Glad to know I'm not the only one.

Hmmmph. And you don't link to my stuff. :)

Try including a link to your post, Blake, and see what happens...

Okay, it gave me a good post for today to pull all of the posts into one place, which is here (http://laughingwolf.net/archives/001128.html). Thanks for getting me up off my duff to pull those together!

Thanks Dad!

If you have pets, you should also consider how you'll care for them - or if you are willing to abandon them (not a course I suggest, but you need to consider your own choice and prepare for it).

We usually have 4-5 dogs here at any given time and my Jeep is space-limited, so I really have to plan ahead for taking them all with me. My pets are (also) show / competition dogs with long coats, so YMMV on some of this stuff, but here are the items I keep ready (and use on trips regularly):

• carriers. I use Varikennel crates for my dogs because they are most likely to hold together in a traffic accident & I can pile things on top of them. I use fake lambswool pile mats inside, with a non-skid bottom. Even if you enjoy having your dog ride loose in the car, it's really valuable if s/he can be left crated sometime, and in stressful situations it can mean the difference between driving safely and having an accident ...

• food in a waterproof container

• water - I refill gallon water jugs with screw-on lids, or you can keep a 5 gallon container filled. Changes in water / microbes are a major cause of diarrhea in dogs and cats, so take it from home if you can!

• metal bowls - I use 1 or 2 qt metal water buckets, and use 2-ended snap bolts to attack the bucket inside the crate or onto an exercise pen (folding wire fence - very useful way to leg multiple dogs stretch their legs and relieve themselves at once, without needing to walk them on a leash)

• leashes and collars, with rabies tags (you will need the tags if you end up staying at a shelter or need to leave the animal in a boarding kennel overnight)

• several plastic tarps, some "space blankets" and alligator clamps. The "blankets" fold into a small packet and are really useful: clamp them over car windows with the metallic side out to keep the dogs cool inside on sunny days, lay them over crates with the metallic side down in very cold weather to conserve body heat, clamp them over the top of an exercise pen to give shade or keep off rain ....

• heartworm preventative and anti-flea/tick stuff (I use Interceptor and Frontline Plus), along with 1/4 grain aspirin in case of sprains / lameness(used to be baby aspirin, now sold as heart attack prevention) and mycetracin for cuts

• dog brush/comb,a small bottle of dog shampoo (in case of stress-induced accidents in crates), several old towels, paper towels, enzyme cleanup spray, and plastic trash bags.

I keep all the above, except for the food, water and crates, in 2 Tupperware tubs which can be piled into the Jeep on top of crates very quickly. I also have a standard way of packing the Jeep, including my clothes and supplies, so I can get it all crammed in in just a few minutes.

Also, I keep a pretty full set of maps for my region in the car.

Umm... I'm sure you guys would find it soon enough but just in case... entries #7 and #8 are comment spam...

I'll add:

A wonderbar (pry bar) in the bedroom closet, in case we have to pry open jammed doors

Also, be sure to check: does said bedroom or closet have doors that might be jammed?

You might also want TWO of the FRS radios. They come in both license-required and no-license variations; the latter is typically less than $25 and the former occasionally so. (There is a range/power difference and some reserved frequencies for the former.) They are amazingly popular, so other folks in whatever ad hoc group you end up in are likely to have them as well, as are neighboring groups.

Andy -

Yes on the closet doors (shutters in our case) and the FRS radios. I think we have about six of them...I think they breed when left to themselves...

A.L.

My earthquake kit (L.A. area resident) has about 35,000 calories of canned food, 16 gallons of water, blankets, crank-operated radio and two crank-operated flashlights. I have three large commercial first aid kits; two in the house and one in the car.

A generator and supply of fuel is next on the list, but I don't have it yet. In an emergency, my car + inverter can fill that role.

A pair of firearms is on the list to acquire eventually but is lower priority; I only figure I need them if services disintegrate entirely long enough that the city riots and the riots reach out to the most distant suburbs. If I lived closer to downtown they'd be higher priority.

I've always assumed that in a severe loss of power, food, and water, emergency services can get to los angeles within ten days, and based my planning on that.

Small tornadoes have walked over the roof of my house in tornado alley - we keep five day's worth of nonperishable food, water, first aid essentials, batteries and candles, charcoal with starter, plastic wrapped clothes, and travellers' checks all the time.

"in case of earthquake, flood, fire, major terrorist attack, etc."

... not to mention volcanoes ...

Its worth noting the hand-dynamo flashlights and radios. The battery crunch is a lot less if you can use calories instead.

Here:
https://www.snapware.com//product_buy.asp?pf%5Fid=60012&dept%5Fid=6001

is a company whose containers use an actual, separable O-ring for a tight seal. (And it is both water- and air-tight.)