May is hurricane season preparedness month, so I’m checking my stock and planning ahead. I’ll be doing a few blog posts explaining how I prep every year. The first one here is about my evacuation bag or “evac pack”.
People everywhere have (non-apocalyptic) disasters that require you to leave your home or workplace unexpectedly (likely for a place untouched by the disaster). For us coastal folks it’s hurricanes and other huge storms, but elsewhere there’s also tornadoes, wildfires, landslides, flash floods, and volcanoes, plus human-made events like factory explosions, bomb scares, building fires, (and now even freakin’ oil spills! – thanks, British Petroleum). Not trying to scare you, but it’s better to be prepared. You don’t have to experience something like we did to see the benefits of having the most important items ready to go with you in minutes. Whether I decide to ride out a hurricane, or run from it, I prep this stuff (sometimes you have to evacuate after the fact).
The concept of fitting everything I could possibly need into one bag or ‘evac pack’ as I call it, is one I developed after Hurricane Katrina. We all basically ran out of here thinking we’d be gone 3 days only to return weeks or months later, and some not at all. During that time many people were without vital paperwork they needed to move on and restart their lives. For instance, some had trouble accessing bank accounts without the numbers, or continuing business practice without a license, and kids had trouble enrolling in new schools with no birth certificates. My point is…
Plan like you might never return.
Obviously a person can’t fit their entire life into one backpack, but when you don’t know what situation you may end up in, I think it’s important to bring only what you can carry. Another rule is to make it ready to go in under 5 minutes. I aim for less since things like fires don’t give you that much time. I keep a checklist of the items below inside the evac pack, and the most important items are listed first (in case I run out of time to finish). It goes without saying that you should mentally note where these things are at all times so you can pack faster. As for the bag itself, I’d recommend a large cross country or mountaineering size backpack because they’re lightweight, and they provide back and hip support (like the one pictured here). You can buy a fancy new one for $200 or a used one for $20. Either one does the job.
Everyone’s idea of what goes into this bag will be different. It doesn’t matter, as long as it’s what YOU need to move on in life, and it fits in ONE bag. Here is an example of what I put in my evac pack to give you an idea and help you get started…
My Evac Pack
Using a large (cross country or mountaineering size) backpack, I load up the following items:
1. Laptop: Almost everything I need to manage my work and my family’s life from any location is on this laptop. It’s regularly backed up on external hard drives, AND saved to an online backup system called Mozy (so even if the laptop died and my backup drives perished in my home I would still be able to load a new laptop with all my stuff). I have gone to a fully paperless office, which means all bills and other documents are e-mailed to me and saved electronically, not in a paper file cabinet. All of my family photos, music collection, and many movies and TV shows are also on it. If you have a desktop computer I’d seriously recommend ditching it for the more portable, practical laptop. *Alert! Don’t forget the power cord and earphones.
2. Wallet: Including driver’s license, a wad of cash (You might have to bribe road pirates. Just kiddin’. Well, maybe.), all your credit cards (Painfully, you might have to max them to survive, depending on if your bank lived).
This is my work bag, and all of its contents come along. I just transfer everything to the evac pack, or grab it and go as-is (hey, I'm a woman, I like the bag!)
3. Important Papers File: Birth certificates, passports, social security cards, proof of insurances, proof of ownership (houses, cars,), financial info – you get the idea. Wherever you keep these items, make sure they’re all together in one place, preferably inside one of those expandable, closable, waterproof filers, like this one. Mine only takes up an inch of space (for a family of four) inside the evac pack.
4. Home Organizer Binder: Not everyone needs this, but if you’re a neat freak or simply a parent I’d recommend a having one and taking it with you in an emergency. It’s basically a big closable binder, like a grown-up version of ye olde trapper keeper. Inside you keep everything to do with, duh… managing your home (I’m going to do another post about this later because it rocks!). Roughly the binder includes: calendars, home maintenance projects/plans, weekly cooking menu, gardening notes, family budget, printout of family/friends/doctor/accountant/lawyer info, preschool schedule, and much more. If an emergency does strike and you have to leave your home for an undetermined period, something like this greatly reduces the stress. The best part is that you keep it in a central location like the kitchen, so the whole family can reference it. I use a black leather full-size planner with zip-closure (so loose papers don’t fall out) and a collapsible handle (I carry it with my pinky while I juggle coffee and the iPhone). It looks like this one. So why would you need this if you’re about to potentially lose your home? Well, I think it’s invaluable when your life is turned upside down to be able to pick up your normal routine. Makes the babies feel safe and all (ok, and the mommies too!).
