Emergency Preparedness

Some people have, oh, I don't know, stamp collecting as a hobby, others build model trains, others work on craft projects. My hobby is a little unique; I am into emergency preparedness. (That's the kind of thing that happens when you live through a couple of doozies named Andrew and Wilma.) I like being prepared for whatever life throws my way, both in day to day situations as well as in an emergency. The project for today was updating the family "Go Bags". I put together one backpack for each of us a few years ago then stashed them in our entry closet. I knew I needed to go through them on a yearly basis and refresh and update items as needed but I've missed the past few years. Since my class is on Spring Break and hurricane season is right around the corner (well, two and a half months) I finally decided now is the time. I pulled out old clothes that don't fit the kids anymore and put in new items, took out expired Tylenol and Motrin, tossed the old granola bars and put in fresh ones, added a few items I didn't think of when I filled them the first time, and made an inventory of each bag. The inventory will be helpful when I think of things that should be in the bags- is the item in there already or do I need to add it?

What are "Go Bags" for, you may be wondering? Well, if we get a category 4 or 5 hurricane bearing down on us, these are the bags we'll grab on our way out the door to a stronger shelter. (DH and I have agreed we won't leave town, getting caught in traffic could be deadly, but we would probably go to a stronger building than our house to hunker down.) The bags contain items we need for identification, (dog tags I had made for each of us), personal comfort (hygiene items, spare clothes) as well as for post storm conditions (work gloves, multi-purpose tools, emergency food tablets, that type of thing). Add my 10 meal boxes, water, and our family tent and we could survive for a while, at least the 72 hours the State of Florida recommends, in fairly good shape.

Do you have an emergency plan?