Grab-And-Go II
September 23, 2005
10:05 PM CST
In an earlier post, I showed one of my “grab-and-go” cases (the one containing the emergency guns), which gets picked up and dropped in the car in the event that we have to evacuate the house.
For those who haven’t read that piece (posted in early October 2003), go ahead and look at it now.
Since then, a couple of nosy parkers interested Readers have written to ask me about the other grab-and-go case, the one containing emergency supplies.
What emergency supplies were you talking about?
Well, here’s what it looks like, fully loaded:
It’s one of those Hefty tubs, and weighs about 40lbs loaded as you see it. The tub is not waterproof (in the sense that if it’s submerged, it will let in water), but it’s waterproof enough to be left out in the rain without any ill-effects to the contents. Nevertheless, anything that can be damaged by water is kept in Baggies anyway.
I’ll go through it, but please note that this is stuff chosen by our family—it reflects our own personal tastes, so if you don’t like the choices, drop dead make your own.
First, the food. I calculated that this lot would keep us going for about three days. After that, I’ll buy, kill or steal any food we need.
From left to right, that’s:
-- four packets of pre-cooked shrink-wrapped ham- and turkey meals
-- coffee for The Mrs. and me, tea and drinking chocolate for the kids
-- powdered vegetable soup
-- pet food for the stupid dog (the cats get left behind with 14lbs. of dry cat food in a paper bag—they’ll get it out when they need it)
-- about a dozen Power Bars of various flavors
-- canned food of various types: chicken, tuna, pilchards, corned beef, sausages
-- canned milk
-- about 2lbs of jerky
-- peanut butter
-- sugar
-- salt, pepper and bouillon cubes
-- Kool-Aid.
(Not in the pic are a couple trays of spring water bottles, which get loaded in separately but are stored on top of the these bins.)
Next are the household supplies:
-- water bottles with cooking/drinking cups
-- water purifying tablets
-- paper towels and wipes
-- emergency shortwave radio, with wind-up capability
-- small first-aid kit with bandages, sterile dressings, antiseptics and a suture kit
-- tin with analgesics and other medications, scissors, small knife, soap, mouthwash and toothbrushes
-- left out of the picture were a couple of open-carry holsters, because I forgot to put them in the pic (open-carry so that if the SHTF, we can be seen to be armed, if we want)
-- also not in the pic (because I forgot etc.) are six Sterno cans, and a small waterproof case containing matches, firestarters and a compass.
Next comes hardware:
-- stakes for the tarpaulin (which is always in the Suburban)
-- 8-hour handwarmers, and thermal blankets for each family member
-- flashlights and a spare lantern battery
-- duct tape
-- a bush knife
-- walkie-talkies
-- a “bag o’ bags”: six 33gal. trash bags, and a few more Baggies
-- 100’ of nylon parachute cord
-- the NAA Mini and a bag of spare .22 ammo
-- mini-toolkit, with a Sharpie, folding saw, Swiss Army knife, Leatherman, tape and rubber bands.
Note: In the Suburban we always carry a well-stocked metal toolbox (hence the relatively small selection of tools), a trucker’s small coffee brewer, a large Mag-Lite and a powered Coleman cooler which serves as a fridge. If we have time, we can drop milk, butter, cheese and bread into the cooler when we leave. And our cars are already pretty well-stocked with stuff like ropes, straps, tools and emergency supplies like flares and what have you (and yeah, a hidden gun or two as well).
I check the contents of this tub every four to six months, and substitute fresh items and new batteries as necessary.
Additional suggestions gratefully accepted, with a couple of provisos: no comments about the food, and don’t suggest MREs. And yes, we have some emergency cash in there, but I’m not going to say where or how much, for obvious reasons.
Basically, the goal is to be able to leave the house inside twenty minutes in the event of an emergency. If we have even less time than that, it’s tub, gun case, water and we’re gone. (We always have our sidearms, cell phones and a knife or two on hand, so when we leave, they leave with us.)
Obviously, if we have more warning, then we can pack more stuff—but that would be in addition to, not instead of, the SHTF bag.
The only thing I don’t yet have is a couple of filled 5gal. NATO gasoline cans, which would be strapped to the roof of the Suburban. I try to let our cars’ gas tanks never get lower than half-empty at any time, and mostly I’m successful.
There you have it. This is what we chose to pack: others will differ, of course, and it doesn’t matter, as long as you think and plan ahead.
Finally, I shouldn’t have to say this, but I will anyway: if you’re on medication, don’t forget to take that. Otherwise you’ll just end up in the Darwin column.
