With all the natural disasters happening lately, and being reminded that we live in an earthquake prone area where scientists have been predicting "The Big One" for more than 20 years, Kristi and I decided to update our emergency supplies (which I think we last looked into just before Y2K). I came across a concept in emergency preparedness that I think is worth sharing:
The Bug Out Bag
The basic idea of a Bug Out Bag is to put all of your emergency supplies together in a portable container and keep it near your door. This way if you have to leave your house in a hurry (say for a house fire) you can grab it quickly on the way out and know that you have basic supplies for your family.
Most Bug Out Bag "experts" agree that it should be in a backpack so that it can be carried long distances if necessary. A scenario that might necessitate this could be a large earthquake that closes roads, collapses many buildings, ruptures gas lines and burns down your house. That, in my mind, would be a pretty bad day.
A Bug Out Bag can also be used at home if it's a lesser disaster, like if the power were to go out for several days, or a snow storm traps you inside.
Another advantage of the Bug Out Bag is that if a disaster strikes while you're not at home, like a large earthquake, things can often turn into a huge mess. The Bug Out Bag will keep your basic emergency supplies contained together so you don't have to spend a lot of time searching for a lot of scattered, separate stuff in a potentially dangerous pile of debris.
In any case, the standard rule is to be prepared with the minimal supplies necessary for you and your family to survive for three days.
To that end, I've compiled a list of items that most experts agree should be in the bag. I've also broken it down into categories, and added notes explaining the reasoning behind most of the items.
I hope we never have to use it. I hope you never need to have one either.
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I think this is a fantastic idea and I hope to have the drive to complete the task of assembling such a bag.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I see an 'emergency supplies' list, I always end up focusing on one thing; prescription medication.
Is it possible to get a one month advance for an emergency kit? Can this be accomplished through your insurance company? Can you pay out of pocket?
The only medications I take are non-prescription (allergy, for example...and caffeine...) so I don't have any experience with this.
Ooo, good point on the advanced dosage issue...
ReplyDeleteWe don't take any life-dependent prescriptions (yet) either, so I hadn't really thought about how hard it could be to actually plan ahead for a medication emergency. I'm sure the insurance companies won't be too keen to help with this either.
I guess I would talk it over with your doctor, if you need special medications, and see what they say. Maybe they can write a one-time extra dosage prescription...?
Incidentally, our bag ended up being 45 lbs, mostly because of the water (2 gallons). Most of the rest of our gear is pretty light weight. If we need to expand it for a kid someday, we'll probably need to overflow into a second pack.
...I've seen Greyson's Monkey-Pack. I'm sure that could hold 20-30 lbs... :)