Tier 01 · Survive
Most emergencies last 24–72 hours. A basic kit and a written family plan get you through nearly all of them. Here is exactly what to build.
Why 72 hours
Seventy-two hours is not a survival estimate. It is the window that accounts for the most common disruptions most households ever face.
The median U.S. power outage lasts 4–8 hours. Severe weather events push that to 1–3 days. A 72-hour kit handles the realistic range, including outages that knock out refrigeration and heating.
After a tornado, hurricane, or ice storm, the first 72 hours are typically before roads clear, before utilities restore, and before organized aid arrives. This is the independent window.
Burst pipes, minor flooding, a fire next door. These are not disasters on the news, but they displace households for days. The same kit covers them all.
The 72-hour figure comes from FEMA and the Red Cross. It represents the point at which organized aid — shelters, food distribution, utility crews — typically becomes available after a regional event. Your kit covers the gap between when something happens and when help arrives.
The kit
A complete 72-hour kit covers six categories. Below is the minimum for each, with quantities for a family of four. Scale by household size.
12 gallons for a family of four
1 gallon per person per day, 3 days. Store in food-grade containers. Commercial bottled water is fine.
Water purification backup
Water purification tablets or a portable filter. For 72 hours, tablets ($8–$12) are sufficient.
Rotation note
Tap water in clean containers: rotate every 6 months. Commercial bottled: 1–2 year shelf life.
3 days of no-cook food per person
Canned goods, nut butter, crackers, dried fruit, granola bars. Plan 2,000 calories per adult per day.
Manual can opener
One of the most commonly forgotten items. Keep it with the food, not in a drawer somewhere else.
Special dietary needs
Infant formula, baby food, pet food, and any medically required diet items. These do not auto-appear in generic lists.
One flashlight per adult, tested
LED flashlights, not incandescent. Test them now. A flashlight with dead batteries is not a flashlight.
Extra batteries (or charged headlamps)
A headlamp leaves your hands free for tasks. Store spare batteries in a bag with the flashlight.
Note on candles
Candles are a fire hazard during stressful, disrupted conditions. LED lanterns ($15–$30) are safer and brighter.
3-day prescription buffer
Talk to your pharmacist about an early refill or an emergency supply. Most insurers allow a 90-day fill — use it.
Basic first-aid kit
Adhesive bandages, gauze, antiseptic, medical tape, pain relievers, antihistamine, and a thermometer. A pre-assembled kit runs $20–$40.
Medical device power
CPAP, nebulizer, or other powered devices need a backup power plan. See the medical devices guide.
Battery or hand-crank NOAA weather radio
Cell towers fail during regional events. A weather radio receives NOAA broadcasts without internet or cell service. Reliable models run $25–$50.
Written contact list
If your phone dies and you need to call someone, do you know their number? Write the list. Laminate it. Keep one in your wallet.
Portable phone charger
A power bank with 10,000–20,000 mAh charges most smartphones 3–5 times. Keep it charged. Cost: $25–$60.
Copies of IDs and insurance
Driver's licenses, passports, insurance cards, and vehicle registration. Photograph them too. Store physical copies in a waterproof bag.
Cash in small bills
Card readers and ATMs go down with the power. $100–$200 in fives and tens covers most 72-hour needs — gas, food, a motel night.
Prescription list and medical summary
Names, dosages, and prescribing physicians. If you end up at an unfamiliar pharmacy or urgent care, this document matters.
Two kits
Most preparedness guides talk about one. In practice, the two scenarios, staying vs. leaving, require different configurations.
Built for evacuation. Compact, portable, and designed to carry. A ready bag gets you out of the house and through 72 hours away from it.
Built for sheltering in place. Can be bulkier because it stays put. Powers through 72 hours without leaving.
Which do you build first? Start with the go-bag. If you have to leave quickly, nothing else matters. Then build out the stay-home kit as a second pass.
The family plan
The household plan is not a binder. It is four decisions, written on a card that fits in a wallet. Every member of the household should know all four.
Pick someone who lives at least 100 miles away. Local lines get jammed during regional events; long-distance calls often go through when local ones don't. Everyone in the household memorizes this number. One number. No exceptions.
One near home (a neighbor's house, the end of the block) for situations when you can't get back inside. One farther away (a library, a church, a relative's house in the next town) for when the neighborhood is evacuated. Write the addresses. Don't rely on everyone's phone working.
If you can't get to the school and your partner can't either, who does? Name a specific backup, make sure the school has their name on file, and make sure that person knows they're the backup. Schools will not release a child to someone not on the list.
Most public emergency shelters do not accept pets. Know this before a hurricane watch is posted. Have the name of a pet-friendly motel on your route and a carrier that actually fits your animal. The plan is the work; the carrier is just the tool.
What to put on the card
Out-of-area contact
Name: ____________
Phone: ____________
Meeting point 1 (near home)
Address: ____________
Meeting point 2 (farther away)
Address: ____________
Child pickup backup
Name: ____________
Phone: ____________
Print it, laminate it, put one in each person's wallet. The plan in your head is not a plan.
Start tonight
You do not need to buy anything tonight. These five steps use items in every household and take about 30 minutes. Do these now. Build the full kit over the next week.
Gather every clean, sealable container in the house: bottles, pitchers, clean pots with lids. Fill them from the tap. Date them with a marker. You now have water. Tomorrow, order proper food-grade containers. Cost tonight: $0.
Go through the house, locate every flashlight, and turn them on. Replace dead batteries now, not when the power goes out. Count one per adult. If you're short, a headlamp is $12 on Amazon. Add to a bag by the door.
Sit down for five minutes, write the four plan items above on an index card. Out-of-area contact number, two meeting points, child pickup backup. Put one copy in your wallet right now.
Take photos of your driver's license, insurance cards, and the front page of your homeowners or renters policy. Email them to yourself and your out-of-area contact. If the house burns, you still have copies.
Check every prescription in the house. If any are fewer than a week's supply, call the pharmacy tomorrow for a refill. Note which ones would need a cold chain (refrigeration) if power went out, and write that down.
You are now more prepared than most households. These five steps, done tonight, cover the most critical gaps. Build out the full kit this weekend by filling in whatever the checklist above is still missing.
Printables
A checklist on paper works when your phone doesn't. These are free. No signup required.
The complete six-pillar checklist, scaled for household size. Print one per household member.
Download freeA wallet-sized card with all four plan elements. Fill in your specifics, laminate it, carry it.
Download freeA one-page list of every document worth copying, with space to note where the originals are.
Download freeWhat goes wrong
A kit assembled in 2019 has expired medications, dead batteries, and water that should have been rotated. Set a calendar reminder for every April 1: open the kit, test the flashlights, check expiration dates, refill the water.
Top shelf of a bedroom closet, under the basement stairs. In an evacuation with 15 minutes' notice, you will not find it. The go-bag lives near the door, always.
The contact card matters more than any piece of equipment. You can buy water. You cannot improvise a meeting point or a child pickup backup in the middle of a crisis. The plan comes first.
Generic checklists don't include infant formula, pet food, hearing aid batteries, or the refrigerated insulin. Your household's specific needs don't appear on the internet's version of a kit. Add them manually to every list you print.
If you're the one who built the kit and you're also the one who isn't home when something happens, your family needs to know where it is. Show everyone. Do it this week.
The next step
Power outages, regional disasters, and infrastructure disruptions routinely last longer than three days. The next tier extends what you've built here, without buying anything you won't actually use.
First 2 weeks"The best time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."
— John F. Kennedy
Go deeper
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