Mendolonium

A couple of weeks ago I sat in a rocking chair nursing and rocking Thomas (and myself) to sleep when I suddenly awoke to a great deal more rocking than I was making. I quickly realized that we were having an earthquake and calmly walked out the hallway with Thomas to ride out the quake. It was only a moderate earthquake and we didn’t suffer any damage but I took it as a warning to update and improve our “go bags”. Our go bags are backpacks filled with the basic necessities of survival (excluding water and food which we have stored separately) for three days.

Regardless of whether or not you live in earthquake country it is a good idea for everyone to have a go bag at home and, if you work farther away than a home office, a go bag to keep at work. A well stocked go bag is particularly important if you or a member of your household has any medical conditions or food allergies that might not be able to be accommodated at a shelter. Ideally you would “shelter in place” during a disaster and our home is well stocked to do so. However, sometimes as in the case of a small scale disaster such as a gas leak or a large scale disaster such as hurricane Katrina it is just not possible to remain at home. That is where the go bag comes in. So what’s in our go bags?

In my home go bag I have enough supplies (excluding water and food) to keep me reasonably comfortable for three days. My home go bag contains:

• A 30 day supply of my non-refrigerated prescription medication
• A moderately sized first aid kit with an additional bottle of Tylenol arthritis strength
• A complete change of clothing including two pairs of underwear, two pairs of socks, pants (that zip into shorts), a tank top, a long sleeved t-shirt, and a sweater
• Comfortable walking shoes (my old athletic shoes)
• A cosmetics bag including: shampoo (can also be used as soap), contact solution, a contact case, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a hairbrush, hairbands, lip balm, a fingernail clipper, feminine hygiene supplies, sunscreen, and a small sewing kit
• A package of tissue
• A extra pair of glasses
• A flashlight + extra batteries
• Matches
• A map of Los Angeles County
• A chamois towel
• A charger for my cell phone
• A laminated emergency card listing the phone numbers, addresses, and emails of everyone in our immediate family
• An empty water bottle
• $20 broken down into a roll of quarters, a five dollar bill, and five one dollar bills
• A dust mask
• A hand crank emergency radio
• A pocket knife

We also have a go bag for Thomas which has a somewhat different makeup and includes:

• Thomas’ medications (includes infant Tylenol)
• A box of hemp milk
• A bottle
• A sippy cup
• A small spoon
• Favorite snacks (freeze dried fruit, snappea crisps)
• A onesie
• Long sleeved/long pants pajamas
• Socks and shoes
• A sun hat
• Sunscreen
• A blanket
• A sling
• 18 Diapers
• One package of baby wipes
• Small amusements (a notepad + crayons, stickers, two board books)

We have had go bags at home for a couple of years now, however, with the recent earthquake striking during the daytime I realized that in a significant disaster we might need to make our way home from our respective workplaces without a car or public transportation. I work only 2 miles from home, however, Jeff works 17 miles away. Certainly walkable but it would be a much more pleasant and safe walk with a few supplies. Therefore Jeff and I now each have go bags that we keep at work. Jeff’s work go bag includes:

• A small sized first aid kit
• Comfortable walking shoes
• Sunscreen
• A hat
• A flashlight + extra batteries
• Matches
• A map of Los Angeles County
• A laminated emergency card listing the phone numbers, addresses, and emails of everyone in our immediate family
• An empty water bottle
• 2 liters of water
• Powdered Gatorade “singles”
• Granola bars
• $20 broken down into a roll of quarters, a five dollar bill, and five one dollar bills
• A dust mask
• An old pair of work gloves

In addition to our go bags we also have a go box (actually a cat carrier) filled with emergency supplies for our pets which includes leashes for all,disposable litter boxes, three days worth of food for each animal, disposable food/water bowls, and a blanket for each animal.

I hope we never have to use the bags, but knowing we have them ready to go brings me a small bit of peace every time the earth starts to shake.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Fun with Food Allergies, Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst, Rheumatoid Arthritis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.