construct a family emergency kit and put it where I'll find it when I need it

I’m beginning to wonder if having a well-stocked house is good enough. In the past 3 weeks I’ve been snowed in, had a power outage and had a minor flood indoors. So far I’ve survived just fine. It was nice to know where that flashlight was, but other than that, why do I need to have a special stash of food in the garage when I can keep pleanty of food in the cupboards?

I’ve put this off for so long I feel like if I just do the bare basics I’ll be good enough to call this done, so I’m going to re-define this for myself a bit.

A friend of mine was caught in the floods in Washington this week. She had 30 minutes notice between when a neighbor knocked on her door at 5 am to tell her to get out and when the water started rushing under the doors.

This has inspired me to get an evacuation kit ready (important documents, a couple changes of clothes, cat supplies…. This is in addition to the emergancy kit that I’ve put off building for the last year with food and water in case of being stranded at home with no utilites.

So I’m going to go ahead and buy a pre-assembled kit, or just my missing peices using my vacation money.

BUT, I’m going to wait until after next week’s vacation to do it!

Actual conversation with the boyfriend:

“Why are you saving this pandemic flu brochure, you’re not really worried about pandemic flu are you?”
“No, but the list is a good starting point for my emergency kit”
“Emergency kit?”
“Yeah, for earthquakes or volcanos…”
“But you don’t have a basement? How can you have an emergency plan without a basement?”
“Basements are not on the list”