*Home Emergency Evacuation*
An accident at the railroad tracks, upwind of my house meant that a large HAZMAT cloud was blowing towards us. When the Sheriff banged on the door he said, "GO NOW!" There was no time to think. I grabbed my keys and a few items and escaped with what was in my car.
Six months later, an evacuation order came again, while visiting friends in California. Firefighters said we had one hour max. We had to be out of the house and thru the roadblock or risk being engulfed in fire and smoke. It was 3AM and I was half asleep and half not dressed.
My FNV on both occasions revealed that I wasted valuable time. I made multiple trips to get what my panicky brain thought I might need and I forgot very important items. OK, I got the message: I needed a plan for emergency evacuation.
Hubby and I came up with this. Well, actually it's four plans based on how much time we have – we broke it down into 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 4 hours and 24 hours.
The plan assumes that only one person is at home (worst case) and shows a
The plan took about a month to polish. The list kept growing but by tweaking the route thru the house we found that we could make up time. We also found that we got quicker with practice, learning how to do things along the way and how to pack the car. We learned that Hubby could carry a lot more than I but that I move quicker thru the house. Then, we'd wait for some time so that we would "forget" and then practice again to test that everything could get done within the stated time limit without the recent experience.
During the practice drills we learned that it made sense for us to store certain items in a different area. If it's an item rarely used, then why not store it so that you don't have to run down the stairs with a bulky item or carry a heavy load very far? Why take everything to the car if we could bring the car to a better location to load?
We made two copies laminated each and tacked it in a convenient place. Two copies will allow each of us to have one, so that if we're both home we can work as a team to gather supplies.
Having all four plans on one page makes it easier to choose what more you could take if time and space allows, and it prioritizes items if lessening the load is necessary.
Maybe a similar plan based on an actual practice drill would benefit your family.
| 5 minutes | AA Bedroom |
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| Start in AA room, carry in one trip downstairs | Office |
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| BB Bedroom |
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| Kitchen |
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| Garage |
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| Basement |
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| 30 minutes | Kitchen |
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| Start in kitchen: carry downstairs, load car, drive to front door and continue loading. Secure house |
Garage |
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| Basement |
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| Drive car to front door | AA Bedroom |
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|---|---|---|
| Office |
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| BB Bedroom |
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| 4 Hours | Kitchen |
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| Start in kitchen: carry downstairs, load car, drive to front door and continue loading. Shutoff utilities. Secure house |
Garage |
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| Basement |
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| Outside |
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| Drive car to front door | AA Bedroom |
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| Office |
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| BB Bedroom |
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24 Hours | Garage |
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| Load downstairs, drive to front door and continue loading. Use 2 cars Shutoff utilities. Secure house | Basement |
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| Outside |
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| Unlock/open front door – Open garage door - Drive to front door | AA Bedroom |
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| Office |
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| BB Bedroom |
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| Kitchen |
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