What would you pack in a disaster? Are you ready?

We started talking about what some of us took with us when we were evacuated recently because of fire. Also, how we would prepare to be ready when something else happens - because it will. Doesn't matter whether it's wind, rain, fire, snow, or power outage - something's gonna get after you somehow, someway. So, what have you done? I'll start with the normal:

Insurance papers - having them in hand makes things smoother.
Vet insurance info for pets
Medicines

New thread...thanks,K. We did take the papers and camera and DH took his 12-string, don't know exactly what all he took. DS really didn't take much, surprisingly. We could have taken 2 trailers, but didn't. Could have loaded suitcases onto the Cherokee's rack, but didn't.
Scan the photos onto cd...good idea...good project for the DS. I heard a gentleman at the market mention that his wife had 35 photo albums!
One of my best friends bought a beautiful fringed suede jacket a couple of moths ago.....I think it was about $300 and didn't take it with her when she left. That surprised me..she loved that jacket. Rosa, if you're reading this....I can't believe you left that jacket!!!! Made me feel very materialistic. Her DH took the bicycle that had belonged to his brother who was killed a couple of years ago and his grandmother's rosary...that and their 2 dogs. I don't think they took much else. We took a lot of bottled water. We were so lucky..we headed out to Temecula- Murrieta area and got a motel in Lake Elsinore. Friends who evacuated to Camp Pendelton spent 5 days sitting in a parking lot with their 2 dogs and cat. Some insurance agencies such as Allstate had a locating service and found our friends a motel close that would take their 2 dogs also. The insurance agencies that cover this allow you 2 weeks, I believe. Ours does. You might want to check with your insurance and know this beforehand. 5 days in a motel is better than 5 days in a parking lot.

Cash and checks, credit cards if possible (most are in the wallsafe, we don't carry them around)
Insurance papers
Medications
Address book

Water is an excellent idea!

I have a portable fireproof safe where I keep important documents relating to credit card accounts, things like that. Then I have a small earthquake kit that I keep in my car, and a larger earthquake kit in a plastic box in the garage (hopefully the garage doesn't collapse on top of it before I can get to it!) Next up I'd try to grab medications (mine & the dog's), dog food, granola bars and other portable non-perishable food and extra water if possible. Then my laptop and some clothes. I also always keep a pair of comfy walking shoes in the car in case something happens while I'm at work in my nice uncomfortable heels.

My daughter, my dogs, my laptop, my camera.

I don't mean to make it so simple sounding but there is very little paper-wise that either exists in the hands of my friend who is my insurance agent or my mother in Texas who has copies of all of the pix, birth certificates and back ups of insurance stuff.

All that and I have a 1,500 sq. ft house full and a barn full of stuff. Makes me think more about how I have more to get rid of then need to save.

Of course if I had a few hours notice I would pack in my grandma's fake pink pearls (hanging where ever I took them off the last time), my 3 dead doggies who were cremated and live in the linen cupboard, the entry hall table my brother built before he died with my dad and probably a few of the mermaids that I had for Henri when she was little.

I think that Henrietta, the dogs and I would miss the huge number of windows and the sun that comes through them, the funny 1930's chair that she used to curl up to take her naps, our cowboy boot collection and my tie dye yellow and red curly lamb bedspread that is fun to roll in.

That said, I am resolved now after all this to get together earthquake kits and extra water for us. Food-wise we are always prepared with tons of my paranoia purchases.

Well, then I think for darn sure I'd try to take that chair, the cowboy boots and the curly lamb bedspread. There are certain things that say 'Home'...I think I'd probably have to have the pink pearls and the table, too. Do you own a truck? These are not so many items to save...it's do-able.

Oh, Sherry! I drive a 2 seater with a fast little hatchback with a dog guard so nope, once we get out of traffic I can be home to dad in NM in -12 hours because I can do 100+ but everything else other than the fake pearls and maybe a couple of pairs of boots would be left.

As the child and grandchild of pioneer Westerners, California is just something that you do if you are lucky enough to do for a bit and so a lot of the illusions that I hold about this beautiful place would be wonderful memories if we decided to return home to family.

I don't mean to offend any natives or transplants who have built roots here. For us though, if it got that bad, we also love our drought ridden ranch home where there are struggles as well but we have family there.

Are you kidding? I'm a native..keep leaving and coming back....but the Santa Anas are on their way back and I'd sell this house and be gone tonight if possible. Far too many people with matches and brains the same size.

