I have an idea ...

[BadgeBunny]

that is kind of an extension of a "go bag" but not quite the same.

We have bags in all our cars but this last little round of tornados in May (and how close the El Reno one came to actually nabbing us) has had my gears turning on and off all summer and fall. All the folks who were left homeless, with only the clothes on their backs, really made an impression on me. This is what I've come up with:

Along with our bags, I'm thinking about taking a couple of waterproof totes (not a big one, medium-sized), going to Wal-Mart and buying a weeks' worth of underwear, socks, PJs, cheap work shirts, and 4 pairs of jeans each and throwing them in the tub. Add in a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of work boots each, a couple pairs of work gloves and a flash drive with copies of all our important papers on it, seal it up and put it by the garage door when I can grab it and throw it into whatever vehicle I'm leaving in ... Take the second, identical tote and store it in the tornado shelter that Ryan at F5 (yes, that is my shameless plug for Ryan!! ) is gonna put in for us.

If I thought I could get away with it, I'd make another one and throw it in the truck of GC's patrol car ...

My thinking is that no matter what happens we would increase our chances of getting to the hotel with at least SOME clothes to work with (as well as the documents we need to prove all the stuff you need to prove for insurance, etc.).

What do you guys think?? I'm mostly looking for naysayers to pick me apart that way I can improve upon my ruminations before I go shopping ...

I've already taken to storing all our files in one portable file case that I can "grab and go" if I need to without having to gather stuff up off the desk ... BUT, what if it gets lost along the way? Maybe I should just get a safe deposit box for the flash drive instead of having more than one copy of all our financial "stuff" floating around out there ... Where do you even find a safe deposit box any more??

Hmmmm ... anyway ... talk amongst yourselves ... I'm gonna sit over here and take notes!

 

[clock152]

I can see no flaw in this idea.... Thinking I may do the same thing.

 

[jrusling]

We have a safety deposit box and keep our important papers there. All of them are also scanned and stored on a NAS. The NAS is backed up on a removable hard drive that I keep in the gun safe. In addition, once a year the NAS is backed up to my Son's NAS when he come down here over the holidays. I also keep a few documents, our advanced health care directives, on my phone.

 

[SMS]

Sound thinking, change of clothes, important documents etc...I like your idea of having a bin in the garage to throw in the car, just avoid the "Axe".

There's a pretty good SLA Marshall book called The Soldiers Load and the Mobility of a Nation that discusses the history, processes and problems surrounding the development of the infantryman's load. (it was written a long time ago but it's very poignant given the recent troubles with overloading our soldiers today). One interesting little vignette revolves around a decision to have every infantryman carry an axe "in case he had to break a door down". I know we aren't talking infantryman stuff...but the thinking applies to prepping as well.

Short story, if you try to cover everything you'll be so encumbered you won't get anything done....LOL.

 

[subprep]

the only flaw I see unless I misread :-) back up your docs on more than one flash drive in case one is lost or destroyed. Otherwise this plan is very sound :-) oh and maybe adjust the clothing seasonally? toss in hat for winter months you can buy cheap stocking hats/scarves at dollar general.

 

[Shadowrider]

I think you are spot on BB. This coming from someone that had BOTH of the bad tornadoes come inside of a mile of my house.
While I was watching the 1st one outside inch ever closer for what seemed like an hour I was thinking "what the hell should I grab before I drop into the cellar". I was not prepared at all.

I've posted it before but I'll post it again. Liberty Mutual has an app for iPhone, iPad and Android that lets you do a home inventory. You can take photos, add receipts scan barcodes and add notes for all of your possessions. It's a pretty cool app and you DO NOT have to have a policy with Liberty Mutual to use it. Of course if you do you can also plug in your policy numbers. Once you have everything in there you can export it to an excel spreadsheet. I suggest doing exactly what you are talking about with a thumb drive, but also store it online like emailing it to yourself or in Google Docs or similar.

 

[GeneW]

We have a safety deposit box and keep our important papers there. All of them are also scanned and stored on a NAS. The NAS is backed up on a removable hard drive that I keep in the gun safe. In addition, once a year the NAS is backed up to my Son's NAS when he come down here over the holidays. I also keep a few documents, our advanced health care directives, on my phone.

What is NSA?

 

[cmhbob]

As far as documents, go paperless, and store them online somewhere. Dropbox gives you 2 GB for free, and there are plenty of other sites just like it. Scan your docs in as PDF files and upload them. Keep your paper copies, sure. But have an online storage site set up as well. In some cases, that might even be faster than dealing with paper copies, since you can just give them a link to the document they need.

 

[cmhbob]

What is NSA?

National Security Agency.

NAS is network available storage. Basically a hard drive in your home you can access from anywhere on your network, or with the right setup, anywhere online.

 

[Lurker66]

You know I like the idea. We keep a couple of packed totes in cellar year round. Works for tornado or fires. As far as keeping it in car....I just have my everyday bag.