RHYS BOWEN: For the last weeks we have had wildfires on all sides of us. Not close enough to have been in danger but making the air quality dangerously bad on some days so that we’ve been confined to the house. TV news showed harrowing pictures of people having to flee through walls of flame. So it occurred to me that I should make a list of things to take in case I ever had to flee in a hurry. I sat staring at a blank page. What would I take if I was told I had ten minutes to get out of the house?
Obvious things: passports, birth certificates etc. (Maybe I should move them to the safe deposit box in advance)
Then laptop, iPad, iPhone, Kindle and all the chargers to go with them. Flash drives with old pictures on them.
Good jewelry that is not in the safe deposit box.
Then it becomes less clear:
Photo albums from when the kids were little. The girls’ wedding albums.
Practical: change of clothes, underwear, nightshirt, robe, toothbrush, hairbrush. Medications. Make up.
But what about moisturizers? Shampoo? Hairdryer?
And warm clothes in case it gets cold
And cool clothes in case it gets hot
You see how quickly this becomes complicated.
And we have a house full of quite valuable antiques from John’s family. Chinese plates on the walls, a crusader’s sword, a Queen Anne writing desk. Obviously that won’t fit in the car.
And I have a shelf of awards. Can I take my Agatha tea pots? My Anthony, Macavity etc?
What about my books? I have a copy of each of my books in two book cases. I would hate those to go up in smoke.
And my harp? Is there room for my harp? Obviously not.
Then I have to tell myself it’s all just stuff. Most things can be replaced. But an exercise like this reminds me what is important. Family memories. When my daughter had to flee from a fire a couple of years ago she arrived at my house at 2 in the morning with her daughters, the dog and her wedding album. Not even a toothbrush.
Already this year I’ve come to the conclusion that I have too much STUFF. I threw away four shopping bags full of loose photographs. I have weeded out box after box of books. I cleaned out the pantry and discarded twenty year old spices. I went through my bathroom vanity and threw out things I didn’t use, like moisturizers and serums that I thought would make me look ten years younger but didn’t.
And I notice that throwing out stuff has become a symbol of the pandemic. When I drive through the streets there are always free items put out, some of them quite valuable. There was a new-looking treadmill the other day. I was tempted, but no. I’d rather walk in nature.
So I think we are all examining what is really important to us, what brings us joy (as Marie Kondo would say). One thing the pandemic is teaching us is what is important, what is precious. And that, to me, is people. When asked what is the first thing I’ll do when the pandemic ends it is not get a haircut or go to a restaurant or even travel to a favorite place. It is hug my dear ones. That’s what matters.
So the big question today is: what would you take when escaping from a fire?
HALLIE EPHRON: For various personal reasons, I’ve recently put together an IF I GET HIT BY A BUS folder. It has a spreadsheet that lists all our accounts and passwords, information about where’s the will and the key to our safe deposit box. Basically it’s information that’s strewn about our house in file folders, drawers, on the computer, and in our heads, all in a few printed pages.
It’s very calming, knowing that I have it all written down in one place.
If we had a fire (the west coast fires are so devastating - hard to even wrap my head around the scope of the destruction), I might once have said I’d grab family photos. But over the years my husband has digitized them and, thanks to the Cloud, they’re safe. I’d scoop up a few pieces of jewelry that belonged to my mother. A painting by my uncle. And my husband.
JENN McKINLAY: Well, this does put a fine point on things, doesn’t it? I’m not a stuff person. My parents accumulated a lot of “stuff” so it gave me an aversion to accumulating “things”. I like nothing better than decluttering, truly, it makes me positively giddy. Naturally, I married a hoarder of books and guitars. If there was a fire, I am quite certain guitars would be strapped to every person and animal in this house as they fled for their life and, quite probably, they’d be forced to carry a bag of books (not mine), too. LOL!
Honestly, I’d take the contents of the safe (documents) and my purse, maybe a snack, because the mom in me feels like you can’t go anywhere without snacks and that’s it.
LUCY BURDETTE: We hate watching those fires on the news--so terrifying and devastating. So far our family is okay, but that can change.
