GO BAG
To create a personal/family emergency plan now – before disaster strikes – please click here. This web site will help you create your own personalized Family Disaster Plan.
If you need to leave from your home or work, it will be important that you are ready to go as quickly as possible. Having a Go Bag in an accessible place ensures that you and your family are prepared for whatever situation arises.
Go Bag Guidelines:
- Each member of your household should have his or her own Go Bag
- Go Bags should be easy to carry, sturdy and also very visible in the dark! (Really ugly backpacks with glow in the dark tape work really well)
- Go Bags should be stored in an easily accessible location
- Ideally, you should keep a Go Bag at your home, in your car, and at work
- Go Bags should be prepared for any time of year
- Go Bags should be updated every six months
Go Bag List: We recommend that you pick six items off of the list during a month and purchase and/or store those items – then purchase another six or four (whatever your budget can handle) then store those.
The only item we recommend that you rotate on a regular basis is the water – You should use the water and purchase new every six months.
You should check these items every month or so to be sure that they are alright and that nothing has leaked or gone missing.
There are two possibilities of preparing a “go bag”: Store some of the more bulky items at home – ready to stuff into a backpack OR just put in the backpack those items you feel you would need to sustain you until you have reached a shelter or another place of refuge away from home. This list is extensive, but the ones that are starred, we feel, are most important.
- Bottled water ****
- Non-perishable food and a manual can opener ****
- Flashlight ****
- Battery-operated AM/FM Radio ****
- Extra batteries (check the necessary types) ****
- Pocketknife ****
- Whistle or “Siren in a Can” ****
- Prescription medication for a week, along with copies of your prescriptions ****
- Small first aid kit ****
- A set of extra house and car keys
- A blanket
- Raingear (A heavy plastic garbage bag with arm and head holes cut out) ****
- A hat ****
- Safety goggles ****
- Comfortable, sturdy shoes (you can tie these onto the outside of the pack by the shoelaces)
- Warm clothes
- Extra pair of glasses and/or hearing aids ****
- Toilet paper
- Plastic garbage bags
- Soap
- Toothbrush and toothpaste
- Feminine hygiene products
- A copy of your communications plan card ****
- A regional map ****
- Special needs items for members of your family, especially children, seniors or people with disabilities, and pets. (These can be put in a separate "Go Kit" for these folks) - Be sure to mark these "special" backpacks!
- Paper, pens, and tape - in case you need to leave a message somewhere ****
- Dust mask ****
- Cash - preferably in small denominations ****
- Coins for pay phones ****
- Copies of important documents in a waterproof container (i.e. IDs, insurance information, proof of address, passports, etc.) ****
- A recent family photo for identification purposes - make sure everyone's face can be seen clearly ****
For Additional Information:
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