The local TV news just did a brief story, a bit over-hyped, with the teaser: "If you were given five minutes to gather everything important in an emergency and leave your home, would you be prepared? What kind of things would you bring?".

I don't know that there was anything new in it; I mention it only as more evidence that BOBs have gone mainstream.

For the curious, you can compare your own BOBs to the Red Cross kits in the links shown in the story. I thought the family disaster plan was pretty well thought out.

I'm guessing that 50% of the people would choose their ipod over water.

Darwin in action.

Actually, with five minutes, grab my boots, my keys, all the socks in the drawer, the water bottles, and my bail out bag.

Assuming I start with normal EDC, then I grab the dog, spare contact lenses, the chainsaw, extra ammo, and a large plastic tote that I keep camping and hunting odds and ends in. Oh, and spare gas if my tank is not full. Everything else I need is already in my truck.

To hell with the shelters. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

What sort of emergency?
There is different equipment that you need in different emergencies.

I just had to laugh on this one. I was reading the thread in flat mode and quickly reading down the page, and I'm paraphrasing here--

"Quick, get out of the house NOW!!!"

Ironraven says, "I'd grab A,B,C and I'm out of there."

Norad45 says, "And I would grab X,Y,Z and I'm gone."

Last message--

JIM says, "Wait...what kind of emergency? You need different stuff for different situations..."

That was a classic series of posts. Sorry, JIM, I don't mean to pick on you, but in the short time you've been posting, I know you're really excited about this stuff (that's great!) and it sounds just like you. I can just imagine JIM scratching his head by his front door trying to figure out what kind of emergency it is so he can gather the best gear to take as the mudslide/firestorm/tornado/comet/natural gas explosion/what-have-you destroys his house.

I guess that's the whole point of that TV show. When you gotta go, you gotta go NOW, JIM! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

My wife could never leave in five minutes. If we were given five minutes we would leave two hours later, or longer. It takes us all day just to get ready for a weekend camping trip!

OK, so you grab the keys, then the wife caveman-style (over the shoulder)...

That's going to complicate your bail out time.

socks...LOL

Don't laugh about socks. My father told me one of the first things he learned when he was in W W I I was to always have extra socks. My remembering that advise has come in handy on many occassions.