Great posts.
I'm in earthquake country (Hayward Fault). Last year I purchased five, 5 gallon buckets, with lids from HD. My job for last year was to pack needed items for DH and dogs and me. The job is still not done, though I think about it most days. Part of my problem is where to store these buckets. Inside the house doesn't sound feasible. Property is on a slope, so I'm unsure of where would be safe outdoors. I have one of those food saver vacuume appliances, so medical items, and dog food is packed. I did call the Red Cross asking about needed canine items. Their response was less than ideal. Food, water, and meds are obvious. I have vet wrap, leashes, and bowls. It might be a great idea for input on further items that we all may overlook. My job for the winter is to put my thousands of photographs on CD's and photograph every item of any worth that we own. Two copies of everything are needed, one copy to be sent to someone who does not live in CA.
I thought of many of you who post regularly and are in the fire area. I hope you are all doing okay with what has been happening.

This message was edited Oct 28, 2007 11:35 PM

You know, I was really okay with it. There's a fire, we might lose the house,we're outta there,that's okay. But,coming back,putting things away and the thought of the possibility of immediately having to go through the same thing again does have me freaked. Anymore it seems as though it's not like a natural disaster that may or may not happen, it is almost guaranteed that come dry Santa Ana weather there will be idiots setting fires. How can you deal with that? Can't sell and leave 'cause I would bet it would take a good many years of no fires for people to want to voluntarily move here after this.

I like the 5 gallon bucket idea

I do, too.

Yes, but water does need to be freshened occasionally, that is my problem - keeping track of things and rotating supplies. Everything goes bad after a while, so I try to keep things that we would eat anyway.

I did fill a lot of empty water bottles as we were packing, tap water for miscellaneous uses and R/O filtered water for consumption.

What I forgot was the family (elephant) milk jug that is about 60 years old - won't do that again! And a piece of jewelry I bought in Ireland I would hate to lose.

I also just put everything away and now I'm reconsidering. Think we'll just shove it all in a corner and wait a while.

When my kids were in Junior High School I organized earthquake stuff in a tin shed at the back end of the house. About 3 months later I decided I should go back and check what was there. My girls had sneaked in over time and devoured all the snacks.

Arlene...How long before the kids could set down again..? LOL Jo

I'm putting my pictures on my flash drive that I keep on my key chain with my house and car keys. I also send them to myself at my gmail account - almost 3 gigs of free storage in a gmail account! I know that when my GF evacuated Fallbrook for the previous fire storm (2003?) - she took all the pictures off the walls of the house.

I also make sure to share all my historical photos with cousins. I have some that were restored and I made duplicates for everyone. The cousin I collaborate with on family history lives in Florida, so we send things to each other for safekeeping. I've had so many backups fail, I believe in redundancy!

RR
I finally quit restocking the Earthquake Kit and that put a stop to those girls.

LOL Arlene. Jo

I have a wooden box, or rather tray, with about 6 " sides that goes in the back of the Cherokee...behind the back seat. Because the DH knows my penchant for carrying plants and this keeps the inside of the car clean. He also made me a larger one for when the back seat is folded down because he also knows that given a chance I will carry home as many plants as I can! Not that I've counted, but it will hold 42 1-gal pots..lol.....
I've decided that the rear seat will stay folded down and the large wooden tray will stay in there all of the time, plastic folded beneath it to whip out quickly and the large wire animal crate stays assembled and under an awning close to the car so that there's no question about getting my cats in first and ready to roll. And there;s going to be a separate area, perhaps one storage shed, that will have everything in it and ready to grab..the 5-gallon buckets is good...foodstuffs.
And in the meantime it's a lovely fall afternoon here, I'm going to barbecue and for those of us who didn't lose our homes, this will pass and we'll all be lulled into not worrying about it. Things actually went pretty well and pretty quickly for us this time, but we didn't have to leave knowing we might need to survive for a long time. We went and got a motel 25-30 miles away, not exactly roughing it. But now we need to focus on the always there possibility of going farther for longer and all that goes along with that.

Home from the doc with finger spliced back together. Should heal nicely, but she agreed it looked like a meat grinder was involved.

We are big on checklists, so I will make one for evac. It will help not to have to think about it at 1am when the sheriff comes by with his "whoop-whoop" siren.

Also, we were embarrassed not to have called more neighbors.

Buy more supplies for birds so we have dedicated emergency pack.

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Totally OT - just heard from a cousin in New Zealand we didn't know about. Very excited to share info with her about our Irish ancestors. Internet is wonderful!

How about including a telephone # check list of who to notify?

