Thanks for all of the thoughtful responses so far.

To answer some questions, and how I followed up on some of my issues:

- I do not carry an actual briefcase, I just call it that out of habit. It's more of a messenger-type bag so it is not quite so unwieldy.

- I knew that my wife had picked up our son and was on her way home because I stop by the daycare center to see them off at the end of the day, before returning to my desk.

- I went to the daycare center today and received a briefing from the director on their emergency procedures. I now have a card in my wallet with the center's primary, secondary and tertiary(!) evacuation locations, as well as the cell phone numbers of both the director and assistant director. At least I'll know where to look, and the tertiary location happens to be in my wife's office building.

- To add to our communications options, I'm thinking of adding a small FRS radio to my wife and my office bags. We only work 1/2 mile from each other, and have line of site between our offices up Park Avenue. We could agree that if cell phones don't work, we turn the radios on to a pre-arranged channel and start calling on a regular basis. Thoughts?

- My work BOB is now secured by velcro to the side of my desk. It is bright orange and there is no way I can not see it if I'm heading to the exit. I'm going to permanently add a pair of comfortable walking shoes.

Keep the suggestions coming!