I recently spoke with my grandma about family we have in Southern California and how the fires have affected them. She said she spoke to one of our cousins about a week ago who lives in Lake Arrowhead and was told to evacuate immediately with little time to grab anything. Luckily she and her son got out safely, but they lost their home and everything in it. She is doing well - all things considered, but she said each day there are things they think about that they have lost that she wished she would have thought to grab. She said she grabbed their photos and a change of clothes and her computer. But, there was some heirloom jewelry she forgot among other things. She also said she mourns the loss of her rather LARGE shoe collection (still has her sense of humor), and her son had restored an old mustang and they were unable to take because there were only two of them and could only drive so many cars. I'm sure there were MANY things lost. While they are well insured and they will be able to rebuild there are just some things that are irreplaceable. Luckily they have family in Escondido who were safe from fire evacuations and they are staying there for now, but think about all of those displaced people and everything they lost - so sad. It got me thinking if there were such a tragedy that required me to grab what I could within such a small time frame what would I take? Of course I'm sure if I was in the situation I would not have the clarity of mind that I have now, but here are 10 things I came up with (in no particular order):1. Computer (has important files and all my photos)
2. Old family photos (that aren't on my computer)
3. Files (birth records, marriage records, immigration records, tax records, etc)
4. Change of clothes
5. Camera
6. Baby stuff (food/diapers) - in case of delay in obtaining such items (because you really can't have a delay with a baby).
7. Family history stuff (keepsakes, letters, journals, etc)
8. 72-hr kit (once I finish getting it together...guess I better not procrastinate)
9. Scriptures
10. Jewelry (nothing really expensive, but special pieces from my hubby)
In reality, if I were in similar circumstances as my cousin I'm not sure if I would even have enough time to grab all of that. Some of these things are replaceable, but several of them really aren’t. I suppose no matter what life would go on even if we lost everything, but it would be a little easier to move on knowing I was able to grab some of the irreplaceable things. I hope that we don’t ever have to be put in that situation, and my prayers go out to those that are suffering from such circumstances.
2 comments:
This is a good lesson for us. I would just take my PS3 I guess I still have alot to learn. In all seriousness I would have all my files saved on my USB flash drive, so I could just grab it and take it since it is sooooo heavy.
Abby's parents had to evacuate as well and they still don't know how their home really is. Abby lives down the mountain but can feel the heat. they have had ashes on their vehicles as well. So scary!!! I agree with your list. I really need to get things in a better location to just grab and go though. I am definitely not prepared for something like that to happen.
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