I must have missed that one,K...was it one of the birds chomping on your finger? Years ago while walking I found a cockatiel and it took me awhile to grab the little sweetie and when I did it bit.....REALLY hard and wouldn't let go. I was astonished that such a small bird could bring such major pain. Interesting, now that I think about it, I've been bitten by a squirrel and a monkey also. I think by now I'm very careful where I put those fingers.
I think the other thing is that I think I'm going to try from now on to always keep my gas tank pretty full. The morning of the day that we ended up having to evacuate we went into town for gas in two of the vehicles. I couldn't believe that we'd been busy the night before thinking about what things we would need if we had to evacuate and didn't think about gas. So the next morning there were chaotic lines at the gas stations and one was out of gas and the other running out. While we were evacuated I was doing a lot of running around back and forth and every time I got down to half a tank, I'd stop and fill up. Usually we have 5-gallon cans full here on the property for the mower, shredder,etc., but we'd not kept them filled lately. We'll make sure that we keep them full from now on. I saw on the TV the long line of people being evacuated out of Ramona in a long slow line and one guy saying he was running out of gas.

I've thought about the idea of keeping a more full gas tank too...unfortunately my good intentions have never actually turned into anything, I still find myself waiting until I'm below 1/4 tank! The other thing I'm planning but haven't done yet is to buy a gas grill and always keep an extra propane tank around for it, that way I can cook and boil water if the power goes out. I'm more worried about being prepared for earthquakes than fires--we do have fires around here, but they're mostly smaller and there's not as much chance for them to get going out of control as in some other places. But I live almost on top of the Calaveras fault and not too far from the Hayward, so earthquakes are definitely a major consideration!

Well we just had a big quake!!!!

I am about 5 miles from epicenter, preliminary magnitude 5.6. It knocked stuff off shelf, felt very strong, lamp still swinging slightly.

This message was edited Oct 30, 2007 8:18 PM

Just now? Start packin', girl ! ! ! lol.......convoy heading out of California in one hour.
Seriously, I hope not tooooo big............

Poor cat and pups all freaked, cat still slinking around. And I was just telling someone Sat. that Oct is earthquake weather and we are due. It was very strong shaking and rolled for quite some time.

I keep refreshing this site to update the reports below the map
http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/122-37.html

Whoa...it zeroed right in on you, didn't it? I hope it's the only one. We've had a strange year.

Glad you're OK, Sue. That's a strong one when you're that close.

Sherry, I insisted DH fill my car Monday morning for just that reason. I used "the voice" when I suggested it. :-)
The macaw really suffered from evac. She's been abandoned in the past and all that moving around brought it back, we think and she blamed it on DH. Plus it's hormone season. :-( First time in a year and a half she's bitten, but it was a doozie! Cockatiels are known for getting you right on the cuticle - ouch! Sweet little guys, though.

Boy, what a hard jolt! I was sitting in my chair next to the sliding glass door and it about threw me through the glass! Scared me and the dog in my lap pretty good! Think I better move my chair until the aftershocks pass. Sheesh, scary!

Heck, you guys stay away from glass up there!

I wondered about that,K. I wouldn't think they would take well to being moved about like that. She hasn't had a chance to get 'settled' anywhere.
I wonder if you'll have anymore quakes..I'm afraid we may get more fires....wanta trade places?

Amazing how far people felt them. I just heard a radio caller say they were in that Alum Rock area probably with a mile or two of the epicenter in Target and ceiling tiles started falling and people and kids started screaming and running for the doors.
I had things that fell off shelves, hanging lamps really swung back and forth, it seemed to last about 5-10 seconds. I would say that was the second strongest I have ever felt.

30% chance of a strong aftershock within the next 7 days

I felt it too, Sue, and I'm in San Pablo, at least 60 miles from the epicenter. It lasted 10-15 seconds here. Not bad, but I kept waiting for it to get worse. I don't feel many earthquakes here - this is only the second one for me in over 20 years. I was in San Francisco for the other big ones, way back when.

I felt it too, the shaking wasn't too bad, didn't knock anything over, but it did go on for long enough that I had time to think about whether I would be better off going downstairs to the ground floor or staying where I was on the top floor, or should I go stand in front of my nice new LCD TV to keep it from falling over if the shaking got worse!

The thing that makes me a little nervous--if you look at the earthquake map, there were several 3-ish earthquakes earlier today on/near the Calaveras fault towards the northern end of it, and then this big one also looked like it was on the Calaveras just farther south. I only live a mile or two from the fault so it makes me a bit nervous to see that much activity!

I think we're going to have a lot of rather 'twitchy' people for the next few days. In my mind I see caricatures of people with 'earthquake tics', 'fire tics', 'tornado tics', 'hurricane tics'

This was on the Southern Calaveras fault and that Northern one is also due but it's a different type, the Southern creeps and that Northern one doesn't so it may do a sudden release.
Then again, it may not.

I didn't realize the two halves were different like that. I wonder if there's any connection at all then between the smaller ones that happened earlier today around Concord/Alamo areas and this one? Do the north and south halves talk to each other?

Seismogram

Yes, in fact the north and south halves DID "talk" to each other - that's what caused the quake. The north half went south and the south half went north - when they collided it caused the earthquake. At least that's how the USGS explained it on Channel 4.