Get-Home and Go Bags
Two small bags, two different jobs. A go bag (the Government of Canada calls it a grab-and-go bag) is for leaving home in a hurry. A get-home bag is for getting back home when you’re stuck at work, at school or on the road. This page covers what goes in each, what to do if you’re told to evacuate or shelter in place, and the local hazards that make them worth having.
On this page
Two bags, two jobs
Neither bag is about expecting the worst. They’re about not having to think in a hurry. If an evacuation order comes at two in the morning, or the highway home closes while you’re at work, the decisions have already been made and the bag is ready.
| Grab-and-go bag | Get-home bag | |
|---|---|---|
| Job | Leaving home quickly for somewhere safer | Getting back home, or waiting safely, when you’re away |
| Where it lives | By the door at home, one per person | At work, at school, or in the vehicle |
| How long it covers | About three days, in a lighter, portable form | A day, or a long walk or wait |
| Who it’s from | Government of Canada’s Get Prepared program | Common-sense adaptation of the same lists |
The full home kit, with water and food for the whole household for 72 hours, is on the home emergency kit page. These bags are its smaller, portable cousins.
The grab-and-go bag
Get Prepared suggests one grab-and-go bag for each person in the household. It holds the basic kit essentials in a lighter, portable form, plus a few things for being away from home:
Water and food
Water and non-perishable, ready-to-eat food, with a manual can opener and eating utensils, plates and cups.
Light and radio
A flashlight and a wind-up or battery radio, with spare batteries.
First aid and medications
A first aid kit, prescription medications, and glasses or contacts.
Clothes and bedding
A change of clothes and footwear, and a sleeping bag or warm blanket.
Maps and a tool
Local maps and a small multi-tool.
Documents and money
Copies of ID and your emergency plan, contact numbers, cash in small bills, and spare keys.
Phone power
A charger and a charged power bank.
Comfort items
Books, toys or a game for children.
The Government of Alberta’s grab-and-go list adds a few things people often forget: phone chargers and cords, a laptop and an external hard drive, irreplaceable photos and mementos, and keys. Don’t forget pet supplies, too. The pets section has the Government of Alberta’s list.
What it means for you: a backpack works better than a suitcase. It leaves your hands free for kids, pets and a phone. Pack it so it’s light enough for the person carrying it, and keep the heavy water in the home kit or the car.
Wildfire smoke and dust are real risks here. Get Prepared lists N95 or surgical masks among its additional supplies. A few in each bag take up almost no room.
The get-home bag
A get-home bag isn’t on any official list by name, but it’s built from the same advice. It’s for the day the highway closes while you’re at work, a storm stops the buses, or the car breaks down partway home. Its job is to keep you comfortable while you wait for things to clear, or to get you home on foot if it’s close and safe.
- Proper walking shoes or boots and warm socks, if you wear dress shoes to work. Gary once saw a stranded driver in the cold snow wearing flip-flops.
- Weather layers: a warm layer, a wind and rain shell, a toque and mitts in winter, a sun hat in summer.
- Water and a few snacks.
- A small flashlight or headlamp.
- A power bank and cable.
- Any medications you’d need for an evening or a night.
- A few bandages and blister pads.
- A paper map of the route home, and some cash.
- A reflective vest or band, if you might walk beside a road in the dark.
Waiting is usually safer than walking. In a blizzard, extreme cold, a thunderstorm or heavy smoke, stay put in a building or your vehicle until conditions improve. Get Prepared says to stay inside your vehicle if you’re trapped in a winter storm. Only walk if it’s a short distance in safe conditions, and tell someone your route first.
Bags for kids
Children cope better with a bag of their own, packed with them, not for them.
- A change of clothes and a warm layer.
- A water bottle and a favourite snack.
- A small flashlight and a whistle.
- A copy of their emergency card, with family phone numbers. Our Home Alone and Weather-Ready page has a printable card.
- A book, a card game or a small toy.
- Their own mini first aid kit. See the mini first aid kit page.
Get Prepared also suggests learning your school or daycare’s emergency policy and making sure it has the name of someone who can pick up your children if you can’t.
A go bag is like a sleepover bag that’s always packed. If your family ever has to leave home quickly, you just grab it.
Wonder: if you could only take one small toy or book, which would you choose?
Try this: pack your own bag with a grown-up. Put in a change of clothes, a snack, a flashlight and your comfort item. Then practise: can you find it and carry it to the door in one minute?
If you’re told to evacuate
The City of Lethbridge says officials won’t ask you to leave unless they believe you’re in danger. If an evacuation order comes, follow it right away. The City’s advice:
- Take your emergency kit, your emergency plan, essential medications, a cell phone and your pets.
- If there’s time, tell your out-of-town contact where you’re going, and leave a note saying where you went.
- Shut off water and electricity only if officials tell you to.
- Leave natural gas on unless you’re told otherwise.
- Lock your home.
Follow the routes officials give you, and don’t take shortcuts that might be blocked. Alberta Emergency Alerts will tell you what’s happening and where to go. See the alerts section.
What it means for you: keep the car’s fuel tank at least half full when wildfire, flood or storm season is under way. An evacuation is not the time to line up at a gas station.
If you’re told to shelter in place
Sometimes the safest place is the one you’re already in. The City of Lethbridge explains that a shelter-in-place advisory means you should take shelter indoors immediately, where you are. It’s used when there’s a threat outside and leaving would be riskier than staying.
