Hi! When storing my beans rice or pasta, I usually keep it in the original bags. Should I not be doing that? Does that increase risk of pests or food going bad? What would you recommend ?

Appreciate the help

My elderly mother and her partner of 20 years live in a major U.S. city approximately an 8 hr drive from me. They are both in poor health and poor mobility, as well as limited financial means. They have two cats that are like children to them. She is increasingly becoming anxious with the news these days (understandable). I have tried to coach her on both mental and physical preparedness (encouraging her not to direct too much energy into fear/prepping on basics like food, water, medications, etc.) but this is all very new to her. I would like to compile a list of things to do before/during/after a potential grid down scenario or civil unrest. I would like to bring her to me, but her partner is in a physical rehab facility at the moment and she won’t leave him. If able, given certain scenarios, I would try to make my way to her before things were too bananas, but that would involve travel among a major highway corridor on the east coast. If you were me, what things would you add to a list that are practical and not overwhelming? I think having something like this printed out would give her peace of mind. They do not have a generator. Thank you for any suggestions.

I was dozing off to sleep, when the building-wide fire alarm went off. I was out of the main building door at what I estimate was just shy of 3 minutes later. Here's a description and picture of all the stuff I grabbed on my way out the door. (Pic was taken after the all-clear. People should evac to about 50ft-100ft+, in case of explosions.)

What I managed to grab on my way out the door:

- Noise canceling headphones

I have sensory issues. These help me get out the door faster.

- My 3-day evacuation backpack

- My edc backpack

- Event medic pouch belt

- Yesterday's jeans (I edc a lot of stuff in my jeans. I dont remove that stuff from my pants until it's getting transferred over to my next pair of jeans. System works!)

- My slip-on-able trail runners

Ideally, I'd be out in less than a minute and a half. Unfortunately, living many floors up, once Im out of my apartment I still have to get down a lot of stairs.

What I did well:

- Had most things already ready to go.

- Those things were all light enough to grab and safely carry down all the stairs.

- I didnt stop to change my clothes. I headed out in my pajamas at 430pm, carrying my jeans in my hand. lol

- I had a spare N95 masks in the stuff I grabbed, so I was able to put one on before coming back inside.

- My neighbor tried to stop me to talk about having seen someone pull the hall fire alarm and darting back into the stairwell. I told her to lock her door and evacuate, and didnt get sucked into a chat with her out of politeness. (Some people are very bad at evacuating. Folks, it's better to chance having your stuff stolen than getting burnt up in a fire. Strangers sometimes pull fire alarms to steal things. But they also legit pull fire alarms because they smell smoke/see fire. It could have been someone's guest! In our case, it was a test of the alarm system. There was aparently an email two weeks ago about it. 🤦‍♂️)

Areas for improvement:

- My evac pack was open for some reason. It required me to cinch and buckle it closed

- I stopped to unzip my edc pack and sweep my medication into it, then zip the pack back up. This was despite the fact I already had an emergency supply of my most critical meds in my evac pack. In other words, I wasted precious time. (Every second wasted in fire evacuation can be the difference between life and a fiery death.)

- I forgot to put on my face mask before leaving my apartment. This might not be as big a deal for some people. But with my immune system, if one of the neighbors I encountered on my way out was sick, it might kill me... 🫠 So, time to cross my fingers and for me to open a mask to the ready position and clip it to the outside of my evac pack.

Pic of evac's items linked below.

https://imgur.com/gallery/t4jD0bd