Hi friends, I just wanted to start by sharing a bit about what’s going on here. As some of you may have seen on the news, the entire city of Fort McMurray (about 80,000 people) here in Alberta, Canada has been evacuated due to a massive forest fire (covering about 101,000 hectares!). While I do live in northern Alberta, this particular area hit is quite a bit more northern than where I live. It’s been complicated getting evacuees in and out of their community due to the logistics of only being able to go north or south and both directions being compromised by fire. I have been glued to my television, Facebook and Twitter watching events unfold. It all happened so quickly and the fire rages on and is still out of control. My heart is breaking for these people that are displaced and anxious to even know if they’ll have a home to go back to. The support shown has been incredible though. We are experiencing extremely dry, hot weather right now and desperately need rain. A couple of weeks ago I shared about a forest fire not far from my home that thankfully firefighters were able to contain. It seems as soon as they get one under control another one starts up.
As a result, I have been working on my “go-bags” and getting them set up. I will be honest and say I didn’t have this done before. You never think disaster will happen to you but after these past couple of weeks, I realized I needed to be better prepared. We all need to be prepared for an emergency, either to grab and go or to shelter in place, we need to be organized. Here is a helpful post for creating an emergency preparedness kit.
Emergency Preparedness:
How to Put Together an Emergency Preparedness Kit (comments also a good source of information)
How many are already have go-bags ready or are still needing to get something in place?
Giveaway:
Also speaking of being organized, don’t miss out on this super fun giveaway I put up earlier this week. If you are overwhelmed and chaos is high, here are two essential tools I use for organizing and planning. Come enter to win a beautiful planner of your own!
Some favorite organizing links this week:
How to Live Contently With Less ~ @ Mommy Moment
The Key to a Successful Garage Sale (with free printables) no longer available
Work at Home Mom Productivity Tips ~ @ Mama’s Got It Together
Best Kitchen Organizing Ideas ~ @ Organize & Decorate Everything
Free Printable Summer Bucket Lists ~ @ I Heart Planners
Have a great weekend everyone, and don’t forget to take some time for decluttering and organizing!!
Toni says
Thank you for sharing Laura! <3
Jody says
I have been thinking of you with the fire in Fort McMurray. So much devastation – All of us really do need to be prepared for disaster, because we never know when it could happen to us. I appreciate your tips.
I also want to thank you for including our post on how to contently live with less.
Diane says
Your link to garage sale printables goes to porn. FYI!!
Laura Wittmann says
Thank you for letting me know,
Laura