20 minutes to pack your car...WHAT DO YOU TAKE? (grain, mountain, filter)

[Meemur]

I keep a check list by the back door, plus empty rubbermaid storage containers and cooler in the closet.

1. Pull out the vehicle and empty back (if necessary - quickly toss stuff on garage shelves)
2. Shove cat in carrier (and grab her litter/food/extra box Go bag from basement)
3. Grab my Go bag, house tool box, flat of water, "camping" box at the same time.
4. Secure cat, tool box, camping box, water, and my Go bag in the front seat. Check time.

(I could leave at this point if necessary). Otherwise:

5. Grab one storage container and the cooler. Load food and kitchen essentials. Load.
6. Grab second storage container and load work essentials. Load.
7. Grab third container and fill with clothing. Load.
8. Grab fourth container and fill with "bathroom" stuff (tp, soap, laundry soap, etc)

Check time. If less than 7 minutes remains, pull my bed apart and toss blankets, sheets, towels
on top of boxes, along with sleeping bags.

If more, load another box of food and then get the bedding.

Try to leave 3 minutes to grab my bike and strap it to the roof top carriers, plus dump my bike tools behind the passenger seat.

Last Activities . . . depending on the emergency, I might:
- shut off the gas
- shut off the water/drain pipes
- drain the toilet (pour in marine anti-freeze if winter)

I've actually timed this process out at 30 minutes. I can fill the car with enough essentials to continue to work and "live" for at least a week.

Shutting down the house adds about 10-15 minutes. I keep those tools on the inside of the closet by the back door.

Whatever you decide to do, practice your plan at least once and make adjustments.

Added:

My Go bag contains things like a mini-address book, account numbers, letter with my address on it, and related items that prove who I am and what I own. I could spend 20 minutes just putting that together, so it stays loaded and hangs where I can grab it in the dark if there is a fire.

[ringwise]

Originally Posted by PamelaIamela

You are being driven from your home on short notice.
A tsunami? A volcano?
An invasion?
A civil uprising?


You have a partner and a vehicle.
You are not sure if you will ever be able to return.
What do you take to get to safety in a remote rustic cabin on high ground 4 hours away?

You plan ahead for this if you live somewhere that has potential disasters. After living almost 25 years in CA, I planned for this, and implemented once.

1. Minutes to leave - dogs, purse and wallet, laptops, jewelry box prepacked with things I value, strong box prepacked with paperwork that I will need.

2. 15 minutes to leave - Above items and overnight change of clothes, desk computers, boxes of photos prepacked, dog food, bottled water, some power tools.

3. 30 minutes to leave - Above items and clothes for a week or so, canned goods, more power tools, basic kitchenware, as much else as I could pack in to the van.

Had to evacuate once in 25 years because of fire. The drive to the house, after hearing from a friend that our street was being evacuated, seemed to take a lifetime. Luckily, my husband and I worked together and drove home together. On the way, we talked about the plan in the event we couldn't get to the house down the street (we lived on a dead end). We would drive along the greenbelt behind the house, accessible from another street. We didn't have to do that. They closed our street entrance 5 minutes after we got home.

Once home, I loaded all the dogs in the van (my dogs are all crate trained, and I keep crates in my van at all times for transport). I do rescue, so I had 7 dogs that day at my house. They were all put in 2 large crates and were just fine.

I grabbed my purse and wallet, laptops, jewelry box, strong box and took off down the street in my van.

My husband has a pickup, and he stayed an extra 10 minutes and filled his truck with an overnight change of clothes for both of us, desk computers, boxes of photos prepacked, dog food, bottled water, some power tools.

We actually had a motorhome, but it was parked for the summer at a campground. If we'd had that, we would have taken that instead of the truck.

The neighbors that were home went around the neighborhood and grabbed pets when they could. Our neighbor was just coming over to break in to our house when we showed up.

We were evacuated to the local high school parking lot. All of our neighbors were there, some with RV's, so we had access to water, bathroom, kitchen, etc. A good friend owns a grooming shop, and offered to hang on to them in her shop in cages for us, but we kept them with us in an RV with the air on.

We were evacuated for about 8 hours, and got home late that night. The fire burned one home at the beginning of our street slightly, but was stopped before it got further. We literally drove off not knowing if we'd have a home to come back to. As we drove off, we said as long as we and the dogs were safe, the rest was just "stuff". Although, if it had actually burned to the ground, it would have been horrible.

A good friend lived where a huge fire happened, It started between her house and her next door neighbor's. The wind literally blew the other way, and her house was spared but 15 neighbors lost their homes completely.

I currently don't live anywhere that has terrible natural disasters, but I still have my spot where I keep my evacuation items.

[grampaTom]

Have a 'grab and go' bag (with first aid kit, flashlights, power bars, rain coats ...) in the garage for hurricanes. Right next to it is the hand held GPS on its charger and on the floor is a case of bottled water and 2 spare blankets.
Have all our important papers in a plastic case in the office closet. Have 2 6-gallon cans of gas in the garage. It takes about 10 minutes to grab all that and and a double handfull of clothes out of the dresser and my guns/ammo in the hall closet and hit the road.

[RyanR]

As everyone has mentioned, having your bags ready to go is key.

I also keep specific lists. Trusting a mental list in what could be a crisis situation may not work well.

I have 4 levels and lists ranging from overnight to never coming home again.
Level 1 is the basics
Level 2 is everything in Level 1 and then some.
Level 3... you get the idea.

I also have specialty bags that are incident specific (based on the situation).

[Eascoaswing]

Pelican cases packed with first aid, food, ammo.
Camping gear from the garage, all arranged in a stack near the door.
Guns.
Duffle bags with rain gear, winter coats, extra shoes and an assortment of clothing.
Dog food bin and dog tote with leads, sweaters meds and treats.
Cash.
Dogs.
Kids.
Water jugs( which is the only thing in this house I do not have at the moment)
My old man said not to forget his mountain climbing axe from the back of the headboard and his Iphone.
I should probably grab my throwing knives too.

Oh, and the filebox with all the imporant paperwork like ID's. And my jewelrybox.

[reed067]

My wife & I have two sets of packs one we use for day trip hikes & the other we keep packed if we ever need to get out fast for whatever reason. They stay packed with what we need to last for a week they only hold so much but it's something to get us our & away.

[theedgeoflight]

A b.o.b must be for people in urban and suburban areas with some place to go to. Where am I going to bug out to in rural western MN? Every thing is pretty much the same for hundreds of miles in any direction. Mongo don't know. Mongo only pawn in game of life.

[prospectheightsresident]

A blanket, some clothes, water/food items (grab and go, of course), matches, knives, etc. Note, some of these items are already in my car (specifically, water and a very warm blanket). I don't have a bug out bag, but should probably look into getting one set up.

[xTiberiusx]

canned food, bottled water, tent, hand crank radio, something to use for a weapon for self defense.

[Neosec]

Satellite up-link and laptop so I can access the City Data Forum.