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How To Make An Emergency Kit

After our disaster-filled week last August (we had an earthquake and a hurricane within a week of one another) we had several requests for a post about emergency preparedness. We hemmed and hawed because we’re no experts in that department, but then a couple of actual experts / regular YHL readers reached out to us with emails fulled of information. Phew! So without further ado (since it’s already taken me like 6 months to finally write this post), here are some of the recommendations and information they sent our way.

Irene Tree On Powerlines

First off, our experts are Amanda F, who has her Master’s degree in this field and worked as an emergency coordinator for a hospital in LA (so she knows earthquakes). She now lives in DC, so she’s got hurricanes to deal with these days. We’ve also got Michelle O, who is the Deputy Coordinator of Emergency Management for our county. So basically these people know their stuff far better than we do. Their consensus boils down to three basic ideas: Make a kit, make a plan, and stay informed. So we’ve corralled their advice below for ya:

#1. Make A Kit – An emergency kit doesn’t need to be fancy, expensive, or overdone. Even a small kit that will last you two days is better than having none at all. There are three types of kits to consider:

  1. A Stay At Home Kit: Plan for three days without power. Include items like non-perishable food, water (1 gal per person per day is recommended), flashlight with batteries, extra batteries, a battery powered radio, extra batteries, manual can opener, any medical supplies or prescriptions (this includes extra glasses or contact lenses), cash (ATMs won’t work without power!) and important personal and financial documents (more on that in a second).
  2. A Kid / Pet Kit: If you’ve got kids or pets, plan for them too. Think of items like formula, food, diapers, toys, comfort items.
  3. A Go Kit: If you need to leave your home during an emergency (say it’s being evacuated for flooding or a tree has fallen on it), have a backpack ready for each person that includes water, high energy snack foods, extra clothes, and shoes.

Sherry and I actually evaluated our own emergency preparedness kit a couple of years ago (we certainly floundered in a few areas and ended up giving ourselves a B). We probably should do that again now that we’re in our new home to see if we’re more prepared.

Emergency Extra Water Suppl

We also spotted a tip in Real Simple recently about including documents in your emergency kit. This is less about having them on hand in a disaster and more about not losing them if your house doesn’t survive the flood / earthquake / tornado / whatever. They recommend that you: “make photocopies of the following (or scan and burn to CD or flash drive) and keep one set at home in a waterproof bag and another in a safe-deposit box.”

  • Driver’s license & passport
  • Social security card
  • Birth certificates
  • Health insurance card
  • Insurance policies
  • Mortgage and other loan papers
  • Property deeds
  • Car title and registration
  • Marriage license
  • Your will
  • Last year’s tax return
  • Bank and brokerage account numbers
  • Inventory and/or pictures of your home for insurance claims

Of course we all have excuses for why we haven’t put together a kit or don’t have the time or money available to get started. So here are some good excuse-busters from our experts:

  • Not everything in the kit needs to be bought. Take inventory at home first – if you’ve got canned goods or cereal on hand, that counts!
  • Hit up the dollar store. Both of our experts said this is a great option for stocking up. After all, you don’t need the fanciest flashlight – just a flashlight that works.
  • Spread out the expense. Try assembling your kit over time. Commit to buying one or two items per month if you can’t shuck out funds for everything now.
  • Involve your kids. Ask them to help you gather items or pick out a supply to buy each month. This also gives you a natural opportunity to teach them why that item is important and how to use it.
  • Don’t stress over space. Kits can be pretty small, so finding some space in your house for them shouldn’t be too tough (make sure they’re stored in an easily accessible space, not in the shed behind the house). Water storage can be the biggest challenge, but do what you can. Anything is better than nothing.
  • Shop in one place. Since camping needs tend to be similar to emergency needs, hit up a camping or outdoors supply store for an easy way to stock up on items.
  • Buy your kit. If time (not money) is your barrier, you can buy a pre-assembled it. Here are a bunch of options sold by the Red Cross.

