Scary Reality - Table Topics Question #2

I was shooting at Christy and Jason's wedding last night as I felt my cell phone vibrate in my belt pouch. Late into the reception I felt the vibration again. Both private numbers - which usually means my sister. As she knows I'm unavailable during weddings, I let both calls go to voicemail. As we got home after 10:30pm I finally listened to my messages. She wanted to let me know that my mom and dad hadn't had to evacuate yet, but she made sure they were ready to go out the door in a moments notice.

I had talked to my dad on the phone earlier yesterday morning and he mentioned that he could see a fire from the doorsteps of their house. He neglected to mention that he didn't mean far off in the distance (as I had assumed). Apparently, a lightening strike on Friday very near their home, had turned into a full fledge wildfire.

Hating to call in the late hours of the night, and knowing that if there was any more news my sister would call me, I decided to wait to return calls. I did do some internet searching last night and found that the fire was kicked up due to 45-55 mile/hour winds and by last night it had turned into a speeding car (so to speak) and traveled in a straight path 8 miles long into town. My parents live on 5 acres just about 8 miles out of the town of Winnemucca, Nevada. (Yes, I'm a small town girl - secret's out!) I was amazed to find websites where I actually could see where the fire was located down to the street names. (http://geomac.usgs.gov and http://www.inciweb.org) A bit of panic set in as I noticed the fire was literally just a few streets from my parents house and it had already engulfed 26,000 acres.

I called first thing this morning. My mom used to work for the Forest Service and said they had planes and helicopters flying later into the night than normal. They had Forest Service "hotshot" crews digging lines to prevent the fire from jumping. My dad said that they didn't have to evacuate but that there were some families very close by who did. And one street up, the houses were showered by the tankard planes with that red fire retardant (called slurr). He described the night sky as Christmas lights - looking up onto the range of the Sonoma mountains he said the scattered red lights looked like a Christmas tree with lights. The fire is not contained yet. My parents haven't had to evacuate. But they had to prepare just in case - which made me start thinking...

Table Topics - Question #2
"If you had to leave your home in a moment's notice - are you ready? And what would you take with you?"

Of course, I'm not ready. But I will be shortly. Since we don't live in a rural area we take for granted that we probably never will be in such a similar situation. But you never know. For the most part everything is replaceable - clothes, jewelry, almost everything in the entire house. I really had to think about what I'd take. I've made a list of the important paperwork I need to put all in one location that I can easily grab and take - for example - passports, birth certificates, social security cards, important account numbers and phone numbers (like home owner's insurance). I would grab my wedding album, my safe of backup wedding images, my two cats, and my computer. Sad to say, but yes I would take my computer - it has too much valuable information on it. I'd miss my shoe collection, and I'd miss our wine collection but both can be rebuilt. And if I had time, I'd probably grab at least one of my favorite teddy bears.

I hope you all think about this question seriously and post your responses to share.