After doing a bunch of reading here I have noticed something. I must be the odd guy out on this whole BOB/GHB concept. I may be the only person on this entire forum who has a "get to work bag"

When everyone else is hightailing it for the safety of home I will be fighting the crowds in the opposite direction to get to work, gear up and deploy to assist in whatever emergency just happened so I plan around that scenario not the other way around. (part of my job after all)

I know there are Many EMT/Firefighter/LPO/Military people on here but no one appears to mention the concept of remaining at the scene of a diaster to do their jobs.

(Or I havn't read that far yet)

Does anyone else plan on getting to work after a major emergency ?

When as a emergency response professional would you say "hell with it, to each their own" and leave to look after your own family?

I am not preaching to anyone, just making an observation. (And I am bored at my desk :D) You just don't ever here of anyone talking about being prepared to remain after things go to hell in a handbasket and help with what's going down.

I cannot post pics of my GTW kit right now because I am in the middle of a move, and I guess there isn't really that much difference from a normal GHB except I have added things I need to go the opposite way so to speak (Special ID cards, special job related items etc)It contains water, first aid, tools, all the same old stuff you see listed over and over again.

It is designed to get me from home to my locker at work where my issued gear awaits should my phone ring and I am being told to get my a** to work on the double.

Anyone else here have a get to work plan? Or am I the fool you will be pointing at trying to make it into a diaster when you are trying to make it out?

I lead a CERT. I have a plan to get home, take care of myself, my family, and my neighbors, and then make myself available for callouts.

I don't have a GTW bag, as you call it (nice concept, btw). I have stuff in my truck already as part of my car kit that I suppose would work - water, food, blanket, etc.

I'm in militsry health care. If I'm at the clinic, I assume I'd stay until relieved. If I'm at home, I only go in if I'm called. Historically over the last few years, if there's an incoming storm or something, the clinic gets closed before it hits.

When I was in a hospital, the scheduled staff was expected to stay for up to 72 hours and pack accordingly if a storm was coming. I have yet to hear of extra folks being 'called in' for an event. I suppose it's possible though. Probably more likely in earthquake zones where it's less predictable.

Now, having said all that, I don't think that transportation will be an issue if something happens when you're already home. Chances are good that, if your vehicle is intact, you can get to work easily. Most people will stay off the streets.

As a first responder, our GO states that we are to report to work ASAP, but if that's not possible, report to the nearest agency to assist them. I can tell you though that if my family is not secure, that would be my first priority. There is also a provision where I could bring my family to work with me, but I also know life there would suck for them. "Bug-out-to-my-work?" For my family, I'm glad the option is there as the place is better reinforced (for earthquakes), but I can forsee a bunch of what-ifs. Because of how populated it is here along with its related traffic issues, it would take a LONG time to go 15 miles by vehicle- it might not be worth it to go back to work. Now if I was at work and the incident happened, that's another story and I hope that wouldn't be the case. I would be worried sick. I know there are a lot of stories where first responders left their posts to care for their families and I've thought about it- could you live with your decision to abandon your family for your job? If my wife were 100% on-board with the idea of being prepared, I would have less worry, but unfortunately, that's not the case. Bottom line: I want to retire and get out of here.

Depends on the emergency and where I'm at - if the EQ happens while at work, I'll stay until my co-workers are safe, injuries treated etc. I intend to be available for local response with the skills I have at least in my building at work until that's done with. I have no plans to immediately high tail it the 7 miles home over impassable roads. I may not make it home to wife and kids for 24 hours or so. I have an emergency comm plan to assess the safety of my home, my immediate and extended family (including out of area contacts and means for communication - ham radio, landline, and texting etc). In the wrong EQ, a lot is going to be messed up. Take a breath, and don't forget the disaster right at your front door. If I'm at home when it happens, I'll see to the safety of my family and neighbors, and then turn to my Red Cross duties, checking in with my status.

