Which ONE Item Would You Grab...

My handbag. It is a pain in the butt trying to prove who you are with no ID at all.

I'm more practical than sentimental. I love keeping the memories over keeping the stuff. My mother was a hoarder and I just don't want to be like that.

My emergency pack. This has been the story of my summer. In it I have everything that I would want or need.

I didn't even have to think twice about this O.. I would grab my photo album from before I had my digital camera. Most of those photos cannot be replaced and are priceless to me.

My home flooded-now I would say take your checkbook and money. The first thing I grabbed was my baby, threw him over my head and went out to find help. I suppose it sounds dramatic but I was wading in water across the street from my home crying for someone to help. My neighbors, quite dry at the time came and grabbed the baby. I went back for pictures and yes, some bottles of booze. We had the Fire Department ride us over in a boat to get into the house, I walked chest high inside my kitchen to get our checkbook which was fortunately way up high. Sorry you said O. item only but that was for an IF and it wasn't an IF. It really happened.

My emergency tub.

This is cheating. It counts though as O. item..That carries many things.

It has food for all of us for O. week. water for about three weeks. In a water tight box inside I keep credit cards, account numbers, ALL important legal documents, SS Cards. A phone card.

Blankets, books, flashlights batteries, radio..socks for all.

It is a giant yard bin...So yes it would be hard to lug. I dont care. It has what means life to me on paper and will help keep what means life to me in the flesh safe dry and fed for a short time at least.

I go through this tub every six months to pull the stuff that can expire and to make sure everything is sort of age appropriate for the kids. In case they have grown or moved on from a certain type of snack.

Also in my tube with all the paper work I have pictures. new and old...of friends and family. That way not everything is ruined...or gone.

The tub stays in the garage. Near the door. this is where we are to go in the event of such and emergency. I also have had my kids practicing evacuations from the house...I taught my oldest how to pop the screen out of their window in case they need to get out of the house fast..and we practiced help brothers out the window after him. We live in a O. story which makes this nice and easy enough.

We have bad wind and have had Earthquakes here before..So being prepared is just something I have to do. I feel it would be acting irresponsibly if I didnt have something like this ready at moments notice.

the photos of my daughter who died 18 years ago.

O.??? yikes...how about what would you take out at O. time...lol

I would of course have my purse and daughters meds but (I'm cheating and choosing two) I would have to grab/drag/push my two HEAVY LARGE bins with all of my daughters pictures/memories/important papers/documents in it.

That's it. EveryTHING else can be replaced.. Pictures can't...I could not imagine losing those memories.

Yikes...you are making me want to go pack an emergency bag...

72-hour backpack. We are all into preparedness. My husband has O., and I have O.. It's meant so that if we have to leave our home asap, we'd have food, limited clothes, blankets, money, protection (weapon) and various camping type of supplies like tent, pocket knives, water purifier, and tons of other little things, to help us survive if we'd need to. They are big hiking backpacks that hold a lot. We have stuff for our kids too. We have our backpacks easily accessible so we can literally run, grab it, and go.

I highly recommend everyone to get prepared. You never know what type of disasters might hit. It feels comforting to know if something happened, we'd be okay...or as okay as we can plan to be.

My laptop and I will admit it has nothing to do with the pictures on it.

Laptop--because of the pictures

Hmmm. I'd have to say my laptop, just because ALL of our pictures/videos are on there.

Well my purse of course. It contains my wallet, credit card, bank card, account numbers car keys and cell phone with all my contacts.

Now, if you are assuming that I already HAVE my purse on me, then I'd probably go with the imac. or the backup harddrive. :)

purse.

it has everything in it.

I would grab a lot in 10 seconds!

Yah of course my purse.

My purse, everything is in there and I can get my photos offline.

Im a freak about my pictures, I have hardcopy prints, CD stored, and online stored.

My 72 hour kit. It's a mini suitcase on wheels and it has a change of clothes, important documents, food, blanket, water, basic tools, first aid, cash.... I do need to add some pictures in there!

The Laptop!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My laptop. It has my completed novel and two other half finished ones. Two years worth of work....

My purse for sure!
keys, cell phone, id, $, medications are all in there.

