Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

One thing which could be a boon to grab, if facing a evac-to-the-community-centre type scenario, would be a yoga mat/ camping mat, if you have one and it's handy. With one of those, you could lie down and rest; the amount of time you can rest comfortably in the moulded plastic chairs which are typical of these types of buildings is going to be very limited. With a coat over you, you may be able to snatch forty-winks, too.

Stress is exhausting, something which not everyone understands until they've been experiencing severe stress. I was nodding along to that Katrina blog we've been discussing, at the point where he's describing how children, and even adults, who have been severely stressed, can just crash asleep due to the adrenaline dump. It's an involuntary reaction, not a deliberate decision. If you could get even a couple of hours' sleep, you would be in a better position to make sensible decisons than if you've been awake 24+ hours. Having made journeys which involved being awake 48 + hours, I can recall how physically clumsy, mentally spaced-out and even shivery cold extreme tiredness make you; you will halluncinate monsters from everyday objects if you go far enough into exhaustion.

Been there, done that, as have friends who've experienced the same.

nuatha

Karmacat wrote: »

Oh my ... I was so tired yesterday, after all the kerfuffle, and I've only now caught up with the thread. And I was nodding in agreement, and my jaw was dropping at various lightbulb moments, throughout the last 3 pages.

Thank you all! What I *did* do yesterday was have a think about my 5 minute and 15 minute bug out scenarios (things like, the police tell you there's that sort of time line and then you'll be taken to the local community hall etc). My one minute, and my twelve hour, are both good, but those intermediate times are seriously in need of some revision.

And what I've read this morning means I have yet more work to put in - but all of it is going to make me and mine safer.

Spurred by your post, but please don't think its a criticism of your approach, just your post helped something crystallise that's been lurking in the back of my mind.

My go bag lives in the cupboard beside the front door, there's an enhanced version in the car. The cats go bag is with their transporter boxes in the cupboard under the stairs. Cats cooperating I can be out of the house in a minute, cats not cooperating can take three or four minutes (assuming they are in the house, it they aren't in the house I will return later for them). Packing a bag for a weeks business trip or a two week holiday or a weekend festival takes 20 minutes.
Why would I need to consider anything else short of moving the entire house contents (last time packing took 4 days, moving one, unpacking another 2). I have a number of folding crates, I can strip the groceries cupboards into them in minutes.
My preference would be to bug in - though currently that would be bugging in at MiL's* hence having spent the morning moving some kit and supplies down there.
It's quite possible that I'm over thinking this or I've missed the point entirely.

*She's being stubborn and awkward, possibly the best sign we could hope for at the moment, didn't have a good night and it will be a while before we can realistically expect her to get out of hospital (which we hope she will) but we have a preference for being prepared.

Karmacat

nuatha, I'm certainly not hearing criticism, no problem - I'm not sure what you're saying about my post at all, to be honest ... is it this bit of yours "Why would I need to consider anything else short of moving the entire house content?

I suppose I'm thinking of all levels of bugging out, but here are the main things that occur:
1 minute: house fire!

5 minutes: flash flood, subsidence, crazy neighbour in a siege (I was trapped in my house about ten years ago, the local police set up a series of barricades with me inside the barricades, after an armed gunman robbed the local post office - if I'd been at the edge of the area, I might've been able to get out).

15 minutes: same as 5 minutes, but less immediate fear of death! Chemical spill at the local roundabout, perhaps. Phone call about my mum, who lives a 6 hour journey away.

12 hour: maybe a weather advisory like Shane in New Orleans with the hurricane, a flood or something. A riot, maybe even a dirty bomb at the local (international) airport? An evening phone call - when my dad died, the phone call came at about 9.30, too late to start out that evening (300 miles by train).

And a separate list, which I'd already made, but temporarily lost, was a list of things I really wanted to move upstairs in case of a flood - I know me, and I know I have a tendency to check things over too quickly in that sort of situation, and miss seeing the bleeding obvious

Not sure if this was what you were wondering about - sorry!

Anyway, I came on here to make the announcement of working on the first thing - updating and noting the passwords of my email sites - because once you have those, you can update the passwords to anything else, as necessary, and well, they're good to have anyway

GreyQueen

I'm sorry to hear that your Dad died, Karmakat, and that you were told this in the late evening, when you couldn't do anything but grieve and not-sleep.

I'd like to make a general suggestion to all of us, which I hope won't be ill-received; just because you can phone someone in the evening/ during the night, with news of a death, doesn't mean that it's the best idea.

It's different if you are telling someone that a loved one is gravely-ill, and they need to start making their way towards them, to make what might well be their last respects. If someone has already died, informing relations or friends in the evening or night isn't going to help matters.

All it's pretty much sure to do is keep them awake all night, and worsen their grief with exhaustion the following day. If you have to be the bearer of bad tidings, please think carefully about what time you pick up the phone or send that email. If you can get hold of that person about breakfast time, before they go off about their daily business, it's a better time to call than the evening or night-time before. The person is no less deceased, the recipient of the news will be no less upset, but the survivor will have banked a proper night's sleep with which to fortify themselves to cope with the emotional and practical consequences.

