Throughout KLCC’s Oregon Ready, our year-long series on disaster preparedness, we've talked a lot about go bags.
But what happens after you've packed one?
KLCC’s Love Cross spoke with three people who found creative ways to think beyond the checklist, whether that meant planning an evacuation by bicycle, or spending a night living out of a go bag, or, for Katie McNeil of Waldport, literally storing supplies with friends in high places.
"Living down here in Old Town Waldport, we realized that if we have a Cascadia rising event, you know, we're going to have 15 minutes to get to high ground," said McNeil.
McNeil’s house is within the tsunami inundation zone. But some of her friends live up the hill, out of harm’s way.
“And I thought one day, ‘Wait a minute, I wonder if Terry would let me put a backpack in her garage overhead?’ And she said, sure,” shared McNeil.
“So that really did two things. It allowed me to pack a bunch of stuff for us to take but not have to worry about carrying it up the hill. And up the hill could mean that I have to climb over trees, or a slumped road or what have you.”
McNeil said having her supplies stored out of the tsunami inundation zone gives her peace of mind. "It's really nice to know that at least if we can get ourselves safely up to high ground, we have some essentials and also a few comforts to get us through what's going to be a very traumatic experience," she said.
Susan Palmer of Eugene thought she was prepared, until she checked her go bag and found some batteries had leaked, some food had expired, and it just needed a refresh.
"It just made me think this is an ongoing process, and not think of it as a completed task," she said.
Susan and her husband also realized that it might not be possible to leave their home by car in an emergency.
“Living in the Friendly neighborhood is glorious, because it's full of mature trees and it backs up against a beautiful hillside of mature trees. And that thing that makes it special to live here also makes it dangerous,” Palmer said, referring to the potential for a fast-moving wildfire that could prompt evacuations
That made Palmer consider what might be the fastest way out in an emergency. “We realized there are two clear main streets out of this neighborhood,” said Palmer. “Think how many streets are feeding into those two main streets!”
“And so we're looking around and thinking, ‘well, what would we really do?’ And then I thought, ‘well, we have bikes,’” she said. “Our go bags are backpacks. We could just strap on the backpacks and jump on the bikes. Well, yes, that is a great idea, but how long has it been since we've been on the bikes? And we went out to the shed and got the bikes out and the tires were flat.”
Palmer said they got their bikes in working shape, and when she was asked if they practiced, she chuckled. “Yes, an 18-pound backpack on the bike. Yes, I did. I didn't go far. I went around the block a couple of times and I thought, yes, I can balance. I can pedal.”
Palmer’s main takeaway? It’s good to revisit preparedness supplies and plans every now and then because our needs change. "It's not a set it and forget it process. It's a, ‘who am I today? What are my needs today? And does my go bag reflect who I am right now?’”
Lisa Bangiter wanted people to find out whether their plans would actually work. So she helped organize a 24-hour camping trip for her church. Attendees could only bring a tent, and their go bags.
"You might have a list and you think you're prepared because you have everything in this list in a bag, but unless you go ahead and use it, you don't really know."Lisa Bangiter
"A lot of times people will prepare a go bag... but most of the time it sits there and you don't actually get to use it," she said.
Bangiter’s son had gone on a routine camping trip, and while everyone had brought canned food, he was the only one to bring a can opener. “And that made me start thinking about how a lot of times we think we are prepared but we're not as prepared as we think we are,” shared Bangiter.
"So we came up with this concept of having a campout. Just an overnighter, and all people were to bring was a tent and their go bags,” she said. “And that way they could really try things out and make sure that they had everything they needed.”
Bangiter said even the preparedness leaders discovered gaps. “We had Sternos, but we didn't have any equipment to position a pot so that it didn't sit on the Sterno and extinguish it. Things like that, that you find out only by using your go bag.”
That practice helped the campers find out whether the things in their go bags worked or not, and what they lacked. Bangiter said, “At the end of the campout, everyone clamored for a second so that they could go home and improve their go bags and then do it again in six months."
Bangiter said the main takeaway was that "you might have a list and you think you're prepared because you have everything in this list in a bag, but unless you go ahead and use it, you don't really know.”
Whether it's a backpack stored with friends in high places, a bicycle waiting in the garage, or a trial run in the woods, each of these stories points to the same lesson we’ve been learning all year: preparedness isn't something you finish. It's something you practice.
