Dan, a physiotherapist in Maryland, has spent about $6,000 on his family’s emergency supplies. He did not plan it that way. He started the stash after becoming a father, and then a cold February left the house without power for two days. “There were numerous gaps in what I had prepared for,” he told the BBC.
Most households will never spend that much, and the American Red Cross does not ask them to. Its minimum list is short. Water comes first: one gallon per person per day, enough for three days if you have to evacuate and two weeks if you stay home. Food follows the same arithmetic, non-perishable and easy to prepare. After that, the Red Cross lists a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, ideally a NOAA Weather Radio, plus a seven-day supply of medications, copies of key documents and a sheet of family and emergency contacts.
Adding what your household needs
The paperwork matters more than people expect. The Red Cross suggests copies of a medication list, proof of address, the deed or lease, passports, birth certificates and insurance policies. Beyond that, the kit should fit the people using it. Hearing aids with spare batteries, glasses, contact lenses and syringes belong in some. Bottles, formula, baby food and diapers belong in others. Pets need a collar, leash, ID, food, a carrier and a bowl. Local risks count too, and the Red Cross suggests adding items suited to the disasters common where you live. It also says to keep the kit easy to carry, so it works at home or can be grabbed if you have to leave.
Keeping it fresh and keeping it affordable
Dan’s answer to expiry dates is what he calls a rotating pantry. Oats, quinoa and peanut butter sit on his basement shelves, get cooked with regularly, and are replaced so the food is “not just sitting there expiring”. For his family of four he holds about three months of food and 150 gallons of water, some stored in soft plastic containers he can fill and leave in the bathtub.
Others take a gentler route. Nicole Bonds, a leadership coach in Atlanta, noticed “significantly more and more” severe weather and began buying batteries, a power bank, first-aid supplies and bedding. Cost is the constraint, so she builds the stock slowly, a little “here and there”. Some of it lives beneath her bed, some in packing bags, some in the kitchen cabinets.
In Tokyo, Ayumi’s family opens their kits every new year and swaps out food that has passed its date. Sweden went further, mailing a booklet on what to stock to every household. One recipient, Stockholm resident Andreas Wennerberg, built a modest basement store with a crank radio, a tank holding 10 litres of water, and roughly 2,230 SEK in cash.
In America, FEMA advises households to put together a kit, make a family emergency plan and learn what to do in different kinds of incident. Dan puts his own spending in perspective. For him, he says, it is about being a “responsible homeowner”.
Sources
- What Do You Need In a Survival Kit (American Red Cross)
- How to prepare for an emergency: What households in different countries stock up on (BBC)
