Part of good disaster preparation is having a disaster kit. One for home, work and vehicle.
There is no right set of 'stuff' for a disaster kit. As there is no standard container to store it all in. Some like the flexibility of a backpack, which exemplifies the concept of a "Go-bag", others like a large duffle, or even a plastic bin with supplies. You can get rather flexible and make a multi faceted approach and have multiple levels of disaster kits and go bags to be prepared for the right response.
I will separate these kits into three different categories. A shelter in place kit, a go kit- for the quick evacuations and an everyday carry kit.
Today I will discuss the shelter in place kit.
Shelter In Place:
This kit should consist of what you need to sustain your family for nearly any potential threat you deemed plausible in yesterday's threat analysis. At a minimum food, water, medicine, clothing, important documents and means to sustain yourself for a minimum of 5 days.
Since this kit will most likely be at your permanent home, we can look at your options and have some additional flexibility. Hurricane Sandy was an event that lasted for 10-14 days. Some select folks were without power for 17 days. Why not expand your selection to cover at least 2 weeks, if not 3 weeks.
Let me start with water. As mentioned earlier, a good rule of thumb would be 1 gallon per person per day. A family of 5 would need 5 gallons a day. Don't forget the pets! Now water weights about 8 pounds per gallon, so a day's worth of water for this family is about 40 pounds. Not exactly portable. A 21 day supply of water is not exactly practical as well. A twenty one day supply is over 100 gallons. Some people will be able to have 2 55 gallon water containers in storage. If you have the space and inclination two 55 gallon drums stored properly will provide you a solid 3 weeks of water for a family of 5. For most space is an issue and storage of 105 gallon jugs or barrels is not always practical. I always suggest having at least 35 gallons of semi portable water in hand in the form of 5 gallon 'water cooler' jugs and gallon jugs and smaller bottles. This will get you through the first week when disruption is presumably at its highest. So where do you obtain the remaining 70+ gallons? There are a few options. As the disaster unfolds, or the day before fill your tub(s) with water, fill large pots with water and other clean containers. You can instantly create over 100 gallons of temporary storage in just a few minutes. Of course water in the tub must be sanitized before use. They do make once plastic liners that store in a medicine cabinet you can deeply and fill your tub that reduces the risk of contamination, so that may be an option for those grossed out thinking of drinking from their tub. As for filtration, a chemical treatment of 8 drops of bleach per gallon for 30 minutes works, as do ceramic gravity filters or micro pump filtration systems. Each have pros and cons. But clean water in a disaster is a lifesaver. A rain barrel to collect run off, storage of tub water, and local collection are three viable ways to obtain more water. The risk with local collection is contamination. This water may have petrochemical and pesticide residue from recent storms or disaster events, may have high levels of bacteria and other contaminates. It should be boiled and filtered and run through carbon before considered safe.
On to food. Most people may have a variety of packaged foods, and canned goods in the house. No one likes to go shopping daily for meals. Take a look around and see what your working inventory is. Then see what it takes to prepare it. Will you have an over? Stove? Microwave? The realistic answer is not likely. Without power your gas stove may operate, but in extreme disaster your gas may be off as well. You may need to cook on an outdoor grill or camp fire. Do you have the requisite utensils for doing this? One can make a simple block/brick outdoor oven with some bricks and/or cinder blocks, but if you do not have them set up beforehand they will do you little good. A propane grill has a finite operating time and is only as good as the last time you filled it up. Camp stoves have limited power and also require fuel on hand. All are viable short and medium term solutions and are easy and common enough to have on hand. Just be sore your camp stove has spare fuel, your grill is topped off and you have practiced and planned for use of a ire pit or make sift block stove outdoors.
The food you do have may still require additional processing. Like a bender or refrigeration. Those food items would generally be off the table. But things easily prepared with water (from your supply), that require merely heat to prepare, or better yet no heat are ideal. Since perishables will spoil rather quickly it is good to have some long life foods on hand. Canned goods are excellent. Just be sure to have at least 2 manual can openers! Jar foods and home canned products are also excellent. Keeping these items as part of your regular pantry and restocking when you use will ensure freshness and ensure they are products your family actually will eat. It does you no good to stock up on 500 pounds of rice and peanut butter if your family hates both. Some typical good storage foods include canned vegetables, fruits, meats, and sauces. With a nice pot of boiling water, dry pasta or rice mixed with a can to two from the pantry ca make a simple meal for a family. A simple griddle over a fire and biscuit mix will allow for griddle cakes or similar even without dairy.
Along with your pantry storage have a dedicated supply of additional canned and dry products. Include simple pleasures for kids and yourself like chocolate, granola bars, cookies as well. But primarily focus on the nutritious foods and not junk. These should get rotated at least annually an again be foods your family will consume. For a family of 5 for 21 days consider at least 1 can of vegetables, fruit and meat/soup per day. That is 15 cans of food per family per day. If you figure your pantry lasts 1 week, then you can gain another 7 days with 105 cans of food. This sounds like a lot but you would be surpassed how much space it really takes. A can of chicken, or corn is not huge. They can be stored in crates in the basement or underneath beds or on the bottom of closets. Ideally where they will not be exposed to excessive moisture, heat or cold. You can get over 450 cans of food under a twin bed single stacked. In slide out plastic totes you can store well over 1000 cans. To round out your storage some bags of beans, rice, pasta and other 'dry' products can supplement any canned meals. You can eat quite well and have plenty of variety using nothing but dry foods and canned foods. It may not be ideal for ever, but for the type of disaster we are preparing for it would sustain you just fine.