Emergency Red Cross Top 10

Last but not least, don’t forget to keep your kit updated. You’d hate to break into your kit during an emergency and find spoiled food, last year’s prescriptions, and clothes that no longer fit the kids. Try checking your kit every year at Daylight Savings (when you also check your smoke detector batteries).

#2. Make A Plan– Making a plan takes nearly no time or money, so it’s something we should all try to do. It involves gathering some info, writing it down, and reviewing it with everyone in your household. The goal is make sure everyone has the right information and follows the same steps when a disaster comes rolling down the street (hopefully not literally). A plan should include:

  • Phone numbers for everyone in the family (be sure to include office, cell, and land line numbers)
  • The phone number of an out-of-town relative. Local lines can be unpredictable during a disaster, so it’s best to designate one out-of-town relative that everyone should call to check in with. That also helps local lines clear for emergency personnel to use.
  • Also, keep in mind that it’s often easier to text than make a call during an emergency. Plus, most phones will try to send a text until it goes through so you don’t have to repeatedly place calls.
  • A pre-determined meeting place outside of your neighborhood in case you can’t get home (a church, school or shopping center works)

You can a get a plan form to fill out here at Ready.gov.

Emergency Family Plan

#3. Stay Informed – This is also a fairly easy one and it’s basically about making sure you know how to access updated information – like weather conditions (where is the storm headed?) and where to go for emergency relief (like where shelters are being set up). So learn what websites and radio stations broadcast local information (like our county sends updates on AM 1630). This is also where having a battery-operated radio and/or a NOAA weather radio comes into play.

Additional Links: If you want more information, the U.S. government operates a central website called Ready.gov with lots of info. You can also hunt down one for your states or county for more specific, regional information. In Virginia we’ve got VaEmergency.gov

Emergency Ready Dot Gov

 

Thanks Amanda and Michelle for imparting their knowledge on us all! It’s definitely been a good reminder to us Petersiks that we need to double-check some of our supplies and put together a plan.

Psst – Since many of you are thoughtful enough to ask about how our neighbors are doing since the tree fell on their house during Irene, we’re happy to report they moved back in at Christmas (yep, nearly 4 months later!) after having extensive repairs and renovations done to make their house liveable again. Nearly half of the roof frame had to be removed and reconstructed so it was quite the project – but they made lemonade out of their lemons and had the contractors rebuilt the two bedrooms on the affected end of the house into one big master suite. We actually got a peek at it before it was finished and it was looking awesome.

Psssst – Images from Ready.gov and Redcrossstore.org.

Comments

  1. LMG says

    And the one that most People forget/don’t know about: include some books or other entertainment since you might be bored out of your skull for several days at an evacuation center. :)

    Reply

  2. Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says

    I like the idea of photocopying all those documents, but I would be nervous having them around the house in case there was a robbery. We keep all of our important documents in a small fireproof box (looks like a briefcase) that’s hidden nearby our emergency supplies. It’s not perfect but at least it’s something!

    Hope you all had a wonderful flight!

    Reply

  4. Stephanie Haney says

    This is a great post! I’m a recent transport to Alabama (is 4 years recent?) and am still unprepared for tornado disasters. Maybe this will motivate me to get a kit together! Thanks for the tips! Safe flying!

    Reply

  6. Erika @ thelindenlife says

    Great ideas! I often think that I don’t need an emergency kit because we don’t live in a disaster-prone area… but that line of thinking will probably come back to haunt me one day! You never know when something could happen… I especially like the idea of photocopying documents and keeping them in one place. This would even come in handy if you happen to loose your driver’s license or passport one day. Have fun in Portland!

    Reply

    • 1CrunchyMama says

      Don’t forget there are always other emergencies such as household fires, brush fires, floods (could be just a water pipe nearby your home), etc

  7. Cassie @ Back to Her Roots says

    My apartment was hit by a tornado last Spring and we definitely have since added a few things to our emergency kit that we didn’t have before. You might not be able to take a shower for days, so a stick of deodorant, some baby wipes and some travel toothpaste and a toothbrush will be welcome. Also, remember that stress causes ALL KINDS of reactions in the body. Include some anti-diarrhea meds, some headache meds and feminine hygiene stuffs if you are a woman. Trust me, starting your period that day after a tornado without any tampons near=not fun.