As for what to take...lockbox with important papers, bill file box, 2 pets in pet carriers, litter box and food, my grandmother’s paintings, computers, phones, chargers, some clothes and meds, and photos. Unfortunately my photos are a disaster. Scattered in boxes everywhere. Maybe I’ll organize and be ready if I ever retire…
This is a heartbreaking exercise.
RHYS: Lucy, I just did this. Went through all my loose photos, threw away four shopping bags full and put the rest into albums. At least that was one achievement of the pandemic. And I found looking through them was so comforting--reliving good times and good people.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Our fear here is always tornadoes, where you have to be prepared to take shelter very quickly, then possibly evacuate if the house is badly damaged or the power is out for too long. But if we knew evacuation was imminent from a fire, the most important thing would be getting the two big dogs and the three cats, and the cats would be a challenge. And we only have two carriers! Maybe time to pick up a third one… Other than that, passport, important papers (which should be better organized) meds, LAPTOP! The photos are too much of a mess to worry about. Like Lucy's, those go in the "one of these days" category!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, I have thought about this too much, and it gets impossible.
At some point, it’s all about paperwork, i guess. Passport, insurance stuff. But isn't that all somewhere? Phone, laptop, chargers--because you have to communicate. I’d grab Jonathan, and meds, and oh, I don’t know. What would matter? Someone must have a rule. Can you scan birth certificates and marriage certificates? Oh, it's impossible, and impossibly sad. I am going to start throwing more things away, articles and papers and memorabilia. Because--what am I saving them FOR?
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It’s funny, because if you come to my house, you’ll think I save everything, because I’m something of a maximalist and we’ve lived here since 1994. But when it comes to what to grab in a fire, I’m pretty basic - a small bag of clothes. My toiletry bag is always stocked for travel, so that. All the important documents are in one folder, and you know what? If you don't get them, they can be replaced. It’s a pain, but it’s possible. Laptop in case, cats in crates, dog on lease, heave the bags of food in the back of the car - I figure I could be out of the house and headed down the road within 20 minutes of getting a warning.
The art, the heirloom furniture, the china, the photos - not going to worry about those. I suspect I have this attitude from my mother, the military wife. We moved a lot, and everything outgrown or not used was tossed or given away. She had one 15”x15” box per child, and she kept our precious mementoes in there. When the box got too full, she edited things out.
We lived in Stuttgart, Germany in the early 70s, two and a half hours
from the Fulda Gap. My mother had go bags packed at all times for
herself and her children. Bags, boxes, one favorite toy each - I’m
pretty sure she would have been ready to evacuate in twenty minutes as
well. Maybe less.
RHYS: Julia, I think it's very freeing when one realizes that if objects were lost it wouldn't be the end of the world. We have lots of antiques, but I don't think I'd weep much over any of them!
So the big question today is: what would you take when escaping from a fire?
The news about the fires is so frightening . . . .
ReplyDeleteWhat would I take? John . . . the important papers in the lock box . . . medicine . . . phone and charger . . . photo albums . . . the framed, hand-carved Lord’s Prayer that was made by a cousin several generations ago . . . .
For us it would be dogs and their supplies and our meds first, then minimal electronics (one laptop, both phones, cords and chargers), then I guess water, clothes, toiletries. We don't really have heirlooms, just some sentimental pieces that are mostly too big and bulky to go with us, so that whole category would be a non-issue. Oh - I do have a couple hard drives of photos that I would grab. My good camera if I thought about it, which I probably wouldn't. That's about it for the critical stuff...Really, as long as we and the pups make it out in one piece, I'd be good.
ReplyDeleteI'd hope to have enough time to grab my meds, my wallet, cell phone, car keys and the bag of death, which is the backpack I put together after my mom's passing. It has everything I'd need to hopefully survive long enough to deal with whatever claims I would have to set in motion to begin recovery.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'd hope that I'd be able to grab some clothes so that I didn't have to worry about being without a couple changes of clothes before getting some replacements.
Jay, I love the phrase, "bag of death." I may start using that instead of "go-bag!"
DeleteBag of Death, Jay? I see a book title there!
DeleteThe bag was started because while dealing with all the stuff that came with dealing with my mother's passing, I never knew what I was going to have to have on hand at any given time. It was a ball-busting experience at the start for sure.
DeleteIt was gallows humor that a few people didn't get when I explained why I carried The Bag of Death with me wherever I went.
