Vanlife and Climate Disaster

Can a Van be Part of Your Disaster Preparedness Plan?

Photo by Uriel Mont via Pexels

For more and more Americans like me, vanlife can be a strategy for adapting to the effects of climate disasters.

I was in Los Angeles this past winter when the flooding began. Until the rains came, it had been a joyful and eye-opening December 2022. I spent my days working online in coffee shops or in my van, while parked at the beach or a local park. I spent my nights in a friend’s spare bedroom.

Among the many extraordinary sights were the encampments–city blocks lined with tents and shanties fabricated out of scrap material and covered with blue tarps. Vans, RVs and other vehicles parked bumper-to-bumber along some streets.

As I walked past, I sometimes heard families inside the vehicles playing games or settling disputes.

While ascending a freeway high-rise, I saw encampments stretching for miles in different directions. Their blue roofs reminded me of the post-Katrina Gulf Coast in 2005. It also took me back to Oakland California, where I had wintered two years earlier. There, I’d seen acres and acres of tents and blue tarps, uncollected garbage and despair.

I had planned to return to Oakland this winter and van camp for a few weeks while I renewed old acquaintances and…