Your Emergency Kits Revisited

The new preparedness standard is 120-hours.  Initially 72-hour kits were the recommendation.  Then the last few years it became a more realistic 96-hours.  At present, professional responders strongly recommend each person/family needs to be prepared to meet their essential needs for a minimum of 5 days and 5 nights.  We are told not to expect outside help reaching our communities in a major disaster for 120-hours.  They know this from reviewing the aftermath of many national major disasters.

How to revamp 96-hour emergency kits?  Add an additional day of water, food and medications to your Emergency Kits for each member of your household.

Water is our most essential survival item.  The minimum standard is 1-gallon per person, per day to meet the needs of hydration, sanitation, food preparation, first aid and hygiene. Purified water is inexpensive, but it is heavy – 1-gallon weighs 8.3 lbs.  The 5-gallon minimum for just one person weighs 41.5 lbs. Multiply that by the number of people in your household.  Think wheels (carts, wagons) when you consider how you are going to evacuate your home with enough water.  Throw in some personal water filters.  They can be purchased for about $25.00. Life Straw is a reliable brand and the LDS Bishop’s Storehouse sells this type of filter.

Food. Think survival, think simple, think being satiated, think calories (energy), think fiber (bulk) think treats.  Do not think home cooked meals.

Snack-type food is the easiest and requires the least space in your kits.  Examples:  Nut & fruit bars like KIND, Larabars, at Sprouts market, Kirkland brand and Paleo bars at COSTCO, etc. (no chocolate; It melts), peanut butter & crackers, dried fruit/veggies, nuts, pudding & fruit cup, hard candy & gum.  These snacks may have limited shelf-life so replace, then rotate the old into your regular diet (I do every 6 months). Consider including a quality vitamin and mineral supplement to bolster nutrition.

There are a variety of compact emergency food rations like S.O.S*, Datrex bars, Grizzly Gear bars to mention a few that provide basic calories.

If you have a simple cooking source, not reliant on electricity**, you could prepare something hot once a day like canned soup or stew, canned veggies.  If you have enough water in your kit, pack cereal, and dried milk, cocoa powder and freeze-dried soups, stews, etc.

Medications.  If your health is dependent upon medications, add more of each to your emergency kit. I have enough essential meds for 3 weeks in each of my on-foot emergency kit and my auto kit. How long might it take for pharmacy systems to be up and running and doctors available to write prescriptions? Accumulate an emergency supply, little by little from each refill, by reordering at the earliest date your insurance will allow.  Be sure that you replace and rotate the medications from your kits into your regular day-to-day use.

** Photos in this post are examples of emergency food ration bars found at Emergency Essentials and a single burner stove in carrying case w/packet of butane canisters purchased at Recreation Outlet.