KNW-141 Evacuation Grab And Go Kit

by

KNW-141
Evacuation: Grab-And-Go Kits
and other Plans

Author unknown
Modified 03 Aug 2025 by Paul Smith, K5PRS


What If You Had To Evacuate Your Home In A Hurry? What would you take? Why your Evacuation Grab-and-Go Kits and your radio go-kit of course! But what else? How about your family?

This is a long training that contains a great deal of information that you won’t remember. Please print it out and spend some time with it. Your family’s lives may depend on it.

Many of us have assembled both personal and radio go-kits we would use to serve others in an emergency situation but how many of us have put together a list of items we would take if we had to evacuate our home or apartment and take our entire family plus pets with us? Your home or apartment may not survive the disaster from which you are being evacuated? Are you sure you’d have everything you need to survive and start over? Many of you have likely put together a to-do list in case of a hurricane but what about those who do not plan to hunker down? Can you quickly evacuate for a hurricane? What if, instead, there was a disaster such as a fire, hazardous chemical release, nuclear disaster, etc. that required you to evacuate in a hurry? If you only had 5 minutes, 30 minutes or even an hour to evacuate, what would you take? The answer is to prepare a list of those items along with their locations so you can quickly pack them and put them in your vehicle. So, make a list and a plan… and PRACTICE!

Think about the following questions when preparing your lists:

  1. If you had to evacuate and go at least 100 miles in a given direction, where would you go and where would you live? (Bug Out Location – BOL)
  2. How quickly can you gather your family? Who would pick up who? Where would they be?
  3. Without cell phones, how would you communicate?
  4. What would you need to take with you that will fit in your vehicle to start over if everything left behind was destroyed?
  5. How much cash would you need to survive a few days or a week if you had no money and bank systems/ATMs were down?
  6. What is important (mementos, photos, etc.) to you and will it fit in your vehicle? On your back?
  7. What can you gather, pack and fit in your evacuation vehicle in a given period of time? Do you have a list?

Five minutes! Is your evacuation vehicle in good shape and full of fuel? You won’t get out in time or maybe at all if it isn’t. They say half a tank…I say top it off frequently. It costs nothing more than a bit of time.

If you are like me, your list will be random at first and ideas will continue to pop into your head for days. Get your family together and brain storm. Just write down what comes to mind. Involve your children, they may think of things you don’t and they will come up with things that are essential to them (particularly if they are young) which you may leave off the list but you’ll need to help them understand why.

Later on you will organize and prioritize the list into several lists. You want to end up with an essentials (mission critical, life or death) list, an important list and a nice-to-have list. These will necessarily comport to the time and space available.

How much time do I have?
That’s a critical question. If a wind driven fire will torch your home in five to ten minutes, you’re in a critical situation and every action you take or don’t take could be life threatening. If a cat-5 hurricane changes direction unexpectedly and will arrive tomorrow night, you’ve got time to think but that’s too late to plan.

I recommend breaking the list into four groups: 5min, 30min, 1-2hrs and 12+ hrs. That implies four lists though you might want to combine the middle two to 30 mins to 2 hrs with the 30 minute items toward the top and the 2 hour items toward the bottom. So what might you pack for each?

5 minutes to hell:

  • All family members
  • One or more personal protection devices
  • All the cash, silver and gold you’ve got in the house.
  • 48 hour Bug-out-bags
    • 5-days critical medications
    • Fire/cooking/eating equipment
    • food/water filters
    • Tent
    • Headlamps w/batteries
    • Change clothes/shoes/jacket/hat/gloves
    • Rain gear
    • Knife/machete/hatchet/folding saw
    • Rope
    • First Aid Kit
  • Extended First Aid Kit
  • Food and Water
  • One or two children’s valuables – pre-selected and pre-packed in their go-bag.
  • Driving/reading glasses
  • Wallet(s)
  • Cell Phones (keep a charger for each phone type in the evacuation vehicle)
    • Chargers
    • Thumb drives with copies of vital documents
  • Vehicle/house keys
  • All pets (in carriers if possible & pet food)
  • Minimal Radio go-kit – Multi-band/channel HT & walkie-talkies w/ batteries.

GO, GO, GO!

As you can see, only essential items go into the 5 min evacuation time list. Notice what’s on the bottom of that list? Stuff isn’t essential. The entire point is immediate survival. Every family member must do their part to meet that deadline. Practice!

