under the dome: emergency kits

I have a friend who is always prepared. She has the band-aids, the directions, and the back-up plans. I’d like to have her in my corner if ever I see a disaster like a giant dome falling over my town. Which is something I think a lot about. Not just a dome–any kind of disaster. What would I do? How would millions of people get out of New York City when most don’t have cars? But seriously, if someone could tell me it would ease a lot of anxiety.

During Hurricane Sandy, and a few other storms we’ve had to button down our hatches for, I knew what I would need to grab to get out of the city if I needed to evacuate. Luckily, we had warnings for those storms, and I knew would eventually pass. In Stephen King’s worlds, it’s almost never that easy. As we saw in Under the Dome on Monday night, you have to be ready for every kind of disaster. Even–especially– for the one’s you’d never see coming.

So, basically, I should have made an emergency kit a long time ago. What would you need? Let’s start with the basics.

• flashlight (with batteries)
• bottled water
• first aid kit
• canned food/snacks
• cat food
• #fatcat’s carrier
• swiss army knife
• thermal blanket
• maybe some different weather prep depending on your area
• an extra phone charger probably couldn’t hurt (like this super cool solar charger!)

If you’re in Stephen King’s world, though, you might need some different things.

• a Geiger counter, in case you run into radiation
• a stake or cross, for any vampires in your small town
• a current newspaper from your town, so in case you wander into any other worlds or time travel so you will know which world you came from and what day it was there
• probably some penicillin, unless you are allergic to it like I am
• a tranquilizer dart or two for any large, crazy animals. or people.
• mayyybe think about keeping some extra propane tanks on hand
• if you have guns handed down to you from your father and your father’s father and his father’s father, you should probably bring those, too

Anything else? What am I missing?

Also, I just read this thing on the Internet (because of course I did) about how if you are in a house and electricity went out and you don’t have water, you should check the freezer for ice cubes. Those will be safe to drink. Any other tips, figurative boy scouts of the world?

This is the one of a few Under the Dome related posts this week. Check back later for more, and you can see other posts here:

• trapped (or reading under the dome)
• tv: under the dome (ep 1)