What would you grab in an emergency?

[YadaYadaYada]

Note: This isn't making light of the evacuations and people who have lost all their belongings from recent storms.

I asked the DH this question in the car and he said "I guess my clothes". I was surprised because he is a hardcore gamer but I guess game systems won't get you anywhere when you have nothing. This is of course assuming you have gotten your children (if any), other family members or friends and pets out safely.

What would you be sure comes with you in an absolute emergency?

 

[monarch64]

My kid. Seriously, that's it. I learned a long time ago that nothing tangible that isn't human or breathing matters and can be replaced, or I still have memories of it. I've lost things and been heartbroken about them in the past. I don't do that anymore, now I'm at a place in life where I feel like my priorities are in line with what truly makes me happy.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

That's a great outlook Monarch. What really triggered this is my neighbors parents who live in FL are refusing to evacuate because they don't want to lose everything they have
Maybe with the new path and evacuations they will hopefully change their minds!

I would still make an attempt to get my external hard drive with all the kids pictures on it if I could. In an evacuation where there is time, I would also grab my mother's doll that was given to me when she died. Both are in the same area.

If the house is engulfed in flames though I would just be thankful to get all living creatures out safely. That in itself would be an undertaking.

 

[Phoenix]

My cats!

 

[Arcadian]

The dog and my purse.

 

[missy]

Greg and all 4 kitties.

When Sandy happened my elderly parents refused to evacuate as they didn't want to leave the house and their animals. They put themselves in great danger. Very foolish. They could have come to us with their animals. They wouldn't leave their home.

 

[lyra]

My wallet, obviously my pets, and I can't think of anything else. I suppose if I were smarter, I'd have photos backed up on a couple of flash drives. Maybe I'd bring a laptop? I don't know. I'm not attached to anything material we have, but I'd want to be in a comfortable outfit with comfortable shoes. Crap, I'd need my meds! That's a ton right there, lol. Basically I hope to never be in this situation because I'd rather just stay home under the covers.

 

[Scandinavian]

Children, family, dogs, phone. I'll beg/borrow/steal the rest.

 

[Calliecake]

Husband, dog, phone. Phone to contact loved ones.

All things can be replaced.

 

[Rhea]

This was asked on my immigration forms recently. Most of us had a similar answer.

My ID. I emigrated a bit ago and while it was a straight-forward process my citizenship papers and passports are my most precious possession. They are expensive to replace and without them I might not be able to prove my right to live and work in another country.

Without proof of right to reside here I am not entitled to benefits, rent a property, work or anything else. I'm in government databases and could reorder them but that's not the same as having them immediately accessible. I've read horror stories of people in Grenfell Tower* having trouble without documents.

*large tower block fire in West London in June 2017 which left at least 80 people dead and 151 homes destroyed.

 

[TooPatient]

We can fit our animals in the car but that about does it. We have a specific list of pre-prepared items if time and space permit, but if all we got was us and our animals nothing else matters. 4 cats and 2 dogs (plus a foster dog right now)...

I have been using some combination of Verizon cloud, Google cloud, and Microsoft cloud to keep backups of my most important pictures.


In whatever room we have to shove stuff (or 2nd load if time to do so safely):
Emergency box (animal food for several days, basic 1st aid, maps of back roads, etc)
Camping basics box (tent, 1st aid, fire starting)
Guns & ammo (protection and hold value so easy to sell to gunshop for cash to get other stuff)
My quick grab jewelry (planned as one quick grab to have sentimental stuff in a hurry)

 

[Ariadne_Theia]

I've evacuated several times for wildfires so I kinda have the plan down. Papers (ss card, birth certificate, etc), my jewelry box, a week's worth of clothes (priority to the sentimental ones, my grandma's sweater etc), computer, wallet (cash and cc's), a few sentimental items (a shadow box, a book, a few trinkets from family that has passed on).

