What Would You Pack?

No smoke in the air today, but there has been and I'm told there will be more.  There is a major fire burning near Chip and there are usually dozens of fires around here every year. The Slave Lake Disaster really hit home -- our town is literally carved out of the forest, and from what I understand, there is some really old timber around here. 

Last year was apparently 'wet' (not compared to Ottawa) and this year is dry and hot.  Although I know Ontario has had a really wet spring, we've had only 3mm of rain since March 24.  And this is on top of less snow than usual.  And what snow there was melted and ran off before the ground thawed, so little was able to infiltrate.  And we've had some wicked winds... the Chip fire was able to travel 40 km in one day!   


Another thing I have learned about forest fires, is that unlike the lessons from Smokey the Bear to be careful with your campfires, almost all of the fires here are caused by lightening.  So, while we're hoping for rain, we hope it doesn't come in with a bang.  And its really luck of the draw on where that lightening strikes!

Last week we got a disaster/evacuation preparation brochure in the mail.  If we need to be flown out, its one carry-on per person.  And no animals.  We have a dog and its really hard to even think about that.  But most likely we'd be driving out of town.... [apparently we should keep our tank full as gas will sell out in a matter of minutes as soon as there is smoke in the air].  Still, strange to think about grabbing all that is important to you.  I guess I have some thinking (and packing) to do.   What would you bring?