What a go-bag is, and what it isn’t
Some people call it a bug-out bag. We’ll call it a go-bag from here on, since that is the word the rest of this series uses. Either way it is different from the emergency kit you keep at home. It’s smaller, it’s built for grabbing on your way out the door, and it’s meant to get you through about 72 hours away from home, not to replace your full pantry of supplies. If your household has to leave fast, whether it’s a wildfire evacuation order, a landslide closing the road, a blocked rail crossing, or something nobody planned for, this is the bag you want already packed. The checklist below is where to start.
The American Red Cross calls this a go-kit: one bag holding important documents, extra medicine, and other essentials, kept where you can grab it if you have to leave in a hurry: “Do You Know How to Get Ready in Case You Have to Evacuate?”, American Red Cross.
The bug-out bag checklist: what to pack
Start with the basics: a gallon of water per person for three days, food that doesn’t need cooking, a first aid kit, any medications your household takes regularly, a flashlight and extra batteries, a portable phone charger, cash in small bills, and copies of important documents. If you haven’t put together document copies yet, our earlier post on protecting important documents walks through what to gather, how to store it, and how to replace anything you have already lost. Ready.gov’s kit-building guide covers the fuller version of this list: Build A Kit, Ready.gov.
Add a paper map of the area, too. Cell service can be unreliable in the hollows around Hot Springs even on a normal day, and you don’t want your evacuation route to depend on a signal that isn’t there.
What Hot Springs conditions mean for your bag
US 25/70 is the main way in and out of town. It is not NCDOT’s designated alternate when I-40 through the Pigeon River Gorge closes, that route is I-26 to I-81, but it is one of very few crossings into Tennessee, so it picks up traffic anyway and can get busy fast when something’s happening. Ready.gov’s evacuation guidance covers planning for exactly this kind of slow drive or detour: Evacuation, Ready.gov. Pack for that possibility, not just a quick trip to a shelter down the road: a full tank of gas before you need one, snacks that hold up in a hot car, and layers, since mountain weather changes quickly regardless of the season.
Where to keep it and how often to check it
Store the bag somewhere you’d actually grab it on the way out: a front closet, the mudroom, the trunk of a car you drive regularly. Check it twice a year, when the clocks change is an easy reminder, and swap out anything expired: batteries, medications, food. A bag that’s been sitting untouched for two years is worth less than you think.
One bag per person, sized to fit
A single bag for the whole household gets heavy fast and hard to grab in a hurry. Give each adult and older child their own smaller bag with their essentials, medications, a change of clothes, something to do while you wait it out, and keep one household bag for shared items like the first aid kit and documents. Pets have enough of their own considerations that we cover them in a separate post. For children, pack a comfort item, a change of clothes, and a card with your name and phone number in each child’s bag, and give each child their own small bag they carry themselves.
Pack it this week
The next post in this series gets into how to decide whether to stay put or go when something happens. For now, the practical step is simple: pick a bag, pack the essentials this week, and put it somewhere you won’t have to think twice to find it.
Resources mentioned in this post
- Ready.gov, Build A Kit: https://www.ready.gov/kit
- Ready.gov, Evacuation: https://www.ready.gov/evacuation
- American Red Cross, “Do You Know How to Get Ready in Case You Have to Evacuate?”: https://www.redcross.org/about-us/news-and-events/news/2025/do-you-know-how-to-get-ready-in-case-you-have-to-evacuate.html