Utah Fires









Last week for Family Home Evening Ev and I went on a hike up to Horsetail Falls in Corner Canyon, slowly hacking away at our summer bucket list. The next day on my drive home from work, it looked like this:

 

And from our driveway: 



After a nearly snow-less winter the climbing heat has taken its toll on our desert land and we have been having wildfires on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. The one here in Alpine was caused by a back-hoe working up by the rodeo grounds that accidentally hit a rock and caused a spark.

It burned like crazy for a couple of days and we were waiting to be told to evacuate any minute. They cleared everyone out all the way up through American Fork Canyon, which starts about 1/2 a mile from our driveway. When Evan called me and told me we might have to leave my brain froze, I couldn't possibly think of what to put in my bag. A change of clothes was as far as I got and thankfully we ended up outside the evacuation zone or else I would have been up a creek.

So I'll give you one guess what we did for FHE this week!

Our prophets and apostles have preached for years about emergency preparedness which I have always felt was important, I grew up in tornado country and I spent plenty of stormy nights in the closet under the stairs with our 72 hour kits hiding out until the coast was clear. I made 72 hour kits for Evan and I when we were first married, but they got completely ruined in the flood last year (a lot of good they did us in that disaster....) and I haven't quite gotten around to making new ones. The Alpine Fire was just the inspiration I needed.

I found a great link on Pinterest here, check it out it was full of great ideas.


 
 What we packed:
-Copies of important documents, licenses, deeds, policies, etc.
-Extra checks and cash
-Travel size toilettries
-First Aid kit
-Flash lights/ pocket knives, etc.
- Non-perishable food ( But seriously... do you know the shelf life of applesauce? Ew. We packed it.)
-Water

We're keeping our emergency bag next to our camping gear in case we need to bring along the tent, sleeping bags, air mattress (what you think I'm leaving without that?) and all that stuff too. I figure we can take a minute to throw in some spare clothes when we realize there might be trouble, I seriously considered packing it now and keeping it all ready to go but that felt unrealistic at this point considering my ever expanding stomach. Nothing I put in there will fit in a month from now anyway! We'll also throw in things we can't replace like photo albums and laptops and such if we have time. It's not a perfect plan but it makes me feel a lot better knowing its a start!

Doctine and Covenants 38:30
"If ye are prepared ye shall not fear."


The fire is out now and we are so lucky that no one's homes were harmed. Even though it took 4 days to contain the flames, only one barn burned . Thank you to everyone who called to check on us, we really appreciated your concern!

Comments

  1. Still want to see a picture of that "ever expanding stomach" :) Glad you guys are safe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm making a 72 hour kit too! Good work!!

    ReplyDelete

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