September is Emergency Preparedness Month

[jenn mccabe]

Such a great reminder!! My heart breaks for all those in the path of any devastation! And @amien1 it amazes me the lack of media coverage of all the fires! The only way I know anything about them is because of Facebook friends in those areas! You just never know where a disaster may strike and everyone should take a little time to get prepared, just in case!

I agree! I found out about all the wildfires through social media too- and I am not even a big social media person generally.

So much devastation and mother nature causing havoc everywhere - my heart goes out to all those suffering, worried and dealing with these situations.

Great post Julie! Such an important reminder. We kind of went through this inadvertently when prepping for our Ireland trip 2 months ago. I wanted everything in order for the house sitter and in case anything happened while we were away - so we are in pretty good shape.

 

[jenn mccabe]

Half my state is burning (Oregon) and we're covered in ash and smoke in Portland (from a devastating fire started by a teenager with fireworks) so this is on my mind every night as I'm trying to fall asleep. I run through it over and over. It's hard to relax when you can smell fire even when logically you know your home is probably safe.

We don't have a bag, though - that would probably calm my obsessing. Good ideas!

I can't imagine it Allison. Huge hugs to you guys. I smelled something smokey yesterday ... it was the faintest of smells and I'm pretty sure it was just the first fire of the season in some one's fireplace ... since it was super gloomy and chilly yesterday. That little touch of smokey smell caught me off guard ... so I can't imagine what you are going through knowing there are huge devastating fires and falling ash everywhere. I would not be able to sleep either.

 

[Meredith78]

We don't have a bag, though - that would probably calm my obsessing.

After the big fires here, I scanned all my important documents into Evernote and backed them up into Dropbox. I feel much better knowing that we can leave with literally just the clothes on our backs and still have everything we need in terms of important paperwork to start again immediately.

 

[Karen]

We have no such plan in place other than grab the kids and the EHD. It's so sad to see all of the fires and flood and storms still coming all over the US.

 

[klee73010]

I am so sad and anxious for all of the areas right now.
I, too, need to get a plan in place. I don't even have a list made anywhere of things I would want to grab, besides kids, EpiPen, and EHDs.
Digitizing the important documents seems brilliant, though I think you would still need the physical copies eventually.

 

[bestcee]

Digitizing the important documents seems brilliant, though I think you would still need the physical copies eventually.

Yes, you would. But depending on the document, it could be enough to help someone look it up in the office, or at minimum have the dates filed on them. With passports, they always tell you to leave a copy of the main page with someone not traveling with you, and to some countries, a copy with you. If your passport is stolen while abroad, you can use the copy as proof of citizenship. And some documents, you could print out the copy since some places require a copy of the document, not the original.

 

[Meredith78]

Some advice I once got that may help others: if evacuation looks imminent, lock pets in the laundry with their leads/carriers etc till it's time to go. They run and hide and you can lose a lot of precious time tracking them down. If they're contained, it's easier to grab them and get them to the car.

A friend's sister once spent fifteen minutes trying to track down their cat in the middle of a firestorm - he jumped out of the car when she tried to put him in it - and put herself in a great deal of danger. Fortunately she made it out and the cat turned up a few days later, once the front was past.

 

[berniek]

I live in a country where we don't have "real" natural disasters. Flooding is a possibility, but not where I live.
So I don't have emergency bags or plans. I do have a few liters of water stored. Plus I am the kind of person that buys in bulk, so I have a tiny stockpile. But that's about it. I have a small one bedroom apartment, I just don't have the space to have a proper emergency plan in place.
Once I move into a bigger house (please, I really want this to happen this year...) I will prepare a proper kit with food and water and more. And I will build a proper stock pile. Because I absolutely believe you have to prep for disasters. And I think it's realistic to expect I'm gonna experience a war in my country during my lifetime. I hope not, though.. Please let me be wrong and be prepared for nothing.

 

[cookingmylife]

@amien1 I read in today's paper that the Montana fires are burning an area as large as Maryland. That puts that in perspective for us in the smaller states. I think I will go over an emergency list while my dh is away this coming week. Things like that are easier to do when I have the house to myself. Thanks @Juliestcyr for that link. I also recall that FlyLady used to have a list of what to put in an emergency bag but I don't see it now on her website.

It's also a reminder for me to get all those layouts from the past 10 years up on Flickr. Uploading is easy since the done ones are in yearly folders. Ditto all my scans. While we are high enough above sea level in our part of Annapolis and on the police electricity grid (an unexpected benefit on our small street!), it's times like this that I make sure my tank is never less than 1/3 empty and that we have some bottled water. DH was grumbling about the two jugs of h2o I bought at the $ store....You know it's no better than our tap water! he said...Yes, but it's convenient - just in case.