What would you grab?

photos, obviously only after making sure family was safe, but photos are jolly high on the list!

Cheers Anne

Same for me, after my 4 cats. They'd come first no matter what. Gen

I keep my picture in that closet, so I'm not too concerned. I was just thinking of my quilting projects.

Cindy

It is really tough to decide. My bil last his home several years ago. He literally had the dogs and was only in slippers when they left. For some reason their son had borrowed all the photo albums beforehand and those were safe. All else was lost. Planning ahead would help but even then it might be tough. When we had to evac with the big fires a few years ago I was anxious enough to have stuff by the door and ready to go. I even left with the animals before everyone else. Pictures, files and that kind of thing were in my car but also a stool my dad built for me when I was 6. That is my most treasured thing. A couple of quilts along with a few clothes. DD took her whole computer and a few personal things and I don't even remember what dh took. One thing is have bottled water and maybe energy bars you can have and keep your car gassed up so you are good to go. If you have an answer machine at your house you can call it from anywhere else and if your house is safe (and phones and electric are up) the machine will pick up. (that won't work with remote voice mail) That helped us a lot since here they don't let you back in the fire area for a good while. Good luck to you folk in the tornado areas. That is one disaster we don't generally have her in so cal. I suppose fire, earthquake and tornado preparedness all has some different things that need to be addressed. Being prepared doesn't always help but worth the effort. TAria

My top dresser drawer which has papers and pictures. My computer tower and Berts. I can buy keyboards and monitors later. They have most pictures now scanned as well as my/our financial information. Then a run through the house tearing quilts off the walls and beds. We kind of had to think about this a few years back with some fires moving this way once. Not to mention an evacuation after an earthquake.

After that, who knows.

Steven Alaska

When the sirens sounded, the only thing I could think of was to grab my purse with my car keys and the Memory Stick that has my job stuff on it and put it in the walk-in closet. We don't have a basement and that closet is in the center of the house. It wouldn't survive a direct hit, but I would have to consider a direct hit to be fate and I'm probably not going to care that my stuff got blown to Nebraska. I wish I had put in a tornado shelter instead of a pool, but it's too late for that now.

I would be sad about my sewing machines and all my equipment, but they could mostly be replaced. But the thought of losing my work just leaves me breathless. It isn't worth much, but I have a lot of stuff I've done that I really love.

Since I do mostly miniature stuff, I think I am going to get a Rubbermaid container and be ready to throw everything in there and sit on it in the closet during the warnings.

We've gone years with relatively few tornados in the county. Last year was horrible and this year is starting so early that I'm getting nervous already.

I hate tornado season. Which now appears to be all year long.

Cindy

I suppose I'd get the cats put in their carriers, then photos if I had time. It's good to ponder this stuff, even practice drills if you've got kids. The only time I was in a bad tornado was 1999. You do weird stuff in a panic. I got the kids and cats in the stairwell closet, then got my driver's license out of my purse and put it in my jeans pocket so that one of us could be identified if we ended up sucked up in the tornado. To this day I don't know where that logic came from. I didn't even think about pictures, jewelry, anything else. Tornado season is way early. Generally May is our worst month. I don't get too freaked out, but Mother Nature sure demands respect, doesn't she. Sherry

purse and dog. no question. DH can fend for himself.

Musicmaker

Sherry, I've done the same thing with the drivers license!

Cindy

Don't forget your car keys if they're hanging on a hook beside the front door like mine! Although, if my front door blows away, my car is gonna be pretty much toast too.

Cindy

We keep all film negatives (for those really old pics) and then every year we make a back up disk of all recent digital pics and keep all those together in a firebox in a closet by the front door.

I'd grab those... and my laptop for sure. Then a mad rush grabbing quilts... and the stuffed "huggies" off the guest beds... remnants from my

Sam would be waiting for me at the door -- so I wouldn't have to go searching for him.

Do you have an index card with all your insurance information? credit card companies (who knows who might find your handbag when it's blown a mile away?) Do you have those critical financial papers all in one place for a quick grab?

And ... when was the last time you did a household inventory -- walk through the house with your digital camera and take lots and lots of pictures. Store them somewhere online (even webshots would work) so if you ever need to document a major loss -- you have proof of those 5 sewing machines, 3000 yards of fabric... 47 quilts not to mention the family silver or gold coins.