Overview

When you need to pack up and go, having little time to decide which parts of your life are expendable is a daunting task. Mistakes can be made in a critical moment that could leave you with out vital resources that influence your ability to recover. It could mean the difference between grabbing that item that is important, and grabbing that item that was ESSENTIAL. In situations such as natural disasters, or political ones, fear, panic, and adrenaline are high. That causes people to panic, become disorientated, and make mistakes. In order to function in that heightened state, the most effective tactics to remember your emergency plan are the simplest.

Luckily, there's a simple way to remember what, not only what to collect, but how to prioritize items so that if you're time runs out, you have the most crucial parts of your life in your hands.

The Seven P's

This simple mnemonic device goes:

People
Prescriptions
Papers & Plastic
Personal Devices and their chargers
Personal items
Pets
Photos

The following passages will go in depth with each "P"oint on the list, why its "P"rioritized, and what items are included in that category

starting with,.

People

Obviously, the most important item to bring are the people with you. It might sound ridiculous, but the LAST thing you want to do is escape and realize, in your panic, you've left a dependent behind. This might be a baby, an elder, a person with mobility issues, or just abled adult who got confused in the panic and got left behind. The most precious and valuable things are the people who will most likely be with you when the need to evacuate has been called. Without this first item on this list, the rest are not only miniscule, but rendered moot in many cases. Social connections are our greatest resource, in all matters.

Prescriptions

While evacuating, you CAN NOT afford a medical crisis on top of everything else occurring, especially if it is preventable. Things, like insulin, and others can be needed soon and their absence could have IMMEDIATE consequences. Others, such as ADHD medication, anti-depressants, or other mental health medication is a lot more valuable than you would typically expect. In an emergency situation, the PRIMARY thing that will determine your chances of success in an emergency is a persons mental well-being, especially your own. That effects your ability to utilize all other things on this list to recover from disaster.

Personal Devices and their chargers

In the modern world, your ability to reach emergency services, access community and resources, and navigate routes and directions are taken for granted due to the popularity of smartphones and personal computers. In an emergency, those items are a LIFELINE! You don't have time to grab a contact list, use a map, or recover documents you'll need in the future. With all of that accessed through a single item in your pocket, and in your bookbag, you are at an immediate loss if they are not in your possession.

Likewise if they are run out of power and inoperable in a key moment. Remember your chargers to ALL devices.

Papers & Plastic

To recover from disaster, your job is made unfathomably more difficult without your documentation, cash, banking and/or credit card that help you access social resources and financial resources,

With personal devices, it is easier than ever to recover personal identification and purchasing power, but when it's ALL you have, your chances of accessing vital services is, at best, blocked SIGNIFICANTLY.

In all emergencies, critically timed resources are aided by physical copies of your identification and citizenship. In significant emergencies, this may broaden to social insurance information, deeds, insurance papers, proof of housing or property. Registering for refugee or evacuee resources are near impossible to if you are forced to recover your identification with what little else you have.

Insurance companies fight tooth and nail NOT to pay victims even in extreme cases, all documentation you can use to circumvent their restrictions on paying you fairly puts valuable monetary resources in your pocket.

When all other services or subsidies fail, you only have your own financial resources to fall back on.

In a critically vulnerable state, you can not afford to be denied what little social and financial resources may be available.

Personal items

This isn't a category for mementos, keepsakes, or memorabilia.

In personal items you're reaching for toilet paper, bottles of water, snacks, food, and hygiene products. Your hygiene affects your well-being. Food and water affects your ability to function. Neither should be taken for granted. The road ahead can be unpredictable, both in impact and duration.

Plan your resources accordingly. take account of all the mouths and bums travelling with you.

With the previous categories, these items can be recovered easily. But each item you need to acquire once you're on the move diminishes your already endangered resources.

Pets

They are part of our family, part of our well-being, and vital parts of our lives. In some cases even vital resources who glow at the chance to be put to work. And their absence would be traumatically missed. They get an important inclusion to this list.

Many of us (including the author) would prefer to rank pets much higher in priority. But in crisis's in the magnitude that would be cause for evacuation, your ability to recover and keep YOU and your IMMEDIATE FAMILY alive is paramount. Nonetheless, they are living beings who's lives are intrinsically linked with our own. In no other list would they be a lesser priority than they are deserving.

Photo's

The number one thing people who have gone through a natural disaster or other evacuation of any sort report regretting consistently, are the photo albums. Our photos document our history, and with it who we were once and who we are now. Without them, many feel like they've lost an anchor to the life the once had. And that should not be taken lightly.

In some cases, photo's might help us or give proof of property, or aid the recovery of lost pets, or find people who we've become separated from due to the disaster.

More P's and Other Important Letters...

Prior-Planning-and-Preparation-Prevents-Piss-Poor-Performance

Applicable in all areas of life, but especially when faced with an emergency

Two is one and One is none

If you have two plans and one fails, you have one plan. If you have one plan and it fails, you have no plan.

Battle plans only last until you engage with the enemy

Faults and snags are bound to happen on the way. The more you anticipate the need to improvise and adapt, the better.

Luck can be defined as a mixture of preparation and opportunity

Luck can be cultivated with the right amount of anticipation

Plan ahead

List, label, navigate out routes, and share them with those close to you

Practice your plan

A prepared person does not stop practicing when they get it right. A prepared person stops practicing when they can't get it WRONG

Prepare to set your plan in action

Authors note

Many years ago, I was caught in the 2016 Alberta wildfire. It covered 300,000 hectares and forced 80,000 residents and migrant workers to flee from the inferno.

I was one of the residents that didn't get to go back home.

Since we our family has deep roots in survivalism and emergency preparedness, my brother and I had packed, un-packed, and re-packed the vehicle and collected water in every sealable container we could find while we listened to the radio for the order that the fire wasn't going to pass by us and we needed to LEAVE.

Because of our planning, practice, and preparation we left with more of our lives than many of our neighbours. And the water we collected was vital to keeping us and our pets hydrated and level headed as we traveled hundreds of kilometers in search of safety.

Despite this, I still left my important documents behind.

At that point in my life, I had visited a soup kitchen before. But this was the first time I ever NEEDED one.

Thankfully, through tremendous effort, I was able to recover my documents, apply for school, and take advantage of resources offered to us that helped me gain amenities to take with me when I was accepted into University.

My parents didn't receive the much needed funds from insurance until much later. And we found out when we made the claim that a clause in our plan excluded "Acts of God" , including fire, for anything not covered by a roof. Vehicles that weren't taken with us were completely written off with no compensation.

If my mother hadn't insisted I go to school instead of staying and working incase the insurance didn't pull through, it would have cost me the future I fought my whole life for.

I can't ignore the privileges that helped me build a new life for myself out of tragedy. So many factors could've caused me to slip into houselessness. And I can't ignore that others wouldn't have been so lucky.

These things that I'm sharing with you in this article might seem cute, and lighthearted, and I meant for them to be.

I also owe my life to them. They are my most prized possessions.

Take heed of them and be safe... above all else.