My mothers wedding ring

my mommy purse....we hae diapers toys juiceboxes snacks keys phone wipes napkins creditcards and cash....we also have cards tissues change of clothes for kids lol....its more of a satchel than a purse haha

WOW! good question.. let me think, what about you?

Well, my car key and Amex are in my purse, what else could you ever need? So, purse it is!

:)

My emergency box -
Yup, I keep O. made with mortgage and insurance papers, dog tranquilizers, shot records, birth certificates, etc.
I live in a Hurricane Zone and realized, post Katrina, that it was easier to keep everything in O. place rather than filed neatly away. LOL
I update it every year to keep it current.

And, um, I just assumed that my purse doesn't count. :)

As much picture and video back up as my hands could carry. I couldnt deal with losing all that so I would find a way to carry it all

My jewelry box... it has all of my moms and grandmothers precious jewelry that my grandfather gave to all of us.

My purse just has junk in it.. not even sure why I carry O.. :) and the diaper bag is always in the car so everything for baby is in there, lol.

Are we completely clothed... this moment, right now, I would have to grab my shoes... but if I were being thoughtful and practical it would be my purse.
Maybe my hard drive though... and I would just apply for new drivers license etc...

UGH... ya know in real life if I had to pick something i would get too flustered, snatch up my cell phone and go... and i WOULD BE REALLY TICKED AT MYSELF LATER.

hahaha.... ya know, when I was 3 my parents and I went to another city for a family members funeral. The night before the funeral, we were staying at a hotel and OUR ROOM caught on fire! (electrical) In about 20 minutes the whole hotel was burnt to the ground, but our room was gone in about 5, My mom was in the shower, and my dad was smoking a cigarette (so he didn't notice the smoke right away), I was tucked in bed. when the alarm triggered, My mom ran out of the bathroom, grabbed my feet and plucked me out of bed and we ran out the door. - so there we stood... in the parking lot, I was in my panties and a t-shirt, my mom barefoot in a towel (naked) and my dad shirtless in his blue jeans. Credit cards, licenses, money, everything for our trip was burnt up in that hotel fire. The police gave us a ride to a relatives house to stay. That night I cried and cried about my missing blanket, and my mom finally promised that we would ask about it (though she knew it was surely lost). The next day the police called to let everyone collect and belongings that survived. The only thing in our entire room that made it? My blanket!

-M.

Great question! Due to the massive forest fires in Texas, I can smell smoke when I open the door to our house...the fires are not close, but smelling the smoke made me think about what I'd take in an emergency....I'd shove our laptop, important papers and medications into a backpack and get out. If I had time, I'd want to grab a pillow or toy for each of my kids.

I suppose this is a good argument for putting your photos on Facebook. No need to take them anywhere! I'm interested in the response that included a weapon (!), and I like the idea of an emergency tub - sounds very big to be getting out quickly though. I would grab my purse and/or insurance papers. My house is in such a state that it might be a good thing if it burns. That's our main danger - bush fires.

Purse (money and insurance cards) & cell/charger
Medication
Fire safe (important docs)

the safe. Includes my pictures on Cd's. All our important info. Oh and my cash supply....hidden in our house someplace, Lol

I would grab my purse - it's got all my and my 3 daughters' ID and medical cards. On top of dealing with a burned down/flooded/etc house, I wouldn't want to have to prove who I am without any ID.

My son's blankie and my laptop in O. fell swoop.

(I've never followed directions very well ;)

I don't care about the value of my laptop. I do care about the photos and voice recordings on my laptop. My son's blankie is practically the Velveteen Rabbit at this point. It's been loved so much, for so long (9 years), it's almost 'real'.

IF I could only grab O.? My son's blankie.

Most of my stuff is in boxes, unable to get to. So ... I guess I'd grab my external hard drive which has all of our pictures on it. But in the event of an emergency, I might not think about that right away, so I'd probably just grab my purse - it's right by the door.

(but quite honestly, I'd be safest in my house if a hurricane or earthquake came. Flood? Not likely. I live on top of a big hill, not near a flood zone.)