When I get home, my next duty is to the Red Cross - while we don't expect to deploy immediately, its part of my volunteer job to rally available volunteers county wide to open shelters, provide mobile feeding and feeding stations, bulk distribution etc etc, working with county OEM and the rest of the Red Cross to determine mass care priorities and our capabilities to answer them. That will start up within 72 hours, and if the disaster gods willing some of it will come sooner than that. If the bridges survive I'll go to the RC EOC in Seattle and live there for a while; if not, I'll work remote as much as I can - we have some preliminary plans to deploy locally if there is a need, so I may not have to reach the chapter in Seattle in order to know where I can go to be of help to the response. It all depends on how much of the comms network survives the disaster.

I have no plan to return to my daytime workplace, at least as long as the Red Cross needs me - I have no duties or responsibilities that would require me to be at work in such a disaster.

I doubt it makes a whole lot of difference what I think but history suggests orders to report to work in an emergency results in a relatively low level of compliance, often for quite some time.

Some of it is just logistical in nature. People do not sit at home waiting for a chance to get called to work. They are out doing their normal activities. If you are out somewhere with your kids, you can't just ditch them and head to work. And really, no one expects that you do that.

There is also the issue of whether you can even get there or not. An earthquake may make roads impassable. A flood may cut you off, or make it imperative that for your own safety you head in another direction.

In other cases, emergency personnel just decide "the heck with it", and go with the idea that their own safety and that of their family is more important then their job. And history suggests that the consequences for not showing up for duty in such a case are very limited, especially early on.

The reality is that for the most part the people that are actually on duty when some kind of fast presenting situation such as an earthquake or tornado presents itself are the guys that are going to have to deal with it. I would not expect to get much in the way of help for four to eight hours.

In winter I am often the first one here because I drive so much further than everyone else. (Which means I leave early when blizzards are expected which means the crashes haven't started yet which means I just drive to work at slower speeds. Everyone else gets stuck in stupidity-caused traffic jams only 5 miles away.)

For work I do the TPS reports.

If the place burned down or washed away, no one would miss me from work.

If the place burned down or washed away, I wouldn't miss work all that much.

I'm prepared to bug home since that's the direction I care about more.

Back in the day, I drove forty miles through a 27 inch snowfall to get to the rural er In which I worked...or to avoid being housebound for three days with four adolescents...road closures kept me at the hospital for 3 days. Lots of outdoor gear in the truck, but nothing unusual for the time and place. Motivation is always suspect.

If your job isn't a first responder then I don't think anyone would think less of you for taking care of your family first. It isn't your job to assist with evacuations, cordons, rescue services etc.(it's mine) So if I bail to go home or refuse to go to work when crunch time comes it puts me in a different boat than you.

The taxpayers pay my salary and expect that I will be there when s*** goes south after all. If I can't make peace with that it's time to find gainful employment somewhere else. That is the reason I have a "get to work bag" instead of a "get home bag"
Of course I have never really had to put that theory to the test, and I pray I never will. I have deployed to floods and forest fires and the like but I have had reasonable warning of those. If I hear a loud explosion while I am laying in bed at home, and my phone rings saying there was a (insert bad event here) and I need to get to work right away I am faced with leaving my family behind and going to where that event took place. I wouldn't want to, but I am paid to. If the same thing happens while I am at work I guess it means I will not be arriving home for a while.

Since I live in my fire district, as long as I have comms I am "at work" at home.and can respond directly or to the closest fire house. Rural mountain area, no traffic jams. So as long as roads are passible with 4x4 we are in business.
During past weather disasters we have used 4x4 ambulances and fire trucks to get doctors, nurses and other critical personel to work.
If you hve a critical job then your employer bears some responsibility in getting you to work in a disaster, and in providing for (or allowing you time to provide for) your family. Most agencies have a written disaster plan. I suggest people review that plan. Find out if it provides for getting you to work. You may have access to government fuel for your vehicle or government transportation by military or public safety vehicle.
The choice of taking care of family vs getting to work is one we all struggle with. During the begining of the on-going High Park fire here in Colorado the local volunteer fire fighters stayed on the fire while their fire station and some of their homes burned to the ground. They were saving other people's homes while theirs burned. During Katrina we saw a lot of the reverse.
My family knows what to expect from me.
leo

To clarify further, I absolutely would put getting to work in the priority list because I honor the oath that I took. The taxpayers also pay my salary, but they also fund, shall I say, "people that have no honor" who could care less about assisting others. In fact, some in that group may look at a disaster as an opportunity.

