by Lisa Bedford
If your pets aren’t used to traveling in a vehicle and, especially, confined to a crate, the time for that training is now. The more accustomed they are to entering a crate and traveling, the easier it will be when, or if, an evacuation ever happens.
In my home, I’ve designated my daughter as the one responsible for the pets in the early minutes of an evacuation. We’ve decided that the pets should be contained as quickly as possible to allow us to take care of all the details leading up to driving away. Since she is the one they trust most, she’s the logical person to take on this responsibility. Who in your family is most likely to have success containing and loading up the animals? Make that designation part of your evacuation plans.
Grandma’s and Grandpa’s emergency kits
Another specialized emergency kit is for elderly loved ones. Their needs will be different from yours and younger members of the family. Here are a few considerations as you prepare their kit.
What medications are they taking? Is it possible to get an extra 30-day supply, just in case getting to a pharmacy isn’t possible? Ask the doctor for a “vacation” prescription. If a medication needs to be kept refrigerated, that should be noted on a Last Minute List.
Following an evacuation, a visit may have to be made to a doctor or the hospital. Make a list of each medication, dosage, the name of the doctor who prescribed it, and contact information for the pharmacy. Keep this document with your own emergency kit if you’ll be the one in charge of transporting this family member and give a copy to Grandma, in case you get separated from each other.
Another list to create is one with the names and contact information for all doctors involved in the care of Grandma or Grandpa. Again, keep this list with your own emergency supplies and give a copy to grandparents, in case you end up either separated or not evacuating together. Make sure the names, specialties, and phone numbers for their doctors are in their cell phone, even if they can't use it someone can help them.
Is there medical equipment that will need to be included in the evacuation? If so, know how to pack up the equipment and have a plan for loading it into your vehicle.
If Grandma is healthy and independent, give her the gift of a well-stocked emergency kit. Include copies of her vital documents.
Have a plan for including Grandpa’s pet in your evacuation.
Spend some time with Grandma collecting the most important family heirlooms, photos, and mementos, things that would be devastating to her and the family if lost. If possible, pack those items together and place them with the emergency kits that are at the ready.
Include your elderly loved ones in your evacuation plans, including any rehearsals that you have planned.
Packing water
The basic rule of thumb when it comes to water is to keep on hand one gallon of water per person per day, unless you live in a hot, desert climate. In that case, I strongly recommend storing 2 gallons per person, per day.
Water weighs 8 pounds per gallon, which makes it difficult to transport when you’re traveling by foot. If you think your evacuation may very well include hiking to safety, a portable water filter (or two or three, if they are small) might be a better option. You can use it when you encounter streams, rivers, lakes, and other water sources.
Everyone in your group should have their own water bottle stored in their individual kit. If there’s a baby in the house, store purified water for mixing with baby formula, and mom, make sure you stay hydrated, especially if you’re nursing!
At least one emergency kit should contain a portable water filter. I have used and recommend the Life Straw, the Sawyer Mini Water Filter, and SteriPEN water purifiers. The latter use ultraviolet light to purify water.
I also recommend keeping a small bottle of unscented bleach in one or more kits, along with an eye dropper. It only takes 8 drops of bleach to purify a gallon of water. If the water is cloudy, use 16 drops. Hopefully your evacuation route will follow regular streets and highways where additional supplies will be available but having one or two methods for purifying water is a small addition to a pack but brings a lot of peace of mind.
If you are traveling by car, consider investing in a few Waterbricks. These contain 3.5 gallons of water each and only weigh about thirty pounds when full. The modular design means you can easily stack them in your vehicle.
Comfort items for stressful times
The purpose of an emergency kit is to help sustain you and your loved ones in an emergency. If your children have items used for comfort, such as a favorite blanket, stuffed animal, or doll, those are nearly as important as any other must-have in your kit. It may seem trivial, but these items can greatly ease a child's stress in a crisis and will make your job as a parent much easier. Conversely, a child without their favorite comfort object will be much more difficult to soothe and this will, in turn, increase the stress on you, the parent and on everyone else in the group.
This is even truer for many special needs kids whose comfort item(s) helps maintain their emotional and psychological balance.
Comfort items are more difficult to keep track of because children may leave them anywhere in the house. In an urgent evacuation, you will not have time to search through all the laundry to find your child's blankie. When push comes to shove, favorite toys will have to be left behind – your lives are certainly worth more than a stuffed animal – but be aware that it will come at a cost.
Beth, a young Survival Mom, tells the story of one of the most traumatic experiences in her life that occurred when her family had to run to catch a train. After the family was boarded and the train door closed behind them, her four-year-old had the biggest ever emotional meltdown because he had dropped his favorite toy on the train platform. Fortunately, they were able to retrieve it, but to this day, that experience is unforgettable!
