Last week we threw together a half-dozen “go bags” as we had a large brush fire lighting off less than two miles from us. We were lucky and it burned away from us (a bit over 1,000 acres) and we never had to evacuate. But we were ready.
Mine are still there because we’ve had one “Red Flag” warning after another for the past two weeks. No more fires near us, but as long as they’re ready, why pack and unpack as needed?
I think by this weekend I’ll be able to put the cameras and laptops back on the shelf, as well as refiling all of the passports, tax returns, birth certificates, and so on.
The three days of “emergency” clothing? Let’s keep that loaded and ready to go, I’ve got plenty of spare shirts, socks, jeans, and whatever.
In the closet we have the five standard family bug out bags (two adults, three kids back in the day) that are filled with FAST evacuation needs, presumably in the event of a major earthquake. Thus the hard hats, whistles, rope, gloves, water, snacks… If the 6-10 brushfire go bags are being tossed willy-nilly into the back of cars as the flames approach, these will be next.
It’s also been a good exercise in thinking about additions and next steps. The world has changed since I first put these bags together. Now I want to make sure that I can re-charge our phones, so some portable batteries, cables, headband LED lights and that sort of thing all need to be added. But I’ll want them all to be fully charged if the shit hits the fan, so I’ll have to find a place to line up five of each, keep them charged 24/7, and then when we get the “GO!” signal, pull them and drop one in each bag.
It’s also given me a chance to think about what’s next if we have ten minutes to bug out instead of three minutes. Boxes of pictures, artwork, signed editions of books, the computer boxes (ignore the monitors and mice and keyboard and anything you can buy in two seconds at Target).
Plan ahead.
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 