Well, today was a bit interesting. My dad came down and got some slab wood for each of us from the saw mill and took his splitter back home. Just after we unloaded the wood he left and I came in to watch a bit of TV and have some lunch. When I turned on the TV they had breaking news on that a chemical plant in KC was burning. It had black somke visible from as far as 100 miles away and was dropping chunks of ash and some unidentified stuff like tree sap on the city, which is where my dad was headed back to. Well it turns out that it wasnt nearly as bad as had thought since the place didnt have much in the way of highly toxic chemicals around but my impression at this point based on conclusions drawn from the info available was that this could well be VERY nasty smoke. So I called my dad on his cell and let him know since he had to drive through the smoke to get home where he would be upwind of the fire about 15 miles. I advised him to stop at the very edgeof the suburbs of the city at a hardware store and get a mask to make sure he didnt breath in any of the ash and let him know that some of the roads were closed and an alternate route to miss the worst of the smoke would be a good idea anyhow. After talking to my dad I then called a friend about 150 miles north of me. Judgeing by the area of the city that the smoke was going to and where the fire was, though I found out a couple hours later I was wrong, I thought the wind was out of the NW but as it turned out it was out of the NNE. Well had it been out of the NW then since we are about 100 miles SE of KC and the windspeed was around 10 MPH I figured it would put the smoke to us around 10 PM and was still under the impression that this place handled a lot of the stuff like chlorine and syanide since it was reported they made and or distributed industrial cleaners and chemicals. So I figured this would be some NASTY and potentialy deadly smoke, so while it would most likely dispurse in 100 miles called our friends to make sure there was space on the couch or floor and got things ready in case we had to bug out and head up there for a day or 2 to avoid the smoke as a precaution. Well as it turned out the wind was out of the NNE so the edge of the smoke only went across the oposite edge of our county and the chemicals the place handled, as confirmed by a friend who just retired from the industry and knew the kind of stuff they would have had, was none of the particularly nasty stuff so called off the bugout and settled in. So it was a bit of an exciteing day to say the least. Lessons learned;While I already do have bug out bags set up that would provide for the most basic needsof food, shelter and fire for the family, when it came time to think about buging out I realized we do need to also get a duffel bag to keep in the back room ready to go with a couple changes of clothes, and toiletry kits for each of us as well as at least $25-50 cash for gas money or grabbing a burger on the road. Between that and the kits we already have should be able to grab the 'house kit' since the other kits are already in the vehicles, toss it in, jump in the car and go. It wouldnt be escential but it would make things a lot more convenient and comfortable if we ever had to leave in an emergency in a big hurry. We also need to add some face masks to the kits.
