What Would You Do If You Had To Evacuate?

The phone rang at 7 this morning. It was the mover. "I'm sorry I'm late," he said "Traffic is really heavy because they are evacuating Apex."

A cold chill came over me. "They are evacuating Apex?" I had only one thought. Because down there in Apex, see, we got us a new-clee-ar power plant.

"You should turn on the TV," he said. "The Environmental Quality Plant blew up and they are evacuating." All I could think is "what is an Environmental Quality Plant? Is it part of Shearon Harris?"

So I hurried up to my computer. As it turns out, Environmental Quality is a private hazardous waste company. I was downright relieved to learn it was "just" a chemical fire. Even though I'm not in the "evacuation area" for the nuclear power plant, if it was that I'd be scurrying for the hills.

Then I got to thinking. What would I have done if I'd had to evacuate? I mean, my house is not a monument to organization right now. If pressed, I could find a file that has the kids' birth certificates and my marriage certificate and a few other vital papers. I was talking to my mother-in-law and she said "I'd take pictures and videos." I thought "most of ours are on the computer. We couldn't pull the hard drive in time. Would we just toss the CPU in the trunk?" And what about kid clothes? What if we have to evacuate when I need to do laundry? Would I just throw a bunch of dirty laundry on top of the dog in the trunk and run? And there is that diabetic cat, I better bring her stuff too. Or should I leave her here with a pile of food and a prayer?

Maybe we should have gotten that mini-van; I don't know how we'd fit all this in the car. Clearly, I'm going to have to give "evacuation plan" some thought.