SG is still absolutely furious about the relations of a friend of hers, a lady in her late eighties who lived alone, who rang her at 4 am to tell her a close relative had died. What possible purpose could that have achieved, and the shock could well have killed her.

Karmacat

Thank you GQ :kisses3:

It was 8 years ago now, so its okay to talk about on this level.

I'm really interested in what you're saying about not phoning at that time of night: that was my mum's reaction, not to phone us (me and my sister are in the same boat with that 300 mile journey). It was my brother who insisted the phone calls be made, and my sis and I both think it was the right decision.

Having had the phone call, we were able to start to process the shock, and start getting things together for the journey, we spoke to one another on the phone 3 or 4 times, we booked our train tickets to be picked up at the station the next day. My sister was able to contact her head of school and say that she wouldn't be in, she was also able to ensure that her husband wasn't away travelling on business (he ran personal development courses all over the country) and I was able to email clients cancelling sessions, as well as telling my business partner. If we hadn't been able to do those things during that evening, we'd have had to delay setting out the next day, which would have brought many of its own difficulties: as it was, we both arrived at our little-town-destination by about 3pm, and could start doing stuff there.

I can absolutely understand SG's fury about the elderly lady being woken at 4am - thats way beyond thoughtless, thats appalling! - but we were healthy adults in our 40s 8 years ago, who both had responsibilities to take care of before we upped and got on a train. As with everything else, its horses for courses ...

Karmacat

And my original reason for popping back on

Following getting my log in for my email accounts sorted out, I turned my attention to my mobile number. Oh boy! It took ages, but I've now registered the number and the account, and got it online, with all details noted in one place.

BUT ... I'd received two spam texts, didn't want to text stop to them because it tells them thats a live number they've got, so I googled that number with the phrase "spam texts" - I had to go through the Information Commissioner's Office and *three* layers of companies (all with free 0800 numbers thank heavens) but I got to the people who were taking responsibility for the number, and not just using it. Though it does strike me that they weren't going to take responsibility until they heard the fierceness in my voice

They say they'll let me know how this thing happened in less than 24 hours, and get me a refund on the £5 they charged me for receiving two texts :eek: Really, there's so much money they must be making, to make it worth their while to employ a freefone number on a Sunday thats answered by a live person!

GreyQueen

Thanks, Karmakat.

I guess we're all different and have different needs. My oldest, frailest relative is my Nan. She is 92 this summer. Last summer, she had a mild stroke in the late evening. Mild was the medical definintion, anything healthwise for a person so old is going to be serious. An ambulance was summoned to her village and took her to the regional hospital.

My aunt, who lives about 30 yards away, rang her brother and sil (my Mum and Dad). As it was a Bank Hol, I was at their place as well. The call came in just before midnight, to people who'd been asleep an hour. Auntie exp that it wasn't that serious but she thought we should know now, rather than tell us in the morning, the morning we'd be leaving to go to Nan's at about 8.30 am anyway.

We didn't get any more sleep for worry, had to get up and go to Nan's to get Auntie, then drive to the hospital, find Nan being assessed on the ward and no real news, drive back to the village and then drive back home. Auntie, who doesn't drive but was the reason we had to go to the village rather than straight to the hospital, doesn't appreciate that driving is not the same as sitting in a passenger seat and is actually tiring. And that her bro and sil are in their seventies and that I am a generation younger, but have health problems ( I was doing a share of the driving).

I've already told Mum and Dad that when the inevitable happens to Nan, I don't want to be informed of her death in the evening as I cannot process that and function well enough the next day to be any use to anybody.

:eek: Uhh, just got a severe thunderstorm, going offline and unplugging router, see ya later!

Karmacat

Ouch, yes, in that situation, I'd think the same as you - to me, to be woken up is completely different from getting a phone call when I'm awake (and I was really healthy in those days, so 9.30 was fine. Sadly not, now).

Plus if I'd been with family, my natural inclination would have been to get the kettle on and sit up together.

It does make me think of overnight emergencies when travelling - fire alarms at 2 in the morning, an attack on a train at 4 in the morning, that sort of thing, or even going through a customs post and them wanting to see passports, thats not good either. I'm quite dozy on being awoken, 99% of the time, the other 1% I'm completely hyper


Thunderstorms!!! Argh! Summer, I want summer!

GreyQueen

And breathe!

Got a bit hairy there for a few mins, thunder, lightning, torrential rain, the whole nine yards. Unplugged for the duration (desktop pooter sitting beside my phone socket connected to it by ethernet cable).

The good thing is that having unplugged the powerstrip, where my answerphone is also plugged in, caused me to lose the day/ time settings from the answerphone. Which were badly wrong anyway, following a power outage a few months ago, only I hadn't been arrissed to read the destructions and re-set the day and time.

GQ-phone no longer thinks that it is a Thursday in 2011 - it's all good.

[Deleted User]

No lunder and thightning, but we've had non-stop rain all day.

It's finally eased to a drizzle.

BTW. I've found a handy notice.