I'm a bit concerned that all the moms keep all their pictures/videos on their laptops... you know they can die or get stolen, right? I hope you are backing up your photos to somewhere off site. Snapfish (or any of them) can send you a CD of the photos you store on their site... I got (almost) all my photos back after my laptop was stolen from the house. Please, please back up you photos!!!!!! (They you can grab something else, lol!)

My purse: it should have cell phone for emergency, snacks for baby, keys, money for when I might need it later.....
Again, my pets and kids are safe RIGHT?

Laptop. It has family pictures and lots of other stuff on it, everything is stored in it. That being said. I would also say my 72 hours kits/tubs, O. for each person in the family and the pets too, are by the door to the vehicles so they would just be a part of what gets taken too.

my teddy bear. almost 38 years old and i still sleep with him!

The diaper bag...My wallet, keys, iPad and cell phone are always in it, and I always have a few bottles of ready-made formula in it, as well as some snacks.

laptop. I've got thousands of kid photos, all my artwork and current projects and information stored there.

My grandparents' wedding rings. I always thought I would go for photos but when my husband and I packed a bag during the hurricane I didn't want the photos....we didn't need to leave or have any damage thankfully!!

Im sorry but in 10 seconds I can grab more than 1 item, and my purse would hold keys, money, licenses, credit cards insurance card, check book, meds,cell pone with numbers, and all those things would be needed. But on the way out the door in less than 10 seconds I would grab the little ziplock bag that has about 10 memory cards from my camera with pictures and videos of our grand daughter. My purse and this little bag, arent more than about 15 feet apart so Id get them both. (o:

Definitely my hard drive...all of my pictures and movies are on there. and my cell phone :)

its always been my pictures, most of them are on external hard drive, I have to update it though... I think I need to make an emergency pack though! Including the pics.

Dog and snake. Water bottle would be a strong second. We have a small fireproof box that has our legal papers in it, but if it were just me, ti would still be humans first pets second.

My wallet/purse. No second thought. I'd be able to replace my medication b/c I'll have my insurance info & id & money to pay for it. My photos (thanks Elizabeth F.) are not only on Snapfish, but we also subscribe to Karbonite (sp?) an offsite (not in our house) warehouse system that backs up all our computer files (similar to what much of corporate america does with their computer systems) in case of any natural disaster or theft. So, not only would our pictures be preserved, but also our medical history (yes, I keep track of it for our family electronically).

My cell phone. I never remember where I throw my purse down!

I would say my purse but I can never find it:) Probably our emergency kit!

Laptop

Updated

laptop

I would grab my external hard drive. It has all of my photos, videos, documents, etc. on it. I've even scanned in some old photos from my childhood that would obviously be irreplaceable. I have many more that haven't been transferred yet, but the hard drive has the most stuff stored that I could easily grab. I always keep my purse hanging on the same doorknob as the bag with the hard-drive in it, so I'd be able to grab that too. Everything else other than photos and videos (and obviously people and pets) are replaceable, even my daughter doesn't have an attachment to a specific item that we couldn't just go out and buy again. I have a few items from my childhood that would be nice to keep, but I at least have photos of them (in the hard drive) if something were to happen to them.

If this were a county/state wide disaster rather than say a personal fire, I'd also want to grab my Ergo baby carrier (which we keep right by the door anyway). If there's a chance I'll be carrying around my 2yr old a lot, it'd be much easier with the carrier and she'd probably feel more secure.

I'm not so worried about the personal documents. For O., thankfully no O. in my family is on any medications, so I don't have to worry about that. If the disaster didn't destroy the whole county, I'd be fine since our credit union consists of 3 ladies that I've known personally for years and they have photocopies (better than nothing) of our ids and ssc and naturally access to all of our account numbers. My mom is our insurance agent...so no problems there. I do need to get a fire/flood proof safe to keep those originals in anyway, just in case...but for the most part I'm not really worried about it.

We live in Western PA. Thankfully it's not really a natural disaster kinda place. Personal fires are the only real threat, so I'd need to be prepared for that. Otherwise we don't have to worry so much about county/statewide disasters around here. I do like the idea of having a 72 hour emergency bag ready, but haven't made O. yet.

money ( for emergency use)