Elderly parents may have some comfort items as well, particularly mementos of a lost loved one they cannot bear to be without or lose. If you can help it at all, bring those items with you. Have them pre-packed if they aren’t currently being used or displayed.
Case Study: Evacuating a special needs loved one
Lorraine is a good friend of mine and has told me a bit about her family’s evacuation plans. They have given this a lot of thought, more than most people, because her younger sister, Kay, is an adult with Down syndrome. They know that Kay will have a very difficult time handling the intense stress that can be a part of an evacuation.
At 47 years old, Kay is a moderate functioning, independent minded woman. She lives in a small, rural town with her parents. They’ve identified hurricane force storms and wildfires as their most likely foes and have planned accordingly.
Kay has been given a set of 4 specific instructions, along with the family’s code words, “Bug out!” She may not know exactly why they’re leaving or specifically where they’re going but she does know to do the following:
Get your emergency kit.
Gather your security items.
Take those out to the car.
Return to the house to help Dad get into car and then stay there with him.
Kay’s dad has mobility issues and will need extra help. This final task keeps her attention focused while Mom loads the car with everything else, secures the house, and then gets ready to drive away.
As Lorraine explained this plan to me, she emphasized the need to carefully consider the needs, abilities, and temperament of the special needs person. In the case of her sister, there are many security, or comfort, items she’s attached to, but her parents have made it clear that she probably won’t be able to bring all of them. “She’d bring her whole bedroom if she could!” Lorraine joked. Kay tends toward obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), which is something the family takes into consideration.
Several years ago I received an email from the worried mom of a young man who was significantly autistic. Like Kay, he was OCD but was the size of a grown man and impossible for his mom to physically handle when he became upset.
A situation like this poses a moral dilemma for parents and other loved ones, and there are no easy answers. Is it right to abandon the one they love and hope he or she survives so that the rest of the family can reach safety? Should one parent stay with the special needs family member while everyone else leaves?
The recommendation I gave to this worried mom is a decision that is ultimately between parent and the family physician. Consult with a doctor who knows your loved one well about a sedative that is as risk free as possible, yet effective, and keep several doses on hand. This is one of those "In case of emergency, break glass," solutions -- something used rarely and only in the most extreme scenarios, a life or death situation.
As well, pay close attention to anything and everything that triggers extreme emotional reactions. In the case of Kay, her family has taught her simple, structured steps in a non-threatening, unemotional setting and they have rehearsed them with her. They know that her security items hold high value with her, so they have included those items as part of her evacuation routine.
What can you absolutely, positively not leave behind?
A few years ago I found myself sitting in our living room with nothing to do. I gazed at bookshelves filled with books and souvenirs from our family’s travels, and the thought occurred to me, “If the house caught on fire, what would I grab first?” I spent some time reviewing each shelf, our stack of DVDs, and the contents of a few drawers and realized that there wasn’t anything in that room worth saving!
Over the next few days and weeks, I went through the same thought process in every other room, including our bathrooms! I ended up with a fairly short list of things that I couldn’t bear to lose. Eventually, most of those items made their way into a small safe, while others are still scattered around the house for various reasons.
A quick five-minute room scan is a great way to select your most important belongings well ahead of an urgent, panic-filled evacuation when decisions will be difficult, if not impossible, to make. Once you’ve determined which items you absolutely, positively cannot leave behind, then you can make plans for securing them. Those plans might include storing them in a safe or safe deposit box, adding them to your Last Minute Packing List, or, if they’re small enough, keeping them with your evacuation kits and supplies.
The important thing is to first identify them.
Spend just a few minutes scanning each room and going through cupboards, shelves, and cabinets. This will take less time than you think and you, like me, will almost certainly be shocked at how few things fall into this top priority category.
Everything you identify will probably fall into one of these three categories:
1. Vital documents
2. Items of value
Cash
Jewelry
Heirlooms
Precious metals
Firearms
Antiques
Collections
Art
3. Items of sentimental value
Photos and photo albums – Don’t forget framed photos on the wall. Those can be grabbed at the last minute and stashed in a plastic bin, cardboard box, or even a heavy duty plastic trash bag.
Memory box contents
Handmade treasures
Particularly treasured gifts
Sentimental collections, not of any particular monetary value
Others?
Ideally, find a safe place in which to store all these items and keep them near an exit point in your home. Vital documents can be stored together in a Grab-n-Go binder as well as scanned and stored electronically on a thumb drive or the Cloud via Dropbox or Google Drive.
If smaller items are already occupying space in a cupboard or are otherwise out of sight, you may as well store them together in a box or bin. Keep that box with your emergency kits so it will be ready to grab and go, whether your evacuation is urgent or planned.