A wise co-worker once told me, "You can love the job, but the job doesn't love you." And I know I love my family and they love me. That's still not to say that I would abandon my job. It would take take something of epic proportion for that. Like Clint said, "A man's gotta know his limitations." I think that's why I'm on this board; prepare for situations to lessen the disasterous effects. Now if the rest of my family had that way of thinking...

That's a good observation about ETS and a fair question. I doubt that any of us who are not connected to some public safety organization has thought much about getting to work in some major disaster. I know I haven't. I might rank a small business owner up there with public safety in terms of determination to get somewhere, but like the rest of us, probably doesn't have explicit plans or preps on getting to person's business.

Most of us probably approach the GTW issue on an ad hoc basis. For example, last week here in the San Francisco Bay Area, an early morning structure fire next to the elevated tracks of the BART train system knocked out all service between the East Bay and San Francisco before the morning rush hour. The last major disruption like this was probably when the Bay Bridge was damaged in the Loma Prieta quake in '89. Probably the majority of my coworkers live in the East Bay, and that's probably true of many employers here.

We're lucky because our employer already invested the money in an IT infrastructure that has enough capacity and functionality so that almost all of us can work from home, so many folks stayed home. But for many others, they just figure things out as they went along and figured out some alternate method or combination of methods to get into San Francisco, like hopping in the car, taking a bus, riding a ferry, etc. I suspect that it will be the same way in a major disaster (with many fewer options to move around), and any sort of GTW kit will be simiarly thrown together as needed, or just using a Get Home Bag, if a person already has one ready.

I re-read my earlier post and I really hope it didn't come out as accusing or self righteous. Wasn't my intent and I should have noted I haven't read about it on any site not just this one. I just found it odd no one ever mentioned it before or that it is very seldom talked about at least.

I must admit there is a large part of me that morbidly needs to be in the middle of all that stuff. A few years back when we deployed to BC to assist with the fires we pulled into this one town where there was a line of cars as far as the eyes could see leaving the town. The wind shifted suddenly and a lot of people were surprized at just how fast a forest fire travels. Anyway, as all these folks we were leaving in mass panic we were heading into the town with only a handful of trucks as houses were literly burning all over the place. It was a very odd but good feeling to be one of those guys if it makes any sense. I did know my family was safe and sound in a different province as well, so that takes most of the stress away.

I guess that's another reason for my get to work bag. When the world does end I don't want to be hunkered down in a hole in the ground wearing a tin foil hat eating a cold mainstay bar, I want front row seats.

I have more faith in the volunteers than the paid emergency workers in urban areas.

I would point out there are a ton of people who have to get to work in bad weather when others don't. A lot of maint guys have to show up to plow snow. Gas station attendents show up to keep the gas pumps running. Security guards show up to work. There are an amazing number of people who just have to show up at a lot of places when there is bad weather. They will likely be there when the SHTF too.

A lot of those kind of people are not well paid yet feel an obligation to get to work under some pretty rotten conditions that would have the rest of us just going back to bed for the day.

I actually had to do so two years ago for the bus accident (March 2011) in the Bronx which killed 15.

In the Bronx, there are two major highways between my house and the hospital, the Merritt Parkway and I95. The accident happened on I95. Soon afterwards, all adjacent highways were clogged. No traffic moved all day.

Fortunately, I got called in before the traffic built up and got past the accident. The accident also happened during a change of shift so that there were TWO shifts of personnel around. Physicians, upon hearing of the accident came in of their own accord from all directions. Otherwise, things would have gotten very interesting.

"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

In reality, the likelihood is high that getting to work in an emergency will be problematic and work will simply have to make do with on-site personnel.

Conway Yee

First, a hearty "Thank You" (I can't ever say it enough) to all the first responders, and others who put themselves in harms way every day.

