Sudden Evacuation Disaster Scenario

The purpose of this exercise was to practice a sudden evacuation disaster scenario.  This would test our ability to quickly evacuate our family in the event we were ordered to leave in a hurry (such as fleeing from a wildfire, etc.).

We started out by involving a friend who texted us a notice telling us to evacuate at a random time one afternoon.  To make it more realistic we tried to go about our day as we normally would have.  We also recruited our emergency preparedness buddies to participate along with us.  The added element of competition (who could get out the door first!) was helpful in adding urgency and thus a bit of stress to the situation.

The Evacuation

Here is how it went down:  I was at work when I got the text message that told me we needed to evacuate.  It was 3:26 PM.  I was right in the middle of something, but I called my wife as soon as I could and told her to start getting ready. 

I got to my car at 3:32 PM.  It took me 8 minutes to close things out and get out of the office.  In a real emergency I would have stepped it up a bit and could have gotten out in 2 minutes or less.  (Note to self: move fast and don't dawdle.)

I have about an 8-10 minute drive home from work (depending on traffic).  I got home at 3:41 PM.  My wonderful wife had almost all of our evacuation gear staged by the back door or in the garage ready put in the car.

Don’t Freak Out the Kids

A major concern at this point was to not freak out the kids as we rushed around packing up the car.  Having three screaming kids who are clinging to your legs in fright would not aid in a quick evacuation.  We stayed calm, prepped them as well you can kids that young (2 and 4 years), and gave them jobs to keep them busy (like "take your sleeping bag to the car").  Our infant we simply strapped into the car seat and let him alone till we left.

We packed up the car and pulled out of the driveway at 3:49 PM.  This was only 8 minutes after I had arrived home.  Overall it took us 23 minutes from the time we got the call to when we left the house.  We were actually rather impressed with how quickly we loaded up that much gear with three small children.

Once we arrived at the campsite we took our time setting up camp.  We then took the opportunity to cook a meal from our 72-hour kit food stash using our emergency cooking gear.  Based on the improvements we made after our last disaster scenario our cooking experience went much smoother.  We also brought along replacement food items so we were not depleting our emergency supply.

Disaster Scenario Lessons Learned

We learned a few things along the way, but that's the point of doing disaster scenarios, right?  Well, besides just having fun and using all that gear you bought…

My wife forgot to bring shoes.  She was wearing flip flops when we evacuated, but shoes would have been more appropriate at our destination in the woods.  If there were debris around from a real disaster, shoes would have been even more critical.  Make sure you grab proper clothing on your way out.

We had recently moved about half of our emergency gear from our basement to some shelves in the garage.  (We did not move any temperate sensitive gear, such as food, water, and medical supplies.)  Having that gear close to the car saved a lot of time compared to having to haul it up from the basement.  Proximity is your friend when you are in a hurry.

We had marked all our 72-hour kit gear with bright green duct tape the week leading up to our evacuation.  That allowed us to quickly scan the shelves and see if we had missed anything.  The only thing we forgot was the shoes.  Mark your gear for easy identification.

Hauling all that gear into the car was exhausting.  (We moved about 30 gallons of water up from the basement.)   You need to be in good physical condition to evacuate that fast.

Survival Cooking Lessons

One the cooking front we decided it would be better to drain the liquid from canned goods (like corn) into a measuring cup and use that to supplement the water needed in the recipe.  This conserves your precious drinking water and reduces the chances of food spillage (i.e. the corn would dump into the measuring cup instead of all over the ground when draining).

We totally revamped our meal planning and food storage after this trip.  We prepared way too much food for our family.  So, for example, instead of simply including a box of spaghetti we measured out how much we needed for the meals we had planned and put that in a heavy duty zip-lock freezer bag.  By eliminating superfluous packaging and unneeded food we were able to significantly reduce the bulk in our food supply.

Have Correct Gear

We also came up with a number of things that we needed to get, like a kitchen knife with a sheath (we had just thrown in a standard knife wrapped in a paper towel, but it was a bit dangerous floating around in the tote).  We also needed a tarp to put under our tent, and a few other things we wished we would have had.

Overall we had a very successful evacuation disaster scenario.  It was a lot of fun, especially since we did it with our friends. We even invited the person who texted us the evacuation message to come eat our 72-hour kit meal with us.  But most of all we gained a lot of confidence that we could easily evacuate with minimal notice.

What Is Your Evacuation Story?

Have you ever had to evacuate (or practiced an evacuation)?  How long did it take you to leave?  What did you leave behind that you wished you had taken? Tell us about it!