  • Gathering family is crucial as they may be spread out making a five or ten minute getaway impossible. Plan for it and do the best you can.
  • As you refine your list, items may move from one list to another but that five minute list shouldn’t change much. It will take longer than you think under that kind of pressure.
  • An item should only appear on one list though additions like extra water, food, clothing, etc. can be listed on those longer timeline lists if you can fit it in your vehicle and meet your time limit.
  • As you prepare the list, indicate where each item is normally located. This is mission critical. You don’t have time to search for something. You will likely figure out ways to simplify your task by pre-packing, putting things together or, over time, putting items such as photos, birth certificates, passports, insurance policies and other documents, etc. on a CD disk, USB thumb drive, external hard drive, etc. that you can grab and go. I use a pair of thumb drives one of which lives in the right front pocket of the pants I’m wearing.
  • If possible, have copies of these documents stored in a location out of your geographical area, say with a relative or close friend – you could do a reciprocal system. This will save on what you have to pull together IF they are not located in the disaster zone.
  • Determine what you can actually fit in your vehicle and refine your lists accordingly. This is a critical part of the task. How much room do the Essential items like water take up? Add the important stuff to the vehicle…any room left? Is your radio go-kit in there? Are your family member’s go-bags (backpacks) in there? Did you include your pets and their needs? Your kids’ toys or memorabilia? How it’s packed will make a difference, could you repeat that process?
  • Post your lists on the back or your pantry door or on a wall in your kitchen. You may want to give a copy of the list to a neighbor so they could grab the essential items if you are not at home when the evacuation takes place (presuming they have access to your home/written permission to break and enter plus room in their vehicle.
  • Always plan the list with the input of family members. Helping a young child find space for a favorite toy could be the lesson that keeps him and his family alive someday.
  • I repeat, if you haven’t actually packed that vehicle, you haven’t actually done the job.

Some example lists:

Evacuation time 5 Minutes – see above

30 minutes to two hours (in addition to the 5 minute list):

  • WATER and more water. Space and weight; always a problem. Everybody’s go-bag should contain a survival water filter like the Sawyer Mini and a metal cup for cooking food and purifying water so a gallon per person and reliance on the filters might be your best bet.
  • Food: (MREs, meal replacement bars, trail mix, GORP, fresh fruit, freeze dried meals)
  • Rain Gear
  • AC Cell Phone chargers
  • Adequate clothing for the weather conditions including boots, hats, scarves, gloves.
  • Prescription Medications (keep 5 days of critical prescription meds in original packaging in go-bags)
  • Sunscreen/Insect repellent
  • Extra contacts or glasses
  • Medical devices (wheel chair, hearing aid, retainer, etc.)
  • Laptop Computer or Tablet, charging cables, internet cable, media
  • Important documents
  • 72 Hour kits (bug-out-bags) with water/food/clothes/toiletries/
  • Extended radio go-kit including HF all-band/antenna/cable/battery/chargers
  • Family photo CD’s/memorabilia/old letters & books
  • Baby bag with extra food/formula
  • Pet food, water & dish
  • Pet leashes (need this to walk dogs or for shelters)
  • Pet carriers & litter boxes/litter
  • Sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, towels.
  • Extra batteries
  • More clothes
  • Toys, activities to keep kids occupied
  • Kids’ memory things

That’s a LONG list…organization and an accurate list with locations indicated and pre-packed, numbered containers like plastic bins with lids where possible are critical. Note that much of that list can be pre-packed – thirty minutes isn’t much time.

12+ Hours:
Now you’ve got some time. Hook up the trailer if you’ve got one. Pack for a self-contained, no outside help, two-week camping trip (plan for but don’t pack the food or water). Go to your bug-out location (100+ miles) and stay there overnight. Test your equipment. Use ONLY your stored water. Think about what you left at home that you wish you had brought. Come home via a different route. Note bottlenecks and detours to get around them.

Add things like:

  • Fishing kits.
  • Cooking kits
  • Tents
  • Lanterns
  • Camp chairs
  • Coleman stove and propane
  • Battery powered TV/radio
  • More batteries (go buy them!)
  • Great-grandma’s rocking chair
  • etc.

We have seen and heard of disasters in the past when somebody failed to get out in time due to poor planning which should make the usefulness of this guidance clear. You can do it…or not. What would you forget in that five minute scramble that might kill you or your family if you couldn’t get a replacement? I am sure many have wished they had put together such a plan before their shtf moment so, as the saying goes, Be Prepared.

That concludes tonight’s training. Are there any questions, comments or suggested additions?

Thanks, this is (callsign) clear to net control.