Catherine+twins wrote:Oh, a final tip from my step-mom. When you have to evacuate in a hurry, grab the dirty laundry basket/bag. Unless you just washed, all of the clothes you (and your kids) wear are there!
So true, and generally you have a full sets in there.
I have a Pelican case that I can very quickly grab and go, but it is second after throwing the spare gas cans and tools in the back of the truck. The Pelican case has everything I need for a 3 to 4 day trip except food. I keep it packed for going to science fiction conventions. It has an empty spot on the top where I can toss my laptop and a couple backup hard disks I normally take to conventions. It would also work as an emergency case. I have extra t-shirts, underwear and socks in it that I use for padding various things. Yeah, no dedicated padding, just repurposed clothing and towels as padding.
The second Pelican case to grab is the camera case with all my camera gear in it.
The third Pelican case I'd grab has some fancier clothes I rarely wear packed in it as padding around some backup computer gear, on site backup hard disks and some lesser used camera gear. I also put some extra sets of underwear and socks in it.
Next would be the everyday coats and bad weather wear.
Next would be to grab a couple spare tubs and grab all the food and supplies on a couple shelves in the pantry. I deliberately arranged my pantry to have all the easily prepared on a camp stove food in one area. There is also soaps, paper plates, plastic ware and other likely needed items on those shelves. I try to keep enough there for a month or two. These shelves also have copies of books like "Putting Food By".
Then I move the truck to the back door and grab the camping and hiking gear. It is all packed into various tubs and bags for a quick grab and pack into a vehicle. I also grab the emergency water in it's jerry cans.
Next are the ice chests, ice (1/2 gallon water jugs frozen), and selected food from the refrigerators and freezers. Refrigerated and frozen foods are less durable so they are lower priority.
Next are the electronics tools and fire safe contents.
If I have time I'd grab my desktop computer. I have a case that I can quickly put it into. Next would be to throw the bicycle on top of the load and pack the paniers for it.
After that I would grab select keepsakes and throw them into various spare tubs. Again packing them in spare towels and clothing. At this point I'm going through things to select what I want to keep, etc.. Around now the bed of the pickup is getting close to being filled with one layer deep of cases and tubs.
Final steps for evacuation are to prep the house and farm for an extended absence.
The most important thing is to have a plan that is simple, efficient, and quick to implement. Possibly write it up, but plan it out and have everybody memorize it. For my packing up I'd first grab the pickup, spare gas and tools from the barn. Then move it to the main entry door, and load a bunch of stuff from upstairs. Then I'd move it to the basement door, and start loading stuff out from it. When finished packing up I should have 800 to 1000 miles of fuel, and a month or two of food with the means to prepare it in the back of the pickup. I grab the tools for my own emergency use, and I can also use them for work. Same goes for the camera gear, I'm a very good photographer. The electronics tools are handy in that I understand house and vehicle wiring and more complex electronics and could easily do it for work. I also can program and administer computers and did that before going into farming. Part of my disaster planning is how to keep income, and thus food, coming in in the long term. All the stuff on my list should all be able to be loaded up in 20 to 30 minutes. It sounds like allot to load up in that time, but most of it is already packed up or in small localized areas and easy to pack up quickly.
fire break we have around town and my house burned down, I could just download my inventory to what ever computer/tablet is available and make my claim. 