There is also long term food options. Many companies make and sell freeze died, or dehydrated foods that last for 5-20 years. These can be single ingredients or entire meals. Some brands are better than others and some meals or combos work better than others, but they take minimal space and can feed your family well in an extended crisis. Also consider MREs. These are not the C Rats of old, but are self contained, often available with chemical warming units, that provide a days or meals worth of nutrition in a vacuum sealed kit that stores for 3-7 years. A case typically has 12 meals with 1200-1300 calories. That one case which is a bit bigger than a shoe box could sustain your family of 5 for 2-3 days. Not gourmet living nor as satisfying as a full meal but could get your though a rough patch before services are restored.
A combination of pantry items, dry goods, canned goods, long term storage and MRE make for a well rounded kit. Be sure to have on hand items like beef jerky, granola bars, fruit (for vitamin C) and vegetables in cans and dry. When local supermarkets hold can sales and the like you can stock up easily for a relatively low cost and be more prepared to weather out a disaster at home.
In addition to water and food you need to account for your shelter. Your dwelling may have minor dame. If it sustained more tun minor damage you may consider evacuation which will be covered later this week. Items to have on hand for your kit at home would include tarps, plastic sheeting, duct tape and half sheets of plywood. These can easily and quickly path leaky roofs, broken windows and minor damage.Even the most tool inept can clumsily seal a window with plastic and duct tape. For those more handy, your basic tools can offer more advanced quick repairs. Just realize power may be out and your collection of battery powered drills, saws and such will not work for long. A good old fashioned hand drill, hand saw and screw driver still have a place in this world. Tarps and cord (any weather resistant rope or cord, many like 550 paracord as it has many others uses as well) can help create shelters or patch up existing ones. I prefer grommeted tarps as they standup to wind and abuse better. While your tool kits and disaster tool preps do not have to be with your shelter in place kit they should be accessible and identified in advance.
Personal items and medication and first aid Every house should have a nice assortment of first aid items for everyday use. If you don't then you are already behind the curve on this. Basic materials would be bandages, sterile gauss pads and wrap, elastic bandages, antibiotic cream and ointment, lip balm, disinfectant, rubbing alcohol and assorted over the counter medications for family to treat pain, fever, allergy, cough and cold as deemed appropriate.In addition a dedicated kit should go with your disaster supplies. It should contain all of the above in addition to some more robust bandages. You may not have 911 service immediately after a disaster, so the more severe lacerations or even a fracture may have to be dealt with at home. Having additional gauze wraps, bandages, trauma pads, cardboard and foam splits and triangular bandages should be in the kit. Also a huge factor is mental preparedness and training. At the absolute minimum have a good book on first aid in your kit. You can learn as you go. But be proactive and take a first aid and CPR class. Better yet get First Responder, CERT or EMT training. You can be a valuable resource to your family and community that way. Different levels of first aid and medical kits will be covered in another day.
We have now covered water, food, simple shelter and simple first aid items. Next is clothing. In the northern climates be sure you have plenty of warm clothes and blankets. You may find yourself without heat for days to weeks. Thermal undergarments, layers, sweaters, head covering and goo socks all will make life more comfortable. In more hot climates loose fitting yet protective garments is critical. Related is loose clothing that protects against insects. In a serious disaster the insect population may spike and your risk the spread of disease. Protective clothing to minimize mosquito and other biting insect access and good bug spray are a must. A comfortable person is far more mentally prepared to die out adversity than a cold/hot miserable person.
Most of these items you may already possess. Take the time to inventory your food, water, medical supplies and tools and have a plan as to where you can store more and gather the essentials together for your shelter in place kit.
Do not forget important documents. A USB key of scanned important documents is great, but also copies or even originals of wills, insurance papers, power of attorney, passports, birth certificate, etc should be protected yet available for immediate access in the vent of evacuation. I like to scan all of these documents including banking and credit card info and keep an encrypted USB stick and have my copies/originals as needed in water proof sealed bags ready to go. A simple fire rated safety box can protect them from fire and water, especially of they are double wrapped in sealable document bags and is easy to grab and go should you need it. Redundant off site storage is valuable. Scans of less critical items can be stored in secure 'cloud' space, safe deposit boxes (keep in mind you do not always have access here) and with trusted family members in different geographic regions.
Last for this topic is communication. As cellular and land line and internet may be disrupted, especially locally and for incoming calls yo need a communication plan. An out of state/area person of contact is a great idea. Make someone or someones outside your local area a point of contact. You need to get word to them and they will disseminate this info to all other friends and family. Arrange these numbers to be shared in advance. Be aware in this digital age cell phones are more common than land lines. In all likelihood both types of phone will be disrupted for various reasons. Land lines are vulnerable to physical pole and line damage from high winds; cellular systems are easily overloaded and require constant owed as does your handheld phone. Cordless phones will not work without power, so have a back up corded phone s well. For family locally that are out and about like at a job or offsite when disaster hits make pre planed methods of contact. Be it the outside contact person or other pre arranged method. For example, if a is aster strikes and I am commenting I will try to make contact between 4-5 PM and again 9-10 PM or every 5 hours until you get through. This helps alleviate some fears if someone cannot get in touch immediately and you know when to expect communication so you can spare battery powered devices until those windows.
This information is all disaster prep 101. Preparations can get far more involved and have layers upon layers of contingencies. Before we get to those levels we need to ensure the basics are covered.
