Natural Disaster Evacuation Plans: please share

[PirateGirl]

This morning I awoke to a landscape overwhelmed with smoke from nearby wildfires. Unfortunately that time of year is upon us and Colorado is in drought. It got me thinking, as it does every year, what my plan is for evacuation. When do I decide to go? What do I pack? What do I do with my animals? Where do we go?

Around the world our communities are prone to different types of natural disasters. I thought now would be as good a time as any to start a discussion on what your plans are and what your experiences are. Have you evacuated before? Have you evacuated your animals before? What will you do if there is a tornado, wildfire, hurricane, etc.? Where will you go? What will you do with your animals.

*Moderator, feel free to move this post, I really didn't know where to put it.

 

[PirateGirl]

The neighborhood I used to live in is in jeopardy with a new wildfire burning within 250 ft. of homes.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/BuffaloMountainFire?src=hash

 

[prostar]

This is something that’s always on my mind (because this is Southern California...at any given point in time the state is usually on fire) and hubs and I both work a decent distance from home - so having something happen when I’m at work freaks me out. All I have is a general agreement with a few of my neighbors. If I’m home and they’re not I take their dogs. If they’re home and I’m not they take my dog. Unfortunatly the chickens get the short end of the stick cause when minutes matter...I feel they’d be brats. So it’d likely be “open the coop door hopefully they find shelter or make it” and turn on irrigation sprinklers.
If I’m home though, I creep on fires and if it looks like it may head my way...you better believe I’m catching who I can, loading the camper up and fleeing somewhere not on fire. (Camper just means hey. Don’t have to worry about no pets allowed shelters)

Long and short of it is - know your neighbors. Make a plan WITH them in case of.

 

[Loopeend]

We don't have any natural threats here.
But in case of war or something I would (together with my animals) travel to my uncle that lives in the middle of nowhere.
In the new house we are building, we are going to build a secret cellar which will be supplied with some water/food other stuff. It's illegal here to build a cellar so please don't tell the Dutch government.
Some friends think I'm insane. It is an idea that came when stripping this house.
we found swastika's under the wallpaper. This street was heavily invaded during the war. One side of my grandparents were Jewish, took on Christianity on time to avoid being killed and participated in illegal smuggling at the border during the war. On the other side my grandfather had to fight in the war (luckely for him he was stationed in the middle of nowhere and he didn't actually have to fight). I began to think more of that after finding these swastika's
I doens't cost much more to build this cellar, since it is my partners job, building houses. And why not? It doesn't hurt to have one. And the really slim chance it ever needs to be used it comes in handy.

 

[PirateGirl]

@prostar "know your neighbors" is great advice. I have not lived in my current home nearly as long as my last one. I should have a conversation with my neighbors about what we will do in the event of a wildfire and evacuating each others' pets if one of us is closer than the other and can get there faster. We have tentative plans, which really involves throwing the dogs and cats in the car, grabbing a box of camping stuff, a box of important documents, and my laptop, and gettin out of there as fast as possible. Other food, clothes, supplies, etc. can all be purchased along the way if needed. I like to think I can throw all the birds in one large dog crate and take them too, but this is not entirely realistic now that I have a few more birds. This is the piece I must think on. If needed, I would certainly give them away to a farm or something if I could not return home quickly, but without purchase of a trailer or something this move/evacuation would be difficult. We've been toying with getting a trailer for a variety of reasons because we know we'd get much use of it over the years, this is one more reason for a trailer, evacuation. If a threat is imminent we could keep it packed and ready to go and then the plan would just be to grab the trailer and go.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

not many natural disasters where i live but we do have to worry about yellow stone's volcano i do think we are in a danger zone (even though i live in Canada) i have been told. scared me as a kid.

 

[lazy gardener]

No community is immune from disaster of one sort or an other. At the risk of being called out for preaching, I urge the reader to read the scriptures. The signs of the times are abundant, and just like one can read the weather patterns by observing, the current signs of the times point to increasing frequency of disaster. Scriptural prophecy has NEVER been wrong.