5. Smartphone (or cell phone): As we’ve discovered here through numerous hurricane evacuations, cellular towers can’t keep up with a crisis when everyone is frantically calling loved ones. Don’t depend on it, but have it nearby. You may eventually get a call through in the hysteria. But don’t expect mobile Twitter or Facebook to work any better. Currently, the coverage among all providers is spotty during a crisis, regardless of your location in America. *Alert! Don’t forget the power cord and earphones.
6. Gun: Or two guns (Hey, TINO – this is New Orleans. We might have to shoot our way out. If not, then later for the road pirates.) *Alert! Don’t forget the spare clips.
7. Nikon dSLR Camera: This is important to ME, and it’s small. It’s invited on my ark. A musician may strap her favorite guitar to the evac pack, and a carpenter may cram in his favorite tools. Some professions and crafts require exceptions. It just depends on what you love to do. *Alert! Don’t forget the battery charger and usb cable.
8. eReader (B&N Nook, Kindle, etc): It’s the size of a paperback and holds over 1000 books. Perfect for escaping the hours when you don’t want to watch your city collapse on 24-hour cable news. *Alert! Don’t forget the power cord.
9. Recipe Binder: I keep my recipes in a 2” binder where I constantly scribble notes in the margins and staple in additions. I’ve yet to find a computer based alternative that can withstand being splashed with boiling olive oil. This binder would be hard to replace. It’s coming with me.
10. Backup Hard Drives: If you can fit them, then take them. *Alert! Don’t forget the power cord.
11. Three Days of Clothing/Toiletries: Running out with only “the clothes on my back” seemed like a good feminine excuse to buy a new wardrobe when I got to wherever, and this worked great when I only had to think of myself. I could easily fit a few shirts and jeans in the bottom of the evac pack to cushion all those electronics! But now that I have a family, an extra pre-prepared weekender bag sounds like a good idea. So this is my new hurricane season 2010 addition – Evac pack #2, the weekender clothing bag. In one large backpack or rolling suitcase I’ll now keep clothing and toiletries for all four family members for a potential 3 day-long evacuation. I still think this is impressive considering I have two babies aged one and two. Hell, now that I think of it… damn, that’s scary. Maybe I’ll pack some Cheerios… and, crap. Maybe we should just stay home. How bad could a Cat 5 hurricane be with kids that age? With no power or water or… Dammit. Ok, I’m making evac pack #3 – the ice chest. Kidding! Maybe not.
Jokes aside, that’s it. 11 major items all in one bag. If you’re not this ambitious then plan something. You’ll regret it if you don’t poke your inner survivalist at least a wee bit.
Geez. Now the Go Diego, Go! Rescue Pack song is stuck in my head. Freakin’ kids.
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Well done… wouldn’t wanna be a one of dem road pirates! I’d say leave the eReader for an extra lens or two (or of course more ammo…ha). Could throw in a bottle of good scotch, couple packs of smokes (or Nicorette in my case), and a good knife/matches…
The cash is more important than you’d think; I remember during evacuation time for Katrina, ATMs were physically taken out of gas stations to avoid looting later, and they were emptied at the banks. Up by my parents’ house there wasn’t available cash for days, and no one had phone lines to run credit card machines on, either, so you really needed it.
@NOLA Freelance Photographer: I hear ya on the lenses. Also, yes, a knife and a multi-knife/tool are great adds.
@candice: I remember! Even in Houston (after Katrina) the ATMs were unpredictable. I used credit cards to buy things mostly, assuming I’d have access to my bank acct eventually and just pay them off.
i understand you the last time i evacuated from hurricane rita it took us 24 hrs just to get to san antonio luckily i had took the right stuff and was on my way hopely this year they wont have sooooooooooo many hurricanes . If any were to hit Port Arthur Tx im ready to go vwith my evac pack thanks and have an awesome day!!! Aug.18 2010