spare tire and 10 gal gas...

Is using them to shoot looters an option?