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“Afraid To Stay; Afraid To Leave!”
By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, January 8, 2025
The
title of this Nugget was heard on the news this Wednesday, January 8, 2025 and was
said by a survivor of the firestorms ravaging Southern California. It was heartbreaking to hear but I can attest
that I can sympathize with her; as compared to empathizing with her. What is the difference between Sympathizing
and Empathizing? You can sympathize with
someone when YOU have experienced similar or same events. You can only empathize with someone when you
have NOT had the same or similar experience and therefore can only “imagine”
what they are going through.
When Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on America, it was originally not headed to where I lived and I went on with life as usual. That Saturday morning, meant I was playing golf with “the guys” as I always did. When we stopped at the club house between the 9th and 10th holes that morning for refreshments, the news was on the TV and the storm had made an unexpected turn and it was headed directly at us. We had only hours to make a decision to stay or to leave. If we stayed, we would have to ride out the storm in our home. Given the size of the storm as shown on TV, that was not a good choice. If we evacuated, we might get caught in very slow-moving bumper to bumper traffic on the interstate system along with everyone else trying to do the same thing. Being caught in your car was also not a good choice. It was very similar to what the poor woman on the news said this morning when she said “We were afraid to stay and we were afraid to leave.”
Now for the real purpose of this Nugget as an instructional tool that applies to everyone and is based not only on the California fires but also Hurricane Katrina and more recently the terrorist murders in New Orleans on New Year’s Day morning. What do these three things have in common? None of them were expected and the results were devastating and in at least two of the three, lives were lost. As time progresses, sadly, the fires will probably have taken the lives of people who had no choice. The real question that needs answering is, where they ready? My best guess is that very few were ready for any of these events to occur so look at it in that regard and ask yourself, ARE YOU READY IF YOU ARE EVER FACED WITH SUCH A QUESTION?
How does one prepare for a disaster such as the referenced events? They are not the only events that require preparedness on your part, others would include but not limited to Fires, Earthquakes, Storms, Floods, Sudden Deaths from any number of sources and yes, even Volcanos (Mt. St. Helens). You may have only minutes to make a decision that will affect the rest of your life or the lives of your loved ones as in the case of a “sudden death.”
The Military constantly play “war games” based on a “what if” situation. If “this” were to happen, “what must I do?” Look at the California fires. How many residents played the “what if” war game should a sudden fire erupt. This is what I mean.
If I had time, what would I take with me if I only had minutes to leave my home? People obviously come first but remember, not everyone may be as mobile as you are. Pets and livestock would be next. As important as your pets and livestock may be to you, a very tough decision may have to be made to leave them behind if it means saving your own life. If that is the case, at least give them a fighting chance and do not leave them in an enclosed building with no means of escape. If you were to die, the pets and live stock would be on their own in any case unless you have arranged for them to be cared for by a third party. Important papers like wills, power of attorneys, insurance papers and God only knows what other papers you would consider essential to protect. Unless you have the time and the space in your cars or trucks that you plan to use to evacuate the area, items such as valuable or sentimental jewelry, family photos, art work, etc., will just have to be left behind, you may not have either the space or the time to protect them.
My sincere advice requires that you answer questions based on the TIME you have available. If you had only minutes to evacuate your home, what do you feel you must protect and take with you other than the people in your home? Are these items available to you in a “go bag” or ready to grab suitcase on a moment’s notice like a house fire? If not, they should be! In this regard, this is what I would make absolutely sure you have placed in a fire retardant “go bag” that you can grab and run:
·
Wills. Hopefully you and
everyone in your family have one. There
were a lot of both young and old people who died during all of these events,
many never thought they were going to die at a young age. There is not an age that is too young to have
a Will. When a person begins owning
things, it is a good time to begin the process of maintaining a current Will
and it needs to be State Specific since each State may have its own special
requirements for a Will to be valid.
·
Medical Power of Attorneys. Who has the authority to make medical
decisions on your behalf in the event you are unable to make them for yourself. This can occur at any age such in the case of
traumatic accidents or natural disasters.
·
Medicines. How long will you be away from your
home? You have no idea! How long can you go without your prescribed
medicines? This is extremely important
to me because I wear external devices because of previous surgeries and also
take life-saving drugs (I’m diabetic).
