"And Go...."

And our planned drill started Saturday morning while I was sitting at my computer downstairs.  Let me backtrack and explain.  I had been asked by Sis. Marge Beardall, our Relief Society President to take the lesson time today in Relief Society and to talk about some aspect of Emergency Preparedness.  As I began preparing, it occurred to me that I should run a little drill of my own to see how things would go if we had to leave the house suddenly.  I asked Gary last Sunday to knock on the door sometime when I was home (and dressed) and give me five minutes to evacuate our house.  The scenario was that I was alone and had just the Envoy and five minutes to leave due "to a raging wildfire in southwest Syracuse coming our direction".

So Gary called the drill Saturday morning and I was off.  I dropped my phone and headed up the stairs.  Gary followed with the camera and took some pictures along the way.  Here is what it looked like:

First load--2 72 hour kits and my CERT bags

First load in!

Next load--my purse with chargers, Church walkie-talkies,  and my tablet
and 3 pillows---
I am picky about my pillow and didn't think it was fair to not
get one for Gary and Jena.

Jena and Gary were following me on this drill
and laughing at me!

Our 72 hour kits have water but there were 2 gals. sitting in the garage so I
tossed them in with the 2nd load.

I realized that I had not gotten Gary's tablet so
I grabbed that and headed downstairs...

That basket is filled with legal papers which I have gathered in
that basket to scan----I think they have been sitting in there for about
eight months.  At least there were al in one place.  I also grabbed out
newly completed will and family trust documents.

I realized I forgot to get medication when I grabbed my person so headed back to
my room for that

I had to grab the desktop (although this is actually an old
one to represent my desktop.).  I haven't store all our photos in the cloud
or on an external hard drive yet.

And Gary gave me a 15 second warning so that I can get the car out of the garage...

Unfortunately, NO CAR KEYS...
yes, in my hurry I neglected that important detail.

And this is all that I could get into my car by myself
in five minutes.

And here is the stuff I gathered!
 

 The important thing to realize what I didn't get into the car in 5 minutes even though much of it was right in our garage.

Here is my list which I prepared for my lesson of the things I didn't get:

This is now hanging off our kitchen so
we can make plans to fix these things!

The List

 

No car keys

No cell (laid it down when Gary started the drill

and forgot to grab it)

Missing Jena's 72 hr. kit (couldn't find it) and forgot to even look for Tosha's (it is actually in her car, I found out this evening)

No clothes (I have a nice red duffle bag for clothes in the garage

but haven't actually put clothes into it yet)

No keys for house, RV (parked at Gary's mom's house) and the truck

No tent, sleeping bags, and camping gear (although right in the garage--ran out of town)

No photo albums

No kitchen box (a wooden box which we used camping which I have stocked for emergencies

with matches, flashlights, extra stuff.  It is too heavy for me to lift alone and doesn't fit into the Envoy anyway.  Didn't have time to get it anyway.)

No 5 gal. jugs (I have 2 empty ones in the garage for hauling water. 

They should be filled and in the car.)

No family history totes

No totes for cleaning and sanitation (I have two great ones prepared and on a tall shelf

 in the garage.  Since I didn't grab them we also did not have any toiletry items

and only a tiny bit of toilet paper.)

No dogs or their 72 hr. kit with food, extra leashes and toys

(They got excited and were actually in the way as I ran around the

house grabbing things.  I didn't want to get them in the car too early.)

Comfort food (we have only MRE food in our kits)

Activities-- books, puzzles, games,

Ward Emergency Plan

 

And during the lesson, sisters thought of even more things.  We are making plans to help each other do a bit more to get prepared.  We are talking about starting our own Facebook group to help each other do a little bit each month.  I will post more information on that later.

 

It was a very eye-opening experience for us.  Try it---you might learn something too.

 

Have a great week.