But it has paid off a few times because I've had to deal with a bank losing my paperwork twice after the initial time I gave it to them. They had to have stuff on file so they could talk to me about my mother's accounts. The last time they lost the paper and said I would have to file it again, I got ticked off and said, "You realize that this is the third time I've had to kill my mother off for you to talk to me, right?"
I don't know about a book title unless I was writing a horror novel. Which is not my area of interest.
But speaking of book titles, I did recently see a quote that featured a start of "The Wind Blows Lonely..." and immediately thought it would be a great title for one of Julia's books.
We had a tornado warning this spring--one that looked like it was really going to hit. Hubby and I took to the basement, and the only thing I grabbed was my cat. I shoved her in her carrier and ran. Thankfully, there was no tornado, only some VERY large hail which sounded awful when we were holed up and couldn't see what was happening. If I had more time to think, I'd probably have grabbed my laptop and my lock box where I keep the important papers. But none of that seemed vital when that storm was rolling in fast.
ReplyDeleteI'm with the rest of you: cat in carrier, meds, phone, charger, small laptop, lockbox, purse (which includes inhaler), Hugh.
ReplyDeleteThe fires are terrifying and heartbreaking.
May none of you ever have to grab and go. That's my fervent prayer.
ReplyDeleteWhen I sold insurance in the 70's and 80's I used to give clients a list of important stuff to keep safe. Don't put life insurance or wills in the safe deposit box, for instance, because they are locked upon your death. Nowadays you can keep those things in the cloud, along with a lot of other important stuff, BUT... you need to know the passwords to get into them. To me, that's the weak link for modern life.
A couple years after we bought our farm in rural Kentucky I realized how vulnerable we are there. There's a fine EMT team in the community, but that is pretty much it, and the nearest hospitals are close to an hour away in any direction. Not to mention that falling or having some medical emergency in the middle of the woods or a pasture could mean a long delay in getting care, assuming one could call for help. On top of that, the area is prone to tornadoes, and has very little cover.
So I put together a "go" kit, especially after a friend who lives in Nashville came close to losing everything in the floods there a few years ago. She made a list of things to put in it, probably similar to the "go" kits most Californians carry in their trunks, or have in their garages. Water, solar chargers, snacks, first aid supplies, matches, and a change of clothing, etc. Every six months I dump out the water in the gallon containers I keep and refill them. It's all packed into a sturdy plastic trunk that we can throw into the car and go. Or, in the case of a tornado, sit on in the basement while the twister passes over.
The one thing I would absolutely have to have is the USB backup drive where I keep all our financial and other records. I would never trust that to a cloud, and it has years' worth of tax records, in case they need to be reconstructed.
Karen , thank you for this advice
DeleteI didn’t realize the safety deposit was locked on my death!
We have a living trust and our lawyer and daughter have copies of all our documents but a flash drive with tax returns etc would be a good idea
Rhys, our lawyer gave us a flash drive with our wills and living trusts on it, the last time we updated everything. She keeps copies at her office, but if necessary, we can at least reproduce it, or send it to one of our daughters.
DeleteFor years we exchanged wills with Steve's brother in Nebraska, just in case.
The fires are almost incomprehensible from east coast, and CA friends and family are on my mind all the time. - As my parents became really old, and there were sudden hospital visits, I realized that a folder with all the necessary info, such as med lists, health care proxy, insurance, ID's, put in an easy to find place (like the table near the door!) was a good idea. Someday, it will be us.
ReplyDeleteWe have a fire safe with papers, and I'd probably take "the folder" of stuff in the drawer. My wallet has all my IDs, etc. Koda. My laptops and probably the external hard drive of pictures. Losing the books and my mother's piano would be a wrench, but there's just no way we could take it (it's way too heavy).
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I was texting with a friend in NoCal not so long ago, and she said she had finally taken her go bag out of the car, fires around her being under control. I had one of those when I lived there, but it was an earthquake kit, a little box the size of a cigar box that contained dehydrated food and water purifier. My son-in-law got it for me. I tossed it when we moved here.
ReplyDeleteNow? I'd take Eliot, Penny Lane, and Sergeant Pepper, my phone and Kindle with chargers, and a change or two of clothes, and my meds and wallet. Documents can be replaced and most pictures are in the cloud. I've already given my daughter most of my jewelry and what's left I would leave except what I'm wearing at the time. A bag of kibble for the dogs and one for the cat.
