Honestly, Casa our "emergency plan" is to get the f*ck out of the house! I always tell myself to grab my important papers and my purse and maybe my scrapbook full of my pixs and what not but in an emergency I might not even have time to grab those things. I just want to grab my family and get out basically.

We have a small emergency kit, but no evacuation plan, but we should. I guess I've been taking for granted that it's not important since we only have 1 story and plenty of doors & windows.

How relevant - September is national preparedness month (no I'm not a total dork, it's kind of relevant to my job). There's more useful info at http://www.ready.gov/america/npm08/index.html

I've got an earthquake kit in my apartment with canned food, lots of water, first aid stuff, dog food, flashlight, cash.

I keep putting together first aid stuff, flashlights, a radio - then my kid needs a bandaid and doesn't go into the bathroom to look for one, or the lights go out - and before I know it, I have my sad little radio sitting in preparedness all alone.

I keep putting together first aid stuff, flashlights, a radio - then my kid needs a bandaid and doesn't go into the bathroom to look for one, or the lights go out - and before I know it, I have my sad little radio sitting in preparedness all alone.

My dad is a retired fire chief. For as long as I can remember we have always had complex and detailed plan that involves ladders under our beds and an out of state contact relative.

Yes. My hubby and I recently moved from Miami and while there we were very up on our disaster plans in the face of hurricanes. It has seemed to carry over to our life elsewhere.

Yep! In earthquake territory you should not only have all the necessary provisions to support you for several days, but a meet-up place to rendezvous with family members. My family has three: the primary one, a back up if that's unreachable, and a backup to the backup.

As far as getting out of the house we have a back and front evacuation plan, and kits on both ends of the house which include a flashlight, handcrank-powered emergency radio, a first-aid kit, cans of food, candles and matches, those weird silver thermal blankets, paperwork and food for my pet, toilet paper, photo copies of important documents and in some case the documents themselves--and an old-style analogue phone to plug into the wall itself, since probably the electricity will be out and the cell phone networks will probably be jammed. We have several gallons of water in the pantry in the middle of the house.

Wren, cash is a great idea, too! I will add that. . .when I can, lol

silly to say, but we dont really need it. Dont get hurricanes, twisters, earthquakes or any of that here. If we do all of our important things are in the safe, quick grab of the passports and out the door. And we live in the countryside, the worst we have is a day long thunderstorm. Nothing higher than a 3 story building within miles and miles of here.

"No, we need to do this."
We've talked about it but it always gets side tracked. The funny thing is that my husband is an insurance broker and his mind usually goes to these sorts of things even without any sort of prompting. I think it's especially important because we have cats. 4 of them who all need their mom. The fact that our house has a full basement w/ stone and block foundations, steel girders, and ample access to the outside has [maybe] caused us to be more relaxed about it.

My fiance and I have walkie talkies at work so if there's an earthquake (we're just south of LA), we can reach each other. The towers get too overloaded for cell phones to work after an earthquake. We work about a mile away from each other, and we have a meeting place in between in case a big one hits while we're at work. At home, we have enough water for three people for three days, and plenty of food, and a camp stove. With our supplies, we'd be fine on our own until the electricty and water got turned back on.

My sister & I were talking about this just a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, living & working in DC metropolitan area makes us weary of what could happen. Hence we've started seriously talking about the 'in case of an emergency' plan. Either way, no matter where you live I think it's important to have an emergency plan.