LeeOtsubo
October 26th, 2007, 11:34 AM
It's been a pretty hectic week but it looks like things are calming down for those of us whose houses weren't damaged or destroyed. For those whose homes were lost, I'm sure this is just the beginning of a long, frustrating road. My heart goes out to them.
We (my wife and I along with our grumpy, geriatric cat) learned that loading Arbey (24' Winnebago View motorhome) for an evacuation is entirely different from loading for a fun weekend at a local campground. Anyone who has ever considered using their RV for emergency evacuation might want to practice before the "real deal".
We rarely carry full fresh water, diesel or propane because we fill up as needed. In an emergency, you can't count on having open gas stations. Even if they're open, the lines might be long or roads might be blocked.
Lesson 1: Store your RV with full fuel & propane. Fully fill the fresh water tank before you leave. If your RV is stored off-site, move it in front of your house earlier than later.
Lesson 2: Don't forget food. It's may be tough to find a convenient place to buy groceries. It may be tougher to find time to shop. Load your pets' food. They don't understand that it's an emergency and may refuse to eat strange stuff.
Lesson 3: Carry only enough clothes for 2-3 days but carry a wide range of light & heavy clothes. Weather emergencies create their own systems and it's hard to tell what you'll need.
Lesson 4: Take your laptop and wireless modem if you have one. The news media is full of BS, Conjecture and Hyperbole. It's hard to get "hard" news. We checked multiple web sites and drew our own conclusions. Also, when out of your local radio/TV area, the news gets "sketchy". There's a reason they call it "The Local News". Our Verizon Wireless Broadband was worth the $60/month.
Lesson 5: Along with #4 (above) keep an open mind but not so open that your brain falls out. You'll hear so many rumors that your head will spin. If we listened to the rumors, Godzilla had been awakened by the flames and the Air Force was ready to drop a nuke on San Diego to kill it.
Lesson 6: If it's worth evacuating, it's worth evacuating far. The first day, we went to a campground 10 miles away. We had to evacuate from there on the 2nd day to a site 20 miles away.
Lesson 7: Mixing people, critters and stress in an RV for several days produces cranky people and critters. Don't sit in the RV and watch the news 24/7. Get out and do something. Try to keep a sense of humor.
Lesson 8: Keep all your data and information ready to go. My wife scooped the contents of our fire-proof safe into a large box while I disconnected the 1TB network drive with all our electronic data and photos. Don't worry about miscellaneous crap like cables, routers, power cubes, etc.
Lesson 9: If you feel an onset of anxiety attacks, repeat this mantra, "It's all just crap."
Lesson 10: Take an inventory while you're evacuated so you can decide what's really important when you get back. Mentally prepare yourself. We pretty much decided that if everything was gone, we would leave for a 6 month vacation around the country in our motorhome.
Every emergency and every person is different so our lessons may not apply to you but don't sit on your butt and assume it won't happen to you. This is the second major fire in SD County in 4 years. Hope this gets some of you thinking about emergencies.
BTW, I received several e-mails from people who weren't aware of what was happening. It was good to have a sense of normalcy. Don't stop contact because you think people are busy. If they're really busy, you just won't get a reply. E-mails about cameras and photography made me feel like I was doing something useful instead of just watching the news.
We (my wife and I along with our grumpy, geriatric cat) learned that loading Arbey (24' Winnebago View motorhome) for an evacuation is entirely different from loading for a fun weekend at a local campground. Anyone who has ever considered using their RV for emergency evacuation might want to practice before the "real deal".
We rarely carry full fresh water, diesel or propane because we fill up as needed. In an emergency, you can't count on having open gas stations. Even if they're open, the lines might be long or roads might be blocked.
Lesson 1: Store your RV with full fuel & propane. Fully fill the fresh water tank before you leave. If your RV is stored off-site, move it in front of your house earlier than later.
Lesson 2: Don't forget food. It's may be tough to find a convenient place to buy groceries. It may be tougher to find time to shop. Load your pets' food. They don't understand that it's an emergency and may refuse to eat strange stuff.
Lesson 3: Carry only enough clothes for 2-3 days but carry a wide range of light & heavy clothes. Weather emergencies create their own systems and it's hard to tell what you'll need.
Lesson 4: Take your laptop and wireless modem if you have one. The news media is full of BS, Conjecture and Hyperbole. It's hard to get "hard" news. We checked multiple web sites and drew our own conclusions. Also, when out of your local radio/TV area, the news gets "sketchy". There's a reason they call it "The Local News". Our Verizon Wireless Broadband was worth the $60/month.
Lesson 5: Along with #4 (above) keep an open mind but not so open that your brain falls out. You'll hear so many rumors that your head will spin. If we listened to the rumors, Godzilla had been awakened by the flames and the Air Force was ready to drop a nuke on San Diego to kill it.
Lesson 6: If it's worth evacuating, it's worth evacuating far. The first day, we went to a campground 10 miles away. We had to evacuate from there on the 2nd day to a site 20 miles away.
Lesson 7: Mixing people, critters and stress in an RV for several days produces cranky people and critters. Don't sit in the RV and watch the news 24/7. Get out and do something. Try to keep a sense of humor.
Lesson 8: Keep all your data and information ready to go. My wife scooped the contents of our fire-proof safe into a large box while I disconnected the 1TB network drive with all our electronic data and photos. Don't worry about miscellaneous crap like cables, routers, power cubes, etc.
Lesson 9: If you feel an onset of anxiety attacks, repeat this mantra, "It's all just crap."
Lesson 10: Take an inventory while you're evacuated so you can decide what's really important when you get back. Mentally prepare yourself. We pretty much decided that if everything was gone, we would leave for a 6 month vacation around the country in our motorhome.
Every emergency and every person is different so our lessons may not apply to you but don't sit on your butt and assume it won't happen to you. This is the second major fire in SD County in 4 years. Hope this gets some of you thinking about emergencies.
BTW, I received several e-mails from people who weren't aware of what was happening. It was good to have a sense of normalcy. Don't stop contact because you think people are busy. If they're really busy, you just won't get a reply. E-mails about cameras and photography made me feel like I was doing something useful instead of just watching the news.