Recently California, Oregon and other areas have been battling huge wildfires. These crop up in the summer, usually when it is hot and dry. They are caused by a number of things including lightning strikes, cigarettes tossed out a car window, or human negligence. These fires can cause huge amounts of damage to personal property and cause potential loss of life.
I have had dreams of fighting fires with a garden hose, but in the end I am not doing anything to help. I am sure someone can analyze this dream! Ha ha ha. However, a garden hose is useless when a fire is raging around my home.
Here is a great exercise for anyone to do and is effective in so many scenarios.
Imagine an emergency person (firefighter, police officer, forest ranger) comes to your door and says you have 5 minutes to grab what you need and get out. 5 minutes only! What do you grab?
1. Call to the kids. Shoes on NOW!
2. Tell kids to pack a bag quicker than quick! (if they have their own bug out bag already packed even better) **point of note here: My kids are quick packers. They can power pack through lots of practice over the years of heading here or there every weekend. My kids are also teenagers; this wouldn't work if they were younger.
3. Grab our bug out bags, blankets, my purse, medications.
4. Get dog in car with her bug out bag and crate.
Do I have time? 1 minute more.......what do I grab? Fireproof safe, heirloom jewelry (I keep it in a separate jewelry box), emergency cash.
We get in the car and stop on the way out of the neighborhood where the emergency people are and ask for a point of contact to find out when we can return.
Did you imagine what you would do? Where would you get hung up? Is your bag packed already? Kids packed? Pets packed? Emergency papers ready to go?
If you find you wouldn't be able to get everything together in 5 minutes, you know what you need to work on.
Start with emergency papers. Scan pertinent information, birth certificates, insurance papers, passports, driver's licenses, etc, and put it all on a flashdrive. Keep this flash drive in your bug out bag. When things change grab your flash drive and update it then return it to your bug out bag.
You may choose to not worry about clothing and that is fine. It is replaceable. Go for the irreplaceable things. Heirloom jewelry, photos, etc. We keep our heirloom pieces in a separate jewelry box that is quickly transportable. I can grab it and toss it in a bag quickly. It is all there. No worrying about searching through my other jewelry cabinet for specific pieces. Our photos we keep on our computer and we back it up regularly on an external hard drive. All I have to do is grab this external hard drive.
This is a great exercise to just go through in your mind and by actually doing it. Practice is a great thing for a family. Set a timer for 5 minutes and then go through the motions. 5 minutes is QUICK! See if you can grab all you need and get out of the house with everyone and the pets. This will also help you with what further prepping you need to do in order to get out of the house in time.
Wildfires not an issue for you? There are lots of reason why an emergency official might come to your house and tell you to evacuate. Gas leaks (this happened to us once), neighbor's home on fire, flooding (has happened to friends of mine). I am sure there are other events as well.
What would you grab? Would you be able to think if you were under pressure?
Make a list. Then all you need to do is get the list and do what is on the list. Keep the list with your bug out bag. That is where you will go first and what you will grab first. Then check off the list.
Start your list with the essentials, most of which might already be in your bag. Then move on to the "other" things (for me this is the heirloom jewelry box, fireproof safe, external hard drive). Practice this list. Can you do it in five minutes?
Add additional items if you have 10 minutes and space. If your car is small, you may have to drop some items. If you don't have a car and must leave on foot, you may want to make sure your bug out bags are not too heavy.
What if not everyone is home at the time? Have a plan. Wait until you are out to contact the people not at home. Grab their bag and items they need before you leave. Once you are out of danger. Contact them to warn them not to go home. Arrange a place to meet. This could be a pre-arranged place.
Comment below on things I missed.
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