What Would You Take?

Sunday began as a typical Texas Panhandle day, with the winds roaring. Nothing new to those of us who live here. We know that the Windy City has nothing on us. And we're also no stranger to dry lands. We go through droughts fairly regularly. And these two conditions always keep the fire fighters in the panhandle busy.

But Sunday...Sunday wasn't typical. Yes, we've had days that were that windy, and yes, we've had dryer conditions. But we have never had the devastation from this combination before. In the Amarillo and Canyon area, there were several fires. We've dealt with grass fires before, and even with grass fires on windy days, but this time, there was a lot of property damage. About 50 houses (maybe more...the last I heard they still didn't have an accurate count) were completely destroyed, and who knows how many others were damaged, either by fire or smoke or water. Residents of several neighborhoods had to evacuate.

Evacuation.

How do you do that? How do you load up in the car and leave your home without knowing what will happen? And what do you take with you? Watching the events unfold on the news that day and reading reports on facebook made me think about what I would do if faced with mandatory evacuations.

The obvious...grab the kids and pets and get the heck out. But what else would you grab? I'm not sure how much time residents had to leave their homes, but I really don't think it was long. I have heard of a lot of people not even having time to take pets, and about people having nothing but the clothes they left with.

What would you grab if you had 10 extra minutes? Would you stay until the last possible moment? Until the sheriff pulled you out of your house? Would you just run?

What would you grab if you only had 5 extra minutes? How much stuff could you grab and load up in 5 minutes?

1 extra minute?

I'm not sure what I would do, but I know what I would want to grab. Besides the kids and pets, pictures would be high on my list. And the external hard drive (where I have all my pictures and documents stored). Maybe a favorite toy or two for the kids. Perhaps some spare clothes.

Would I just send the kids to the car and have them wait while I grab a few things, or would I give them each a pillow case or something and let them grab some stuff too?

Would I even be able to think at all to be able to make rational decisions about what to grab?

Would you? What would you do? What would you take? I know this has made me look at all my "valuables" in a whole new way. I walk around my house evaluating what is the most important, what are those things I would want to grab...

I am so blessed to have been spared from having to make those decisions Sunday. My prayers go out to all those who lost property or pets...