Life would prove to be very difficult if I did not plan ahead to ensure
that I had sufficient supplies with me as I evacuate my home.
·
Insurance Policies. Having access phone numbers and/or websites
is good but having access to the entire policy is better. The policy is your guarantee that you are
covered and what you must do to file a claim and identify what is covered and
what may not be covered. Most young
people do not recognize the importance of having a personal insurance policy on
their life but one only need look at the ages of those that have passed away
during natural disasters as referenced or in the case of a “sudden and unexpected
death” such as an accident or a medical event.
More importantly, the cost of such policies will never be as inexpensive
as they are when you are young.
·
Credit Cards. If Hurricane Katrina taught
me anything it taught me that I needed to have my credit cards with me when I
had to evacuate. It also taught me that
it is good to have more than one credit/debit card with me. Furthermore, it taught me that having
multiple credit cards with high credit limits available to me was extremely
important even if I never used the cards.
For example, if my home survived the storm but was damaged, I needed to
have access to either cash or credit to make IMMEDIATE repairs to limit
any further damage and that may require having immediate access to thousands of
dollars in credit to tide me over until the insurance companies can provide the
financial help that I would require.
·
Purse and Wallet. I vividly remember a local news reporter
interviewing the survivor of a tornado that took out his home. He said he took cover within his home but failed
to keep his wallet with him during the storm.
When the storm had passed and he survived the destruction of his home,
he had no way of starting his car because he had no idea where his keys were
nor did he have his wallet with money and credit cards. I had never thought of that before but do now
every time we are warned of severe weather in our area.
·
Precious Metals. You may or may not have precious metals
stored in your home (gold, silver, platinum, etc.). The problem with metals is that they are
heavy but if you have them stored in your home and you want to protect them
from total loss, you must take them with you when you evacuate your home on a
moment’s notice. Can you readily retrieve
them or will you have to take the time to open a safe and retrieve them when
you may not have the time to do so? Just
a question that needs to be asked and answered.
· Important Personal Papers that you or your next of kin may need such as important military papers, employment retirement records, locations of safety deposit boxes if you have one or more of them, how to access your many computer websites and accounts along with passwords.
On the subject of computers, I cannot overstate the importance of always backing up your computers. I found the best way is to contract for an outside resource that automatically backs up your computer OFFSITE! I have done so for decades and have TWICE used the service to recover my computer files. Like insurance policies, the price of coverage is a cost that no one wants but when you need the service, it suddenly becomes PRICELESS.
There are two steps that everyone should consider and not just dismiss them out of hand.
First, it would not hurt to own a SAFE for your home. If you have weapons, it goes without saying that the safest way to store your weapons would be to lock them away in a safe with very limited number of people having access. A safe should be water and fire resistant. The time you have to evacuate determines the usefulness of storing your most valuable items you want to take with you. In the case of the California fires, would you have sufficient time to open your safe and place the items in a container large enough to carry with you?
Second, and probably one of the best choices of all, is a medium to LARGE SIZE RECORDS CASE that is also water and fire resistant. I purchased one online for less than $30.00 and it comes with a combination lock that would delay access but certainly not limit the access to the items contained therein.
I went through what I consider the most valuable paperwork, credit cards, computer and website access information, and anything I thought I would want to take with me and placed them in this compact record bag. I keep the bag very near my master bedroom. I am able to grab it and run in just seconds as compared to trying to take the time to locate these documents that may have otherwise been filed in a filing cabinet in a different part of the house. I have a very limited supply of precious metals and I keep it in separate case and keep both cases in the same location. I can easily locale both bags and be out of the house in just seconds. That is the way it should be.
HAVE
A PLAN! Like most
families, my family is spread over many States.
As such, everyone in the family should know where you would evacuate to
if ever required. Your location may
change depending upon the reason for evacuating. Immediately following Hurricane Katrina, the
cell phones didn’t work for weeks as a phone but did work to send text messages;
never did understand why the difference.
You should either establish a place where you can all meet up or that
everyone knows WHERE you will be. They may not be able to reach you by
cell phone but at least they will know where to begin their search for
you. You should alert members of your
family that you ARE evacuating the moment you make the decision to leave
and before the phone service is cut.
GOOD LUCK!