Oh, and a box of paper masks and all the hand sanitizer in the cupboard. Mustn't forget the pandemic.
If I lived where the fires are right now, I'd probably have the car packed with more stuff, but at present we aren't threatened by anything except covid and the federal government.
"...anything except covid and the federal government." LOL, Ann -- except, not really. With luck, the November vote will eliminate one of those hazards...
DeleteI’m in The southern Bay Area, between three big fires, which are apparently contained. I have no go-bag or death backpack. Everything we need is in the cloud.
DeleteWe would grab clothes and work computers that’s all we need.
I’m an Attorney so there are client backups of important documents on my work laptop.
I might grab some of my favorite jewelry and a painting by my daughter if there was sufficient time.
Air quality in the Bay Area is still around 200. Unhealthy if you have lung issues, otherwise the rest of us are acting as normal as possible. I ran six miles outside early yesterday, but I don’t appear to be bothered by the bad air.
Everyone, while you're thinking about it, make copies of your advance directives/health care proxies and put one in the glove compartment of every car. Natural disasters notwithstanding, if you or your spouse end up in the ED, chances are the other one will follow in the car. And those proxies will be right there. They don't need to be originals or notarized or even in some approved form. Written on a piece of paper and signed and dated will do. Witnessed won't hurt.
ReplyDeleteAlso find the health app on your smartphone and fill it out, keeping it updated. On my iPhone, this is accessible even if the phone is locked. I suspect it is the same on android phones. ED staff can get into it and have all your meds, allergies, diagnoses, health history, proxies, decision maker's names and numbers, etc., at their fingertips.
Trust me. I am a nurse.
Ann, that is excellent advice. The night my mother died, she went into the emergency room from Newark Airport, thinking only that she had fallen and cut up her face. she was in transit between DC and Syracuse. Then she lapsed into unconsciousness. It was several hours before any of us knew what had happened, and that only because a conscientious nurse went through her phone and tried some of her most frequently called numbers.
DeleteOh wow, Julia -- what a blessing that conscientious nurse was. But how did she bypass the passcode requirement to get into the phone? That safety feature flumoxes me at times like that.
DeleteThat’s why you fill out the health care app.
DeleteThank you, Ann. Copy of health directive in car! Smart. I’ve filled out the app with next of kin etc but will they think to open it?
DeleteIf your phone unlocks by fingerprint, add your next of kin / responsible Person’s fingerprint. It will make things much easier given how much info is on our phones
DeletePets and family photos. I really need to scan all the photos and home movies to digital so I can store them on the cloud.
ReplyDeleteWe've had a Katrina grab and go box in the front hall closet since 2005, though I need to update it with current copies of all important documents. For evacuation, two cars, two dogs (with kibble), phone and laptop chargers, a change of clothes and meds.
ReplyDeleteI checked in with my New Orleans daughter yesterday. She was stocked for the hurricane with three gallons of water and snacks.
Margaret, I had a Louisiana friend whose idea of stocking for a hurricane was lots of alcohol and mixers... :-)
DeleteEach time I see those fires on the news, I think of you Rhys and Mark and Deanna , hoping you are safe.
ReplyDeleteTwo winters ago, I wake up at 2am to the sound of the carbon monoxide alarm. I did 991 and they told me to leave the house immediately. I left in pajamas with only my coat, my phone, purse and car keys because it was minus 20 outside.
Firemen came, invaded my house and finally concluded to a malfunctioning of the alarm.
I now have a carry-on bagage ready with change of clothes and toiletries . Med list and insurance contracts on the phone, important papers in the bank. Hope never have to use it.
How scary, Danielle! That's the good idea behind a go-bag or Hallie's "If I Get Hit By A Bus" list. Prepare for the worst and hope you never have to use it.
