30 Days to better Preparedness. Day 13. Evacuating.

This is my least favourite subject.  To me the safest place to be is home.   Everything we have worked towards and prepared is here.   To leave in a crisis would make us very vulnerable.   I was hesitant to plan for emergency evacuations.     

Evidently God thought I can't be writing a preparedness series without having to evacuate.  So in our second summer here it happened.  And it happened fast.  We had no choice but to evacuate.

Beginning to write about it makes me feel anxious as it all comes back to me.   

Where we live a bushfire is our biggest threat.   We all have to realistically assess the biggest threats in our own locations.   We had spent a year clearing dead trees, clearing trees close to the house,  getting a large lawn around the house into good shape.   We really did a lot in that first year.   Andy also installed a sprinkler system on our roof and had it run on a generator because if the power went out we needed it to keep running.  

The day the fire started we could see smoke in the distance.   The phone was ringing off the hook with everyone warning us a fire had started.  We have a hill so we drive up there for a look around.   We began to prepare with sprinklers on etc.   The next trip up the hill the fire had grown enormously.   It was huge but it was travelling south rather than easterly which would bring it towards us.   We saw from our vantage point they were closing our road so we drove down to speak to the guys making the road block.

The guys told us a house had burned down not that far to the west of us and had jumped the road, hence them closing it.  At that second the world went black.  We were talking in clear smoke free air then in one second it was black.  The wind had changed.  Now the fire was coming straight for us.   They shouted "Go!"  

We raced back to the house.  The smoke was thick.   Andy started the sprinkler system.  At that moment the power went out.  He started the generator.  While he was doing that I ran down the bottom of the yard and opened the gates so that my cows and sheep could escape.   I brought the goat up on the lawn so he was under the protection of the sprinkler system.  I brought the dog inside.   

I grabbed all the document folders into a bag and gabbed my bag with some basics.

Smoke started to come into the house.   At that time I knew we were in trouble.  I was putting wet towels under doors when there was a huge banging at the door that scared the life out of me.   It was a man in orange overalls,  so a CFS fire fighter.

I looked at his face and it was my brother!   He said "you have to get out.  It's catastrophic we have to go...."   I didn't argue. 

And just like that we left with the dog in the car.    We were able to go to my brothers house as he has irrigation and the paddocks were flooded with water.   We spent the day there.    Chloe was there too.  At one point she got a call to say her house was on fire.  I saw her face as she thought her home had burned down.  In the end it turned out to be ok,  the windows of her house were red because of smoke and fire reflection but her house was saved. 

We were very lucky.   The sprinkler system was all that gave me hope our home might survive but when we came back late in the night it was so scary driving down our driveway.  Our nephew had checked earlier and reassured me and he had added fuel to our generator.    The house was fine so were the animals.  Everything was soaked!    We drove back up to the hill and this was all we saw..

I said to Andy "that is what hell looks like."   The air stank.  We could not see but there were hundreds of dead animals across the area.   My Dad came the next day and said he could not believe no one was killed.  In that way we were incredibly lucky.

So I learned the importance of having bags packed so that you can flee your home.  It could easily be an annual job to update and repack your bags.   A bag per person with a change of clothes, underwear and the normal stuff you would have in an overnight bag.  Toothbrush and so on.    Have your documents in a case or bag that you just pick up and bring with you.  For children think of their comfort items.   It just has to be quick to grab.   The more people in your household the more planning as imagine trying to pack quickly for a whole family.  

Since the fire I have had to leave the house at a moments notice at least six times.  I now just keep an overnight bag and a toiletries bag ready to go.   If you have to go to hospital this packed bag is very good too.    So this is what I want you to work on.  

Tomorrow we are going to make an emergency action plan.   When you know a hazard is incoming and you don't have much time a plan is a huge help.   So see you tomorrow! xxx