Red Cross Emergency Preparedness Kit

The American Red Cross has posted a guide for constructing and emergency preparedness kit.

It's not a fun thing to think about, but having grown up in an area frequented by yearly natural disasters, I can tell you first hand that it's a pretty good idea.

Living now in DC, this stuff doesn't cross my mind as much, but I still think about it.

Sadly, though, my biggest concern these days is mostly centered on the plausibility of actually being able to escape the disaster. Washington doesn't get many weather-related evacuation-worthy emergencies, so the most likely type of disaster I might experience these days will probably be man-made.

If I'm not instantly vaporized by the initial blast, the resulting traffic jam from people fleeing the city will more than likely make me wish I had been.

The roads here are already inadequate for daily travel; and that's with the aid of the subway. The shit that'll go down during an evacuation here'll make the whole Rita debacle look like a day on the Autobahn.