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[muldoon]

I thought it might be timely to post a mention of the importance of having your "stuff" together in the event you need to leave your house very quickly without assurances that you will be coming back to it.  No one really wants to think about disaster, but they happen.  Everyone knows you need food and water, but there are plenty of other things as well to consider. 

I used this site quite a bit http://www.theplacewithnoname.com/blogs/klessons/  and he talks about lessons he learned from Katrina in Louisiana. 

Things like insurance papers, marriage licenses, passports, childrens shot records (good luck getting them into school without them),  communications plans, where will your family be if you get separated?  Might be a very worthwhile investment in your families to spend some time going over these details and getting your S together.  It may come in handy, and it certainly does not need to be a doomsday scenario for that to happen.  Even something like a forest fire, a tornado, or any number of scenarios could create such a situation. 

[pmichelsen]

Good topic, especially in light of what has happened in Japan. My significant other's biggest fear is an earthquake leveling San Francisco, so a few years back she insisted that we make an earthquake kit.

We have three major kits, one that has supplies for securing our home should we stay there, as well as food, medication, tools, stoves, lights, etc. We also have mobile kits, one for her and one for me, each loaded with personal items and maps with our meeting place clearly marked. And finally we have a kit located at my shop, which is a few miles from our residence just incase we are unable to get to our residence.

Having a good plan is definitely something I would recommend for everyone, as you never know when something could happen.

[MushCreek]

Here in FL we prep for hurricanes. We've got plenty of food, but water can be a problem. Living on a pond, we could always boil water if we got desperate. This past Christmas there was a major water main break that cut off a couple hundred thousand people in our area, including us. It was surprising how fast that that became quite inconvenient. We're all so used to instant communication that an event that removed all of that would be scary as well. You go from the 21st century back to the 19th century pretty fast when you suddenly lose the things we all take for granted these days.

[peternap]

Several years ago we invested in a safe Muldoon. An expensive safe that will still be there if the house washes away or burns down and it would take a jackhammer a day to remove it....so I don't worry about documents.

We have emergency kits in all the cars (don't know what to do with the motorcycle) and the plan is go to the farm or stay put. There are three routes that can be taken with the direct one preferred. The kids have been briefed thoroughly on it and everyone has marine, frs, gmrs and 2 meter radios and we have a list of frequencies to use.

We have a years supply of food at either place, spring water at both and water purifying equipment at both, generators at both, fuel, guns ammunition, fishing equipment, traps, seeds, building equipment...basically everything we need to live quite nicely off grid and out of the framework at either place although if it's that bad, I'll be at the farm.

That simplifies the bug out kit considerably.