Get Ready for the Unexpected With a Disaster Go Bag

A flashlight, bottles of water, a first aid kit, and ready-to-eat meal packs line the Harper family’s coffee table. The family is not going camping — they are preparing for disaster by putting together a “go bag.”

Preparing in advance with a disaster-ready kit has helped families nationwide through extreme and abnormal weather events, which experts warn are on the rise.

Residents of the California Bay Area understand that wildfires and earthquakes are an unfortunate reality. James Harper has lived in East Palo Alto for over 50 years and vividly recalls the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. “All of a sudden the whole house started shaking! It was pretty scary. I was on edge for about a month because of the aftershocks,” Harper said.

­­As a result, James and his wife Kyomi understand the importance of being ready and have used the website jw.org to prepare. They have a go bag for their home and for each of their cars. Kiyomi Harper said, “The pictures in the articles helped us visualize what items should be in our 'go bags,' which is really useful."

“Having a personal preparedness plan increases your chances of staying safe,” according to a training program from the Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness.

Jolted awake by a neighbor’s urgent knocking, Aaron and Jacqueline Pate were horrified to see the encroaching flames of the fast-moving Woolsey fire that had been miles away when they went to bed. It burned to within 100 feet of their Westlake Village home in 2018 as part of California’s deadliest wildfire season on record.

"Because we had go bags, we weren’t running around trying to pack things at the last minute,” said Jacqueline. “We had the time we needed to comfort our kids and get everyone safely into the car.”

The Pates credited the disaster-preparedness help they received as Jehovah’s Witnesses, both through periodic reminders at their congregation meetings and from tips for putting together go bags on the organization’s website, www.jw.org.

"Life is precious, so we encourage all to heed the Bible’s advice to take practical steps to protect ourselves from danger,” said Robert Hendriks III, spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States.

Go bags also have proven useful in the opposite circumstances as “stay bags.”

Disaster-preparedness suggestions and tips for putting together a go bag are available from FEMA at ready.gov and from Jehovah’s Witnesses at https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/awake-no5-2017-october/disaster-....