DeleteI understand that with carbon monoxide you had to leave instantly, as with a fire in your own house. I don’t think I’d be calm enough to take anything then
DeleteMy most important papers are kept in my "fireproof" lock box which is in an LL Bean tote bag, ready to grab.If there was time I would be able to get my cats in carriers, maybe. It would be tricky. Hope I could grab my new laptop. Which reminds me, I need to update my passwords list and add that to the lock box.For some reason I never think of my meds so I'm going to have to figure out something with those. Like Hallie, I started keeping a folder of Final Instructions. It contains everything I can think of that might be needed by someone to straighten out any mess I leave I update that every so often.
ReplyDeleteBut I have survived 2 house fires, one a total loss, so I learned that not much really matters.
Good heavens, Judi! I imagine actually surviving the real thing does give you a lot of perspective on what's important and what's not.
DeleteHmmmm. Well, I spent the first part of quarantine on a project I meant to do after 15 (not an exaggeration) tornadoes touched down in one night last spring just a few miles north of where we live: prepping "go bags" in case we ever need to evacuate, and a shelf of emergency water and food in case we would have to shelter in place. The "go bags" are really totes in our garage (food, water, spare meds, basic grooming, a change of clothes per person), and include supplies for our kitties. So we'd grab the kitties, and the "go bags" from the designated shelf in the garage. We have a box with passports etc. to grab, and keep battery chargers, first aid kits, paper maps, phone chargers, blankets, etc. in our automobiles (and we have a designated meet up spot agreed upon with our daughter who lives nearby.) I'd grab my purse (which has wallet, med info, contact info etc.), and my cell phone. We keep gas tanks no less than half full so we can get a good distance from our house without worrying about refilling. All my writing is saved 'in the cloud' and we are having all of our family photos scanned and saved "in the cloud," so after corralling the cats and grabbing the go bags, I'd grab the last boxes of photos (currently in our kitchen, starring at me) that haven't been scanned. If there was still time after herding cats, we'd grab out laptops.
ReplyDeleteAfter that... not sure. I'd be so sad to lose mementos, precious items inherited from our ancestors, things our daughters made us when they were kids, some nice jewelry I've inherited (or my husband bought), hard copies of books... sigh.
But really, having the necessities for survival, the info we need to start over, my creative works and our photos backed up, and our cats... well, we could start over from there.
Though the thought makes me sad, and I really worry about people in the path of the fires and hurricanes.
I have come to think that the big lesson of our times is that stuff doesn't matter and relationships/people do. That said, I'd grab my phone and laptop, because both enable communication, which -- presuming they're charged or can be charged (and I remember their chargers!) -- would be important.
ReplyDeleteI might be tempted to grab the two green-coloured shot glasses from my parents' liquor cabinet. Whenever we use them (often), I think particularly of my father who was most usually the one to open the pull-down door that then doubled as the surface onto which to put the glasses for filling. But if I didn't get the glasses, I would still have that memory, wouldn't I?
Horrifying photos of the fires and smoke--here we've been so lucky--after a few years straight of tornadoes traveling north and south of us, this season has been exceptionally calm. Purple folder, then one elderly dog, four cats to wrangle. Critter food. Meds, laptop, purse, phones and chargers. Purse. If time, basic toiletries and a change of clothes or two. Prayers to all for safety!
ReplyDeleteA small word of advice I should have added: keep a couple of those little portable phone chargers charged and ready because the power will be out
ReplyDeleteGood point, Rhys.
DeleteMy brother's family lost their home to the fires in California in the fall of 2017, so fire season hits very close to home these days.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is all stuff, but it is still hard to lose.
They just barely had time to get some clothes on and leave, grabbing important papers. Yes, some of the stuff they lost is hard - things that hold memories. And you do need time to mourn those things. And it is okay. It's all just stuff, but it can mean something.
They biggest thing they said they wish they had time to grab was clothes. Familiar comfortable clothes. They only had the clothes on their back (my uncle and aunt came over, having bought them some new clothes, so they weren't without new clothes for very long), but it was still the one thing they talked about wanting most. Not something that would have been on the top of my list, but it makes sense.
I do worry about wrangling the cats. I'm not sure we could get our indoor/outdoor kitty into a carrier in an emergency.
ReplyDeleteAnother tip for disaster preparedness comes from some friends in Louisiana: Keep your freezer as full as possible, even if it means freezing gallons of water. If the power goes off having the fully packed freezer means that whatever is in it will stay frozen longer. And having water frozen means you also have a source of fresh, clean water.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Karen, we had a full freezer last year. Power was off for 5 days and we had to throw out everything! That hurt
DeleteI think the idea was that they used as much out of the freezer as possible during the outage.
