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The orange glow was already visible over the ridge. It was just after 3 AM when my roommate woke me up. All I heard was, “We need to leave. Now!”
I thought I had a plan. My emergency bag was packed. I knew what to do. Or at least I thought I did.
Turns out, I had made more mistakes than I realized.
Learning Moment
The first thing I learned was that storing your go bag in the garage only works if you can open the door. Ours was stuck.
Power was out, and the manual release was blocked by stuff stacked in front of it.
My well-organized bag may as well have been locked in a vault. I lost three minutes climbing over boxes in the dark to get it.
It’s now stored in the hall closet.
The next mistake was paperwork. I knew I’d need birth certificates, insurance info, and maybe even medical records. What I didn’t have was a set ready to grab.
As smoke filled the sky, I stood in front of my file cabinet trying to figure out what to bring and what to leave.
Then there was the car.
I had about a quarter tank of gas. Usually not a big deal. But when everyone else is evacuating too, traffic turns into a parking lot. I got lucky and eventually found a gas station that was still open.
Others weren’t as lucky. I watched people pushing their cars off the road after running out of fuel.
Biggest Mistake
My emergency bag had supplies for three days. That’s what most guides recommend. But I didn’t go home for a month.
Hotels were full. Stores were either closed or charging insane prices. That three-day kit? It barely covered the first weekend.
And maybe the biggest mistake?
I never practiced.
Yes, I had read a lot and I had plans in my head. But I’d never actually tried to grab everything and leave in under five minutes.
When it was go time, I nearly forgot my phone charger and even a sleeping pad. I even walked out without shoes and had to turn back.
Propper Planning
Despite all that, some things worked. I had cash on hand. That helped when card machines went down.
I had my phone contacts written out in a notebook. That mattered when my phone died. And having any supplies at all still put me ahead of a lot of people who had nothing ready.
If I learned one thing, it’s this. You don’t need to have the perfect gear. You need to have something that works when it’s time to move.
Want to avoid the mistakes I made?
I put together everything I’ve learned in a simple guide that walks you through building a real evacuation plan. One that’s actually been tested under pressure.
Read how to build your own Go Bag here.