BJDs and Catastrophes (TW: Disasters)

While I don't have the same sorts of disasters in my area as you do, we are prone to tornadoes, and homes and buildings not far from me have been taken out before by them. We have no basement, no storm shelter, and since tornadoes can sometimes pop up out of nowhere within minutes, no time to move them safely.

If I have a good 5 or 10 minute warning, I'll try to get them all downstairs to the hallway, as it's the safest spot in the house. If I don't have time, I'll just grab the grails.

 

I love my dolls allot and if something happened I would be heart broken but in all honesty they are not a priority for me. Although we did have a fire scare here a few months ago (dumpster caught fire) and it was brought to my attention that due to their placement in the house they are in one of the safest rooms and that is about as much care as I honestly would give them in a disaster.

The dolls are currently in a closet near a windowless hallway towards the back of the space. They are already near where we would go in case of an emergency except for a fire and in a fire they are sealed in fairly well and are in one of the last parts of the house to succumb to flame (unless the fire started there). Flames spread pretty fast so there is no way to know if they would make it but I have given them a fighting chance. Enough that my mind would go to the more vulnerable members of my household in case of disaster.

After the fire we did drills and of course the first thing we grab is the animals. We have allot. An earthquake or tornado should leave the part of the house with the dolls in it alone for the most part but if the house is totaled or something I would be out of luck. I have pictures of all of my dolls in case of loss so I could contact the insurance company to at least get back the monetary value of the dolls. Though nothing would replace the emotional attachment I have to honestly say I would rather they then my cats end up damaged.

This thread is making me all jumpy.

 

A few summers ago there were wildfires in my area. I packed my dolls into a bag and sat it with my violin. That way if we had to leave it'd be a simple thing to grab.

 

I love my dolls, I really do, but they're luxury items. In a disaster, luxury items are not a priority; water, food, money, ID, cell phone, medication and first aid are a priority. If I passed a small doll (like a YO-SD) I might grab it, because it's light and might lift my spirits later on, but that's it. My dolls will survive the disaster, or they won't. There are more important things for me to worry about.

 

My area is prone to flooding with occasional tornado warnings. A few years back we had a scare and I purchased some duffle bags in case we had a mandatory evacuation. If it was an emergency like a fire I would leave the dolls and focus on family and pets, but if there is a little time to prep I would toss the dolls into a bag and bring them if there was space. At least my favorites or a few tinies. .

 

We haven't had many tornado scares in my area this summer *knocks on wood* but... I have tried to evac my dolls to the basement. Given as my collection is larger now... I might have to focus on whose the most to me--which is hard. Ultimately, if I have to make a choice, my folks/any visiting family, my dog, and computer are a little higher in priorities, but if I could save them all I would. I suppose you could always find durable plastic cases in the event of flooding but... outside of that I'm not sure.

 

We get hurricanes down here, but usually we have time to prepare for them, so the game isn't evac as much as it is preparing and bunkering up (except for those who go decide to go to shelters, but that's also planned in advance). I just got my doll, so I haven't had to live through a Hurricane yet.. but I'd imagine that I would bubblewrap her and put her in a box up high in the closet, so that if it floods, it won't get to her, and if the roof blows off from sudden tornadoes and the box goes flying, well.. she's bubblewrapped x'D?

Like others have said, it's a luxury item, so it's hard to prioritize it unless everything else is taken care of, or if it's worth massive amounts of money resold and you need the money. But I can understand that one might prioritize a non-essential item. For instance, if my house were to go up into flames, I would probably grab my laptop and leave the doll, even though the laptop doesn't have any important files or work on it. More importantly, it's where I have all my family photos and memories sitting on, so I would be heartbroken to lose all that! I could imagine someone having a strong attachment to a doll... though I feel bad for those who have to play favorites with huge resin families !

