JPG

As long as I have the gadgets assembled for emergencies (in this case, volunteer flood work or evacuation; in the summer, storm spotting), I thought I might as well take a photo of them. These all fit neatly into my leather carry bag, which has lots of roomy compartments.

First, there is the netbook with external hard drive, flash drives, and a USB card reader to handle the xD card that my Olympus camera (Stylus 1200) uses; there is a card reader for the Cannon's (SD800) memory card. There are spare batteries and battery chargers. Also, I have a mini tripod and a 50" Targus tripod. There are cases for the cameras.

There's my Palm for taking notes (and for reading books in the lulls between the moments of panic). My hooded rain coat (not shown) folds up small enough to tuck into a plastic baggie when not in use and also goes into the carry bag.

I also carry a VX-150 (Vertex) 2-meter handheld and a VX-5 transceiver (Yaesu) with spare batteries and chargers.


My husband is head of our ham radio club's technical committee, and so various headsets and mics come and go. The repair tools, spare parts, and long-life batteries go into a kit in the car, along with the survival gear (quilts, quick-energy foods, candles and matches, flashlights, dry clothes, shoes, boots, etc.).