Obviously, if my house caught fire in the middle of the night, I wouldn't have time for all that but usually with wildfires and other evacuations, you have at least 10-15 minutes to grab things. This year in the west looks to be bad for wildfires as it's bad now and we aren't in peak season yet. So around now is when I walk around the house and make a mental list of what would get packed.

For us, voluntary evacuation means everything gets packed and sits by the doors. When it's mandatory, we move everything to the car and move out. Though, my dad has been known to stay despite mandatory evacuations. He's very stubborn, we've tried to reason with him and most of the time we lose and leave without him. The times that the fire was the worst, he came with us though. Since he just got his house redone, I worry that this year he wouldn't leave if he had to. Hopefully, it won't come to that.

 

[Begonia]

Husband, sons, bird, wallet, and depending on how much time, some paperwork and photos.

Birdseed!

 

[OreoRosies86]

Kids, Oreo, cat carrier, phone.

 

[Jambalaya]

I had an absolute emergency per your criteria and what I learned is that I wouldn't grab anything except my purse and keys, and I only got those because they were sitting on a shelf directly next to the door. I would just run, in what I was wearing. Didn't even grab my grandmother's ring which was in a room just to the left of the door. No time to fish it out of my jewelry box - I needed to GO!

 

[YadaYadaYada]

You know after Harvey there were so many pictures of the animals people left behind it's comforting to see how so many in this thread put them right behind the spouse or kids. They are family afterall!

Wouldn't have thought to bring the phone but Callie made a good point about using it to contact family. Also the purse or wallet because in an emergency you need money as well as possibly a passport or immigration papers as Rhea mentioned.

Of course I would take all of my pets but up until this post I wouldn't have thought to grab the food

 

[marcy]

My dear husband, my purse, a teddy bear and bottled water.

 

[Hayley87]

Aside from the obvious (husband, kids, cats), anything else would be "wants," not "needs." The first "want" that comes to mind is the audio tape in my dresser: when my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he recorded himself singing the lullaby he sang to me every night since I was a baby, so I'd always have it. He also wrote my name on the tape, so I have my name in his handwriting.

My ID. I emigrated a bit ago and while it was a straight-forward process my citizenship papers and passports are my most precious possession.

Glad I'm not the only one with that instinct! It's been over 10 years since I've been out of the country, but when I was in the U.K. with best friends at the end of my teen years, we were awoken in the middle of the night by the hotel's fire alarm. After we had all evacuated outside into the chilly pre-dawn rain and stood around for ages, it turned out to be a minor trashcan fire. BUT, as soon as the alarm went off, as delirious and tired as I was, I was shouting "PASSPORTS! PASSPORTS!" at my friends We were outside in pajamas, clutching our passports and little else.

 

[december-fire]

StephanieLynn,

This is a great topic!

In the past, I've only imagined scenarios in which there is only time to save kids and pets. Given Harvey, and now Irma and company , I've thought about this enough to realize that I'd waste time wondering what to take, assuming that all people and pets are out safely and there is time to grab a few things. Its definitely best to have thought about this in advance. I need to think about this further and take steps to have important documents, etc., in one spot.

Aside from documents, I'd want to take sentimental items that can't be replaced. I have a portable hard drive for backup purposes, so grabbing that would be a good idea and something I hadn't thought about. It can hold lots of photos, documents, scans of passport/birth certificate/credit cards/insurance papers/etc. If there was a day notice, I'd want to grab laptop, cameras, and artwork. Yeah, the artwork would be the most difficult to pack. I have some large original artwork. Can't be replaced. Going forward, I'll just get jewellery. So much easier in terms of packing; just wear it.

@Hayley87 , the audio tape your Dad made is so incredibly special. Definitely something you'll treasure always.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Aside from the obvious (husband, kids, cats), anything else would be "wants," not "needs." The first "want" that comes to mind is the audio tape in my dresser: when my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he recorded himself singing the lullaby he sang to me every night since I was a baby, so I'd always have it. He also wrote my name on the tape, so I have my name in his handwriting.