    Reply

  9. Abby B says

    Thanks for posting about this very important topic. I work in public health and am glad to see the Emergency Preparedness love being shared.

    Reply

  11. Sheryn says

    Me posting this comment is probably hypocritical, but can I just say that your loyal blog readers won’t hate you if you can’t respond to every comment this week! You’re busy and we all want you to have a wonderful time and a safe trip.

    Yes, I speak for all of the Internets.

    Have a great time and don’t worry about us, we’ll still be here when you get back. :)

    Reply

  12. KellyA says

    Happy flying!

    Some people talk about a big 55 gallon drum for water but I actually prefer the smaller gallon sized jugs. They’re easier to move if you need to evacuate and about $1/ea at the store.

    Aim to pick up one gallon each shopping trip until you have 3 for each family member (1 gal per person per day).

    Replace the water every 6-12 mo and use it to water plants, fill a small swimming pool or flush your water heater. I also use mine when I pull out trash cans to clean when I wash my car. Splash in some soap, empty the water jug, let it soak/clean, drain, dry and move inside!

    Reply

  13. Cara says

    I’m a Florida girl, and since I live in an old oak-tree canopied town in central Florida I can lose power/water/roofing during a good storm, forget hurricanes. The thing that amazes me most about transplants is that they panic about buying water and ice. Our storms aren’t unpredictable; you have at least a little time to prepare. You still have water and power, so why fight the crowds at the store? Buy 5 gal water jugs (in the camping supplies) and keep them in the pantry. Fill it up when a big storm is headed your way. (If I don’t lose water, I use it when I’d normally turn on the tap and then fill it up fresh next time. I hate the taste of stale water!). You can also put gallon bags of water in the back of your freezer. (Unless you live at YL house, apparently. I guess I’ll start suggesting testing your freezer before storm season.) No fighting over the last bags of ice AND it melts more slowly… We lose power so often that flashlights and batteries are a given, but I do need to re-pack our evacuation bags and check the pantry as summer nears. We’ve had several quiet years, so we’re about due some excitement.

    Reply

  14. Roxy says

    Great post! I have a neighbor, who every 6 months, has an “emergency night.” They pretend the power is out and crack open their emergency kits. They eat whatever is inside for dinner, play games, and take notes about what needs replaced — outgrown clothes, for instance. Sometimes they miss a session, but they are more likely to have fresh items in their kits this way and they go over their emergency plans, too.

    Reply

  15. Ashley says

    A much more environmentally friendly way to save water would be the huge bulk sized jugs of water instead of individual water bottles. Even in times of crisis, it’s a shame to see people being so wasteful in the name of things like emergency preparedness.

    Reply

  16. Jill says

    Another item to either have in your emergency pack or make sure to always have on you is a blood donor card (or something else) with your blood type, just in case something happens and you need medical attention.

    Reply

  18. LauraC says

    Hey, welcome to our (Pacific) time zone!

    I can attest to our need to upgrade our supplies/plan as we lost power for 48 hours during the ice storm in January (you may have even heard of it in VA, it was pretty major for Seattle). We have never ever lost power before! We were totally fine, got a bit chilly, but because we are avid backpackers/hikers we had quite the stash of food downstairs. We finally went over to my parents’ house the second night, but only because I had to host a baby shower the next day and needed to get ready (and a shower). It was a fun adventure and our kids loved it. But while we had everything we needed, we really should be more deliberate about it next time. Thanks for the reminder!

    See ya tomorrow! (Ha! The only time I will ever be able to write that, so I did, just for kicks.)

    Reply

  19. Whitney Dupuis says

    Living on the Gulf Coast for most of my life, you would think that I would more prepared than most. I am sad to say that I am the queen of all procrastination and I don’t have a disaster preparedness kit. We do have extra water and we have a fire-proof safe with all of our important documentation. I also keep all of our pictures on an external hard drive that I keep with me AT ALL TIMES. However, when CAT 3 or above hurricanes are coming, we just evacuate.

