A well-stocked emergency supply covers six basic needs: water, food, first aid, sanitation, power, and documents. The CDC recommends storing at least one gallon of water per person per day for a minimum of three days, and FEMA advises keeping three days of supplies for sheltering in place when stores, electricity, and water service are disrupted. A two-week supply is a safer target for larger-scale disasters where help takes longer to arrive.
Water Storage
Water is the single most important item to stockpile. One gallon per person per day covers drinking, cooking, and basic hygiene like brushing teeth. For a family of four, that means 12 gallons for three days or 56 gallons for two weeks. Store-bought sealed water jugs are the easiest option and stay good for years. If you fill containers from the tap, use food-grade plastic and rotate them every six months.
Keep in mind that hot weather, physical exertion, illness, and breastfeeding all increase water needs. If you have pets, add water for them too: the CDC recommends a full two-week supply of water for each animal.
Food That Needs No Cooking
Plan for roughly 2,000 calories per person per day. The simplest approach is to stock shelf-stable foods you’d actually eat, prioritizing items that require no refrigeration and little or no preparation. If your power is out, you may not have a working stove.
- Protein: Canned meat, chicken, tuna, beans, peanut butter, nuts, and trail mix
- Grains: Ready-to-eat cereal, crackers, granola bars, pretzels, and instant oatmeal (if you have a way to heat water)
- Fruits and vegetables: Canned fruits, canned vegetables, fruit juice, and vegetable juice
- Dairy: Shelf-stable boxed milk, dried milk, and processed cheese that doesn’t need refrigeration
- Comfort and extras: Canned soup, canned chili, instant pudding, cookies, candy, condiments like mustard and salad dressing
Don’t forget a manual can opener. It’s easy to overlook and impossible to replace when you need it. Rotate your emergency food every 6 to 12 months by eating what you’ve stored and replacing it with fresh stock.
First Aid and Medications
A home first aid kit should handle minor injuries, pain, allergic reactions, and stomach problems. Johns Hopkins Medicine recommends stocking these categories:
- Wound care: Sterile gauze pads, adhesive bandages, butterfly bandages, elastic bandages, waterproof tape, antibiotic ointment, antiseptic ointment, and rubbing alcohol or alcohol wipes
- Pain and fever: Acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and aspirin
- Common ailments: Antihistamine for allergic reactions, antidiarrheal medicine, antacid, decongestant, hydrocortisone cream, and calamine lotion
- Tools: Thermometer, tweezers, scissors, disposable gloves, safety pins, and a first aid reference book
Prescription medications are harder to stockpile. More than half of U.S. states only allow pharmacists to dispense a 72-hour emergency supply without a doctor’s authorization. A handful of states, including Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and Oregon, permit supplies of 30 days or more under emergency laws. Your best strategy is to talk to your doctor about keeping a small buffer supply, and to carry a written list of every medication, dosage, and prescribing physician in your emergency kit.
Sanitation Without Running Water
When the water stops flowing, sanitation becomes a serious health concern fast. A practical disaster sanitation kit, stocked for seven days, includes toilet paper, wet wipes, soap or liquid detergent, hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, feminine hygiene products, and plenty of heavy-duty plastic garbage bags with ties.
If your toilet still stands but won’t flush, line the bowl with a plastic bag and use it as a commode. Add a small amount of diluted bleach (one part bleach to ten parts water) to the bag after each use, then tie it off and place it in a heavy-duty trash bag. Don’t mix human waste into your regular trash if you can avoid it. Designate a separate bin for it.
If you’re evacuated or your toilet is damaged, a five-gallon plastic bucket with a snap-on seat lid works surprisingly well as a makeshift toilet. You can buy both at any home improvement store for a few dollars. The most effective setup is a “twin bucket” system: one bucket for urine, one for feces. Cover solid waste with a carbon material like sawdust, wood chips, or finely shredded paper to reduce odor and help it break down. Commercially made waste bags with absorbent powder and bacterial enzymes are also available and can be tossed in regular trash after use.
Light, Power, and Communication
When the grid goes down, you need three things: light to see, power to charge devices, and a way to receive emergency alerts.
Start with a battery-powered or hand-crank NOAA weather radio. Cell towers can fail, internet can go down, but NOAA broadcasts weather warnings and emergency instructions continuously. A hand-crank model doubles as a backup if you run out of batteries.
For lighting, keep at least two flashlights with extra batteries. Headlamps are even more practical because they free your hands. Candles work as a backup but carry a fire risk, especially after an earthquake or gas leak.
A portable solar charger or solar battery bank can keep phones and small devices running indefinitely in daylight. Solar batteries operate silently, require almost no maintenance, and switch on automatically during outages. They won’t power your refrigerator, but they’ll keep your phone charged so you can communicate and access information. For longer outages, a portable power station (essentially a larger battery) can run small appliances for hours. Stock a supply of standard AA and AAA batteries regardless, since many radios, flashlights, and smoke detectors depend on them.
Important Documents
In an evacuation, you may need to prove who you are, what you own, and what coverage you have. Store copies of these documents in a waterproof, portable container that you can grab quickly:
- Identification: Photo ID, passports, birth certificates, Social Security cards
- Financial: Bank account numbers, credit card information, insurance policies with agent contact details
- Medical: Medication lists, prescription information, health insurance cards, vaccination records
- Property: Home inventory with photos, appraisals, and receipts for major purchases
Keep digital copies of everything in a secure cloud account or on an encrypted USB drive. Store physical copies in at least two locations: one at home and one somewhere else, like a trusted relative’s house or a safe deposit box. Update these copies whenever something changes, like a new insurance policy or a new prescription.
Pet Supplies
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. Include non-spill food and water bowls, a manual can opener if their food is canned, and written feeding instructions in case someone else needs to care for them.
Keep a two-week supply of any pet medications, plus a one-month supply of flea, tick, and heartworm preventative. In a waterproof container, store photocopies of veterinary records, vaccination history, rabies certificates, proof of ownership, microchip information, and a recent photo of each pet. That photo can be critical if you get separated from your animal during an evacuation.
Putting Your Kit Together
Store supplies in a place you can access quickly, even in the dark. A hall closet near your front door works well. If you live in an earthquake zone, make sure your supplies won’t be trapped behind a jammed door or buried under shelving.
Build your kit in stages if the cost feels overwhelming. Week one, buy water and a flashlight. Week two, add canned food and a can opener. Week three, build out your first aid supplies. Within a month or two you’ll have a solid foundation. Check expiration dates every six months (a good habit to pair with daylight saving time changes) and replace anything that’s expired or been used.
Consider keeping a smaller “go bag” version in your car with a day’s worth of water, some energy bars, a flashlight, a phone charger, basic first aid supplies, and copies of your documents. If disaster strikes while you’re away from home, that bag could make the difference between a bad day and a dangerous one.