Enlight of the recent events with Katrina and what not I've relised
I am not as prepared as I thought I was.

Sure we have the basic food storage down but what about evacuation
kits?

Watching all of these people without food and water or even basic
hygenic needs put things in a bit of perspective. Evacuating is
possible but that year supply is probably not coming with us.

My husband and I have been putting together personal back packs for
each member of the family with some of the following items, just
from watching and learning from the Katrina refugee's.

In each back pack-
-Sweat pants, sweat shirt, pair of socks, t-shirt, flip-flip shoes.

**I was figuring that sweat pants would be cheap and adjustable t-
sirts would be a bit oversized as well and the sweat shirt incase of
coldr weather; and the flip flops incase we ever found ourselves
running out of the house during a fire or something and didn't have
time to get shoes, or like the victims over soaked shoes.

travel sized
-shampoo, bar soap, hand sanitizer, toothbrush, toothpaste,
deoderant, sun block, chapstick, hair brush or comb, collapsible
cup, wash cloth, baby blanket (like a receiving blanket)
** The baby blanket can be versitile, can be used as a towel, small
pillow, blanket, bandage, an arm sling, a make shift maxi pad, etc
etc etc; the wash cloth can be used as a baby wipe instead of having
to pack baby wipes.

-first aid kit, multi-vitamins, swiss army knife, mini tool kit,
water proof matches, 1-2 sternos, flash light (extra batteries or
the new battery free flash lights) or 3-5 glow sticks

- 2~3 bottles of water at least!!!

-Trail mix, 6-8 protein bars, or shelf stabile food bars

-simple toy packs for children;8 crayons, small note pad paper, 2-3
miniature toys things that can fit into a snadwich bag.

We were also thinking of 1-2 extra back packs containing some of the
following

-Femanine products (tampons, pads, diva cups, sponges, cloth pads
etc etc etc whatever you may use, reusable products like the sea
sponge or the diva cup would be ideal and compact)

-A small package of the largest sized diapers(5's or 6's) you can
always fit a small baby into a large diaper you can't fit a large
baby into a small diaper! LOL

-A Baby sling or carrier (I prefer the sling because it is more
compact than some of the carriers.

-Transistor radio with extra batteries

-Emergency cash apx $100-$200 in smaller bills

-A can of powdered baby formula and a reusable baby bottle and
nipple if not breast feeding or some powdered milk

-Emergency Cell phone, charged even without minutes almost all cells
have 9-1-1 assistance and all have GPS but not all cities have the
capabilities of GPS cell tracking, even still it can be programmed
with family phone numbers or emergency contact info, e-mails
addreses etc etc

-A calling card, if you don't have a cell

-A larger First Aid kit

-A small thing of laundry detergent or liquid dish soap

~~Laminated Photo Copied Documents~~

-Have a hard copy of important phone numbers, address', e-mails and any other information. Work, family, church.

-Home insurance #'s, car insurance #'s titles plates. Have copies of policies and policy numbers as well as agent names and maybe phone numbers to the companies as well.

-Photo copies of birth certs

-SS#'s for all members

-Driver's liscens or state ID's

-Medical information, including copies of medical cards and
insurance information list of perscription drugs, pharmacies you
used etc etc

-Maps

-Recent family picture so that you can have a visual reference incase a family
member is "lost or missing".

It's encouraged to update, rotate & Update, etc etc these kits every 6 month. The best reminder is to do them on Daylight savings.

I think that is all we came up with. Each back pack is going to be
lined with a garbage bag to help with water proofing and to also be
used as a rain poncho or an emergency blanket as well.

What else have you all come up with? I want some more ideas.

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Your kids' vaccination records. There was a program on our local news the other day about trying to re-create kids' vaccination records for the evacuees who have ended up here in Tampa and want to get the kids back into school. Just a photo copy of the shots would work fine, I'm sure.

It's also a very good idea to get your kids fingerprinted so that they have those records on file. Especially vital for very small children who can't tell someone their name/birthdate/parents. I know that when you get their fingerprints done, they can give you a card with the prints that you can keep in case something happens to the police record.

If you have family members with specific needs, you should have your first aid kit reflect that. Babies' tylenol, mylicon drops, asthma inhalers (or inhaler refills), epinephrine (epi-pen), and the like are not included in regular first aid kits and may not come to mind as "medications" you need to take because they aren't always needed.

And personally, I would keep copies of any really vital stuff from the computer on CD's in there too. Things like pictures mostly, but any really important writing you're doing (thesis papers, dissertations, the like) and that sort of thing. Just your most vital back-ups. Pictures would be the big thing for me, because I take all of our pictures with a digital camera these days, so I don't even have a 'hard' copy of some of my faves.

Copies of marriage cert's and divorce papers, if applicable.

If you have pets, have a back of their food as well as some bottles of water and their vaccination records too. Once every few months swap the food out with a new bag and use the old bag, so you don't have to worry about it expiring. You should also have a picture of them in their bag, in case they go missing and you think it might be possible to retrieve them.

That's all I can think to add. You've got a really extensive list there.

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Great ideas ladies - thank you!!

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Someone asked for me to repost this so I am bumping it for you all!

I think it is a great idea to have these kits and try to be prepared but a lot of people thought they were and a lot of people had supplies. But when the flood surger came in a lot of people told me it took all their strength just to try to grab their children and get out of the house.

I do think that it is a great idea though to have kits "ready." You may also want to designate a family member as a contact person should all the phones go down like ours did (cell and land lines). That way you call just that person and let them know you are ok, location, etc. and everyone else can get the info from that person.

What really hurt was the fact that our communication systems went down. No cell phones, no regular phones, no TV stations broadcasting, and no radio stations. And I am 60 miles away from New Orleans. We didn't know anything for hours.

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Michele B

A lot of people are starting to think and the Red Cross has a really good tool to help people prepare for a disaster situation visit http://www.redcross.org/services/pre...,0_77_,00.html and check it out. Just use the link to see checklists of what you should do to prepare for emergencies in your area. Think of every possible thing no matter how slim the chance is and plan for the worse, which could be a combination of any of them.

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JoAnn
host of Grandparents

VERY TRUE!!! It was Thursday afternoon before I was able to get in touch with my family in Mississippi. They had run from the storm and we had stayed. They were TOTALLY FREAKED!!! I am pg with the first grandbaby. My siblings still haven't forgiven my DH for not leaving.

Even if we had, we would have been in a different place than them and still couldn't get in touch.

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