The first time I had to seriously ponder evacuating was when I was 17 years old and our region had a bad wildfire season. Our schools closed due to high winds and power outages. As a high school senior at the time, I remember looking around my bedroom and thinking about what I’d want to take if we had to flee. Maybe I even packed some things; I don’t recall exactly. What I remember more is the feeling of danger creeping closer and threatening our home and lives.
Lately, I’ve given more thought to evacuation preparations because we’ve had multiple regional wildfires and heavy smoke. Sometimes the smoke (from fires too far away to be a threat to us) is so thick that if a new fire did start in our local area, we wouldn’t be able to see it due to the heavy, horrible gagging haze. A threatening fire might not be reported promptly, because its plume would be difficult to spot as it blended and mingled with the rest of the smoke. We’d smell it, of course, but we get pretty accustomed to smelling smoke around here during fire season – so that wouldn’t trigger any immediate alarm.
We’d know we had a big problem if we were able to see trees on fire, and by that time, the danger could be on top of us.
As a result of these issues and concerns, I’ve re-organized our evacuation checklist. (You do have a checklist, don’t you?) Previously, I had a list or two of things I definitely wanted to take if we had to flee a fire (or whatever) – but I assumed we would have an hour or so to pack up, which might be true if local firefighters were aware of the threatening fire and put out pre-evacuation alerts. But sometimes people only have minutes to escape with their lives (like those dear Canadians in Lytton, British Columbia, whose village was destroyed last month).
Our new evacuation checklists have been prioritized according to the amount of time we expect to have to pack up. For example, if we have less than five minutes, we grab our keys (to the house and multiple vehicles that we intend to drive), purse/wallet, glasses, cell phone and pets. Those items are at the top of our list. If we have ten minutes, we continue down the list to things like laptop computers and prescription medications. Our list is organized with the most critical items at the top, and the less critical items at the bottom – so depending on the time available to evacuate, we now have an organized, prioritized plan.
If we have plenty of time, we can take extra clothes, toiletries and motorcycles. But not unless we’ve already packed and/or relocated more important items. I’d encourage all of you to give some extra thought to your evacuation plans this year, and ask God to help you prioritize your lists. Hopefully, you’ll never need those lists, but if you do, you’ll sure be glad you have them.
Blessings and peace to you all,
Jamie