I live in Northern New England where our big disasters are ice storms and blizzards and the rare rogue hurricane. When something like that happens - the best and only option is usually to stay put. I’m a hiker and climber, so when we lose power for a week or two, I just bring the gear upstairs and we all camp out in the living room, snug as bugs in a rug. Having a basement stocked with non-perishables, spare fuel, and plenty of warm camping gear makes the whole experience as fun as it can be.

My home was built in the 70s during the energy crisis, so we have a wood stove as a backup heating system which helps a lot in these kinds of emergencies.

If an evacuation becomes necessary, how do we avoid going down with the ship?

If this woman had a duffle with a couple pairs of pants and clean socks/undies in her hall closet she’d have a small amount of comfort at the moment. I have no idea if she did or didn’t, but if she didn’t everything she owned is probably destroyed. Sure she could go out and buy what she needs, but who wants to deal with that when house just slid down a hill?

Another useful item is a cell phone. Towers can be fixed faster than wires and first responders often want them repaired quickly for their communications.

You should always be prepared to manage either at home or in an evacuation for a minimum of 72 hours without power and preferably for at least a week.

Food (that needs little or no preparation), bottled water, a manual can opener, flashlights, some cash, a crank operated radio, blankets, pet food, baby stuff appropriate for your child (i.e. diapers and wipes, possibly formula and baby food), medications, feminine sanitary products and copies of all your important paperwork in a waterproof and preferably fireproof case are pretty much the minimum. Your computer or at an absolute minimum a current backup of all your files is also really good (especially for us bloggers who would be lost without our laptops!). A spare pair of glasses, even if you usually wear contacts.

Have most of these things set aside in a duffle bag in an accessible place so you can grab it and run if necessary. You do not want to be looking for any of these things if an official comes to your door in the middle of the night and says you have to get out right now.

Another good idea is to keep a mini version in your car, especially in winter in cold climates. In this case, include sand or kitty litter (for traction), chains, a blanket, gloves, a small shovel and traffic flares as well as food & water. A high viz vest is good too in case you have trouble at night.

Unless your house actually falls down in an earthquake, which is exceedingly unlikely, you really don’t have to do much that’s special. You don’t actually have to go anywhere, so you don’t need to worry about clothes, important papers, pets, your computer, a road atlas, neighbors phone numbers, etc…

Basically what happened in ‘89 was we lost power for three days. This meant we went to bed early and ate dry food. having a couple gallons of water and a few hundred dollars in cash can’t hurt, but going much beyond that seems like paranoia more than anything. I don’t need a ham radio or a hunting rifle. I mean, back in the ‘89 earthquake, my dad had both of those. They didn’t provide us with any special information or make the power come back on any faster. But my dad was able to tell us “Joe on the radio said he barely felt the earthquake in Turlock”, or whatever, which was entertaining I guess, but not important.

Anyway,I wish you the best and hope you (and my brother in Tigard) have a long and boring life.

I have an huge fear of The Big One hitting when I’m on the wrong side of the river or while I’m crossing it. The low bridges don’t scare me as much, I’m pretty sure I’d survive a fall, but the high ones (Marquam, Sellwood) scare the bejesus out of me.

JD, I don’t know what part of town you’re in except by little clues in your posts, how was your area affected in the 96 floods? I remember a lot of Milwaukie had pretty severe damage.

I think, no matter where we live, we perceive it to be safe, because nothing has ever happened in our lifetime. But in the big scheme of things, our lives are pretty short.

I had this same discussion with someone from Maine recently. He claimed his area was immune to any kind of disaster and he needed no plan. Although he lived at the sea shore, he had never seen a tsunami, therefore one could never happen. I’ve got one name for him: Cumbre Vieja…..

I just find, as a species, that our perceptions of risk can be so skewed. Sorry to run on, I just find this subject completely fascinating.

And get as much cash as you can get your hands on. During Gustav, no one had working ATM’s or debit card readers. I had $200 and it didn’t get us too far. It was spent all on gas for the generator.

I think more people need to start thinking about emergency evacuation/preparedness plans. Even if they don’t live in hurricane, earthquake, or tornado prone areas, disasters can happen. Floods, fires, windstorms, major snow storms, lightening, and the like, can strike nearly anywhere and leave people without power, phone, and water, often for days or even weeks on end.

Other things to consider:

Dogatemyfinances mentioned medication. Absolutely.

Flashlight and extra batteries, in the car and house, in case you need to evacuate at night.

Living in a flood prone area, and have been through several small ones, and one huge one, I have to throw in rubber boots.

Insurance. If you do live in areas that have severe earthquakes, floods, etc. protect yourself! It probably doesn’t cost as much as you think it does!

If you do stay at home during the disaster, make sure you have potable water and a couple weeks supply of food. For cooking purposes, don’t use propane or natural gas portable stoves inside your home without adequate ventilation. Carbon monoxide kills!

Urgently important notes to consider for those of us in earthquake zones:

1. Know where the gas shutoff valve is in your house and TURN IT OFF if you smell gas.

2. Have an out-of-state relative/friend that your family members can contact to check in. Local lines will absolutely be down (if not because of fallen poles, then because EVERYBODY is calling at once) and long-distance lines are more likely to be open than local ones. The firefighter who led our work’s disaster-preparedness training last week also said that text messages are much more likely to get through than cellphone calls after an earthquake.

3. Keep emergency supplies at work AND in your car. If you’re a woman who wears high heels, keep a pair of comfortable tennis shoes in that work bag, because if you DO have to stay at work for that projected 3+ days, you will NOT want to be doing it in high heels.

If you’d like, I can send you the whole list of supplies that they gave me in the preparedness training - it’s a fantastic checklist, includes things even I never thought of, even having grown up in earthquake areas, and you could post it for your readers.

Thanks for all of the good work that you do!

But we did have a freak windstorm (locally dubbed Hurricane Elvis cause it happened a week before Elvis week here in Memphis) with sustained winds over 100mph a few years back that knocked out power to most of the city for 2 weeks. And apparently back in 93 there was an ice storm that knocked out power for close to 10 days here (we had the same winter storm in NC, too). Of course in both instances there were problems with water, downed trees, transportation, etc.

My point is don’t assume that where you live you are free of hurricanes or other disasters. That windstorm, Hurrican Elvis, came out of nowhere and many of the older Memphians I talked to had never experienced something like that. So always have some degree of preparedness for the unexpected. You won’t regret it.

In all the real hurricanes I’ve been through (mainly Hugo), the winter storm of 93 (which was bad in NC, too) and the Memphis windstorm known as Hurricane Elvis there were really two things I needed most - a full tank of gas in my car and several hundred dollars cash (preferable in 1s, 5s, and 10s). To me those were the most necessary of all my provisions.

Getting licensed is easy - your local library system should have a copy of “Now you’re Talking” or you can buy your own (or borrow one from your local radio club). Once you’ve studied the book the test is easy to pass (all multiple choice, no morse code needed).

You can pick up a used radio on eBay for only a hundred dollars or so and then you’ve got communication even when the power is out and the cell towers aren’t working.

There are certain radio stations we are supposed to tune to and everything.

I’ve been meaning to pack an emergency bag.

Great post, JLP, as this is something we should all take to heart. Even if we don’t live in areas prone to natural disasters, we live in a time when other types of disasters could hit anywhere and as J.D. says, better to be prepared.

Last winter, half our town was without power (250,000+ people) for over a week. We were lucky that my in-laws had power but we only had about $20 in cash lying around the house. If we had needed to buy something from a store without power, we’d be sunk. No ATM or credit card.

Ever since then, I’ve kept a smalls stash of cash for just such an emergency.