This is Different than your 72 to 96-Hour Kits/Bags
Today it’s all about the basic items to gather for any emergency. It could be a fire, a flood, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, or other emergency situation. It could even be a bad windstorm that dismantled some above-ground power lines or blew off part of your roof.
Let’s think about this, if you have some items you’ve put in one spot for emergency use and you needed them quickly for any reason, you have them ready to go.
We have all had power outages and we’re scrambling for flashlights or lanterns, headlamps, right? The power could be out for an hour, a day, a week, or even longer in some situations. Look at what has recently happened in the southeast and all the way up the east coast from Hurricane Ida!
The longer the power outage lasts the more prepared we need to be. But let’s talk about putting together a box for the hall closet, garage shelf, or somewhere else easily accessible that works for you.
“Prepare Your Family for Survival” by Linda Loosli
Yes, we all have our 72-96-hour kits or bags, or at least we know we should. But if we are at home, we may not need everything that is in that bag. That bag is for an evacuation, typically. But, let’s say we’re home watching television, and the TV goes off and so do all the lights.
We look across the street to see if our neighbor’s lights are out. Yes, they’re out as well. Now, the neighbors are coming out of their homes to see if we all have lost power. That’s Day One.
Day Two, the power is still out. People are wondering what is going to happen to the food in their freezer.
Please keep the freezer closed, cover it with blankets or quilts if you can. Hopefully, you have some frozen bottles of water or bags of ice in the freezer to help keep other contents frozen longer.
If you may have a generator, you are blessed, most of us don’t. This practice is just two days, pretty simple, not too long, but somewhat typical for a power outage in certain areas of the country.
Now, those who have a CPAP may need some power. Two days will seem like two years to those who need one. What about a nebulizer for those who have asthma? Two days is way too long for someone who may have trouble breathing.
A power outage during the day may be easier to handle because we can read a book, or go for a walk. When the sun goes down it would be nice to have a box filled with flashlights, lanterns, or headlamps.
Many of us are very experienced and are well aware of what we need, but there may be some of you who are new to preparedness and some that need a little nudge to get back on target for those original emergency prep goals. It’s all good.
It would be awesome if you could buy the items you need and place them in a box or a plastic tub with handles. The idea is to have everything you need in one place.
Now, you won’t put your water or food in the bucket, but I would put the water containers in the same closet or area in the garage if that works for you. The food would be in your pantry.
The American Red Cross recommends one gallon of water per person per day. That doesn’t work for me.
I highly recommend four gallons per person per day. Please store a minimum of two weeks of water for every member of your family.
Here’s the deal, I really hope by now most families have at least two weeks worth of food in a pantry. All you have to do is open a can and prepare a hot meal using a Butane Stove, a gas stove, or use a Dutch Oven outside with charcoal you have stocked. 6-Quart Dutch Oven
You may remember, I gave a Butane Stove with extra fuel canisters to each of my daughters. You can boil water, heat up a can of chili, make scrambled eggs, or Creamed Chip Beef on bread, and so much more. They are very versatile.
The easiest things to stock are cans of beef stew, SpaghettiOs®, soups, ravioli, etc. Let each family member label their favorite cans of food with their name, they will love it, I promise. Give a kid a magic marker and life is good. Permanent Magic Markers
I confess I don’t like the dark, period. If we lose power, I have flashlights everywhere in my home.
My favorite place for Solar Flashlights is in my front window so they stay charged up all the time. People often ask me what they are.
Then they see the small solar panels of the small flashlights. Here is the larger one I have it’s a Goal Zero Solar Flashlight
My reader friend, Matt, introduced to me this flashlight, it’s absolutely the best flashlight around. OLIGHT S2R II 1150 Lumens EDC Flashlight
These are awesome, they are plugged in all the time and will turn on when the power goes out. Plus, they have a flashlight, ENERGIZER Compact Rechargeable Emergency LED Flashlight
Be sure and stock batteries the correct way. The batteries + end and the – end can’t touch each other or they may lose their shelf-life or just short out. It’s much better to keep them in their original packaging or place them in a battery box. Fireproof Battery Organizer Storage Box
The nice thing about lanterns, you can walk around with them and some will light up a small room. So if you have more than one just think of the light you will have. Goal Zero Lighthouse 600 Camping Lantern and Goal Zero Crush Light Solar Powered Lantern
My grandkids love headlamps, they chase each other around the yard or in the house. What’s nice is the fact they are practicing for an emergency when life is calm, this is why we do it. HeadLamps
Jan has these and loves them, UST Spright 3AAA LED Collapsible Lanterns
Now, a lot of canned goods come with the pull tab, but there are still a lot of canned goods that need a can opener to open them. Remember the slogan, “one is none and two is one.”
