Last night I was at a dinner of a dozen of us from the neighborhood. I got a call from my sister, Barbara, who lives in Las Vegas. I ignored it out of phone politeness to those around the table. When the phone rang a second time I got up to answer it because you never know when an emergency might arise. She was calling to make sure we were OK based on what she was needing on the news about the wildfires breaking out across Southern California. I quickly referenced my Watch Duty wildfire app and saw that there was nothing near us or threatening so I told her to not worry, that we were fine. Barbara has always been a bit on the excitable side, so I just chalked it up to that. I had already sent my friends in Phoenix that are meeting my buddy Chris and I up near Lake Havasu City tomorrow the Red Flag warning maps, but noted that the Santa Ana winds that tend to cause these warnings were due to abate later today. Last night, when I woke up for my usual mid-night insomnia, I noted that the winds outside had gotten quite intense. Then, this morning I awoke to two pieces of news. The first was that this is the driest start to the “rainy season” in San Diego County in 174 years. That seemed significant. Then I saw that what had spooked my sister was what has amounted to a series of wildfires in three significant locations in and around Los Angeles. There is the massive Palisades Fire that has engulfed almost 3,000 acres and has already caused the evacuation of large swaths of the west side of L.A. out to and through Malibu. Then there is the Eaton Fire just north of Pasadena that has involved 2,200 acres so far and is actively burning down large swaths of suburban Pasadena and surroundings. And then there is the Hurst Fire just south of Santa Clarita which is just getting started with 500 acres.
Basically, the entire L.A. Basin is either burning or afraid of having the Santa Ana winds blow it their way. Lots of people are in evacuation mode, probably wondering which way to turn. Our nephew Josh and his family, who live in Pasadena are under evacuation orders and are sheltering at Kim’s sister’s house in Camarillo, the same place from whence they had to evacuate several months ago before the holidays. If you look at the Cal Fire Map, sheltering in Camarillo is not so very comforting given the fire threat surrounding them from all directions. The conundrum this morning is what to do since Josh and his wife Haj and our brother-in-law Woo are supposed to fly to Georgia for a wedding tomorrow and Kim is supposed to head up to Pasadena to babysit the kids. So now you have tentative travel plans, tentative babysitting plans, a highly immobile stay-at-home sister of Kim’s, one house in a red fire zone another house in a pink fire zone and, indeed, our own hilltop rated as on the border of a pink zone (even though there are no active fires near us). We too are under red flag warning due to the Santa Ana’s, but at least they are supposed to subside later today. Oh, and did I mention that I am supposed to leave for a motorcycle ride out into the desert for three days tomorrow morning and have my friend Chris literally in the air headed here as I write this. The good news is that there is nothing that seems amiss in fire terms between us and our destination in the desert, but that, of course, ignores whatever responsibilities I have towards my family and Kim in their potential time of need.
When we first moved out here we decided to buy emergency go-bags from a company that put together all the necessities like simple first aid and freeze-dried food and water into a red knapsack that could be kept in the car or garage to provide a speedy exit and still have the vital necessities to keep you going in an emergency. We actually gave one to all our local family members as well that year as our way of saying that we all had to stay ready out here to go when the going was required. We have moved our bags (we have two for ourselves) from this spot to that spot, but have not opened or used them for several years. We are counting on them still being good, which I am guessing they are. They are on our minds now that three of the eight families in our family kluge in Southern California have had to evacuate in the past decade (two of them in the past two months now). In fact, since we have ourselves lived under two red flag warnings in the past few months and there are no signs of anything get less dry than it has been lately, Kim this morning, informed me that she was packing an emergency clothing go-bag as well to have at the ready with the basic underwear, pants and shirts stuff that may be necessary in a rushed evacuation situation. Indeed, both of them two evacuations the family has lived under lately have required VERY speedy evacuation from fast-moving fires that were getting accelerated by the Santa Ana winds. Kim’s sister was given three minutes to gather and leave. Getting your mind to function clearly under those circumstances is not a good bet, so having a pre-made go-bag (meaning the personal effects go-bag as opposed to the emergency rations go-bag) seems like a sensible idea.
Now the question arises, what exactly should you put in a personal effects go-bag. I am not so concerned about documents since we have a good heavy duty fireproof safe and most documents these days are stored digitally in the Cloud anyway. As for my office or even memorabilia, I really only need my iPad since I have almost everything including family photos digitized as well. Hell, even if I lost my iPad, I could go to the nearest unburnt Apple Store and get going again in a matter of minutes. The antiquities I have collected over the years that have survived up to thousands of years will certainly survive for the most part since they are mostly rock or ceramics. To be honest, there is little by way of personal artwork or effects that we could not live without even though we care about them and would greatly prefer that they survive any calamity. Kim has her favorite mother things and I have my own mother things that I prize, but we have both had a fair bit of time in our lives to enjoy them and if fate has them go away, so be it. As for clothing, while I have a more challenging issue about finding things that fit me, Duluth Trading can be counted on to deliver in a few days and Kim is at a size now that any TJ Max or Banana Republic would solve her needs in a pinch. The truth is, that the Amazon logistics capability would certainly solve almost any dislocation need to their than the immediate need for some meds and perhaps my CPAP (though replacement CPAPs are not so unattainable these days either). Also, in an emergency, a bit of snoring or trench-mouth is manageable.
So I put my toothbrush (Kim has suggested we just use those airline drop kits they are always giving us and we are always stuffing somewhere), a few pairs off socks and underwear and one pair of jeans and shirt into a bag that I will keep in the closet. In theory, we can get our and be gone in a matter of minutes. It’s always good to have a go-bag when you need one.