I am constantly plagued with a nagging pull to the back of my neck that whispers, “The zombies are coming, are you ready yet?”
Zombies, earthquakes, water shortages, whatever. In the case of an emergency our 72 hour packs would really help us–if we knew where they were. Jason and I both have super duper store bought survival kits we procured about ten years ago; we have yet to locate them with this move.
Every once in a while I think about my children and their need for survival in the event of a real catastrophe. I worry that our little kid 72 hour packs still sit limp and empty in the corner of the garage. This is enough motivation to at least collect inconspicuous handfuls of hard candy from doctor’s offices to drop in the empty front pouches. I guess that makes them five minute packs, only 71+ hours to go.
I planned an Emergency Evacuation drill last night for Family Home Evening. I put together a one page list for the back door with each family member’s name and their tasks in the event that we have to leave our house at a moment’s notice–like if the Chinese decide to invade Las Vegas or in case someone (probably the Chinese) accidentally pulls the plug on Lake Meade and our water stops.
This list is crazy simple. Jason and I each have about seven things to do, starting with “put shoes and coat on” and the kids each have four simple steps. Harrison’s list includes the dog but the little kids have it very cut and dry: 1. Put on shoes and warm coat, 2. Get blankie, 3. Get one stuffed animal or doll, 4. Get in car with seat belt.
Last night we sat around the table after watching the third installment in the family disaster/preparedness videos (my kids love them) and passed the family list. We each read our jobs aloud and Harry set the list down.
“Great,” I said, “Disaster just hit, ready GO!!! Five minutes to the car, move move MOVE!!!”
I might as well have used an electric shocker they flew out of their chairs like popcorn. The instant feeling of panic was surprisingly real and even my own adrenaline surged as I frantically tried to help kids find shoes, gather phones and chargers and passports and prescriptions, then ran to the car. Jason, who had treated the entire meeting like a slightly elevated joke, was suddenly the Drillmaster. He had the dog food in the car and his gun on his hip in like four minutes.
When Jason and I slammed the doors to the Excursion it had taken us just over six minutes. Sound impressive? It’s not.
The girls were sobbing uncontrollably, Rex was asking if we were ever going to come back to our house, no one had brought a blankie or remembered socks, and there were only two decent coats in the group. The two empty red backpacks that represented our sad attempt at 72 hour preparedness sat limply next to a half empty flat of bottled water.
But hey, we did it in six minutes.
We came in and worked on putting together personal hygiene and mini FirstAid kits for the kids’ bags. There is no food or water purification system yet (minus the hard candy), but at least we won’t be getting cavities.
This month’s goal: Find our big 72 hour kits and figure out a water strategy.