Keeping your family safe in a disaster means making critical decisions ahead of time, so you know you have taken care of the most important things. While some situations require exotic solutions, there are a few things that are always needed. Water, food, first aid, and shelter are your top priorities for maintaining physical function, with defense, communication, and mobility being your primary action strategies to make sure nothing gets in the way of keeping you and your family safe and healthy.
Here are my top 10 Essential Preparedness Items for ANY Disaster.
Water:
Water is the essential resource for human survival and flourishing. Nearly every human settlement on Earth is centered around a reliable water supply, for good reason: without water the human system begins to shut down. Depending on rate of depletion, confusion and cognitive impairment can occur as quickly as 24 hours without water, with permanent brain damage or death possible after only 72 hours. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201016-why-we-cant-survive-without-water
A few recommendations follow below. Check out my deep dive into water storage here:
How to Store Water At Home: Prepping Water for Emergencies
Water Storage Tanks:
For home storage, many serious preppers will invest in a high capacity water storage tank to ensure that they are able to endure loss of access to water for an extended period of time. This is a popular example, that blends both high water capacity with stability, sturdiness, and affordability.
Portable Water Storage:
For something a little more flexible, I like to have water storage with sturdy handles I can lift while full, in case we need to Get Out of Dodge. For our family, I chose these stackable, sturdy, not overly large Water Storage Containers. (I wanted to avoid accidental spills, but they do make similar ones with spigots, if that’s a big deal to you.)
Emergency Food Supply:
After water, nothing is more important for keeping the body healthy than nutritious food. You are going to be expending a ton of extra calories when living without modern conveniences, and lack of proper nutrition is what makes the difference between a life-threatening illness and a simple cold. Emergency food comes in an extremely wide variety, so each family will have to make the choices that make the most sense, based on lifestyle, allergies and food sensitivities, and storage capacity. One really helpful perspective I encountered is to stock food that your family would eat anyway – that way you can avoid spoilage by bringing some of your emergency supplies into your diet when it’s nearing its expiration date.
Canned foods:
If you use canned food in your family’s diet normally, adding a week’s supply of cans to your basement storage is a great way to get “immediate survival” taken care of. Cans’ expiration dates are typically shorter than other emergency food supply options, so I have set a “spring cleaning” recurring calendar item to help me remember to bring the expiring items up out of the basement into the pantry.
Traditional dried foods:
Many traditional options are shelf stable for years if well stored. Rice, beans and other legumes, and cereal grains are all good candidates for food that can last 1-5 years. However, the packaging matters a lot. Packaging that is designed to make the product attractive on a store shelf simply does not last. Flimsy plastic, paper bags, and fiber sacks will break down, allow air to spoil the food, and do almost nothing to stop pests. For long term storage of dried goods, I use these buckets, which are infinitely better than the store packaging.
Gamma Seal Lid
Freeze-dried food:
There are so many vendors on the market, and it can be really hard to make a decision that you won’t know if you chose wisely until it matters most. Blogosphere to the rescue! I found this great round-up https://practicalselfreliance.com/best-survival-food-kits/ on the awesome Practical Self Reliance blog site, and on the strength of that review, bought the Nutrient Survival brand food in a variety of sizes. Here is the full review for Nutrient Survival on the PSR blog.
https://practicalselfreliance.com/nutrient-survival-review/
First aid kit:
When everything has gone wrong, and the world is turned upside down, an injury can turn from a simple inconvenience to a life-threatening incident. Loss of blood and infections are the primary ways an injury can get out of hand, and immobilization from a break or sprain can keep you trapped in a difficult situation. This Trauma Kit is the best I’ve found, and has almost everything, though I have added extra band-aids and adhesive laceration closures to mine.
Self-defense firearm:
In order to keep from tripping some online advertiser policy, I will not promote or advocate a specific item here, just suffice to say, if you take your family’s safety and security seriously, in a moment when people are getting desperate, you need to have powerful, flexible self-defense, and this means a well-maintained firearm that you and your family have trained with. Like everything in preparedness and survival, it is always better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have it.
Gasoline generator:
If you have stored up some meat in your chest freezer, and you’re counting on that side of beef you bought last year to get you through a temporary disruption, like a major earthquake or ice storm taking out power for a few days, you’re going to need a backup generator. In addition to food preservation, you can use it to charge electric power tools, or take it with you, if you have to escape out to the boondocks. I chose this one because of its price, compact size, clean power rating, and the fact that I can chain them together for higher output if needs be.
Read my review here: Pulsar G2319N Review: A High-output Budget Portable
Thinking about a Solar generator? Check out my comparison article for the pros and cons of Solar vs Gas.
Portable Solar vs Gas Generator: Which is Better for Home Backup and SHTF?
Hygiene products:
Remember Covid. All of a sudden, we found out toilet paper is a must have resource and there is not a lot to go around once everyone starts to panic. Stock up ahead of time to keep yourself out of unfortunate situations. (Also, if you have ladies in the house, be thoughtful enough to stock up on those extra monthly items that they need. They’ll thank you for it.)
Mobility:
Once you’ve determined that you need to relocate, grab some resources you didn’t acquire ahead of time, or you had to leave your home base for something that you’ve run out of, you’re going to need a couple of additional things to be safe while mobile.
Backpack:
When you are limited to what you can carry, it helps to be able to carry more. A good large backpack will give you extra capacity both coming and going. If you’re carrying any significant weight, a comfortable belt is going to make a huge difference. For the price, this medium hiking backpack is a steal.
Backpack
Bug out bags:
When you start getting into prepping, it won’t be long before you encounter the concept of the “bug-out bag”. This is a bag that is prepped and ready to go with the essentials you need. When things go sideways, you grab it, throw it in the car, or put it on and “bug out”. Each member of the family who can carry one should have their own. What should go in your bug out bag is a matter of extremely passionate debate, but ultimately, is a decision for you and your family. I’ve prepared a 72-hour Bug Out Bag list that is a great place to get started.
72 Hour Bug Out Bag list: 9 Emergency Essentials
Walkie Talkies:
After splitting up, you need to be able to communicate with your team. In case either of you need the other, you’re going to need a way to call for help, and unfortunately, depending on circumstances, you can’t count on your cell phone being available. Midland has been in the outdoor communication game for a long time, making quality affordable products. These walkies have great range and good weather protection.
Talkie
Car:
If you decide it’s time to Get Out of Dodge, you will be thankful to have one. Four-wheel drive and plenty of storage are the keys here. But honestly, if you’re serious about being prepared and you don’t have a car, you probably need to make that your first priority. Make sure you have an agreed upon plan with a friend who has one.
Gas can:
Ok, if you’ve decided to head for the hills, you’re only going to get as far as one tank of gas. Depending on circumstances, you can’t rely on any particular gas station being in working order, and sometimes, it will be safer to walk up and get some gas put in the can, rather than sitting there with your immobile car, containing your family and all the most valuable things you could stuff into the vehicle. Having a gas can gives you a lot of extra flexibility, even if it’s just a backup. This is a good one that has a bit more capacity and structural strength than the plastic jug versions.
Can
Conclusion:
There are endless things you can think of that you might need in an emergency scenario. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Preparing for the future is a game of probabilities, and careful prioritization, but getting started with this list will put you well ahead of the curve. With some thoughtfulness and a lot of luck, you and your family can survive whatever man and nature can throw at you.
