What Would You Save?
Sep 11th, 2008 by Nola
Moondance started her very own meme asking this:
If you had a few days warning that a massive storm was coming, that might rip your roof off and flood your house and all your belongings, what would you take with you when you evacuated?
This is not a theoretical question for many people in Florida and the gulf coast, who live with the hurricane season every year, and who have (some more than once) been faced with such a storm and lived through it. I am sure that changes your perspective about what’s important. Not only for immediate survival (a cooler, milk, water, batteries) but to keep going after the disaster relief workers and the news reporters turn to another group in trouble.
So my question (I can’t believe this turned into a meme) is: What would YOU save?
With Katrina, I totally freaked out. What to bring? What to leave? We were in a small car and had three animals to travel with. So it was slim pickin’s. With Gustav, we had a bigger car and one less pet. But we’d added Sun. Funny thing is that the things I took both times were about the same:
1. Clothes, shoes, toiletries, and the like.
2. Current knitting project and book, as well as toys for Sun, for distraction.
3. Cell phones, laptops, iPods, camera, video camera, and chargers.
4. Important papers, including current files I am working on, papers for CS’s business, and vaccination papers for the pets in case they needed to be boarded.
5. Pictures, genealogy info, baby books and the like were relocated to a safe, dry location but not taken on the road with us.
6. One of my vintage mah jong sets. It seemed silly to bring even one, but I couldn’t resist. We played it in Gustav.
7. Jewelry. What little I have that is nice.
Not much, eh? What we didn’t bring that I would have been most heartbroken had we lost was our art. We have a LOT of art, mostly local. No piece is worth a lot, but it’s our collection and we love it. But packing art is hard to do and could be damaged in the process. So we took our chances.
Furniture? Eh. I like a few pieces a lot, but only 3 pieces are irreplaceable. And taking furniture is not practical.
The rest of our stuff—we do have nice kitchen stuff—is just stuff. I have learned over and over (Katrina, gall bladder surgery, Gustav) that all that matters to me in my life I can fit snugly in my car. With elbow room.
Maybe that is why the thought of evacuating isn’t so scary to me. The nuisance isn’t packing all my valuables (ha!), it’s dealing with the traffic. Plus, I come from a long line of “stayers.”
So, now your turn. What would YOU save? I hate tagging folks, but I really want to know if your answer is similar to mine or if you’d need to own a U-Haul to live in the Gulf area to deal with evacuations. So let us know. Link back to Moondance’s original post and please e-mail me so I be sure not to miss it.
Traffic is what kills me too. You just want to pull you hair out… and considering I’m bald, that leaves unsettling options.
When I evacuate, I take a few things. Some mementos, a few trade paperbacks, my computer, my portable hard drive (POCKET SIZED!!!!!!), my sword and my cowboy hat.
My main concern is my family. Italians are stubborn, and don’t listen to basic reasoning once they’ve made up their mind.
Adam’s last blog post..A Day That Will Live in Infamy
It’s weird, but when I was packing and leaving for Gustav, I took what I needed and that could fit, etc, but once the storm gets closer and bigger, I start regretting not bringing everything: the photo albums (no matter how high/dry they are), favorite books, art…
In the end, it’s always #1, 3 and 4, no matter how much I want to grab it all.
Jane Moneypenny’s last blog post..The Unlucky
My ex & I evacuated for Floyd, which turned out to be a tropical storm (MAYBE cat 1 hurricane? I need to google that), but was forecast Category 5 when we left. Our carriage house, at ground level, was 2 blocks from the Ashley River on the Charleston peninsula. We drove my Honda Civic hatchback and had my pekingese, so there wasn’t much room. We took some clothes, all our photo albums, and left everything else on shelves up off the floor and covered in plastic. And parked our hand-me-down Ford under a tree, half-hoping it’d be destroyed.
suz’s last blog post..The Truth About Taxes
Wow – that was fast! Thanks for playing.
I remember your parking a car packed with geneology stuff at the highest level of the parking garage for Katrina, and I was impressed because I would have never have thought of that.
