What to take and what to leave behind

In high school, I was given an assignment to identify what I would take with me in the event my house caught on fire.
I sat at my desk pondering what thing I considered so invaluable that I would need to stuff into a bag. I couldn't come up with anything. As long as my family and our black Labrador were safely out of the house, the rest could burn and turn to ash as far I was concerned. Looking back, I probably should have written that on the paper but I didn't. I made something up.
It's been a while since I've considered what I would carry with me if my home was going to be destroyed. I guess I thought it would never happen. It appears I might be wrong. There is a fire raging at the edges of Los Alamos and they have not ruled out evacuations in the county.
I got a call this evening from my boss telling me the office has had an emergency closure because of this fire. Peering out my window, I already see the gas station across the street filled with cars. I suspect the drivers are filling their tanks, getting prepared for the worse.
I've never been faced with anything like this before - my only other encounters with disasters involved a dead cat in a water line, a fire in Denver and Hurricane Gloria. The dead cat stuffed into a water line in Salida, Colo., caused more annoyance than anything else. You were not allowed to drink the water and as a result crowds of people filled the grocery store to buy bottled water. The fire in Denver was slightly more dramatic. I remember the sky looked swollen and bruised and ash rained from the opaque clouds of smoke.
Hurricane Gloria happened in the 1980s when we were living in Plymouth, Mass. Maybe it was because I was just a kid and completely ignorant of the event but the roaring wind and rain caused me more fascination than anything else.
This disaster feels far different. I've never had something so uncontrollable, chaotic and deadly creep up to my doorstep and expel me from my home. So I remembered that high school assignment. I wondered around my apartment, inventorying my stuff and considering what to take and what to leave behind.
The question still stumps me. But I've pretty much come to the same conclusion. As long as every member of my family is accounted for and safe and every household dog is out of harm's way, I can wave goodbye to everything else. Sure, it won't be fun and I'll be sad and angry but I could leave it all behind.