A well-stocked emergency kit should cover six basic needs: water, food, light and communication, first aid, sanitation, and critical documents. The general rule is one gallon of water per person per day and enough supplies for at least three days if you need to evacuate, or two weeks if you’re sheltering at home. Beyond those minimums, the right kit depends on your household, including kids, older adults, pets, and anyone with ongoing medical needs.
Water: The Most Critical Supply
Store at least one gallon of water per person per day. That covers both drinking and basic sanitation like handwashing. For a family of four building a three-day evacuation kit, that’s 12 gallons. For a two-week home supply, it’s 56 gallons. Store more if you live in a hot climate, if anyone in the household is pregnant or sick, or if you have pets.
Use commercially bottled water when possible, and keep it sealed until needed. If you’re filling containers from your tap, use food-grade water storage containers and rotate the supply every six months.
Food That Lasts Without Power
Your emergency food supply should be shelf-stable, calorie-sufficient, and easy to prepare with little or no water or cooking. Good options include canned meats (tuna, chicken, salmon), peanut butter, crackers, dried fruit, nuts, trail mix, protein bars, ready-to-eat soups and stews, rice, dried beans, oatmeal, and canned or boxed juice. Don’t forget a manual can opener.
A basic stockpile won’t cover every vitamin and mineral you need, so toss in a bottle of multivitamins. If you have infants, pack ready-to-feed formula in single-serving containers, which is safer than powdered formula when clean water isn’t guaranteed. Keep a large pack of diapers in the kit as well.
Aim for a three-day food supply in a grab-and-go bag and a full two-week supply stored at home. Check expiration dates and rotate everything every six months.
Light, Communication, and Power
When the power goes out, you need two things immediately: a way to see and a way to get information. Pack a reliable flashlight with extra batteries, and a battery-powered or hand-crank radio that receives NOAA Weather Radio frequencies. NOAA-capable radios can automatically alert you to severe weather and emergency broadcasts even when the radio is off, which standard AM/FM radios can’t do.
Look for a radio with multiple charging options: disposable batteries, a hand crank, and ideally a built-in solar panel. A battery capacity around 2,000 to 2,600 mAh will give roughly a full day of use per charge. Keep your cell phone charger and a backup battery pack in the kit too. A whistle rounds out this category: it’s the simplest, most reliable way to signal for help when your voice can’t carry far enough.
First Aid Supplies
A pre-made first aid kit from a drugstore is a fine starting point, but most are too basic for a real emergency. Build yours out with these categories:
- Wound care: adhesive bandage strips in assorted sizes, butterfly bandages, nonstick sterile bandages, roller gauze, elastic wrap bandages, adhesive tape, antibiotic ointment, and antiseptic solution or towelettes.
- Tools: scissors, tweezers, a thermometer, and an eye shield or pad.
- Medications: pain relievers (acetaminophen, ibuprofen), antihistamines for allergic reactions, anti-diarrhea medicine, antacids, hydrocortisone cream, cough and cold medicine, and aloe vera gel for burns. If anyone in your household has a prescribed epinephrine auto-injector, include it.
- Personal prescriptions: any daily medications that don’t need refrigeration, stored with written dosage instructions.
A large triangular bandage is worth adding. It doubles as a sling, a tourniquet, or a way to secure a splint. Eyewash solution is also easy to overlook until you actually need it.
Sanitation and Hygiene
If water or sewage systems go down, hygiene supplies become essential for preventing illness. Pack toilet paper, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, bar or liquid soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes, and feminine hygiene products. Include heavy-duty plastic garbage bags with ties for waste disposal, and a box of gallon-sized zip-lock bags for keeping clean supplies separated from dirty ones.
A medium-sized plastic bucket with a tight-fitting lid serves double duty: it stores your hygiene kit and works as an improvised latrine. A small shovel is useful if you need to dig a waste trench outdoors. Disinfectant spray, a washcloth, and deodorant round out the basics. If anyone in the household wears contact lenses, add a bottle of solution and a backup pair of glasses.
Documents and Cash
In an evacuation, you may need to prove who you are, what you own, and what insurance you carry. Store copies of these in a waterproof, portable container:
- Identification: driver’s licenses, passports, birth certificates, Social Security cards.
- Financial records: bank account numbers, insurance policies, credit card information.
- Medical information: prescription lists, dosage instructions, health insurance cards, records of any chronic conditions.
Save digital copies on a USB drive or a secure cloud service as a backup. Keep cash in small bills in the kit. ATMs and card readers won’t work during a power outage.
Tools and Protective Gear
FEMA’s recommended list includes several items that are easy to forget: a wrench or pliers (useful for shutting off gas or water valves), duct tape, plastic sheeting, scissors, dust masks, and local maps. GPS on your phone is useless without cell service or battery life. A paper map of your area and evacuation routes belongs in every kit.
Moist towelettes and plastic ties may seem minor, but they’re consistently on federal checklists because they solve small problems that compound quickly in a multi-day emergency.
Supplies for Pets
Pets need their own section of the kit. The CDC recommends packing a two-week supply of food and water for each animal, stored in waterproof containers, along with non-spill food and water dishes and a manual can opener. Include a leash, collar with ID tags, a harness, and an appropriately sized carrier with a towel or blanket inside.
Photocopied veterinary records are important: rabies certificates, vaccination summaries, prescriptions, and recent test results. Add recent photos of each pet, your microchip information, and a month’s supply of flea, tick, and heartworm preventatives. If your pet takes daily medication, pack a two-week supply with written instructions. Shelters and hotels that accept pets during disasters will often ask for vaccination proof before allowing entry.
Keeping Your Kit Current
An emergency kit you packed three years ago and never touched is a kit full of expired food, dead batteries, and outdated medications. Set a reminder to check and rotate your supplies every six months. A simple approach is to do it when the clocks change for daylight saving time. Replace expired food, swap out old batteries, refresh your water supply, and update any documents or prescriptions that have changed. Check that clothing and shoes still fit, especially for growing children, and verify that your phone backup battery still holds a charge.