Colorado wildfires and East coast storms and power outages are urgent reminders that a plan for leaving your house quickly is always good to have. What do you take thats practical? Sentimental? Medically necessary? have you thought about pets? Visitors?

I have a prioritized list list which is posted inside a kitchen cabinet. I have used it twice and it has proved invaluable.

Multiple layers of gear setup by priority and situation.
For example if the storm has passed and we just had to bug out for a couple days due to power outage then I'd leave the important documents binder in the safe. If we bugged out due to something like the wildfires where the chances are higher that we might not return to our house as we know it now then I would pack the important documents folder.
Anything higher priority stays ready to go ,for example the ~100 year old rifle my grandfather gave me stays inside its case in the safe. Similar to the situations above it would stay in the safe or go depending on the chances of us being able to return to it.
But everything from that rifle to the important documents folder and computer backups are all in cases ready to grab and go. The highest priority I setup that way to keep things organized and minimize loading time.
Each of us would take our go bag which has the most useful (and most expensive) gear. Then the secondary bags which have stuff for the kids, more consumable items such as food and water, etc

Dog, purse, briefcase, "important papers" files, laptop, external hard drives - some clothes if I had time.

Am in the process of scanning and uploading family photos going back over 100 years - so grabbing the hard copies won't be as much as a priority anymore.

Leaving our house for a wildfire? Definitely. Leaving our house for a power outage? Not likely. But then we are not as dependant on the grid as a lot of people so I could certainly see where that could be an issue. We live in a rural area, have a gas stove for cooking and a fireplace for wood cooking in an extended event if absolutely necessary (it would be miserable this time of year I know but in an emergency you do what you have to). But I digress from the thread at hand.

What do we take that’s practical? Our Bug Out Bags with all the necessities (well they will be after we’re done anyway). Important papers binder. Extra rope, tarps, water, food, clothing, bedding. Tents, camping chairs, propane camp stove if time allows.

What do we take that’s sentimental? Honestly, have been so preoccupied just tying to get the BOB’s lined out with the necessary stuff, I haven’t given this much thought. Pictures I suppose, not sure what else. We’re not really that sentimental and will be happy just to be alive.

What do we take that is medically necessary? My insulin without a doubt (my plan is to have an extra vial or two with syringes and alcohol swabs in a kit that gets rotated out when I get a prescription refilled). I’d like to have it waiting in the bag but since it really needs to be refrigerated this may not be an option. DS could survive without his ADD meds. DW should have her prescription meds waiting in her bag (rotated regularly) as well.

Have we thought about our pets? No pets to speak of other than a beta fish, and honestly if we’re bugging out I’m thinking that’s the last thing we’ll be concerned about.

Have we thought about visitors? Hadn’t thought about visitors per se, although I have been packing our BOB’s with more than enough stuff for us (such as a decent nylon poncho as well as an emergency/disposable one, extra emergency blankets/shelter items, and so on) with the original intent being to be able to share with any less fortunate than ourselves, but could easily work for visitors as well (as long as there aren’t too many).

This is yet another reminder we need to do an important papers binder (and I need to search for what those important papers should be because atm everything I can think of can be obtained from other sources – deed on file at the courthouse, insurance documents available online). I also recall reading somewhere about someone who kept their bugout items in totes with large numbers written on the side (the lower numbers being the highest priority of course). I don’t recall if it was here or on another forum. At any rate, the plan was that he/she would start loading the totes in numbered order until they ran out of time.

Found it here:

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=243651

After the large wildfire we had here a few years ago, we created a list of bug-out items which I keep on the frig. I have not yet prioritized it, which would be a nice feature. We also have BOBs ready to go at all times.

I scan all important documents (including medical records) and keep a copy of them all (encrypted) on a USB drive. This is part of my EDC (in my pocket now). Although most of these documents might be available from the source, I wouldn't want to count on it. Further, if the source was also affected by the disaster, then you still need your own copies. Additionally, I keep all these important documents in a portable fireproof safe which we will take with us.

All of our computers are automatically backed up daily on an external, portable hard drive which we can easily take with us. I have a laptop which would also go and both the USB drive and external drive can be read from the laptop.

We have a motor home which makes bugging out much easier for us. I keep it stocked and ready. Even during power outages, we have used it here. It has water, a generator, microwave, gas stove and oven, and bathroom with hot water. During the big wildfire we have friends who spent a week in their motor home.

