Melissa Harris-Perry: Hi, everybody. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry, and this is The Takeaway. Now, a little confession. During the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, I binge-watched all four seasons of the National Geographic Channel's Doomsday Preppers. The show focuses on the subculture of people who spend significant time and money preparing for pretty unlikely apocalyptic scenarios.

Speaker 2: Jerry designed his bio fortress specifically to keep pathogens out, but he isn't just concerned about contaminants. He's also worried about people.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Yes, I know. It's paranoia porn, but in the early days of quarantine, many of us felt a little paranoid. It was my Eagle Scout spouse who finally convinced me that reality TV was a poor disaster preparation strategy. We used my quarantine and [unintelligible 00:00:50] preparedness paranoia to work on a real plan of action for our family, friends, and neighbors in case of a serious weather event. Do you have a go-bag if you need to bag out? Do you have an essentials kit prepared? Have you thought about what you would bring and what you would leave? If not, relax. We got you. Get out your notepad and get ready to take some notes.

Here to give us some advice on prepping an emergency go-bag is Tricia Wachtendorf, who is director of the Disaster Research Center, and professor of sociology at the University of Delaware.

Tricia, welcome.

Tricia Wachtendorf: Hi, thanks for having me here today.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Let's start. What should everybody have in their emergency go-bag or kit?

Tricia Wachtendorf: One of the things that I like to think about with a kit or a go-bag, is that it has a lot of flexibility to it. Some of these things might be best to be stored in a backpack or what we think of when we Google the word go-bag, but other things might be strategically placed in your car, if you have one, or in a desk drawer if needed. If you go to FEMA or the Red Cross or your state emergency management agency, but there's 10 general categories that I usually talk about or think about.

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Top on that list should be information and documentation. Copies of our ID, people and pet vaccination records, financial information, insurance information, prescriptions, and then having a backup that's accessible if you forget or lose it, even if it's encrypted somewhere, is vital.

Second, if you happen to be evacuating in your vehicle, do you have supplies? That's a spare tire, names of your roadside assistant plan, a full tank of gas, jumper cables, flares, the kinds of things that we really should have in our car routinely, and sometimes don't.

Third, having cash on hand, if you can. Sometimes people lose their credit card or they're in an area where the power's out and they can't use their Apple Pay or their credit card.

Medical supplies and hygiene items, such as first aid kits, but also those prescriptions or non-prescription medications. Some people have health or disability issues that they live with. Assisted technology equipment, if they require it. Diapers, a few rolls of toilet paper, some non-perishable food and water. Clothing and warmth. A blanket and pillow are good items to have as our lightweight survival blankets. The radio for some updates and some lighting, like a flashlight or those bright sticks or matches.

Three more. There's items like a pad of paper and pens that can be useful, especially if your phone dies. A deck of cards to pass the time, and if you have kids, something to entertain them is really important. Having your cell phone, extra chargers, adapters, even sometimes having an old phone or a tablet in your go-bag.

Then the final category is to think about unique circumstances, hand sanitizer, and wipes. That's particularly so now. Having extra masks is really important. Also other unique circumstances like, is there a baby in your home? Do you have pets in your household? There's a lot of research that suggests that people often delay evacuation because of their pets. Lots of different things that we can start thinking about to make sure our family is safe if we have to leave during a very stressful time.

Melissa Harris-Perry: First of all, that's an amazing list. I love that. What about sort of the communication aspects, the planning aspect? What if the weather event hits, or the disaster of some kind hits while kids are at school and adults are at work. Maybe the older parent is home for the day. How do we make sure we have a plan in addition to the items that we need?

Tricia Wachtendorf: Often in the disaster research community, we talk about the planning process being more important than the plan itself. That's true if you talk about a community, if you talk about a household. Having these conversations in your home, where do we have the go-bag? What's in it? Have we updated it recently? What are some things that we can have offsite? I mentioned that aspect about the important documentation. If you have a close family member where you can have a jump drive and you have that information scanned, that's going to be really important if you can't get back home in time. Having some of those items near the door where everybody knows they can just grab it and go, is key. If there's just one member of the household who knows that, that's not going to be really useful if, as you said, grandma's at home taking care of the grandkids while someone is out.

Melissa Harris-Perry: What about neighbors? Should we be having the same conversation with our floor in our apartment building, or our block in our neighborhood?

Tricia Wachtendorf: Those kinds of connections that we build, again, routinely are really important. When you start thinking about somebody who's down the hall from you or down the block from you who might need extra help being able to check on them and make sure that they're okay, but it's also knowing sometimes what other resources someone might have that might be able to help out somebody who doesn't have that. Does somebody need someone else to bring some extra things in their car if they only have one and their neighbor has two? Does someone need help going down the stairs or the elevator carrying the things that they have?

One of the things that's also related to is thinking about our household and how that connects to others. There's a lot of people who will rely on others to evacuate them. Maybe you have an elderly parent who lives across town, who's living on their own, but they're not going to be able to evacuate themselves. Do you have what they need? Have you worked with them to put together some stuff that's in a closet near the front door, the back door? Trying to understand who might rely on us and how we can be helpful.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I think one of the biggest lessons I will take from this conversation is the idea that the process is as important as the plan itself. That it's worth having these conversations and not presuming that, oh, we've never had a disaster before, but instead saying that we need to think about it and talk about it and create that process. It doesn't have to create paranoia. It can just create preparation.

Thank you so much, Tricia Wachtendorf, for talking with us about this critical issue. Tricia Wachtendorf is the director of the Disaster Research Center, and a professor of sociology at the University of Delaware. Thank you.

Tricia Wachtendorf: Thank you.

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Teresa: This is Teresa from Kingfisher, Oklahoma, and we have been responding to natural disasters for years. My response plan for ordinary natural disasters is to shelter in place and wait for service to be restored. I would like to say I have a go-bag ready if necessary, but I haven't gotten to that yet.

Jeremy Larson: Hi. This is Jeremy Larson. I live in Dallas, Texas. This past year's winter storm had me alarmed that State leadership was so ill-prepared to help its own citizens. We were literally left in the dark. Since then, we've bought bottled water, clay pots, and candles to help us keep warm in the events of power loss. It was a real eye-opener and a disappointment, period.

Alex Lawler: I really don't have a plan. I'm not sure what plans my community has for disasters, but I don't really live in an area with flooding or tornadoes or forest fires or earthquake. The biggest problem we face are lizards and snowstorms in which case most people just hunker down [unintelligible 00:08:44] do the job. Alex Lawler, Mentor, Ohio.

Jane: This is Jane in Tigard, Oregon. I think that it's very important to have something organized in any community. I belong to an HOA neighborhood of 93 townhomes. I'm a member of cert and need to get my skills updated. I think the most important thing is that the June heatwave taught us a lot. There's much more to various disasters though. For instance, I'm really surprised at how many people have no idea how to shut off the water or gas to their own homes. It's scary actually.

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