DeleteBut I've also lost a whole freezer full of food, when it was left open while we were away for a week. The saddest day of my life, since I'd processed and frozen ten dozen ears of fresh corn that summer. And we had two wild turkeys in there, too.
Grim topic today. A video came up on my Facebook today of Hurricane Carla hitting the Texas coast 59 years ago. Dad put us on the train to Ft Worth and stayed behind with big brother to prepare the house before they hit the road and joined us. Since then we've evacuated only once when we lived in New Orleans and a hurricane was headed our way. It hit Franklin and Morgan City and that area so our home was safe. I think we took only ourselves, clothes, and pets.
ReplyDeleteDad put together a notebook with instructions of what to do and who to contact in the event of his death. He gave me a copy and it was invaluable when that all came to pass. I have my own version of The Notebook. It lists our assets and where they are found. Where the safe deposit key is. My husband, me, and our son all are on that box so I don't think anyone is blocked if someone dies. I have a list of what is in the box and who it belongs to. I have a list of automatic payments made each month: who to and when and how. I have a list of debts, due dates, where to pay if not automatic. User IDs and passwords. I see I need to add insurance info to this list.
My grab and go would be family, dog, dog paraphernalia, meds, clothing, iphone, ebooks, laptop, chargers, Notebook. Anything else will have to take its chances. My husband would no doubt add some items to the list.
Yes, the freezer. Ah. This is all very very sad. Necessary, but sad. We are making contact and password lists, too. xxx Love you all.
ReplyDeleteThe fires are devastating. My heart breaks more with every newscast.
ReplyDeleteI lived in hurricane country for nearly 40 years. Yes, there is some advance notice with a hurricane but not always, and every year I dutifully sat down and made a list. Irma was supposed to miss us by a comfortable margin. The morning Irma made landfall we learned our house (the local station showed street view radar) was to be in the eastern eye wall for an anticipated 12 hours. We decided to bolt - that seemed an awful lot to ask of four walls and a roof. With three hours to spare we grabbed five cats, eleven birds, the file folder with important documents, our laptops, phones, iPads and chargers, cash, meds from hubs and the cats, and a couple of changes of clothes and were out the door in 45 minutes. Catching the cats took the most time - fortunately, they are treat motivated. We later found the list of what to take in the file folder - 99% of it stayed behind. When the moment came to grab and go, we somehow knew what was important.
I can only imagine how terrifying it must be to have minutes to escape a burning inferno coming at you and your home. And, even though it's only stuff, it has to be devastating to lose possessions you've spent a lifetime collecting and loving, things that reflect your passions and personality. But, in a choice between living and dying, the "stuff" becomes an easy choice to abandon. My mother and her mother had their house in which they lived burn down, and it left a profound effect on her for the rest of her life. They were able to save only a drop-leaf table off of their back porch, which now is in my foyer.
ReplyDeleteAs we finished emptying my mother-in-law's house this last weekend, we had to make some decisions about what we wanted to keep and what we gave away or sometimes threw away. We had mostly decided about the furniture already, but there were still mementos to deal with. Luckily, our children wanted some things, too. And, the emptying of MIL's house led to making room in our house for items, which meant I've been sorting and weeding at my house, too, books included. However, the benefit to the sorting and weeding at my house is recognizing what items are the most treasured.
So, if we had to evacuate quickly, there are a few items I know I'd grab. I have a binder containing important documents and papers in my office, and the insurances are in a separate binder, right with the main binder. Easy grab. I keep my chargers in my bedroom, where I usually charge devices, so I'd grab those, plus the devices--laptop, iPad, Kindle, and phone. And, I have my passwords in a document in a desk drawer, so those would come, too. Then, my husband and I both have separate baskets for our medications, so those are a no-brainer, too. The necessities have pretty much been covered, so if time permits, the hard part arrives. Of any furniture I'd like to save, the table I mentioned above that my mother and her mother saved from their fire comes first. Pictures on the wall and photos are harder. As I sit here typing, I look up at my Canterbury Tales framed print and would love to hang on to it, but it is a bit large, so there's that. Lots of photos are online, but lots aren't, and I'm not sure how I'd go about in a short amount of time trying to save ones in tubs. And, books. Oh, the books and what to save. I haven't a clue right now what ones to try and save. And, I'm sure I need to grab some clothes. I can see right now that I need to do lots more serious thinking about this subject of evacuating and what to save. The only hard, fast rule in the end would be living beings first.