 

Hmmm. Now I'm imagining some kind of crazy disasters happening. Since I live in a landlocked area in Texas, I think the only possible major natural disaster threat would be that of a really big tornado, or possibly a flood. I have exclusively SD size dolls, so they'd be tough to take with me in the event that the area was evacuated for some reason. If I had time to prepare before a tornado, during the warnings I'd probably load them up into a big safe along with my other valuables (I have plans to buy one for not-doll things, but I believe it'd be large enough for dolls to fit if need be). Since they're already boxed, even if the safe somehow got broken off the floor and picked up by the wind it wouldn't go far, and hopefully nothing would get damaged. I have plans to put shelves in the safe, so I'd probably put them on a middle shelf in case of a flood. Then I'd cram a piece of padding material (I have a mattress topper) that could be easily ripped up and stuffed in with them or around them and lock the sucker up! Then I'd hunker down and hope for the best.

In the event of a house-fire, I'd prioritize getting my cat out of the house. Usually fires happen at night though, and my cat sleeps with me so he'd be easy to find I'd also grab my laptop because there is important sentimental and work stuff on there as well, it also lives by my bed. Now I'm tempted to just keep the dolls in the safe, because a lot of safes are fire-proof. Lol. Hopefully they wouldn't melt!

On the other hand, if for some reason there was a massively panicked city-wide evacuation I would load them up in the car with my other valuables and essentials (food, water, first aid, etc) and my cat. In all the movies I've seen with people trying to get out of a city, though, there is massive traffic and people just end up running and abandoning their cars (lol). I'd definitely bring my bike along, because it's easy to assemble/disassemble (single speed road bike),fast, and I could jump on it if the city was gridlocked and ride between traffic. if things got that bad then I don't think my mind would be on dolls, haha. I'd give kitty a mild sedative and put him into my ventilated backpack, attach essentials to the bike frame (water, food, backup bike repair tools) and hop on and try to keep going, bikes are surprisingly fast! I'd have to abandon the dolls, of course. ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!

 

Gah - if my apartment building caught on fire - I really don't know what I'd do. Maybe put them all in the bathroom shower and turn on the water and hope for the best. I definitely would take Aidan with me - at least for the time being - since she's become my favourite doll and Luken, since he was my first doll ever. I'd rather have my dolls wet (with possibly ruined clothes and wigs) than scorched. and I could deal with a flooded bathroom.

Anything else besides fire is very unlikely in my area. No earthquakes, no tornadoes and flooding - well, I'm living on the first floor, so the water would have to be pretty high to even reach my apartment.

 

With a fire (even a minor one), you may want to come up with a plan to get the dolls out if the situation would permit it. My brother had a fire that was contained to one room and the insurance company and fire department confiscated and destroyed most of what they owned siting toxic smoke damage. Anything remotely porous was taken.

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Myself, I have all my dolls insured on a collectibles rider on my homeowner's insurance. If I had the time I would try to save my dolls if there was enough warning, but my husband and pets take top priority.

I DID have a situation when we lived in an apartment. Our upstairs neighbor had a short in her furnace and it started smoking. The fire department told the whole building to get out. We grabbed the cats and got them out and then the dolls along with our emergency folder and out wedding photos. We had the time since it was not a true fire and we had friends over to help carry things.

 

Having lost everything in hurricane Katrina nearly ten years ago, this subject is always on my mind. We had ten feet of water in our house, while we were still in the house. -_- I will never stay for category 3 or more again! After that we had to go and weed out what was salvageable and what was not. Most horrible thing I have ever gone through, all my artwork, handmade items, and books were thrown away. All my books... Glad I wasn't into bjds then. But all of my anime and porcelain figures I was able to clean, mostly, and save. Some of my figurines have odd stains but it is the memories attached to them that matter. Now that we are in hurricane season again I find myself picking things I would evacuate with. My dogs and other pets would have top priority in this case. But my dolls would probably be all packed up, in their own plastic tub for their safety and brought along too. I couldn't leave them. I don't like to think about losing everything again but living on the coast it is just one of those things you live with.

 

Where I live all we really have is Tornados or Fires. We have a "Steel room" that, if a tornado warning was launched, I would likely grab up my three "main babies" boxes and stick them in the corner of.
If we had a fire or the like, I don't know. My darling pets would of course be my priority, but I don't think I could help grabbing Erevinnia's box.