The Government of Alberta’s general steps are: bring everyone inside, gather your emergency supplies, secure your shelter, and listen to directions from authorities.
Hazardous air
The Government of Alberta’s fact sheet on hazardous air covers contaminants released into the air in industrial or vehicle accidents, or train derailments. Its steps at home include:
- Bring everyone indoors, including pets, if it is safe.
- Close and lock all exterior doors and windows.
- Turn off fans, the furnace, air conditioners and air exchangers. Don’t run the clothes dryer or use the fireplace, and close vents and dampers.
- Turn off the main electrical power breaker and the pilot lights on stoves and furnaces.
- If you can, shelter in a windowless room in the middle of the home, above ground, with no outside doors, and close the inside doors behind you.
- Seal cracks around the doors and vents of the room you shelter in, using duct tape and plastic sheeting, or wet fabric.
Some chemicals are heavier than air, so the fact sheet warns they can seep into basement rooms. In a vehicle, it says to drive away if you safely can. If not, pull over somewhere safe, close all windows and vents, shut off the heater or air conditioner, turn off the engine and turn on the hazard lights, and don’t stop under an overpass or in a low spot. If you’re outside with no shelter, move away from the area right away, at a right angle to the wind if you know its direction, and breathe through a piece of clothing.
Always follow the specific instructions in the alert. They may differ from these general steps.
Our local hazards
Get Prepared says to learn about the emergencies that could happen where you live and plan for the more likely ones first. Here are ours.
Wind
Lethbridge averages about 116 days a year with gusts of 40 km/h or more. Wind brings down lines and branches and drives blowing snow and dust. Secure loose items, and expect power outages.
Blizzards
Ground blizzards can drop visibility to nothing on open highways. Check 511 Alberta, and if you’re caught, stay with your vehicle. See the vehicle kit page.
Wildfire smoke
Smoke can sit over the city for days in summer. Environment and Climate Change Canada says to watch the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) and adjust outdoor plans, especially for people at higher risk. Keep windows closed on smoky days.
Floods
River valley parks, trails and low spots along the Oldman can flood after a fast melt or heavy June rain in the mountains. Alberta Rivers posts flood watches, flood warnings and high streamflow advisories. Never drive or walk through moving water.
Hail and thunderstorms
Mostly June to August, usually in the afternoon and evening. Get indoors or into a hard-topped metal vehicle, stay away from windows, and wait 30 minutes after the last thunder. See weather and safety.
Train derailments and spills
Rail lines and highways carry fuel and chemicals through the region. A derailment or spill can lead to an evacuation or an order to shelter in place. Follow the alert.
Smoke days: reading the AQHI
Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) runs from 1 to 10+. The higher the number, the greater the health risk. Children, people over 65 and people with health conditions are more at risk. You’ll find the AQHI for Lethbridge in Environment and Climate Change Canada’s free WeatherCAN app.
| AQHI | Most people | Children, people over 65, people with health conditions |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 Low | Enjoy your usual outdoor activities. | Enjoy your usual outdoor activities. |
| 4–6 Moderate | Carry on unless you have symptoms such as coughing or throat irritation. | Consider reducing or rescheduling strenuous outdoor activity if you have symptoms. |
| 7–10 High | Consider reducing or rescheduling strenuous outdoor activity if you have symptoms. | Reduce or reschedule strenuous outdoor activity. |
| Above 10 Very high | Reduce or reschedule strenuous outdoor activity, especially if you have symptoms. | Avoid strenuous outdoor activity. |
Wind, snow, storms and smoke usually show up in the forecast before they reach us. A quick look each morning, and a closer one before any long drive, gives you time to adjust plans, top up the tank and charge the power banks.
Keeping it calm
Packing a go bag can feel gloomy, especially with kids watching. It doesn’t have to be. Treat it like packing for a trip, or checking the spare tire: a small, sensible job that you do once, then forget about until the clocks change.
- Talk about it plainly. “We keep a bag ready, the same way we keep a flashlight in the drawer.”
- Give everyone a job. Kids can be in charge of their own bag, or the pet’s bag.
- Practise once. Grab the bags, walk to the meeting spot, and come home for hot chocolate.
- Check twice a year. Replace food and water, swap seasonal clothes, and charge the power banks.
Sources
- Public Safety Canada, Emergency kit checklist (grab-and-go bags; masks; seasonal items): canada.ca
- Public Safety Canada, Make an emergency plan: canada.ca
- Public Safety Canada, Winter storms: how to prepare: canada.ca
- Government of Alberta, Build an emergency kit (grab-and-go list): alberta.ca
- City of Lethbridge, Preparing for an emergency (evacuation and shelter in place): lethbridge.ca
- Government of Alberta, Shelter-in-place advisories: severe weather and hazardous air: alberta.ca
- Government of Alberta, Shelter in place: hazardous air (fact sheet, 2022): open.alberta.ca
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, Lightning safety (30 minutes after the last thunder): canada.ca
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, Wildfire smoke, air quality and your health: canada.ca
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, About the Air Quality Health Index (categories and health messages): canada.ca
- Government of Alberta, Alberta Rivers (flood watches, warnings and advisories): rivers.alberta.ca
- 511 Alberta: 511.alberta.ca
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadian Climate Normals 1991–2020, Lethbridge (about 116 days a year with gusts of 40 km/h or more).