Being Prepared . . .

I was watching the morning news yesterday and the anchorperson was talking about being prepared for emergency evacuation of your home. They choose three families and gave them each 10 minutes to get out of their houses. (This was brought on by the fires that are currently burning in California which have forced many to run for their lives!)

One man, upon being given his 10 minutes, went to his library and chose 10 books of the shelf. He also grabbed a couple items of clothing and left the house.

The other family only took 10 minutes to evacuate. They were able to get all their major legal papers, such as wills, house deeds, social security cards, etc . . . They also grabbed some photos off the wall and each carried out a bag with emergency rations. Guess how much time it took them to get out. It took them exactly 1 minute.

You may be wondering how they could gather so much stuff in one minute and the answer is simple. They were prepared. They'd thought ahead and organized their things so that they were easily accessible. All their legal papers were in a fire-proof safe. Their emergency bags were hanging by the front door. They practiced their evacuation drill on a regular basis and knew what was valuable to them.

Things of value should be things that cannot be replaced. You cannot replace the human life so get your family and yourself out! Legal documents are difficult to replace so keep them in a place where you can quickly put your hands on them.

Here are some ideas that I want to implement:

1. Put all legal documents in a safe, easily accessible place. Fire-proof boxes are good but you can use any portable filing cabinet.
2. Scan all important documents and give the disk to someone who does not live in your house.
3. Scan all of your photos and make copies of the disk. You can even give them as gifts to Aunts and Uncles. If your photos burn, you still have them on a disk. Share hard copies of your photos with family and friends!
4. Keep some extra cash hidden in your vehicle for emergency situations.
5. Keep your cell phone charged and know where your charger is.
6. Keep an inventory list of the things in your house. If you don't want to give a copy of it to anyone for safekeeping, set up a Yahoo account and email it to yourself. Yahoo has a filing cabinet that you can access from any computer.
7. When you're bored, try a practice evacuation with your family. It may be fun and it won't hurt if you should ever have to use it for real!

As I was thinking about the evacuation scenario, I came to the conclusion that I could not get all my prized valuables out, along with my family and pets, within 10 minutes. I need to do some more preparation!