There will be items that need to be itemized on your Last Minute Packing List, such as cash, firearms, and memorabilia. Indicate on the list where each thing will be stored for the evacuation and the person in charge of securing it.
The last minute packing list
No matter how well-prepared you may be, there will be items that simply cannot be packed until the very last minute. In the flurry of getting ready to leave the house, these vital items could be left behind if you don’t have a list posted in a handy place.
In addition to creating and posting the Last Minute List, you should include grabbing these items at the very last minute and assign individuals responsible for each one. Here are a few things that might be on your own Last Minute List:
Cash – In many instances, ATM machines and banks won’t be readily available. In many emergencies, with many people making withdrawals, ATM machines run out of cash quickly. Always have a few hundred dollars in small bills, $20 and smaller, in a handy location in the house. This gives you an advantage when purchasing gasoline, food, or paying for a hotel.
One Survival Mom told me about purposely withdrawing $500 per day in the days leading up to a hurricane evacuation. She said, “When we returned, the banks and ATM machines in our town weren’t operating yet. That cash gave us the means to purchase what we needed from stores and businesses that managed to reopen.”
Medications – Any prescription or over-the-counter medications that cannot be pre-packed in your emergency kits should be added to your Last Minute Packing List.
Medical equipment – This includes wheelchairs, walkers, CPAP machines, a nebulizer, or a diabetic meter with test strips.
Equipment or supplies required by a special needs family member
Firearms and extra magazines and ammunition – Decide now what you will grab at the last minute. If you plan on taking a specific handgun with you, it’s a good idea to have it already packed in your bag, along with an extra couple of magazines and ammo.
Make sure that all other firearms are in a heavy-duty gun safe in order to keep them safe from theft, fire, and flood while you’re gone. The safe should be bolted to the floor.
Appropriate clothing for current and forecasted weather conditions – In spite of pre-packing your emergency kits, you don’t know exactly what the weather will be like when the evacuation occurs or what to expect at your final destination. Such items could include rain gear, heavy duty coats, or even bathing suits.
Heirlooms and valuables – Ideally, these should already be in a fire-proof safe, if possible. Otherwise, know their locations around the house so they can be grabbed quickly. If they aren’t on display, then collect the valuables that are most important to you and store them in a portable, locked safe with your emergency kits. This will be one last thing to worry about grabbing as you leave the house.
Photo albums – Plan on grabbing those that have the most sentimental value. Again, keep them in a bin or other container with your evacuation supplies.
Small safes or strong-boxes – These likely contain important documents and, possibly, items of value. They should be in a location that is easily accessible and not so heavy that they can’t be carried.
Keep in mind that good quality safes are designed to withstand fire and water damage. You purchased them and filled them with important belongings for just such a time as this! Don’t risk your life trying to lug a heavy safe out of your home when seconds count. Leave it behind and trust that it will do its job.
Precious metals – Don’t leave these behind for burglars or Mother Nature’s fury. They can be very heavy so you might want to either store them in multiple smaller containers or assign the task of packing them to the strongest person in the family.
In general, I don’t recommend storing all your precious metals together in one location.
Vital electronics �
� Anything regularly used to keep personal and financial records should be included on your Last Minute List. If it’s a laptop, be sure to grab the charger. If time is of the essence and you only have a desktop computer, assign someone to unplug the CPU and pack it up.
12 All vital documents, including insurance policies, health records, passports, birth and marriage certificates – Create a Grab-n-Go binder in order to have all these in one location. You’ll find instructions for making your own binder on page 57.
13 Perishable foods – A cooler filled with fruit and other fresh, ready-to-eat foods will help you stay on your route longer and avoid stopping at fast food joints or convenience stores. You’ll get to your final destination more quickly. You also won't have to worry that rotting produce will damage your fridge.
14 Comfort items for family members – These could include favorite blankets, stuffed animals, and/or pillows. You may be tempted to leave these behind, but do so at your own peril!
15 Family pets and their supplies – In all the hustle and bustle of the evacuation, please don’t leave behind your pets to fend for themselves.
16 Camping supplies, just in case – You may be in an urgent evacuation mode with no real destination in mind, other than the hope of reaching a hotel by nightfall. With a tent, sleeping bags, and a few other camping basics, you’ll be equipped to set up your own temporary shelter. This also comes in handy if you end up at a relative’s home and there’s not enough sleeping room for your family.
17 School supplies – It would be such a shame for the kids to be displaced from home and school for several days, or longer, and not be able to continue their school work! So round up textbooks, assignments, pencils, and other supplies. This step will help a great deal in establishing a sanity-saving routine if your evacuation lasts more than a few days.
