so, what do you take with you?
 

thankfully fire season has been declared over up here in the CA foothills, I sleep a little bit better with the cooler nights and will have 4 beers instead of 2 knowing fire may not come over the mountain behind me.

it's suggested you have a "to go" bag packed with what you need to take if evacuated. there are different degrees of evacuation orders if fire is near you so you could have a half a day, or an hour to go. I have a clear idea of the paperwork I would need to take in a hidden safe and in some hanging files in my desk drawers. I also keep a half dozen of those lidded plastic totes so if i have the time to pack stuff if made to leave. I have a pick up with a couple different trailers i could load and tug with me.

so, I would likely grab some clothes, some wall hung photos, computer, my critters, their food, and then maybe who knows what else.?? time? room in your escape vehicle? how many trips you could make in & out of the house?

what would you take? my tools and motorcycles prolly would stay, would likely take the jeep on the trailer, after that how do you choose? I have no wife so it's all my choice..

1. In case of fire, Bugout bag with some clothes, shoes, enough cash for a few days, keys and a flash drive that is supposed to be updated every few months; Hopefully I'll have sense enough to grab the laptop, too.
If I can, and there's time, there's a safe that I'd like to get to with some personal effects, but I'm not risking my life for it.

What I should do is spend a few days taking digital images of the contents of the house and garage and outbuilding for insurance. I did the garage once, but it needs to be done again, and then the house. Copy all those images to the flash drive, too.

It's astonishing how much stuff we have and how much work it would be to settle with insurance after a total loss.

Best thing you can do. I need to do that all over again too

Family comes first. If time then
Wife’s hard drive with all pictures
My Epiphone archtop from 1941

I have almost everything on flash drives. I'd grab the important things from my small safe. If I had time, I'd load up my 6x16 ft. trailer and the van. The wife can drive her car. However, I might elect to try to stay. I have a great fire defense area (almost nothing to produce big heat within close to a hundred to two hundred feet), the house doesn't have eves, the exterior is stucco, tempered windows, etc. I might be a bit naive about that and might change my mind though depending on the circumstances.

Family, dog, the safe, wallet, phone. That’s about it. Everything else can be replaced because they’re insured.

Hurricane evacuation is a “thing” around here. Everyone is encouraged to have an evacuation plan and lists of what to take with you are plentiful. Two things I don’t think I heard mentioned here are your home insurance policy and your medications. Also I think hotels in this state are required to allow pets when there is a state of evacuation in place. Have a specific place in mind ahead of time to which you would evacuate.

One of the reasons I prefer heat and humidity and hurricanes here in Florida compared to potential disasters elsewhere (tornado, fire, mudslide, earthquakes) is that for hurricanes we get a few hints several weeks before and then a few days notice if it is likely and then at least 24 hours before the S really HTF. On top of that I'm about as far from the ocean or gulf as you can get and still be in Florida so 'cane preps are "does the generator start" and "do I have gas for said generator"....

So here for 'canes, it is more of a "eh, yeah sure I guess I should pack up soon" or "eh, generator started last week, and I've got gas..." vs. "oh crap a fire started a mile away and the wind is pushing it right at us, grab it and GTFO"

At the very least I'd grab the paperwork proving that everything is insured. Of all of my possessions I'd mourn the loss of my library which cannot be replaced.

Have all your passwords written down and with you. If your laptop crashes or you need to use someone else's laptop to access email.

I'm a little worried about flash drives getting damaged too so I have backups to my back ups.

We had to evacuate two summers ago when a dry lightning strike caused a fire in the Yuba River canyon near us. I grabbed my two generators and threw them in my Tacoma. My wife grabbed pictures and paperwork and threw them in the Tundra. The dog jumped right in the Tundra. I grabbed my two garage cats and threw them in a large dog crate. I’ll never take cats with me again! Can’t let them out of the crate because they will freak out and run away. So…. they pee and crap in the crate and how the heck do I hose it out with two cats that I can’t let out of the crate ??? The next day I drove around the authorities back to my house and let the cats go to fend for themselves. Dogs yes… cats NO!!

We just don't have events that cause us to evacuate. Hurricanes are often welcome good news as they bring a 6 or 8 inches of rain.

We have a tornado shelter, and have never needed it, but it is there. I have a briefcase with insurance papers and a few other items. When the tornado season is in action, we watch the news, and get the dog leashes, all of our medications, my briefcase, my wife's purse, and get it ready to go to the shelter if needed. So far no need.

Tornadoes are bad pookie for a very tiny area. The biggest baddest F5 tornadoes have hit Moore, OK twice. Utter devastation in the thousand foot wide path for sometime several miles. Just go 1/4 of a mile away and full civilization is right there. Hurricanes, earthquakes, firestorms, mudslides and such can wipe out entire counties. We just do not have that type of problem.

The last thing I will do is evacuate. A car is a very bad place to be in a tornado. I will stay at home, and if needed, down in the shelter.

^^^ Same here. The idea of evacuating has never entered my mind.

(except when on the throne. :D)

The authorities here tend to call an evacuation early. The roads are two lane and many areas one lane. They don’t want a repeat of the Paradise calamity. I’m taking my wife and my dog. Everything else is just stuff….except the generators, I’m taking them too!

I've been through evacuations probably 5-6 times now. First time you're cramming anything and everything in the vehicles to bug out.

After that it seems to get less and less every time. Photos, computers, transportable heirlooms, family and pets. That's about it. Everything else is replaceable.

Cats, lots of cats. Important paperwork is in the bank's SDB so we'll need the key. Call Haggerty and up the insurance on the 911. While I'm loading the Isuzu, the Mrs. is to run around the house and take pictures. Take a couple of cases of water, a bag of cat food, protein powder, cash, phone, glasses, Rxs, a couple of laptops, chargers, 20 gals of ethanol free, oil, bag of tools, guns two changes of clothes and boots. And, beer, as you might as well feel good later on. Head to the bug-out land in the Ozarks. Hunker-down and wait. We can eat the cats, if needed.

When Yellowstone blows (again), or the (next) asteroid hits ... it'll make Nukes seem like a minor flesh wound.... So quit worrying!

Cockroaches and Keith Richards will have to deal with the aftermath tho' :D

In my mind, the most realistic bugout is going to be an earthquake or a fire.

If it's a fire, unless it's an asteroid that hits Portland and I'm one of the few left alive, I can realistically hope with a degree of certainty that a friend or neighbor will take me in for a night or two while I get my insurance agent to set me up with temp housing.

If it's an earthquake, well, that might affect the whole city, so gotta act as if everyone will be in the same boat; that probably means a night or two in the yard, basically camping, until I can make a dry, safe place in or around my house using the hand tools and supplies currently on hand. Then a week or two - or ten - surviving on my wits (!) and my pantry without electricity and running water.

The question to ask, what do you need to stay alive and in relative comfort on the darkest, coldest, wettest night that you can imagine, and what will you do if the immediate future is just more of the same.

One thing for sure, I have no misgivings about being able to instantly hop into my truck and drive to the nearest refuge. It's not realistic to think that's going to happen, and the nearest refuge would most likely be a bunch of people I wouldn't want to be around anyway.

^^^
I wonder what Keith carries in his bugout bag? :confused:

Hurricane storm surge is all I really care about since the house is close to the water.

CAT 3 and I'm not going anywhere but to the old Tobacco barns that are well elevated and we'll make it work.

CAT 4? Buenos dias, Rust Pickers.

I think there have been two significant tornadoes in my area of Maryland in thirty years, one earthquake a decade ago and that is about it.

All our important stuff is digitized and stored in multiple locations...the key is to maintain continuity of operations.