    Lately, I am worrying more and more about tornadoes since they have been popping up everywhere, so I need to get on this kit ASAP. Thanks for all of the tips!

    Reply

  21. Kirsten says

    My parents’ house was hit by a tornado about a year and a half ago, and after being involved in the (extensive) clean-up and rebuilding, here are my two cents:

    – Yes, keep documents in a safe. But not only documents– also include irreplaceable things like negatives of baby photos, the CD of your wedding photos, important family recipes, etc. It’s also important to note that not all safes are fireproof for as long of time period as a fire would be burning, and your negatives could melt anyway. A safe deposit box at the bank is an even better option.

    – Have your computer backed up, and not just to an external hard drive in the same location. My parents’ computer was luckily able to be salvaged without any data lost, but had it not (or even if they’d had an external hard drive there next to it), my mom would have lost a decade of genealogical research, to say nothing of everything else.

    – In the case of a tornado, do not take warnings lightly, and if you have time when getting to shelter, take your purse, wallet, etc with you. My parents didn’t think about this, and my dad’s wallet was found untouched in the remains of their bedroom, yet the business cards stacked right next to it were found all over the neighborhood. Having to cancel (and remember) all the credit cards and such that was in your wallet is just one more thing you don’t want to deal with after a disaster.

    – The idea of taking pictures of all of the stuff in your house is definitely daunting, but SUCH good advice. When you’ve just lost your house and are emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted, it is a nightmare having to recollect every single item for the insurance adjusters to put on their list. If your house is in splinters and the items not even identifiable (or present), it would be even worse. Taking photos every once in a while just in case will save a lot of time and stress.

    I sincerely wish disasters of any kind on no one, but after learning the hard way, it is much better to be prepared for a worst-case scenario than to have to figure it all out after a crisis. Thank you John and Sherry for posting on such an important topic!

    Reply

  22. Krystle @ ColorTansformedFamily says

    Thanks for this information. I am going to show it to my husband. So we can work together on a kit to keep at our house. Our neighborhood was hit by the tornadoes that came through Alabama last spring. Ever since then we have taken all warnings seriously. There are still houses here that haven’t been prepared yet.

    Reply

  24. Shunta says

    SO pinning this article. So many places to put it “good ideas” “things I need to do” “411” which pin board will I put it under?!! Thanks J&S!

    Reply

  26. Marianne says

    Great post! My husband likes to watch the show ‘Surviving Disaster’ and is always making little preparations. He mostly prepares for a Zombie apocalypse though and uses ‘The Walking Dead’ as a guide…

    Reply

  27. nichole says

    http://zombiehunters.org/ is a great website for disaster preparedness. They also do a LOT of charity work involving other groups that help support people affected by disasters. There are all sorts of posts in their forums about being prepared for anything (haha, including zombies I suppose). Since I live in California, being ready for earthquakes is really important. Thankfully, we have never had to use our emergency kits…but it was nice to know they were there when the tsunami was on its way last year.

    Reply

  28. Sarah says

    Our house was destroyed by a tree in April (and we’re still waiting to move back in, rebuilding has taken foreverrrr) and I’d like to elaborate on the home inventory item on the list: consider making a short video of the contents of your home. Just a short walkthrough with your closets open and any particularly expensive belongings showing. Store it online and hopefully you’ll never need it, but if you do it will be a lifesaver. It’s impossible to remember every single item your family owned, especially after workers have “helped” by throwing out damaged things, and you’ll need all the proof you can get when you submit your list of damages to the insurance.

    Thanks for all the other great tips :)

    Reply

  29. Ryan says

    Thank you for this post! I actually put our kit together based on anther blog mentioning their earthquake kit, so I know posts like these can really motivate people!(We are in Texas and close enough to the coast to be worried about hurricanes). I can’t even tell you how much FUN my husband had putting our kit together with me. I call it the zombie apocalypse kit, because you know, it’s all encompassing like that.
    ALSO for the water Google bathtub bob. It’s basically a giant plastic bag you fill and leave in your bathtub to hold water in an emergency. We just saw one on doomsday preppers, a show on Nat. Geo. and I’m so going to order one.

