Tornado Go-Bag

[blueflax]

I've been managing my pandemic anxiety by finally getting my emergency preparedness in order. Of course, Tom Bihn gear makes it so much easier to organize!

Mentally, I've divided stuff into four-ish categories:

1) The Everyday Carry - which right now is a Makers Bag to wrangle masks, sanitizer, etc. Latched into the MB there is a Side Effect with emergency and first aid supplies

2) The Go Bag - a Synapse 19, though it's a bit tight, but this is a lightweight "need to grab it and literally run" bag. This is the house-is-burning-down bag.

3) The Car Bag - These are supplies for a more extended emergency, where you might need a change of clothes, or to camp, or if stranded in the car.

4) The Home Bin - These are bigger and heavier items that would be useful in an extended (2 week) stay-at-home / power outage situation, and include gear for sleeping, cooking, washing etc, and are in a rolling bin that can get tossed into the car if necessary (I know this is very car-focused: I'm a midwesterner is my only excuse)

There's water for two weeks in the basement, and a pet kit and carrier

I'm finding uses for the wonderful TB bags, leashes, pouches, carabiners etc. in my stash, and really appreciate the functionality and flexibility built into the bags.

Seeing firsthand the devastating effects of a mile-wide, F-5 tornado forever changed my I'll-deal-with-that-later attitude towards emergency preparedness. I also think we need to build more resilience into our daily lives and communities to deal with the current challenges and the ones to come.

A website that's very useful and non-alarmist to help with this is The Prepared. It organizes gear by priority or by category - very helpful - and has useful essays about how to mentally approach preparedness.

If anyone has links to other good emergency planning lists, please add them... CA, OR and WA have good state resources for a variety of disaster scenarios - my own tornado-prone state: not so much

[blueflax]

"my own tornado-prone state: not so much"

I finally found Missouri's disaster and emergency planning info - and I'm here to tell you it is not great: it's not as user-friendly as the west coast states' websites and there are a LOT of broken links