Moondance’s last blog post..Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season
Jane Moneypenny, you should consider getting you photos scanned onto disks or a portable hard drive. saves space AND memories.
Adam’s last blog post..A Day That Will Live in Infamy
Kids. Nothing else really matters.
No hurricanes in Ohio (yet) but three years ago we had a house fire in the middle of the night. I got the kids out. As I’m sitting there watching the firemen work–I realized that there was clean laundry in the basement. (Fire was in the attic.) So I went back in for the laundry.
We were fortunate in that it was a fairly small fire and quickly contained but my wife has never let me live down the fact that of all the things I could have run back into a burning house to retrieve, I went after laundry!
Ed (zoesdad)’s last blog post..Holy Guacamole!
This time I was a bit more prepared. For Katrina I had like an hour or less to pack and leave. I had more things for the cat than I did for me. This time I had a few more things, like the book my sister had made me of my niece. Every printed photo of my niece. More books. A lot more clothes. A pillow, a blanket. It is weird because you don’t think you will really be heartbroken, but then you are. I had things in the basement from college and HS, things I hadn’t looked at since moving, over a year and it was all of a sudden gone. I still miss that stuff.
stacey’s last blog post..Me Likee
http://www.yatpundit.com/2008/09/evacuation-meme.html
Yeah, I’ll write it on my blog.
http://nothpnowmommy.blogspot.com
Sarabeth’s last blog post..I’m assuming my creativity relies on stability
I know I once admitted to mostly jeans, purses & undies during Ivan, but the truth of the matter my list today looks much like yours. Photos, some books (signed first edition of Jeff Shaara’s, Gods & Generals & John Jakes, Savannah) my nice jewelry. Probably a nice set of sheets because they are small and something that would really bring me a bit of sunshine if I was on an air mattress or sofa bed at a friend’s house for an extended period. My scrapbook from high school, and my personal cookbook. I’d cry if I lost my artwork (again, nothing particularly expensive, but all hand-picked & much loved) or my antique chest that my Mom bought me in England when I was 3- but that isn’t fitting in any car, no matter how big.
(I too left a car during hurricanes parked in a parking garage on the top floor in hopes that maybe what was in it would be salvageable.)
Daisy Duke’s last blog post..A Task From God (An Email)
Well, my last evacuation was for Katrina. And I took some old standards plus learned a few things along the way. My current list would be:
-Cats
-a litter box in a garbage bag with a little bit of litter in it for the inevitably long car trip
-vaccination papers
-any and all insurance papers
-my notarized medical power of attorney for my girlfriend
-computers
-laptop
-any and all important CDs with my research, papers, photos, and stuff
-Gas cans filled with gas and tied to the roof of the car for when you hit the areas with gas shortage
-some vague kind of weapon for when you stop and feel unsafe because you have gas cans on your car in an area with no gas and desperate people
-school books that are expensive and irritating to replace
-a few books to read either on the trip or when we get somewhere because I will drive myself crazy with worry unless I have a distraction
-a written list or some kind of backup for all my phone numbers in case my phone dies
-more underwear than I could ever anticipate needing
I suppose this is all hypothetical now, since the move to Austin. But we still know what we would do if the need arose.
Sharon’s last blog post..Hork if you’re tired
I waited for Andrew to come knocking on my front door. Then as now, the packing list is: old briefcase full of important papers and 11 cats into one Camry, booking out of town as fast as I could do and I-95 be damned.
Becs’s last blog post..Tales of the Tub
I do have a sort of mental list… being that I’ve actually done this on a few occasions. I take family jewelry, important papers, old photos that aren’t on disk, my pets, are the most critical non-human treasures. If there is room, I also pack a few books that mean a lot of me.
Tara R.’s last blog post..Where your rights end…
My list would look nearly identical to yours. Minus the Mah jong set ( I don’t own one). When living in south Florida, we made a list just about every hurricane season. It’s always amazing to see how much isn’t that important in critical situations.
Sandy (Momisodes)’s last blog post..Weekly Winners
I’d save pretty much the same as you I think. And Misses E and M’s baby boxes.