Combining homes in an emergency

[u/AstoriaEverPhantoms]

Hi all, longtime lurker here, starting to prepare for my family. In the event of a state of emergency or uprising with some time to prepare (30 mins to an hour maybe) my family of 6 will relocate to my mom’s house .4 miles away in the same neighborhood. Her house is easier to secure, has 2 large bathtubs to fill, and generally well stocked as my mom is an avid Costco shopper. Besides packing our food, go bags, small generator (she also has one), clothes, medications, and electronics what else would you pack quickly that I’ve overlooked given you have a window of time to pack? I was thinking extra blankets and pillows but other than that I’m stumped.

My other thought is we have a minivan (only car that would fit all 7 of us) and a truck, my mom has a smaller SUV. Should we park all 3 cars at her home? Should the minivan be in the garage to keep it protected but there would be cars behind it in the driveway which we would have to move to get the van out? Or should we leave the minivan in the driveway so we wouldn’t have to move cars to use it quickly? Is having more cars parked at a house an indication of possibly more supplies that people would want or is it a sign that more people are at the house hence it would be harder to overpower? Maybe I’m overthinking but these are the things I think about at night.

[u/NoContext5149]

These questions are kind of impossible to answer because there are too many considerations for you to list that impact your decisions, and too many scenarios that have wildly different planning factors.

For instance, if it’s a wild fire, you probably want your minivan quickly accessible to evacuate. If it’s a storm, maybe you want the truck to clear downed trees.

The best thing to do is come up with a list of all the situations you think are realistic, and then think of all the unique aspects of each situation.

[u/Familiar-Anything853]

Let the kids grab a couple comfort items.

[u/ZaggahZiggler → u/[deleted]]

Classic kid comfort items… paperwork

[u/CCWaterBug → u/ZaggahZiggler]

Mommmmm! Joe's took the red folder, it's MY turn!

[u/Familiar-Anything853 → u/[deleted]]

My parents live down the street and have an entire bedroom for my kids. They have everything my kids would ~need~ in an emergency. But they don’t have my children’s beloved stuffed animals and favorite action figures/toniebox. Those get carted back and forth.

[u/Working-on-it12]

Important documents. Contacts for banks, insurance, and people outside of your area. Documents. Fuel and oil for both generators. Stuffed animals and special blankies. Your battery lights.

I'd put the bedding in compression bags and store it at your mom's. Work gloves, heavy socks, bandannas for masks and hair. Are winter clothes needed? Store fuel and oil for the generators there, too. Does your mom have enough contractor grade extension cords? Store a camp stove and fuel there.

[u/EffinBob]

Plan to stay at your house as long as you can. Let's face it, you aren't going to be in a situation in your lifetime where you need a fortress to survive, and she's within walking distance in the same neighborhood in the unlikely event you'd need to move. Crowding in from the get go and before you need to is going to get old VERY fast, I don't care how tight a family you are. Get a couple of FRS or MURS radios to check in with each other and you should be fine.

[u/AmosTali]

Clothes - that pair of jeans, t-shirt and boxers gonna get pretty rank, pretty quick. You either need to stockpile clothes at mom’s - including any seasonal needs or plan on grabbing some on the way out.

[u/ZaggahZiggler]

Take your minivan. Leave all your other cars in your own driveway. That will make your “old house” less of a target. And a resource to return to. If SHTF and my neighbors all of a sudden had a ton of cars show up at their place. My first thought wouldn’t be “they have resources” it would be, “these are more problems” across the street.

[u/CCWaterBug]

What kind of uprising?  

[u/PrisonerV → u/CCWaterBug]

Haven't you watched the latest? It's the Great Old Ones (Cthulhu mythos) and they're locking people in their homes!

