# Emergency kit

> Pack one bag per household today that keeps you going for 72 hours without shops, power or tap water.

After a flood, blackout or evacuation order, the first three days are on you. The kit is not survivalism, it is one bag by the door that turns a night of chaos into an inconvenience, packed once on a calm day and checked twice a year.

## Step by step
1. Water first: three litres per person per day for drinking and basic hygiene, minimum three days. Store it, and add a way to make more drinkable, tablets or a filter.
2. Food that needs no cooking: canned goods with a can opener, nuts, bars, dried fruit, baby food if needed, and a bowl for the pet.
3. Light and information: a torch per person, spare batteries, a powerbank, and a battery or wind-up radio, the phone network dies before FM does.
4. Medicines for a week for every regular medication in the house, plus a first aid kit, spare glasses, and copies of prescriptions.
5. Papers and money: copies of IDs, insurance, deeds and key phone numbers in a waterproof pouch, and cash in small notes, card terminals die with the power.
6. Warmth and hygiene: a change of clothes, rain layer, foil blankets, soap, toothbrushes, toilet paper, wet wipes, bin bags, and menstrual supplies.
7. Put it where you can grab it in one minute, tell everyone in the household where it is, and check dates and batteries every spring and autumn.

## Never do this
- Never let the kit depend on electricity alone. Every powered item needs a battery or hand-crank alternative.
- Never pack it and forget it. Expired water tastes bad, expired medicines and dead batteries fail you at the worst hour.
- Never plan around a car you might not reach, fuel you might not buy, or a lift that will not run.

## Call emergency services if
- The kit is preparation, the numbers stay the same: 911 for immediate danger to life.
- Follow official channels for evacuation orders and shelter locations.
- Check on vulnerable neighbours, their kit is often the one that does not exist.

## Emergency numbers
911 - Emergency call

## Common questions
### Is this not paranoid?
FEMA and Ready.gov officially ask every household to be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours, and every hurricane and blackout proves why: services triage the worst first, and shops empty in hours. One bag is cheap insurance you will statistically use.

### What matters most if I only do three things?
Water, your daily medicines, and a charged powerbank with a torch. Those three cover the failures that actually hurt in the first night.

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Use at your own risk. Educational and research use only, not medical advice. Verify numbers and rules for the country you are in. They change.
Source: https://emergency-cards.com/en-us/emergency-kit/
Reviewed: 2026-07-26