If I had 20 minutes, no problem. Some of the people fleeing their homes had time to grab their purses, children, and sometimes their pets. I have a small fire-proof safe I got from BJs (one of those warehouse clubs) and in it are my important papers. The safe can be easily carted off by a thief but hopefully would survive a fire. Everything else would be lost so scanning and uploading photos and documents is very important to me. If I have three minutes, I'll grab my purse, my external hard drive, and the prescriptions. There won't be time to grab the 72-hour kits.
Nope. We get blizzards occasionally with power outages. If the power isn't back by the time we want to go to bed, we run the generator (30 years we've probably had to do that for three storms but once the power didn't come back for two weeks). Blizzards are great. You stay home and relax until it's over and then you spend a couple of hours shoveling. Funny story, when my son first married, they had one car. I called my daughter-in-law to tell her a storm was coming and we needed to get ready and I'd take her to the store. We get to the store and she asked what she was supposed to buy. "You're from Utah, didn't you guys get ready for snow storms?" "Yeah, I have batteries and a flashlight." So I explained she needed to put gas in the car because if there's no electricity, the pumps don't work. I explained that since she lived in an apartment with an electric stove, she needed to buy foods that did not need to be cooked -- probably cereal and sandwiches. And if the power is out long enough that the fridge is getting warm, put everything out on your balcony. And finally, the streets will be clear shortly after the snow stops, if they were cold or wanted a hot meal (I have a gas stove), pack up and move in with the in-laws. They've never had to come over. Apartment complexes are probably third on the list to get the power restored, City resources are first, and retailers are second, houses get done in order of where the repairs will restore power to the largest number of homes. With the two-week outage, we were near the bottom of the list. Once we were up, we lent our generator to someone who was even farther down the list (they ended up waiting another week, it's a storm we still talk about).
Excellent advice. I especially liked the video inventory. The fires in California are terrible, and a reminder that none of us are immune to disaster. Our thoughts are with you.
A good reminder for us all. I like the Grab & Go concept. I have a whole room that would need packing up. Fortunately I have digitised most now and use cloud storage, but I still don’t want to lose anything. We think because we don’t live in a fire area we’re ok, a house fire could happen at anytime. In 2021 a cyclone came through, narrowly missing us, but my brother, cousins and many others lost their homes. Fortunately no lives were lost. I feel for those in California, regardless of who they are, celebrities or not, although we’ve just heard an Australian is amongst the deceased. I can’t imagine what they’ve all lost.
You are so right about a house fire could happen at any time. This tragedy has reminded me how there are no guarantees in life. I'm praying for all these families daily. No one deserves what happened to them.
What a terrific reminder, Denyse. We have water stored, first aid kits, and things like that, but this firestorm has brought back painful memories of the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, where over 1400 homes were lost, killing 25 and injuring 150.
Yes, my life has scattered since then. It's time refresh and get these preparations in place.
Documents in the dishwasher. I have to say, that's new!
(I just got word that another branch of the family is evacuating. 😢 It's all too real. Again.)
I hope your family is safe and the evacuation ended up not being needed!
Documents in the oven might work too since the insulation protects cabinets from heat, it should work in reverse and keep heat from reaching inside the oven - but I thought people would misinterpret it ha ha.
I love the idea of a 'Grab and Go' kit Denyse. I have a similar plan and that's what it will now be called. As someone who has had a house fire and lost everything, I fully understand how devastating it is to lose things that are perhaps not valuable but unreplaceable.. Fortunately our fire was before my genealogy days but I'm very conscious now of the need to plan for disaster. My heart goes out to California.
If I had 20 minutes, no problem. Some of the people fleeing their homes had time to grab their purses, children, and sometimes their pets. I have a small fire-proof safe I got from BJs (one of those warehouse clubs) and in it are my important papers. The safe can be easily carted off by a thief but hopefully would survive a fire. Everything else would be lost so scanning and uploading photos and documents is very important to me. If I have three minutes, I'll grab my purse, my external hard drive, and the prescriptions. There won't be time to grab the 72-hour kits.
Do you live in an area that gets evacuation orders often?
Nope. We get blizzards occasionally with power outages. If the power isn't back by the time we want to go to bed, we run the generator (30 years we've probably had to do that for three storms but once the power didn't come back for two weeks). Blizzards are great. You stay home and relax until it's over and then you spend a couple of hours shoveling. Funny story, when my son first married, they had one car. I called my daughter-in-law to tell her a storm was coming and we needed to get ready and I'd take her to the store. We get to the store and she asked what she was supposed to buy. "You're from Utah, didn't you guys get ready for snow storms?" "Yeah, I have batteries and a flashlight." So I explained she needed to put gas in the car because if there's no electricity, the pumps don't work. I explained that since she lived in an apartment with an electric stove, she needed to buy foods that did not need to be cooked -- probably cereal and sandwiches. And if the power is out long enough that the fridge is getting warm, put everything out on your balcony. And finally, the streets will be clear shortly after the snow stops, if they were cold or wanted a hot meal (I have a gas stove), pack up and move in with the in-laws. They've never had to come over. Apartment complexes are probably third on the list to get the power restored, City resources are first, and retailers are second, houses get done in order of where the repairs will restore power to the largest number of homes. With the two-week outage, we were near the bottom of the list. Once we were up, we lent our generator to someone who was even farther down the list (they ended up waiting another week, it's a storm we still talk about).
Excellent advice. I especially liked the video inventory. The fires in California are terrible, and a reminder that none of us are immune to disaster. Our thoughts are with you.
Video is better than nothing. (I live on the east coast so am watching the disaster unfold and imagining along with you.)
A good reminder for us all. I like the Grab & Go concept. I have a whole room that would need packing up. Fortunately I have digitised most now and use cloud storage, but I still don’t want to lose anything. We think because we don’t live in a fire area we’re ok, a house fire could happen at anytime. In 2021 a cyclone came through, narrowly missing us, but my brother, cousins and many others lost their homes. Fortunately no lives were lost. I feel for those in California, regardless of who they are, celebrities or not, although we’ve just heard an Australian is amongst the deceased. I can’t imagine what they’ve all lost.
You are so right about a house fire could happen at any time. This tragedy has reminded me how there are no guarantees in life. I'm praying for all these families daily. No one deserves what happened to them.
What a terrific reminder, Denyse. We have water stored, first aid kits, and things like that, but this firestorm has brought back painful memories of the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, where over 1400 homes were lost, killing 25 and injuring 150.
Yes, my life has scattered since then. It's time refresh and get these preparations in place.
Documents in the dishwasher. I have to say, that's new!
(I just got word that another branch of the family is evacuating. 😢 It's all too real. Again.)
I hope your family is safe and the evacuation ended up not being needed!
Documents in the oven might work too since the insulation protects cabinets from heat, it should work in reverse and keep heat from reaching inside the oven - but I thought people would misinterpret it ha ha.
I love the idea of a 'Grab and Go' kit Denyse. I have a similar plan and that's what it will now be called. As someone who has had a house fire and lost everything, I fully understand how devastating it is to lose things that are perhaps not valuable but unreplaceable.. Fortunately our fire was before my genealogy days but I'm very conscious now of the need to plan for disaster. My heart goes out to California.