Glad I'm not the only one with that instinct! It's been over 10 years since I've been out of the country, but when I was in the U.K. with best friends at the end of my teen years, we were awoken in the middle of the night by the hotel's fire alarm. After we had all evacuated outside into the chilly pre-dawn rain and stood around for ages, it turned out to be a minor trashcan fire. BUT, as soon as the alarm went off, as delirious and tired as I was, I was shouting "PASSPORTS! PASSPORTS!" at my friends We were outside in pajamas, clutching our passports and little else.

Hayley, it is so wonderful that your father made that tape for you. I was going to suggest you might want to have a copy made or transfer it to a CD but if it was me I wouldn't trust anyone with it since it holds such sentimental value.

 

[dk168]

My cat and dog, car keys and wallet.

DK

 

[ksinger]

Dog, husband, phone, meds, jewelry (I have a compact little case I keep the good stuff in), underwear and socks, external hard drive with passwords, pics, other backups, etc.

Living in OK, in the spring it's best to have a bag already packed with those items, or most of them. I tend to want to run rather than stay put, a leftover from my childhood of spending most of the spring at my aunt's house, where they had a storm/bomb shelter. Of course the trick here, is knowing when to run. Wait too late and it's better to sit tight. Most people wait too late. One of our local on-air weather guys - in this case an idiot - told people to run away rather than hunker down, from a large tornado, and they panicked (everyone around here is primed for full-bore panic at the weather nowadays, since it's often delivered with a Jaws soundtrack) and they did, clogging up the roads. Then the tornado did something very unusual, it turned south and hit the people on the road the were using to flee. Some died. He never got strung up for his crap "advice", but he should have.

We still don't have a shelter here (it's a long story) and I'm usually running from impending giant hail. We get some truly whopper hail storms here, and I'll be damned if I'm going to replace 4 windshields and have my vehicle look like the lunar landscape again.

 

[Queenie60]

My two dogs and husband. If time, a few other treasures.

 

[rockysalamander]

House on fire? Cats, DH, DS and nothing else.

10 minutes to get out and DS, DH and cats are safe first?...cash (we have a stash), RX meds, wallet, first-aid kit with epi-pen and key OTC meds and iodine capsules to purify water, wallet, hiking boots with wool sox for all, and smartwool/thermal shirts for all three of us, water bottle, warm coats, sunglasses for me, compass...all stuffed in backpack. Sounds like a lot, but they are in our mudroom by the door.

15 minutes? high-energy snack bars, rain coats, wool hats and gloves .

Edited to add. DH would add waterproof matches and flashlights (again, all by the door) and instant coffee.

 

[ksinger]

House on fire? Cats, DH, DS and nothing else.

10 minutes to get out and DS, DH and cats are safe first?...cash (we have a stash), RX meds, wallet, first-aid kit with epi-pen and key OTC meds and iodine capsules to purify water, wallet, hiking boots with wool sox for all, and smartwool/thermal shirts for all three of us, water bottle, warm coats, sunglasses for me, compass...all stuffed in backpack. Sounds like a lot, but they are in our mudroom by the door.

15 minutes? high-energy snack bars, rain coats, wool hats and gloves.

Oops. Yeah, the "house cash, which sits with our passports. Gads, I nearly forgot. DH would not though. Handy stuff in a pinch, cash.

 

[rockysalamander]

Oops. Yeah, the "house cash, which sits with our passports. Gads, I nearly forgot. DH would not though. Handy stuff in a pinch, cash.

Absolutely. Cash is the key thing to grab. We keep our stash in a metal box just to keep the mice out while it is stashed. I have a money belt in the same container.

 

[doberman]

My cat and dog first. The cash and passports in the safe next. Wallet and flash drive to follow. Then if I had time I'd grab a few photo albums from the stone age in the days before digital.

 

[AprilBaby]

Passport, meds, spare underwear, bling.

 

[Calliecake]

@Hayley87 You post moved me to tears. Your dad knew how important the tape would be to you. I'm so sorry you lost your dad honey. He sounded like a wonderful father.

 

[LLJsmom]

my kids...