As Hurricane Irma approached Florida we spent a lovely weekend at Home d’Pug RV.  However, our thoughts and discussion led to a conversation on what should we do in case of a natural disaster such as a hurricane.  The conversation got into much detail.

Unfortunately, neither of us was smart enough to memorialize it on paper.  This blog post is part of our effort to memorialize our plan.  Hopefully, it will spur you to give it some thought and devise your own plan.

As with any good plan, it is not done once, put on a shelf with the hope of never needing it.  It should be reviewed and updated periodically.  This is important because things change.

The discussions primarily focused on a predictable event, i.e. a hurricane.  We started asking the big picture questions.  Where we at home, Home d’Pug RV, or somewhere else?  How much time did we have?  Are all of the pets with us?  What do we need to take with us?  These questions ended up in the formation of an outline of a plan that looks like this.

Location – Home
  • Gather extra food for the cat and dogs along with a bowl for each and water
  • Clothes for the humans
  • Important papers – checkbooks, credit cards, titles to vehicles, etc.
  • Pack both cars
  • Jeff takes the vehicle that is towable by the RV and heads to get the RV
  • Rachel takes the pets, foods, etc. and gets her mom and then heads to our pre-designated meeting spot
  • When Jeff reaches the RV, he secures the best he can the things he cannot take, moves the stuff from the car to the RV, sets up the vehicle to be towed and heads to the designated meeting point
  • Once we meet up we then decide if we need to move further away from the problem or we can find accommodations close to where we met.
  • All vehicles and the RV have multiple power adapters for cell phones to keep them charged
Location – Home d’Pug RV
  • We secure the things we cannot take with us from the campground
  • Prep the RV to travel
  • If we have both cars at the campground (a usual occurrence), hook one to the RV and Rachel will follow the RV home
  • Gather extra food for the cat and dogs along with a bowl for each and water
  • Clothes for the humans
  • Important papers – checkbooks, credit cards, titles to vehicles, etc.
  • Pack the car being driven and the RV
  • Rachel takes the pets, foods, etc. and gets her mom and then heads to our pre-designated meeting spot
  • Once we meet up we then decide if we need to move further away from the problem or we can find accommodations close to where we met.
  • All vehicles and the RV have multiple power adapters for cell phones to keep them charged

While this is our starting point.  I have set up an annual reminder in my date book to review and update.

Do you have a Disaster Plan?