When an emergency strikes, you need to be prepared. If the emergency is a natural disaster, there’s a large possibility that you won’t have access to stores to get the things you need because roads may be closed. The weather conditions may not permit it. And, often times, if you can get to the store, the shelves will be empty. That’s why emergency preparedness is so important.
Emergency Supplies for a Basic Kit
Here is a list of emergency supplies you should have on hand for each member of your family:
- One gallon of water per person for each day of your emergency. You need to have enough water for each person to drink, as well as for their sanitation needs. For short-term emergency preparedness, you should have at least a 3-day supply for each person in your home.
- No less than a 3-day supply, per person, of non-perishable foods. Make sure you have an adequate supply to prepare entire meals. You want to ensure that you and your family eat healthy meals that include the basic food groups.
- Radio that’s battery-powered, with enough extra batteries to last a few days.
- One flashlight per household member, with extra batteries for each flashlight.
- A whistle, which will come in handy if you need to signal FEMA or other emergency personnel for help.
- Sanitation supplies: heavy-duty garbage bags with plastic ties, and moist towelettes
- Dust mask for each household member to help with filtering out bad air. This is just a precaution, in case the disaster or emergency causes some type of air pollution. A clean cotton t-shirt can also be used as a mask in these cases.
- Duct tape and plastic sheeting to seal off areas that may leak in bad air or cold air.
- Pliers, wrenches, or a multi-purpose utility tool so you can shut off your utilities. Electrical shortages and gas leaks can be very dangerous during and after natural disasters.
- Manually operated can opener to open canned foods.
- First aid kit – This is vitally important. If there are any injuries suffered, you can perform minor first aid until help arrives.
Emergency Supply Kit
The easiest way to prepare for an emergency is with an emergency supply kit. You can purchase short-term kits, long-term kits, water kits and cooking kits for floods and other disasters. Food Insurance has emergency supply kits to meet your needs so you can be prepared if an emergency strikes.
This is so informative and so educational! Having this kind of advocacy on disaster preparedness really helps people a lot. There is nothing more important than being prepared for any disaster that would possibly come our way.
A gallon of water per person, per day covers drinking and maybe sanitation needs. What is the suggested amount needed if you are planning on using freeze dried foods? Any estimate of how much extra water is needed to prepare the food?
Great question Trudy.
On average you will need 1 cup of water per serving. In addition to your drinking/sanitation water, if you were to store 1.5 gallons per person per week for food preparation, you should have plenty of water.