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Pad Patter: 8/27 - Evacuation?

Angie4b1g

Angie4b1g

A hundred jobs but Bob Villa ain't one
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Feb 25, 2011
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In light of Isaac, I got to wondering... have you ever had to evacuate for anything? Storms/Fires/etc? What do you take with you? Where do you go?

I live in Ohio, and before that Michigan, so I have never experienced any of that. We just hide in our basements.

Hugs to those of you who have to live through that, must be super scary to leave your house behind like that!
 
We are never evacuated....Thank God!.....but we're watching what happens in south Louisiana as my grandmother, aunts & uncles, cousins...they're all down there.
 
Here in Florida people get evacuated all the time but mainly on the coasts and those living in mobile homes. I'm lucky enough to live smack dab in just about the center of the state. People take sleeping bags, some clothes and toiletries and water. They turn churches and schools in shelters here. During the 3 hurricanes in a row year we had a few years back, my dad insisted we leave my house for his (he lives on water, like that was a smart idea). We had my dad, stepmom, me and two kids, my best friends and their daughter, my dog, 2 cats, their two dogs and fish all in Daddy's house. We had no power for 3 days and had to pee in a porta-potty in the garage as the septic tank flooded. I remember bagging sand bags in a neighbor's yard in the driving rain to try to keep water out of the garage.

Turns out my house didn't even lose power! So for the third hurricane a month later, I stayed home (where there was A/C)! I think I need to scrap this one.

I can't imagine what it would be like to live on the coast in the path of one of these powerful things. I feel for anybody who is worried for themselves or family. I hope it slows down and just gives us a lot of much needed rain. Everyone be safe!
 
Never been evacuated for anything here either. Though we always keep a close eye on hurricanes because my uncle and his kids live on the Alabama coast. Oh, fun tidbit, my mother-in-law, one of her daughters (with her daughter also) are moving down to Florida this week. Wonder if that's still happening...
 
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I used to live in Utah where you only evacuate if their are fires, and we lived in a pretty secluded valley and never saw fires get that close. This year though they are getting close to my parents house :( We now live on the Texas coast. We have an evacuation plan intact with 72 hours kits at the ready. In the three years we've lived here we have never had to evacuate. We were getting a bit concerned Isaac may shift our way, but that isn't going to happen. At most we will get rain. Hope everyone in Florida is doing well!
 
We have never had to evacuate yet, but I grew up near the base of Mt. Rainier so we had to do Volcano Evacuation drills every year in school....those were fun let me tell ya.
 
I've never been evacuated. We did have a flood at our apartment complex way back in the day though. We had to wade from our car that was left on high ground, through knee-high brown water to get to our apartment. I had to carry Jessica (who was like 6 or 7) at the time, and I was so freaked out about what could be in the water. Ugh.

But really I just came into this thread to comment about your pretty new avi picture. *rawr*
 
Nope, I'm a Wisconsin gal, so we head on down to the basement also! I don't envy those that have to experience evacuations... probably one of the only downfalls for those coastal living. Otherwise, the coast must be an amazing spot to live! :-)
 
No evacuations for me either. We rarely even have to head for the basement. I think maybe twice in my lifetime?

I sure hope that New Orleans is ready and that this one doesn't intensify like Katrina did!
 
I'm also in Ohio, so there's never been much of "leaving," it's usually just curling up in the basement for a few hours if there's a tornado.

We did have to evacuate from Sanibel Island once, on vacation... that was fun, actually. Everybody remembers that vacation!
 
I'm like Stacy, we live right in the middle of the state of Florida so we never have to evacuate. People come here from the coastal areas.
 
No evacuations here either, but I'm very familiar with the heading to the basement drill. Where I lived in Arkansas growing up so many of my neighbors had storm shelters (nobody in our neighborhood had basements), so I've spent a fair amount of time in those as well.
 
nope...I've never had to evacuate. I've had friends that have had to for fires around here, but we live where it shouldn't be a problem.
 
We lived on the Gulf Coast for a good long spell so we've had to evacuate for hurricanes more than once. Once it was just me and DG so the process was a lot "easier" than it was when we've had to evacuate with Bugga and animals in tow too. The trickiest aspect of evacuation has always been finding a place that was pet friendly...the pet friendly options fill up FAST.

Each time we have, we looked at the track of the hurricane and picked a spot north and west of predicted landfall (as that is the "dry" side of a hurricane and *typically* less dangerous). And we would make sure our home was secure and ready for our return...stocked up with supplies, water, candles, tarps, generator ready and radio and such.

As for what to take with us we always approached it in a what are the top priorities kind of way. We made sure we had enough clothes and whatever necessities (it's been diapers, dog food, things like that). We carry copies of all our most important records. And we would always take our vital computer bits (laptop and/or tower plus EHDs) plus the camera because that's where all our important documents and memories live.

Hope anyone who is having to evacuate is feeling ok! Lots of well wishes and hugs and prayers! :beat
 
We had to evacuate for 3 days during the Great San Diego Fires in October 2007. Woke up one morning and the fires were coming our way. Filled up a Ford Explorer with computers, photos and memorabilia, some clothes, and got out. Learned some lessons from that and from now on we have online backup, and all the important things are in bins in a location together so we can just grab them and go.
 
I don't really remember, but there was a fire in the apartment next to us when I was very little. My parents told me the next day about how we had to go outside in the middle of the night. I think this is why I have such a fear of fire. I won't even light a match!
 
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