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  30. Dara says

    Thanks for all of the tips. I never thought about getting a safety deposit box, that was a great idea for storing all your information besides a safe at your house, in case it gets ruined. I also forgot about getting stuff together for pets. How could I forget the pets?!? I have already sent my hubby the link to the post, so now I have him thinking about it too. Just in time for all this spring rain and nastiness.

    Reply

  31. Heidi P. says

    Thanks! I’ve recently been freaking out about earthquakes here (there’s no place to hide in an earthquake like there is during a tornado!). Anyway, this was timely and helpful. I’ve got pretty good food storage and some other emergency stuff, but I need to get it organized and updated.

    Reply

  32. Emma says

    Great tips. Thanks for the update about your neighbors. Very happy to hear that they’re doing well. Enjoy your trip!

    Reply

  34. Susan says

    Another thing to make sure you have with you is rabies vaccination certification for all pets – many shelters won’t allow animals without that (if they allow animals at all).

    Reply

  35. Lacy says

    Include copies of dog licenses, vet info, and pictures of pets on your security cd. In case of disasters, this helps you get the word and pictures out about lost pets. In addition, the pictures and documents help prove that the pet is yours when found.

    Reply

  36. JessiBee says

    I don’t really have any emergency plan or supplies…which is cuckoo crazy since I’m, like, paranoid about disasters! I will now. Thank you for this post.
    Safe flying to my city! PDX airport is the nicest airport…not that I am biased or anything :)

    Reply

  38. Joy says

    You know, this was a really great wake up call for all the emergency situations I should prepare for but haven’t. Although I have homeowner’s insurance (of course), there are things I just haven’t thought about — pet insurance, first aid kits, making copies of important documents. I love your recommendation about spreading out expenses over time, since the thought of putting everything together at once sort of blows my budget out of the water. Thanks for this!

    Reply

  39. VV says

    Today’s (22/02) the 1st anniversary of the 6.3M Christchurch Earthquake that claimed 185 lives. Uncanny timing! But it’s so important to be prepared and have a disaster plan.

    After our first large quake in 2010 (7.1M) the hubs got crank-powered torch/radio/siren/cellphone-chargers, portable gas stoves, first aid kits for every car, the whole shebang. I thought he was getting a bit over-zealous at the time, but it all came in handy when everyone came to our house post Feb quake and huddled around our radio to hear all the updates.

    Ooh and maybe also some bulk TP and a shovel! A lot of people didn’t have toilets for 9 months and were eventually given council portaloos : ( we luckily got ours back after 2 days… but we still needed the dang shovel in that time!

    Great post. Hope everyone goes home today and stocks up. It won’t help you predict when the next one will hit but it’ll give you great peace of mind knowing you’re ready.

    Reply

  40. Corinne says

    My stepdad works with FEMA pretty regularly, so I find it a bit sad that my emergency preparedness kit is essentially non-existant! Thankfully I do have flashlights and more batteries than I know what to do with, but I really should hop on that emergency kit sooner rather than later. I’ve been living here for a year without much of a plan, and my area of the country gets small tornadoes pretty regularly! So, fantastic post with great advice!

    Reply

  41. Adriane (aka the greenhorn) says

    Eeeee! Disaster preparedness is one of my favorite topics. I just watched that Doomsday Preppers show and was writing up a post on emergency home supplies when I took a break to visit you. Too funny! And, have a great trip! Hope Clara’s prep works out for you, too–or it’ll make a fun post when you get back. :)

    Reply

  42. Lesley says

    If you actually watch/knew what FEMA does you should be worried and every single one of you would have a bag already.