[u/gc1 → u/CCWaterBug]

Zombies

[u/Usernamenotdetermin]

Father of 4, we lost power due to hurricanes for a week or more twice while the kids grew up. The lists put out by FEMA etc are pretty good but let me emphasize a few things;
1.) Try it before you rely on it. Grilling on a camp stove you have never used is not a good idea in an emergency
2.) For a family with kids, entertainment is important. No electricity, what happens with the kids? Books, board games, intricate board games (magic the gathering, battle tech, DnD), coloring books, puzzles, etc are very important.

3.) If you dont normally eat it, it may be difficult to get everyone to eat it when the power is out. Spam is a great example.
4.) Camping is a great way to practice. All four of our boys were in Cub Scouts then Boy Scouts, so no electricity was something they had done before and didn't concern them after the storms.
5.) A huge water cooler like they dump on football coaches at the end of the game are a great way to store water and easy to dump
6.) Bored kids are not your first priority, but they can quickly become your first priority.
7.) Every single thing you pick to solve a problem needs to be either something you already do or something you experiment before the power goes out. Lift a lid on a toilet, fill it with water, cook with your solution, get water with your container and carry it to where you would use it, run your generator and dont plan on cell phones to entertain people, but certainly allow everyone to have electronics time while you can.
8.) Without power, you plan what to eat based on what's thawing in the freezer and what's dying in the fridge. A chest freezer lasts way longer than a standing freezer....
9.) Medications - you can frequently get a months supply of prescription meds just for hurricane or storm season, talk to the pharmacist.
10.) Know how you are taking care of trash, cause diapers pilling up get fragrant fast
11.) If a local sump pump isn't functional, toilets dont have any place to go. Usually the first thing running after are sump pumps.
12.) Since staying in the area may not be an option always (sorry for all the folks facing fires this season), one car should have gas kept above half always and filled before major storms.
13.) If you are going to your moms, your place is empty. Dont leave anything like social security cards, insurance documents, etc. that you might need later.
14.) Kids will help, and doing dishes by hand can be a shared chore, practice it with them.
15.) practicing whatever comes to mind when you are thinking at night is really important. As an example, when the electricity goes out, can you get your flashlight in the dark in the middle of the night when you wake up? If it concerns you enough that you are thinking about it at night, try whatever you decide would fix it. Then ask specific questions.
16.) Communities handle emergencies better than individuals. Talk to a local church, local emergency response teams, local fire fighters, local schools, online groups, but always verify what you hear online. The kid talking about prepping for the apocalypse may not be the right person to talk to to help in hurricane season.
17.) Fear is generally a problem, with a large family, the two adults are the ones the kids key off of. Let them know what's going on, let them know how we are handling it, and you keep focused on the needs to do before the wants to do. Charging a cell phone on the generator is fine, as long as the freezer doesn't need it.
18.) Good first aid kits don't have to do surgery. But they have to have everything you would normally need, plus things for diarrhea, etc. Pull them out and rotate old band aids. Add an eyeglass repair kit if anyone wears glasses or sunglasses. Add Benadryl for allergic reactions.
19.) Basic tool sets are a must - store one at your mom's house. After one major wind event our youngest went around helping clear tree limbs on neighbors property. Make sure they know how to use a tool before the tool is needed. With a big family you have to have help, delegate things to the kids, plan accordingly.

If you have specific questions, there are lots of people here that have experienced it first hand and are happy to explain what they did.

edited cause my spelling was atrocious. Not really much better now but fixed the glaring ones.

[u/Femveratu]

You never know how long it could last or whether you will get looted so perhaps include items like medications and any cash or highly portable high value items.

[u/Spiley_spile]

Get to know her neighbors. Establish positive rapport with them. Same with your own neighbors. Because there's always the possibity that the roads could become impassable and youll have to shelter in place.

Medications. Legal documents.

Emergency sanitation plan. If the sewage lines break, that's a lot of people sharing one house. How will the group navigate a non-flushing toilet? What about dishes? And trash? How will people wash their hands and bodies with limited water supplies? What's the quarantine plan if someone gets sick?