I have a stack of original pictures but everything is scanned and on the backup drive in the important documents binder so the paper pictures are a low priority.
I have a priority list as well, which items go first and the order is followed until ran out of time.

six more things to remember

1. prescriptions + written ( paper) prescriptions
2. chargers
3. pets, pet stuff
4. paperwork, including bills, phone numbers, ID's ( keys)
5. Turn stuff off
6. comfort items

1. Prescriptions should go with the medical records in the important papers binder.
2. Chargers, any device thats not AA powered charges from USB, so I have 12v USB adapters in the vehicles and USB cords.
4. who uses paper bills now a days? Have the places e-mail you bills, the log into your bank web site and pay them.

See related post about getting a big duffle bag

my "big duffle bag" is a Craftsman plastic wheeled tool chest with collapsible handle...somewhat waterproof....place to sit if necessary...upper tray for small, high value items... interior space....bungee for 5 gal bucket of freeze dried entrees and Sawyer filter, and sleeping bag... stop at the gun safe for some cash and a blaster, grab the meds...the GHB permanently resides in the Explorer...copies of papers on a thumb drive...

hope it's never needed

I wonder about 'important papers' being a hard paper copy,seems like an invitation for Identity theft.

Maybe an encrypted thumb drive would be better?

Risk of identity theft is a risk I'd be willing to take in a survival situation. I would prefer to have both a hard copy and an encrypted flash drive. I like to plan for not having access to computers, printers, etc. Anyway, for identification, the original, not a copy, is often required.

I was thinking more along lines of a theft in normal times,why lay it out for em in one easy snatch?

Evacuation for wild fires and power outages not so much in the PNW, but we do live a half mile from the confluence of I-90 and I-405, so evacuation for a crashed ammonia tanker and associated toxic cloud is a possibility. For that kind of Get Out situation its just people, animals and wallets, in the car roll up windows and drive perpendicular to the prevailing winds, and return when the cloud has dispersed.

I do apply the big duffle concept though - I keep a wheeled tote containing 2 sleeping bags, cold and wet weather clothing and shoes etc for family members near the back door off our bedroom, if we're shaken out of a burning or collapsing house in the middle of the night we evacuate through that door and drag the tote outside, and put on some clothes. On top of that tote are two other go bags, one with FA supplies and one with overnight supplies - tent, camp stove, food etc - basically a 72 hour kit intended for backyard or nearby open space deployment (the elementary school around the corner is where the neighborhood can expect to live in tents in the event of a major quake).

For a long time folks in the EM field told us to prepare to evacuate our homes in 1 hour - for what or to where I have no idea. No one in EM has every answered those questions for us here in the PNW context, so I take evacuation as more of an aspirational, 'if you're prepared to do this you're prepared for most anything' kind of thing. So I am mostly prepared to throw people animals food and preps in a vehicle and go in an hour. It makes abundant sense if you live where wild fires can get you though.

Once a year (tax time) I evaluate our personal records and store important originals in the safe deposit box, important account numbers on a list, and some scanned copies - these go on a dedicated USB thumb drive with Windows Bitlocker encryption. That stays on my key ring, with a mirror copy on a cheaper $4.99 unencrypted usb in the safe deposit box (e.g. in case bitlocker can't be recovered - unlikely on an annual basis, but possible if I don't touch the usb for many years).

My failure or fall down - family photos. I haven't scanned and backed all these up yet, although its on my perennial to-do list. Its a massive job, and if a fire took our house tomorrow we'd lose a lot of memories. I've seen that on the faces of countless fire victims who have lost everything, it hurts a lot to lose your family photos. At some point I'll get started on the scanning, and put my photos and memorabilia on redundant USB sticks in the safe deposit box. Otherwise we're not very materialistic people - it can all go, either by theft or disaster. I keep some special momentos in the safe deposit box, autographed baseballs and a few awards etc that mean something to me. $150 per year to rent the safe deposit box provides a whole lot of peace of mind and relative security.

When in normal times the import documents binder should be in your fireproof safe.
When in normal times you go to work, school, shopping, whatever and your important documents stay home. Not just theft but what if the house catches fire, or the drug addict down the street drives into it (happened to my house), you want that binder and anything else valuable to be in a safe place. A secondary advantage of the safe and the valuables being in it is they stay organized should you be faced with the bug out situation. Simply open safe, grab the kit and go. No running around the house gathering the items.
I then keep my not as valuable bug out gear next to the safe so.