Tornado/earthquake kit

[Currahee320]

My wife and I live in SW missouri, which is prime tornado territory. Sooooooo.....We were talking about assembling a 3/4 day kit for myself, her my 4 y/o and our 7 week old. I went to ready.gov, but their list kinda sucks. I know all the basics, but what about stuff that could be overlooked?

We have water, food, blankets, flashlights, and batteries...normal stuff...

I'm just looking for oddball stuff that would be handy if a disaster strikes...

Thanks

Grant

[DJK]

Grant - lived 24 years in California and 17 in Florida. Been through it all. Make sure all your important papers are in something that will keep them dry and all together. You want something that you can grab and run with, but is still secure. We keep everything in a fireproof box in the gun safe. If we had to leave, the plan is to grab the box and lock the safe behind us.

[Audacia77]

I agree with DJK. Back in the early 90's, we lived in Ft Leavenworth, KS where my father was teach at the command staff college. My sister was away at college and we had some spare room in the house. There were some serious flooding in MS and my parents opened the door to an older couple who had lost everything. I remember some of the conversations that they had with my parents and one of the regrets was not having copies of all their paperwork (titles, insurance doc's, etc).

Being a new age, I would recommend that you not just put all of your doc's in a fire safe, but back up scanned copies on a flash drive. I have had a KingMax 4GB flash drive for a few years now with no problems. They are washer/dryer safe and under $20 on Amazon. I have copies of all my training certs, DD Form 214, VA Records, bank statements, birth certs, marriage certs, SSN cards, retirement paperwork, family photos, etc. Check out the flash drive you won't be disappointed.

On a side note, if your a home owner, have you put any thought into a storm shelter? Being a family man with two younglings I could understand if you were strapped financially, but it may be something to consider saving up for. The small 4 man fiberglass shelters are going for about <$5k, delivered and installed. With one of these, you could leave the bulk of your supplies in the house, snatch up the BOB and the family and head to the shelter.

[torquemada055]

Here's some places to get you started thinking about family shelters, and yes my wife thinks I am a bit paranoid but she understands me after 26 years together and my career in Corrections and the Marines.

http://www.hardenedstructures.com/2050727/default.aspx
http://www.monolithic.com/
http://www.undergroundshelter.net/new/home/home.php
http://www.missilebases.com/
http://www.bomb-shelter.net/index.html

[K.L. Davis]

I agree with DJK. Back in the early 90's, we lived in Ft Leavenworth, KS where my father was teach at the command staff college. My sister was away at college and we had some spare room in the house. There were some serious flooding in MS and my parents opened the door to an older couple who had lost everything. I remember some of the conversations that they had with my parents and one of the regrets was not having copies of all their paperwork (titles, insurance doc's, etc).

Being a new age, I would recommend that you not just put all of your doc's in a fire safe, but back up scanned copies on a flash drive. I have had a KingMax 4GB flash drive for a few years now with no problems. They are washer/dryer safe and under $20 on Amazon. I have copies of all my training certs, DD Form 214, VA Records, bank statements, birth certs, marriage certs, SSN cards, retirement paperwork, family photos, etc. Check out the flash drive you won't be disappointed.


Excellent advice... Having been involved in a couple of larger scale events, I can say that a LOT of people are more hampered by the loss of important documents than probably any other thing*.

Scanned and hard copy of credit cards, IDs, titles, insurance policies, birth certificates, prescriptions, banking documents and other things.

A couple of things that still get overlooked are copies of complete medical records, current pictures of family members (and pets) and medical power of attorney and wills.

*ETA: This is, of course, in situations were there is a return to some sort of civility.

[Currahee320]

Thanks for the tips. I am on a Temp Duty Assignment so we are renters, but a shelter would be in my sights otherwise.

I never would of thought of backing up my important docs digitally however I will get that done this week. I'm trying not to be paranoid but in times like these its hard not to. I do know that we have 10 cases of water and 2 boxes of MRE's stacked in laundry room. We have 2 changes of clothes, flashlights, batteries, waterproof matches, Extra fully stocked diaper bag, coloring books and toys for my 4 year old and in a plastic storage bin( also in laundry room, not much room for laundry)

I was just looking for stuff I hadn't thought of and thanks to you gentleman I have achieved my goal...