15 minutes to grab essentials - what would you take?

[Papergirl1968]

I hope this isn’t insensitive in light of Whaley Bridge, but it got me thinking, if I was in a similar situation, what would I grab in 15 minutes?
I wouldn’t have left without dcat. Otherwise precious photos, (adopted) dds’ memory books, camera and iPad as there are further photos on those, a few clothes. I’m not very materialistic so don’t have much jewellery or stuff like that. Passports, birth certificates, school exam certificates etc if I had time.
What would you grab?

How do you transport a snake in an emergency?

Phone, iPad, chargers, wallet, medications. Hopefully dh can manage to take himself!

How do you transport a snake in an emergency?

One of those tubes for posters.

Or a cotton breathable bag in real life.

I'd get children, phone, iPad, chargers, handbag with purse inside, spare clothes for children, nappies, wipes.

I'd forget important documents but it's the first thing my husband would remember.

This happened to us in 2016 when a wildfire caused our city of 88,000 to be evacuated due to a wildfire. We did get more than 15 minutes - there was a radio/text alert telling us to prepare to evacuate and then a further message telling us to GTFO.
We had enough time to grab documents (all in the same box), a suitcase full of clothes and toiletries, some precious items and sleeping bags. We also took a quick video of each room, as we thought we might need it to identify items for insurance lists. Luckily we didn’t.
We left a note on our door to say we had all evacuated and no animals had been left behind.

And we never let the fuel tank in our vehicle get below half full now. It’s less of an issue in the U.K. but where we are, once you left city limits (all gas stations had run out) it was 250km to the next one.

I'd be grabbing my animals and hard drive which has my pictures on, I've also got sheep so I'd be putting them in a trailer if I could but in a no car situation I'd be quickly rounding them up to the hill next to us to give them a fighting chance.

Nail varnish
Make up.
4 dresses
Underwear
Perfume
Earrings
Phone
Charger.
Pictures
Baby elephant boy and girl twin teddies.
Haunted Liverpool books
Sunflowers perfume.

Medication.
Obviously my family but that of course goes without saying
And of course, my baby spider

Medication, kids, clothes, bedding, important Documents, cards, money, tins, sentimental items

DH, DC & pets (guinea pigs - pretty easy to transport)
Key documents - passports, birth certs, handbag, phone, laptop. Basically things that would be a hassle to replace.

I lost most of my sentimental stuff in a flood years ago. At the time it was awful but since I have realised that life goes on and I survived.

Good luck to all those people affected in Whalley Bridge. Hoping that things work out well for you.

2 dogs
Documents
NAS box
Certain books
iPad, phone, computer

Dogs, documents, photos, phone, purse, laptop. Suitcase full of clothes and toiletries. A few family keepsakes.

Mind you, the photos would fill the entire car: a lifetime's worth in albums. So if I had longer I'd extract the good ones.

Incidentally, when you think of documents, remember your exam certificates. These can be expensive and bloody tricky to replace. Do you remember what board set your maths O level?

This thread has inspired me to write a list and stick it on the document box so that, if there ever was a disaster, I'd not panic but know what to grab.

DC
Passports, birth certificates, exam certificates & insurance docs
External hard drive
Tablets, phones & chargers

Medicines/toiletries/sunscreen
Matches
Torches
Water bottle
Children's cuddlies

Change of clothes for each of us.
Coats.

UNO (and possibly some similar games)
Ball

Take a photo of each room for insurance (and memory purposes).

If I didn't dither or panic, 15 mins is quite a long time.

My purse and his wallet- contains money, bank cards, national ID, driving license
Passport
Hard disk with all of our pictures
Coat

If I didn't dither or panic, 15 mins is quite a long time.

This is the problem though isn’t it? Most of us would dither or panic. If we’re also trying to organise DC and/or animals we wouldn’t be able to use all of those minutes effectively.

I’d probably spend 14 of those minutes saying “Kids, get your shoes on... Kids? Shoes! ... SHOES ON NOW!!”

Between Dh and I we would grab

DS and a cup for water/some snacks, cats, phones and chargers. Depending on how long it took to wrangle the cats we could take some clothes etc but that's it for essentials I think.

Most of us would dither or panic.

I've been in a couple of emergency situations. And as far as I can tell it's bone deep. Some people panic and some don't. I seem too be a steely eyed space woman who falls apart later. Other people are headless chickens.

Kids
Dog
Wallet
Bank & insurance details
Phone
External hard drive full of digital photos
Photo scrap book my mum made me for my 21st

If I had time and depending on weather or what I was escaping, I would also grab jackets, shoes, change of clothes, water bottles and food.

Handbag with bank cards, phone etc.
Horses

That's all!

Yes, I would be inclined to dither or panic or check the children have cleaned their teeth or something. If I have a list and remember I have it (which I should do if it's with the passports as hopefully I would always remember those), them I can work through that and panic later.

File with paperwork
Hard drive
Phones + chargers
Cat
Comfort toys

Clothes would be a benefit but not essential

This thread has really surprised me in seeing that so many people have documents scattered all over the house and in the loft that it would take more than 15 minutes to find even the most important stuff like passports and birth certificates!

A couple of years ago I had a bit of a 'what if' panic and finally got all my stuff sorted. All our bills, policies, passports, birth/marriage certificates, divorce decrees and court orders and bank statements are now all in one cupboard in 3 A4 folders. Along with a list of phone numbers of who to contact for each bill/policy if needed. Every month the new stuff gets filed and sporadically I'll sit down with my shredder and get rid of the old stuff.

Fairly sure the risk of burglars stealing all that outweighs the risk from fire/flood in my area - and is still miniscule - but the peace of mind it gave me knowing where all my documents are was overwhelming.

It would take me that long to get cats (6) into carriers and 3 dogs sorted that I'd probably just grab a coat and handbag. It's okay though, I keep an emergency mascara in my bag.

I lost my daughter to cancer, so photos, my home movie cassettes and my box of her favourite things is all I need. And the rest of the family, of course. Everything else is replaceable.