Rhys, family members and I all have our to go bags packed in case we have to evacuate!
ReplyDeleteDo tell about the crusader's sword. That sounds interesting. Is it for historical research for the next Lady Georgie mystery?
Diana
It was brought back from the crusades by an ancestor
DeleteI'm just in the process of unpacking the items I gathered when we went on an evacuation alert for the Oregon wildfires. Passport and other vital papers. Meds. Enough practical clothes for a few days. Laptop, iPad, phone and chargers. Then it got sentimental. Some family jewelry, favorite paintings and irreplaceable photos. I didn't try to pack the cats, but their carriers were at the ready. It all (except cats) would fit in the trunk of my car. I realized most "things"
ReplyDeletewere not important.
I hope I would remember to take the notebook filled with irreplaceable recipes, many handed down for four generations. Am I the only one who hasn't digitalized them yet?
ReplyDeleteHallie, you are so wise to compile that list of passwords! I had a friend a few years ago whose husband died before he got past the denial stage of his cancer, so he did NO preparation. She didn't know how to get into any of the financial records, etc. It was a terrible headache in a time that already had enough heartache.
ReplyDeleteThe surprise flooding in my town from Harvey claimed most everything in my home. 8-12 inches inside & 3 days of no power. There was nowhere to take anything. I was packed to evacuate but there wasn’t a warning. So I had 1 suitcase of clothing, meds, pet stuff & cats, documents. Stuff I set out in driveway was looted overnight. I had inherited a lot of family stuff after I ended up last surviving sibling. Harvey downsized me completely including my car. A lot of stuff I didn’t even think about until it was days & weeks later when I’d go to look for something. Oh, Harvey got that.
ReplyDeleteSo plan now what you’ll save.
Looting is the most despicable action. How can people live with themselves?
DeleteHaving lost our home and all our possessions in the Thomas Fire, this isn't a hypothetical for me. Priority one was our pets. If you've ever tried to wrangle black cats in a blackout, you'll understand how challenging this was. Throughout the very short time we had to leave (we weren't watching TV and hadn't seen early evacuation notices), I believed myself to be calm and in control--until I couldn't get cat #4 into the carrier. But, as far as gathering together emergency clothes, toiletries and the earthquake money were concerned, I felt smug; I'd pulled it all together.
ReplyDeleteThe next day, the cold winds continued to blow as I dressed in a pair of khaki cargo shorts, lime green bra and see-thru pink pullover. Oh yes, and tie-dye socks. This was what I--in my controlled, 'calm' state of mind--had packed. That's the reality. You think you've got it together, but you don't. Somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind, I was apparently evacuating to the tropics. No long pants or long-sleeved shirts--even though it was mid-December.
I've got to side with Michael Chabon here: We make plans...and god laughs.
Hoping everyone is keeping safe!
Oh, Peggy, you are the bravest person in the universe. SO honored to know you.
DeleteI pre-packed in 2017 when Santa Rosa lost 4,000 homes across the northern part of the city. There were actually about 5 fires going on around us and came within a couple miles of our house. Because we were ready to go, we actually didn't have to evacuate. But we learned a few things that year.
ReplyDelete1. Your fire-proof box will not survive the fire, so load it up with important paper and put it in the car first.
2. Digitize all your photos. We made a thumb-drive of all the family photos and gave them to each of our grown kids too.
3. You have the time now, take a tour of your house with a camera or phone in hand. Record everything you own, including those cluttered closets. Filling out insurance forms when you can't think straight will be easier.
4. I'm a stitcher so I have two large tote bags filled with projects I'm working on and lots of spare threads to work on ornaments for my granddaughters. They have to go with me.
5. Laptops and pads, with charging cables, need to go - we added 5x7 notepads and post-it notes to the bag in case there are lots and lots of meetings where you can't keep track of everything they are telling you.
6. Medications!!
7. And don't forget your spouse and pets.