Think about what you'd take

Knowing what you'd need in an emergency can make a stressful situation a little less bad

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to think about what you would take from
your home in an emergency. You really never know when

(00:24):
you might have to leave somewhere quickly, so in general,
it's good to be prepared. Being prepared could make a
very stressful situation just a little bit less awful. Like
many people, I've been horrified watching the wildfires in Los
Angeles earlier this year. Normal residential areas just went up

(00:47):
in flames. In many cases, people had a short bit
of warning before they needed to evacuate. Now, if you
only have a minute or two in an emergency situation,
you obviously I just need to get out with your
people and pets. But in some cases people had a
slightly longer window or had an evacuation alert before it

(01:09):
turned into an order. Even if you just have a
short time, having a bag of stuff ready to go
means that your first few days away from your home
could feel slightly more comfortable. So I've been asking myself
this lately, what would I take? It might be wise
to take a minute or two to ask yourself this question. Too,

(01:31):
what would you take among other things. I've realized that
it would be good to have a little gas in
the car, best not to let it get toward empty.
It's good to have a little cash as well. So
many of our payments are electronic these days, but in disasters,
power networks could be down, and in that case cash
would be helpful. There are, of course, the basic human needs,

(01:54):
like water. Keeping. Some bottled water in the trunk or
in a bag near the door might make the first
few hours of evacuation before getting to a more stable
place more doable. Same with some non perishable food like
granola bars and pet food if you're taking a pet,
especially with kids. Having food, which would include formula and

(02:16):
baby food if you've got little ones, could be the
difference between being miserable or being okay. If anyone in
your family needs regular medications, you'd want to grab those
because it could be challenging to get a prescription filled
at a new pharmacy quickly, particularly if your doctor is
in the same disaster zone that you are. With a

(02:38):
bit of warning, it would be wise to grab important documents.
Most things can be replaced, but of course it's easier
not to If you have a place with your passports
and birth certificates, social security cards, a marriage license, or
any insurance documents or property records, and you have the
ability to grab these quickly and put them in something safe,

(03:00):
waterproof to come with you. That could be helpful if
you couldn't get back to your home for a while.
Then there are the other things I mean, I guess
most of us would want a change of clothes. We
might want a flashlight or maybe a lighter. Some bandages
or a small first aid kit could be helpful. Grabbing
toothbrushes and other hygiene items could make the first few

(03:23):
days more comfortable. You'd want your phone and charger, of course,
and perhaps you'd want some sentimental things. What would those be.
The point of this is not to put all sentimental
things in a bag ready to go right now, But
by thinking about all of this, we might be able
to identify those things that would be hardest to replace.

(03:45):
Most photos from the last decade or so probably have
a digital backup. But if you start thinking about what
you would take in a disaster, you might realize the
wisdom of creating a digital backup of other things, like
historic family photos. It's not quite the same as having
the original print, but you could reprint something and maybe

(04:07):
recreate things. It's good to take pictures of children's artwork
that you enjoy seeing, or if you have handwritten letters
from long gone relatives, you could take pictures or scan
those too. And when you think about what you'd need
an emergency, you make sure you know where those things are.
After all, if you had thirty minutes to leave, you

(04:30):
wouldn't want to spend that precious time hunting around for
people's birth certificates. But when you know exactly where they are,
you won't have to hunt, and as a bonus, you
will be able to find these things more readily in
non emergency situations. I was glad I knew where my
five year old's birth certificate was recently when we needed

(04:52):
to get him a passport and register him for kindergarten.
In any case, most people will never have an evacuation situation,
but I think it helps to at least think through
what you would take in an emergency and how accessible
these things are. That way, when an evacuation order comes in,
you might be able to find these things in a

(05:13):
situation where it will be harder to think in the meantime,
this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

(05:34):
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

(05:56):
listen to your favorite shows.