An exit strategy is the means by which you can achieve your goals by lessening the risk presented by a variety of different situations and limiting the possibility of your objective having a cost that may be in excess of your desired goal.
An exit strategy has two main goals. These goals are to keep the loss of lives or injuries to a minimum and to conserve the maximum amount of your available resources. An exit strategy should be included as a part of your emergency plans to give you the maximum chances for survival.
Many people are quite familiar with the term “bugging out” but may not realize the most efficient way to decide if this is your best and most viable option. This is where having an exit strategy will be of the most value depending upon the severity of the current situation.
Now if you’re looking at the possibility being in water over your head due to rising flood waters your obvious goal is to minimize the possibility of drowning by “bugging out”. This may solve one of the goals of an exit strategy (i.e., the loss of life), but it won’t solve the problem of the resulting loss of available resources that may occur. Your emergency planning should take such a possibility into account and provide for this contingency.
While the first goal of an exit strategy will always be to minimize the loss of life or injury, it’s important to make plans that will enable you to satisfy both goals. Certain resources, such as food, water and shelter, will be just as necessary for you to achieve the first goal of an exit strategy. You won’t solve the problem if you live just long enough to die from exposure to the elements, dehydration or starvation from the lack of food.
It is extremely difficult to plan for every possibility that might endanger your survival. Including an exit strategy in your planning can give you a definite advantage in order to achieve your goal of survival.
Got exit strategy?
Staying above the water line!
Riverwalker