Tuesday, October 8, 2013

What would you grab from your house in an evacuation?

All those silly "get you know you" questions may actually come in handy! You know the ones they ask in grade school. If you were on deserted island and could have five things, what would you bring? If you could only read one book for the rest of you life, what book would you pick?

Living in southern California comes with wildfires and the occasional earthquake. But fires are most common where we live. We've had our share of fires in a nearby training area and are usually little cause for concern. The base fire department gets a lot of practice and usually handles the fires quickly. This weekend was the first fire that has actually affected us. It was a normal lazy Saturday morning. I was resting on the couch while my husband made peach cobbler in the kitchen. I kept hearing this muffled talking and couldn't figure out what it was. We have an emergency alert intercom system on base (which seems to be tested weekly) but it wasn't that. I finally opened our front door to be greeted with PMO on our street with bull horns and plume of smoke on the horizon!
View from the garage

So what would you grab? I was amazed at how fast we moved! I threw on real clothes since I was in pajamas still. Of course my shirt got put on backwards... There will little communicated about what needed to be grabbed. Within a few minutes the Jeep was packed up and we ended up with:

  • Our dog
  • Our cat and his litter box
  • Wedding rings
  • File box with birth certificates and such
  • External hard drive that has all of our photos
  • My laptop
  • Camera
  • A toothbrush and toothpaste
  • Wallet and purse

Some of the stuff makes perfect sense, some doesn't. I mean I can always buy a new toothbrush! But overall it was smooth. Thankfully, our gracious friends hosted us and our wild animals for two days. Sunday night we were allowed back into the neighborhood and the only lasting effect was a lingering camp fire smell.

 

 
The fire came all the way up to the neighborhood's fire breaks. Thankfully, no houses had any severe damage. Some flame retardant mess and some singed backyards were the worst of it. I know it could have been much worse without our amazing fire department and neighboring fire departments who came to help! The fire is almost completely contained and has burned roughly 2,236 acres.

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