[The Reaper]

I saw the same news breaking late last night, this morning it is the lead on CNN and FoxNews.

This brings up an important consideration.

If your plan was to remain in place during the disaster, and the situation forced you to evacuate, what would you do if you had anything from 1 minute to 1 day to prepare? Don't forget that looters might visit while you are out.

Do you have a plan and a prioritized list of things to grab on the way out? In many situations, you would be evacuating to a shelter, neighbor's house, or a family member's home, but what would you do if those were full?

A prudent plan would have a checklist of what to load (and what to do), in priority order, and family members would be knowledgable about the plan, their roles and their individual responsibilities.

Clearly, if you were evacuating prior to a disaster which could destroy your home, like a fire, flood, or hurricane, family mementos, photos, and other irreplacable items would be high on the list.

If the disaster were just a temporary evacuation, people would still need the basics that we discuss here.

It might not be a bad idea to get a storage container or three and consider loading it up with the usual camping type gear (bearing in mind the lifting capability of various family members and cubage capacity of the various vehicles), and keep it in an easily accessible place near the vehicles.

Logical things to consider putting in the bug-out kit might be a first aid kit (complementary to the one you should already have in your vehicle, as with most of these items), personal meds for family members, possibly protective masks and gloves, if you have them and anticipate that sort of airborne problem, spare ammo for the weapons you bring with you (and at least one .22LR pistol or rifle), non-lethal weapons, a tent or tarp and sleeping bags (or just have everyone grab theirs from a common closet on the way out), an old blanket or three, a couple of sets per person of old, but servicable clothes, several changes of underwear, a pair of boots per person, bug spray, flashlights or lanterns with spare batteries, butane lighters, fire starting material, a camp stove, if you have one, some bottled water, water bladders and canteens, water purification of your choice, some basic camping type cookware, paper plates, cups, and flatware, storable food (MREs are fine, if your family will eat them, as are freeze dried meals), snack food with extended shelf life, a small shovel or e-tool, some rope, an axe, at least one multitool, like the Leatherman (no Chinese knockoffs), at least one GOOD flashlight per person with spare bulb (if not LED) and batteries, toilet paper, toiletries, and personal hygiene items, cell phones and chargers (especially car chargers), FRS/GMRS or other walkie talkies, with rechargable batteries, a solar panel, at least one whistle per person, a good radio, preferably with shortwave capability, spare batteries, a signal panel, a mirror, flares, an inverter, a small generator, if you have one, spare gas cans and fuel for the stove, a tool set (mostly mechanical and automotive, some carpentry), several cans of fix-a-flat, some fuel conditioner, a tire plug kit, detailed local maps (I recommend the Gazeteers) and adjoining state maps (at least an atlas), a compass or two, a GPS, if you have one, binos, perhaps a bike or two, if you have room, a come-along, a prybar, a chainsaw (if you have space, with mixed gas, spare oil, and a chain file), a good knife per adult, cards, dominos, board games, Game-Boys, laptop computer, etc.

Storing this in containers or in rucks with a combat crossload (or at least bringing a few spare rucks) would be best. This list was not all inclusive, but was just what popped into my head in the last few minutes that would cover a wide variety of emergencies. Better to have and not need, than to need and not have.

Obviously, there needs to be a plan, and everybody needs to know what it is and their role in it. You need to designate a near rally point (like a trusted neighbor's house), and a far rally point (like a grandparent's house) which would be out of the danger zone. A beach house might be a poor idea, due to issues with weather related problems. Everyone needs to have all of the commo plan memorized, like cell numbers, and you need to designate a phone number well out of the area, again, like a parent or grandparent where everyone can call to check in.

Evacuate early, or be prepared for problems, to include impassable evacuation routes (refer to Katrina and Rita evacuations for examples).

Hope this helps. I guess we are done with water discussions. The links are good and should be printed out and kept in a notebook, or at least saved to the hard drive. On to food and cooking.

TR