With the never-ending wildfire season and increasing natural disasters, having a grab-and-go bag has now become an essential part of everyday life. A grab-and-go bag is no longer a luxury item. The question I get asked often is, Erin, what should I put in my "Grab-and-Go Bag? This is an excellent question and one I will answer in this months blog.
A Grab-and-Go Bag should be just what the name says. It's a bag that is small enough for anyone to grab and carry with you in the event of an emergency that requires you to evacuate your home or property and relocate for over 12-24hrs or more at a time, as the picture to the left shows.
Creating a Grab-and-Go Bag should be a family affair. All family members should have their own Grab-and-Go Bag. Each person in your household should have their own Grab-and-Go Bag because everyone’s needs are usually different. Even children should have a Grab-and-Go bag with at least one special toy inside for comfort as well as clothing, shoes, socks, underwear, diapers, bottles, formula, cell phone and charging cord if appropriate as well as whistles in case you get separated blowing the whistle will help them be found quickly.
It should contain at least one pair of seasonally appropriate change of clothing complete with underwear, closed toe hard sole shoes, and a couple of pairs of socks even if you live in a warm environment and you are used to wearing sandals, and pajamas if you are used to sleeping in them. If you have to evacuate on foot, you will want to be able to change into foot protective shoes.
Other Items: Cell phone charger and battery bank, radio, first aid kit, some easy to carry food and water, a flashlight, a whistle to blow in case of emergency and your laptop computer, if you have one.
I recommend you spend a day or two now, before disaster strikes, converting any important papers, tax documents, wills, trusts, and all family and important photos to a digital medium and downloading them to your laptop or onto a thumb drive and put that in your Grab-and- Go-Bag too. This will save you space and weight in your bag and be less to have to grab when disaster strikes.
Grab all of your medication bottles and put them in a large Ziplock bag. You will need to have the bottles when you need to refill them. Having the bottles makes it easier for the pharmacy to fill and will also make it easier for an urgent care or ER doctor to write a new prescription should you need to be away longer than expected.
Food items should be food that will not spoil quickly and will be easy to eat without heating or adding anything to them. The exception is the baby formula which will always require adding water. Powdered formula is best because it transports relatively easily. Meals ready to eat or MRE's are good, but they usually require the addition of water or heat to be able to eat them and that will not always be available in some disaster situations. Food such as granola bars, energy bars, cans of port and beans, nuts (unless you are allergic), containers of protein drinks like Ensure, Boost, Pedialyte, etc... These do not require refrigeration, water or heat to consume.
Remember everyone is different, so each person should personalize his/her Grab-and-Go Bag to his/her own likes and needs.