Please make sure you have more than one can opener. This one is for small cans, Can Opener. This one is better for those large #10 cans
Commercial Can Opener. The top can opener is the commercial-grade one and the one below it is the regular everyday one we all use.
It’s critical we have a battery powdered NOAA radio. Midland NOAA Battery Powdered Radio. What does NOAA stand for, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
I quote, Wikipedia: “NOAA is an American scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charts the seas, conducts deep-sea exploration, and manages fishing and protection of marine mammals and endangered species in the U.S. exclusive economic zone.”
The radio I have in the picture I bought off eBay. It’s made in Germany and is called a Grundig. But I think the Midland one above looks awesome.
There are so many good ones out there. Of course, if you have your Ham Radio License, you rock!
We always hope our cell phones are fully charged, right? Sometimes we get busy and forget to charge it, I get it. But, I compare it almost to keeping your gas tank 3/4 full, if not near totally full. We need our cell phones to work whenever we need them to. Here is the updated Goal Zero one similar to the one in the picture above. Goal Zero GUIDE 12 + NOMAD 5 KIT
Goal Zero Flip 24 Portable Phone Charger
In case you missed this post, 15 Emergency Numbers You Need or this one, What to Cook in an Emergency
I hope today’s post on the basic items to gather for any emergency makes us all think about where our “stuff” is and if it’s easy to find. It’s quite simple to do and most of us have all of the things above and more.
It’s all about being prepared for the unexpected, we can do it, my friends, yes we can. May God Bless this world, Linda
Where can you purchase the ‘Power your phone and AA from the Sun’ sold by Goal Zero? I have looked at their website and Amazon and cannot find it.
Thank you
Hi Sandy, thank you for asking. Goal Zero has been one of my sponsors for many years. I have had this one for quite some time. It looks like this is the newest one. https://www.goalzero.com/shop/solar-kits/guide-12-nomad-5-kit/ Goal Zero is a great company. Linda
Since we can’t use solar cooking all year here in the PNW, I prefer a rocket stove and my cast iron pots. I can use them anytime whether we have sun or not. Also, a Wonder oven is also great to have. We all need to adapt where ever we live.
Hi Cheryl, you are so right!! I never recommend a Sun Oven unless you have at least 300 days a year of sunshine. Rocket stoves are great outside, for sure! Yes, we do need to adapt where we live, great comment! Linda
Linda, I have some lanterns like these that are great for everyday or power outages. UST Spright 3AAA LED
The silicon around the light difuses it nicely and glows in the dark for hours after you turn it off. Mine came from llbean years ago and still work great! The only weird thing is you have to hold the switch down for a couple seconds to turn them on. Have a great day and thanks for the good info!
Oops, they are at amazon, I thought it would link…
Hi Jan, I got the link, thank you for the great suggestion! I’m adding it to the post! Linda
Hi Jan, oh, I like those, I will add this link to the post! I love it! https://amzn.to/3lgQ0Cj Linda
We have the old oil lamps and lamp oil for lights when needed. And candles. Plus flashlights, too. We do have some battery operated candles that I’ve put in the bathrooms when the lights go out. Our main bathroom has no windows, so with the door closed, it’s pitch black inside. I have a fuel stove and a Coleman Cook stove. Plus we have a propane Cook stove in our kitchen. We have a propane grill as well and the propane bottles for it. We usually fill up with Propane twice a year. If it’s a really long cold winter, 3 times a year. We have a 250 gallon tank.
We also try and keep 6 months or more supply of food stocked.
Hi Deborah, you are so lucky to have a propane cook stove, I love hearing this! I know people who have oil lamps and they love them!! Linda
I do love ours. We have 4 or so. And we’ve used them several times. They put out a pretty good light.
Hi Deborah, when we need them, we need them. Light is critical!! Linda
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I’m Linda Loosli. I’m the owner and editor of Food Storage Moms. I’m so happy you’ve found us. Our goal at Food Storage Moms is to help “one family at a time.”
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This is Different than your 72 to 96-Hour Kits/Bags
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