The Evacuation strategy: A brief explanation
The evacuation strategy is the second most important strategy you need to prepare your family for. It is a more difficult strategy to prepare for because you need to prepare in advance the answers to the following questions:
- Where are you going to evacuate to?
- What will you take with you?
- How will you get there?
- What are you willing to 'leave behind' at your house or dwelling?
- What are the essential items you should take with and what are the 'nice to have items'?
- What if you will not be able to go back to your household or apartment for weeks, not days?
- What financial, health and support resources will you still need access to, if you are not in your home for an extended period of time?
The answer to most of these questions, is that you need to build or have a 'Go Bag' or 'Go Kit' that you can take with you when you leave your domicile. The 'Go Bag' is the same concept used by a number of the clients I previously worked for in the business world. The Centers for Disease Control's Division of Strategic National Stockpile group carried 80 pounds of drugs, vaccines and other medical supplies in their 'go bags' when they were called to investigate a location of concern anywhere in the world. The Federal Express Global Operations Center has a team that responds to any aircraft accident and that team was required to bring a 'go bag' with specific items to investigate an incident.
A simple 'Basic Go Bag' typically has 10-12 items in it and most of these items are probably already in your household. An 'Advanced Go Bag' has another 10-12 items that we alternatively suggest to take with you. Advanced bags will require more preparation to create, more cost to add items and more things to consider if you have pets, infants or senior citizens that will be evacuating with you. However, the choice of which 'Go Bag' you wish to build, is totally up to you. See our list of recommended items for each of our Go Bags. Bottom line is that whether you build your Basic or Advanced or Superior Go Bag, you and your family will be better off versus 80% of the US population who isn't prepared at all!