As for personal prep: Much of what I have been doing in the last 8 years has been in preparation for end times. No, I do not consider myself to be a prepper. But, I intend to be able to provide as many meals for myself (that do not involve a trip to the grocery store) as I can. When I am gone, I hope that my home will provide a well stocked haven for those who come after me.

If any readers care to discuss further, you can PM me.

 

[Loopeend]

No community is immune from disaster of one sort or an other. At the risk of being called out for preaching, I urge the reader to read the scriptures. The signs of the times are abundant, and just like one can read the weather patterns by observing, the current signs of the times point to increasing frequency of disaster. Scriptural prophecy has NEVER been wrong.

As for personal prep: Much of what I have been doing in the last 8 years has been in preparation for end times. No, I do not consider myself to be a prepper. But, I intend to be able to provide as many meals for myself (that do not involve a trip to the grocery store) as I can. When I am gone, I hope that my home will provide a well stocked haven for those who come after me.

If any readers care to discuss further, you can PM me.

I really don't believe in a God. Or His scriptures. Or preaching.
But I dó think sings are pointing to something that can not hold; 'an end of time' if you want to call it that. The scriptures aren't written by someone stupid. Their is knowledge in them. I do not know if that it because a God has written them or it is more a bundle of common wise folklore from wise people. I guess it really doesn't matter in this conversation since it is what we have in common I want to talk about;
I don't think they will mean a natural disaster. This 'end of time'. I think our punishment will be a (nuclear) war due to the rising hatred amongst each other in different countries around the world (many countries now have chosen leaders that have a racist tendecy) or something that has to do with poluting our world. Something we did.

I feel that I am quite scared for that the last years. Especially the rising hatred.

An other question that comes to mind with this topic and I often ponder about;
Do you guys have militairy duty if a war or disaster occurs, and what will you do?
We finally have it for women, which is more then fair, but I will hide if it is for a war. Since I didn't choose for that war. I'm not going to fight some people who are forced also by their government to fight for fighting a fight my government has created but safely sits at home. Helping in a disaster kind of depends if I can actually help; for instance I faint when I see blood, but I am sure I can be helpfull in other ways and will be open for that.

 

[PirateGirl]

@lazy gardener you have a point. Part of the reason most of us keep chickens is as a way to feed our families. It is a way to be self-sufficient and a step back to a time when people grew their own food and bartered for other goods and services their families needed. That being said, perhaps protecting the flock is even more important in the event of a disaster, be it weather or war, so that in uncertain times we have a food source at hand. I do not consider myself a prepper per se, but do like to think that I am prepared in the event of an emergency.

@Loopeend that is an interesting question about military duty. In the US I would not be forced into government military service. I am however prepared to defend my homestead if need be. I do not wish to fight a war either, but I will not go down without a fight.

I hope there does not come an end time, a natural disaster, etc., but I have seen wildfire, I have seen golf ball size hail, etc. I camp as a hobby/pastime so I have lots of supplies, and I keep camping gear packed in a box ready to go if need be.

I recently saw the 5 Ps of evacuation for the first time and it's a great reminder:

1. People and Pets
2. Papers
3. Prescriptions
4. Pictures
5. Personal Computer

 

[azurbanclucker]

We don't get a lot of natural disasters here in AZ, and unless the wildfires get apocalyptic we're not in danger from them. We do have an evac plan and a list of meeting places and what each of us is responsible to get out of the house. I don't worry about the computer or papers for the most part, I have digitized everything and it's stored in the cloud on an encrypted service.

* People
* Pets (and the chickens are optional. If they're in the coop and I can catch them they'll go, if they're running the yard and time is critical, unfortunately they are on their own. Same with the tortosies. We take the ones we can catch in 1 minute or less.)
* Clothing
* Food and water
* Meds
* Cameras and assorted gear
* If possible, some of the higher value collectibles. They're insured, but they're also sentimental.
* If possible, my desktop computer.

We've practiced a couple of times, if we have 60 minutes to clear out, we can do all of this.

Then we have a series of gradually increasing distance places to meet up (depending on the range of the disaster). I also have some decent 2 way radios with good range so in case cell networks are overwhelmed or down we can still coordinate between cars to a certain degree.

We're far from prepared, but at least we know if we have to we can do OK.