Second, this is certainly a fair question. For me it's a no brainer though, as I am lucky enough (I think) to work in a family owned insurance business/office, where safety and family ALWAYS come first, so a GHB is the only real concern I have. DW on the other hand works at the local hospital as a Social Worker, and COULD be considered essential personnel in the right emergency. Though she works on the physical rehabilitation floor, I have no doubt she could be sent to the ER or other area of the hospital and would gladly go if needed (she is VERY special that way). One of the hospital's contingency plans in the case of closed or bad roads is that those who are at the hospital already STAY until the danger/emergency is over. In the event they need to call in additional personnel, National Guard Hummer's are usually available, depending on the type of disaster/emergency. Our biggest concerns here are flooding, snowy roads (it doesn't take much to make things slippery and dangerous and we occasionally get unusually LARGE amounts of snow that result in road closings, tho that hasn't happened in a LONG time), or other natural disasters (this spring, we narrowly escaped the damaging tornadoes that struck our neighboring counties).

Finally, thinking through it, I agree that a properly equipped GHB would have MOST of the items a GTW bag would have (other than, as you mentioned, the appropriate ID and job-related items). I am guessing most are counting on that but thinking in the opposite direction (i.e. GTW bag) is certainly a worthwhile exercise.

Yeah, I wish I could post it up but this move is killer. A lot of my stuff is packed in boxes and I don't even know where my camera is. Off the top of my head from memory I have:

- Extra uniform (I would rather not travel in uniform, especially during and emergency)
- Lightweight raingear (MEC hydrofoil) top and bottom
- 3 l camelback bladder, filled
- Heavy duty work gloves
- Ballistic eyewear kit
- FA kit, well stocked
- Multi-tool (Leatherman surge) with bit kit/bit driver
- Fenix LD 15 AA flashlight (love this thing)
- LED headlamp
- Spare batteries
- write in the rain notebook and pen
- Iphone 4/Mophie case
- Pelican case for phone
- Brunton storm lighter
- Snow peak titanium cup with lid
- Cliff bars (x 8)
- Camelback electrolyte replacement tabs, 1 tube
- MP1 water purification tablets (x12)
- Road maps of my area
- Magellan Triton GPS (provincial maps loaded)
- Spare dry socks (2 pairs)
- Small hygiene kit, enough for about 4-5 days
- Jet scream whistle
- Starflash signal mirror
- Heat sheets 2 person emergency blanket (orange and silver one)
- Special ID card, Specialized drivers license, passport, immunization booklet
- Special issued tools of the trade

I know there are a few other things, but I can't think of them at the moment. If traffic is thick/blocked and I couldn't take the 4x4 a lot of this could be packed in the pouches of the mountain bike.(35-40 minutes on bike) The goal is to make it to my locker where most of my work goodies are, but there is a possibility of having to report to an alternate location (thus the spare uniform) in the event I could not make it to the one in my locker.

Agreed.


Anyway, I've seen what happens at my work at an asphalt plant/diesel fuel terminal when the snow snarls things. The office personnel take a day off and the plant goons all show up.
We have to because it's manned 24/7 and if you don't go in, someone can't leave.

But it depends on the emergency.
Snow storm? I'll be there. Just drive in with my go-bag behind the seat of the truck. Tire chains, a flat-nose shovel, etc.
TEOTWAWKI? Not so much.

"When everyone else is hightailing it for the safety of home I will be fighting the crowds in the opposite direction to get to work, gear up and deploy"

I'm staying home.
If there's still electricity - I'm putting on a movie.
If the electricity is down - I'm opening the freezer, getting out all the frozen meat, firing up the BBQ, and inviting the neighbors over for a block party. Hopefully the beer is still cold. Hahahahaha!

The best way to defeat fear - is to enjoy yourself :-)

But I will drink a toast to those guys who fought their way to the workplace.
Hahahahaha!

Pete2

So I will see you when you are stranded on the roof of your house after your entire town is underwater then. Hopefully you will still have a cold one waiting for me

In my experience, Most people's way of defeating fear is to relax in the knowledge that someone else will take care of the problem for them.