In the Event of an Emergency, You Will Be Told Where to Go
For the 3rd anniversary of the September 11 murders, NYC is advising residents to prepare and maintain a “go bag,” a ready-to-hand satchel containing a few necessities for going on the lam from some calamity other than the subways getting flooded. I’ve annotated the list.
• Copies of your important documents. Does Immigration issue duplicate passports, or should I forge my own?
• Extra set of car and house keys.
• Credit and ATM cards and small, unmarked bills. Personally, I think gold and precious stones would be more useful.
• Bottled water and granola bars. You will get hungry on the long march.
• Flashlight, portable radio, and batteries. It will be dark in the tunnels, but you can have a rave on the way if your radio gets FM. Otherwise, the flashlight will mostly be useful to any snipers wishing to pick you off in the dark.
• Medication (n.b., unexpired medication). ‘Ludes would be good.
• First aid kit. Or bandaids, anyway.
• Shoes, rain gear, and a mylar blanket. (That’s a space blanket to anyone born before 1979.)
• A regional map, presumably marked with the preselected meeting place you’re advised to pack.
• Child care or other special care items. These may or may not include your teddy. If you’re packing diapers, keep in mind that cloth is going to work better than the disposable kind during the period you’re a refugee, or else you’ll run out.

Looking at the list, I’m thinking your go bag better be a backpack, because it’s going to be heavy, especially with all the shoes, water, and gold. I shouldn’t joke too much, though, because it’s not a bad idea. When brother T. lived in SF, he kept a supply of canned goods and filled the bathtub at night in case of earthquake, which made a lot more sense than you might initially think. A refugee backpack, however, isn’t necessarily going to provide much more than comfort should anyone need to march over to Jersey.