Preparing for an emergency comes down to four things: supplies to survive at least 72 hours, a plan so your family can find each other, knowledge of your home’s utility shutoffs, and copies of the documents you’d need to rebuild your life. Most people focus on the first one and skip the rest. Here’s how to cover all of them.
Build a 72-Hour Supply Kit
The baseline recommendation from FEMA is three days of supplies per person. Water is the most critical item: store at least one gallon per person per day, which covers drinking, cooking, and brushing teeth. For a family of four, that’s 12 gallons minimum. Food should be nonperishable, calorie-dense, and require little or no cooking. Think canned beans, peanut butter, dried fruit, granola bars, and ready-to-eat meals. Include a manual can opener.
Beyond food and water, your kit needs:
- Flashlight with extra batteries
- Battery-powered or hand-crank radio (a NOAA weather radio with SAME encoding will broadcast county-specific alerts automatically)
- First aid kit with a basic manual
- Whistle for signaling rescuers
- Waterproof matches or a lighter
- Prescription medications in their original labeled packaging
- Phone charger (a portable battery bank or solar charger)
Store the kit somewhere easy to grab on the way out the door, not buried in a basement closet. Check it twice a year. Swap out expired food, dead batteries, and outdated medications on a set schedule, like when daylight saving time changes.
Make a Family Communication Plan
During a disaster, cell networks get overwhelmed and family members may not be in the same place. A communication plan solves this before it becomes a crisis. The plan has three parts: an out-of-town contact, meeting locations, and a way to share information.
Pick a friend or relative who lives in a different region as your central contact person. After a local disaster, long-distance calls often go through even when local ones don’t. Every family member should have this person’s name, phone number, and email memorized or written on a card in their wallet. If you can’t reach each other directly, everyone checks in with that one person.
Next, designate meeting places at multiple scales. Choose one spot near your home (a neighbor’s driveway, a specific street corner), one in your neighborhood (a park, a school), and one outside your area entirely in case you’re all evacuated in different directions. Write these down. Give a copy to every household member, including older kids. Ready.gov offers a free fillable card designed to fit in a wallet.
Text messages are more likely to get through than voice calls during a disaster because they require less bandwidth. Make sure everyone in the household knows to text first, call second.
Know How to Shut Off Your Utilities
Gas leaks and electrical sparks cause fires after earthquakes, floods, and storms. Every adult in your household should know how to shut off the gas, water, and electricity before an emergency happens.
For natural gas, locate your meter now and learn the shutoff procedure. Many meters require a specific wrench to turn the valve, so contact your gas company to find out what tool you need and keep it strapped to the meter or stored nearby. Shut off the gas if you smell it, hear hissing, or see the meter dials moving when no appliances are running. One critical rule: once you turn off the gas, never turn it back on yourself. Only a trained technician can safely restore service.
For water, find the main shutoff valve where the line enters your house (not the street valve at the curb, which requires a special tool). Label it with a tag so anyone can find it quickly. Test it to make sure it turns fully. If it’s rusted or only partially closes, replace it before you need it. Shutting off the water after a disaster keeps contaminated water out of your pipes and traps the clean water already in your hot water heater and toilet tanks for emergency use.
For electricity, everyone should know where the main breaker panel is and how to flip the main switch. If you suspect a gas leak, use a flashlight to navigate, never a candle or match.
Prepare Your Financial and Legal Documents
After the immediate danger passes, the next crisis is proving who you are, what you own, and what you’re owed. Replacing lost documents while displaced is exhausting and slow. A “financial first aid kit” prevents this.
Gather copies of these categories:
- Identity documents: driver’s licenses, birth certificates, Social Security cards, passports, marriage or divorce records
- Medical records: insurance cards, prescription lists, immunization records, allergy information, living wills or powers of attorney
- Financial documents: bank and investment account statements, insurance policies (home, auto, life, flood), mortgage or lease agreements, vehicle registrations
- Essential contacts: emergency contacts, usernames and passwords for critical accounts
- Cash: small bills for purchases when card readers and ATMs are down
Scan everything to a cloud storage service so you can access it from any device. For disaster recovery purposes, digital backups should be stored at least 15 miles from your primary copies. Keep a physical set in a waterproof folder inside your go-bag, and consider giving a second copy to your out-of-town contact. If a document only exists electronically, make sure you can access it without needing a specific device or software that might not be available after a disaster.
Know Whether to Evacuate or Shelter in Place
These are two very different responses, and choosing the wrong one can put you in more danger. The decision usually comes from local authorities, not from you, so the first step is having a way to receive alerts (that NOAA weather radio, local emergency apps, or wireless emergency alerts on your phone).
Evacuate when authorities order it, or when you face a wildfire, flood, or hurricane and have time to leave safely. If you evacuate, grab your supply kit and document folder, shut doors behind you, and head to your predetermined meeting location. Move quickly but don’t run or push. Know at least two driving routes out of your area in case one is blocked.
Shelter in place when staying indoors is safer than going outside. Tornado warnings and chemical spills are the most common reasons. Move to an interior windowless room, close all doors, and stay put until authorities give a clear “all clear” message. Do not leave the building based on your own judgment during a chemical or hazardous materials event.
Practice both scenarios with your household at least once. Walk through the steps so everyone knows what to grab, where to go, and which role they play. The goal is to make the actions automatic so you don’t have to think through them during a high-stress moment.
Don’t Forget Your Pets
Pets need their own emergency kit. The CDC recommends stocking a two-week supply of food and water for each animal, stored in waterproof containers, along with a two-week supply of any medications and a one-month supply of flea, tick, and heartworm preventatives.
Keep photocopies of veterinary records, rabies certificates, vaccination history, and proof of ownership in a waterproof container. Include a recent photo of each pet, your microchip information, and boarding instructions in case you’re separated from them. Non-spill food and water dishes, a leash, and a carrier should all be stored with the kit. Many emergency shelters don’t accept animals, so research pet-friendly shelters and hotels along your evacuation routes ahead of time.