In An Emergency, I  Panicked

I live in Santa Cruz County, Ca. , where the disaster of COVID stalks us but we had a double disaster with one of the 30 fires begun by lightning strikes all over California. Our fire set the Santa Cruz mountains, with ancient 3000-year-old redwoods, ablaze, and caused 70,000 evacuations ,as the firefighters did not have enough fire personnel to fight the fire. There were so many fires statewide that all firefighters in the state were not enough to fight the blazes. In addition to the horror, the fast-spreading fire, our three assigned planes to drop water on the inferno, could not fly as smoke and fog prevented it. They went to other California fires.

I Had No Grab and GO, Binder

When all this was announced by emergency alerts we were told to prepare to evacuate too. In spite of just teaching how to put together a go binder for COVID- I had no go binder myself. I had no list of what I would take in an emergency from a 5 bedroom house with multiple family heirlooms, original art by children, grandchildren, and now famous friends, I had never scanned the multiple  photographs of our family in frames to GOOGLE PHOTOS  all over the house and those critical important documents like our trust, birth certificates, passports, insurance info in filing to add a go binder. I  never made a GO Binder. I am doing it now when the fire is 30% contained. 

Prepare for Double Disasters Now

In emergency situations, people sometimes do not think rationally like me. We never know how we are going to react in an emergency until it actually happens. In order to prepare for any situation, hurricanes & COVID, Fires &COVID- creating a grab-and-go binder should be an important part of your shelter in place plan for aging friends or relatives.

With COVID,the older person who is sheltering in place, as safe as the family and elder have been, can still contract COVID and be rushed to the hospital in an emergency. But on top of COVID other emergencies like storms wildfires, floods happen on the top of the pandemic. Think of this summer where hurricanes have already spun up the east coast, making it a double cataclysm of elders’ and family caregivers’ lives.

What to put in Go- Binder

You want and binder with all the emergency contacts, documents like advanced directives, DNR power of attorney and family contacts, You the family cannot physically go into the hospital or evacuate but this Go binder can take your place. With important information about your family member when they are admitted without you by their side. Your go- binder should contain your family members’ most important information and documents. This will include.

• Medical information
• Emergency Contact List
• Advanced Directives 
• Critical medical, insurance, social security, Trust/will docs                                                                                                             

• Check out The new 5th edition of my GCM Operations Manual with  5 new COVID-19 Coaching products to use with Telehealth to Assist Family Caregivers to guide older Loved ones to:

• Shelter in Place in Long Distance Family
• Shelter in Place in Long Local Family
• Recover at  Home If Do not enter the Hospital
• Recover after discharge from the hospital in Long Distance Family
• Recover after discharge from the hospital if Local Family
• Find Out More Below

GCM Manual New 5th edition