Emergency Go-bag

by Alisa

Mom recently had to leave home quickly due to a fire in her condo complex. She grabbed her purse and keys and headed out while the fire department secured the building. She was lucky to get back with no problems in about two hours, but the quick exit did bring preparedness to the forefront of our minds.  

There are many good resources out there for both go bags of critical items you would want to take with you in an emergency exit, and also for emergency kits of things you should have in your home to use during disaster situations. I'd been seeing information on these for ages and meant to put some items together so this was a push I needed. We started with Go Bags.

An emergency go-bag is a portable package of critical items you might need if you have to leave your home quickly. There are various lists and suggestions; and much of this will be very personal to your situation. I found this NYT article "Is your Go Bag Ready?" useful.  

Here's what we did to create a small pouch with items that would be needed in a quick exit:

Gather

• Fireproof & Waterproof Pouch 
• Personal Documents (Passport, birth certificate, Social Security Card)
• Important Documents (ie. mortgage, car title, bank info, social security card...)
• Spare Keys
• Prescription Medications
• Glasses
• Phone Charger
• Emergency Cash
• Phone numbers of family and friends

    Things to consider:

1. What would be helpful if you had to be away from home for hours or days.  
• I chose to include copies of some of my important documents rather than the items themselves - I'm optimistic that most documents can be recreated if needed and I prefer to keep them in safe storage at home. 
2. What information on your phone (tablet, etc) would you need if your phone was inaccessible? I don't know a single phone number for any of my family members so a list of numbers and addresses seemed like a good addition.

Store 

Once you have gathered your items and placed them into your container, you'll need to decide where to store it. We both decided on our entry closets for quick access when grabbing coats and purses to head out.

Maintain

Once you have created these systems for yourself you need to keep them updated. Put a reminder on your calendar to review the contents - update documents & medicines, charge up your jump box, and refresh those snacks in the Subie!

Extend

While we were working on the Go Bags the 24-hour winter traffic jam happened in Virginia and made it obvious that keeping a few supplies in the car is a good idea. We packed reusable grocery bags with the following items to keep in the car:

• Blanket
• Water
• Snacks
• Emergency Whistle
• LED flares 
• Extra phone charger
• nice to have - a jump/charge box for starting dead car battery or charging small electronics.  

Next up - that bin of emergency supplies!