    Reply

  44. JacquiBee says

    what great timing, today is the anniversary of the deadly February 2011 Christchurch earthquake here in New Zealand and disasters are definatly on my mind today. I think every one should have a kit, we didn’t expect a major earthquake here but we got one, and you guys don’t usually have earthquakes so you can never say never. We had a basic kit and it was so helpful. Our camp stove got a good work out and I had a bottle of clorine bleach which I wouldn’t normally reccomend as its not very green but its can be used to make ‘clean’ water for washing, our water pipes and sewer pipes got broken so the towns water got contaminated. We had started a neigbourhood support group in our street which was so great, there were a lot of elderly here (one of 103yrs) and we were able to go help them and they already knew and trusted us when we had the first big earthquke September 2010 in the middle of the night. Just to put things in perspective we have suburbs here in Christchurch where the sewers were damaged in September 2010 and they are still using portaloos now, even though our councils and the repair folks did an amazing job and have worked 24/7 to get stuff fixed a whole city takes a long time. Being prepared made me feel so much safer and in control. Have a wonderful trip and thanks for all your hard work. I love your blog I have been enjoying your progress while waiting for insurance to sort out what is happening with our little house xx

    Reply

    • VV says

      Hah, awesome! A fellow YHL-loving Cantab! Small world :)

      I observed the 2 minute silence at Westfield just before – so glad I left work for it because we’re not doing anything here to commemorate it.

      Hope your insurance sorts everything out. I think our place will be patched up soon hopefully. One decorating-positive to come out of this is that I get to have our old-fashioned stippled ceiling shaved off. It’s the little things right?

      Best of luck!

  45. Sally says

    Great post guys!

    So, couple more tips from inland hurricane country:

    For the disasters (like hurricanes) that you get a bit of warning for, fill up your bathtub. You can use buckets of this bathtub water to flush the toilet until your well or public water supply is back in action.

    If you keep them stocked…the first aid supplies for home can be the ones in your cabinet. The “go kit” first aid supplies can be the kit your take camping or keep in your car.

    Keep your batteries outside of the flashlight and radio in ziploc bags. Also, be sure to check them with the kit updates. I’ve had so many batteries leak when stored – don’t let them ruin your flashlight & radio!

    I keep part of my emergency water supply in reusable containers to avoid as many disposables – I know I would need to purify it before drinking, but I have the means to do that (by boiling on my camp stove or with iodine tablets).

    Reply

  47. Sarah Neale says

    Don’t stress over space…..I thought the next part of this said KIDS can be pretty small, so finding some space in your house for them shouldn’t be too tough (make sure they’re stored in an easily accessible space, not in the shed behind the house).

    Then I re-read it and noticed it said “kits”, not “kids”. And had a GREAT LAUGH at my own expense. I realized I read it wrong when I read the suggestion to store them in a shed behind the house. I was totally with ya though on the firs part – both kids and kits are pretty small, and finding some space aroudn the house for the isn’t very tough.

    HAHA – very late in a busy work day for me!

    Reply

  48. Leigh Ann says

    HOPE YOUR FLIGHT WENT WELL!

    My family-home made it through our house being destroyed by a tornado in 1996. Insurance replaces everything– that is everything you remember you had. We are still going, “we used to have a so-and-so before the tornado”, but we didn’t put it on the insurance replacement list.

    The best idea for that is to video everything in your home. You guys are well on your way! It helps if you do things like open drawers/closets & count tshirts, jeans, etc. on the video. And also, if you store the video somewhere else (if not online, then on a DVD at a friends house or in a safe deposit box.) You can also make a written inventory of all items in your house, but the video is easier!

    Reply

  49. Sandye says

    You can also see if your city offers Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training. My husband and I took it here in our 50,000-person town. We were provided with emergency kits, certified in CPR and first aid, and trained on how to safely search buildings, perform basic triage, and do other things that would assist the police in case of a “large” emergency. The idea is that you are trained to take care of yourself first, then your immediate neighbors, your block, etc., expanding outward.

    Reply

  50. Natalie says

    Good reminder – we’re sort of in the middle of moving/home buying/remodeling, but I’m definitely going to have to get my gear stashed somewhere accessible.

    I guess I approach this more from a backpacker/camper/traveler prospective, but I’d suggest adding things like emergency blankets (for warmth or shelter from the sun) and water purification tablets. I also make more room for things like quick clot and steri strips and worry less about large bandages (which can be improvised).

    Reply

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