Emergency Kit Preparation

Have a three-day sup­ply of non-per­ish­able food that requires no refrig­er­a­tion, cook­ing or prepa­ra­tion.

Crack­ers, bread, peanut but­ter, gra­nola bars, nuts, and canned or dried fruits, are good choic­es.

Have sev­er­al cool­ers and plen­ty of ice if you plan to keep foods that need to stay cold.

Don’t for­get dis­pos­able cups, plates, and eat­ing uten­sils, man­u­al can open­er, alu­minum foil or plas­tic wrap, plas­tic stor­age con­tain­ers, and paper tow­els.

Get a more detailed list by down­load­ing Pow­er Out­age Food Safe­ty [PDF]

Be sure to have a bat­tery-pow­ered radio, NOAA weath­er radio, or TV so you can receive weath­er reports and pow­er out­age repair updates.

Don’t for­get to have a sup­ply of bat­ter­ies.

Have one flash­light for each per­son.

A bat­tery-oper­at­ed lantern is a good sec­ondary light source.

Remem­ber to store extra bat­ter­ies.

Check bat­ter­ies once a year and pur­chase new bat­ter­ies if nec­es­sary.

Pur­chase an over-the-counter first aid kit or make your own.

The kit should include ster­ile adhe­sive ban­dages in assort­ed sizes, ster­ile gauze pads, hypoal­ler­genic adhe­sive tape, scis­sors, tweez­ers, nee­dles, moist­ened tow­elettes, bot­tle or anti­sep­tic spray or hydro­gen per­ox­ide, ther­mome­ter, wood­en appli­ca­tor sticks, petro­le­um jel­ly or oth­er lubri­cant, assort­ed sizes of safe­ty pins, cleans­ing agent- bar or liq­uid soap, latex gloves, aspirin or non-aspirin pain reliev­er, anti-diar­rhea med­ica­tion, antacid, lax­a­tive, eye wash and rub­bing alco­hol.

Remem­ber to store a sup­ply of dai­ly pre­scrip­tion med­ica­tions, if nec­es­sary.

Stock an ade­quate sup­ply of toi­let paper, soap or antibac­te­r­i­al hand gel, fem­i­nine sup­plies, per­son­al hygiene items, plas­tic garbage bags and ties, a plas­tic buck­et with a tight lid, dis­in­fec­tant, and house­hold chlo­rine bleach.

Remem­ber spe­cial items for infants, elder­ly or dis­abled fam­i­ly mem­bers.

For infants and young chil­dren keep baby food, canned milk, for­mu­la and dis­pos­al dia­pers handy.

Con­sid­er keep­ing a few dif­fer­ent toys handy as well. The nov­el­ty of a new toy may dis­tract and qui­et a fright­ened or tired child.

Be sure to make arrange­ments for elder­ly and dis­abled fam­i­ly mem­bers if they require elec­tric­i­ty for med­ical equip­ment.

Have a UL-list­ed fire extin­guish­er labeled for class A, B, and C fires, for use on ordi­nary com­bustibles, flam­ma­ble liq­uids, and elec­tri­cal fires.

Be sure every­one knows how to use it.

Cord­less phones will not work with­out pow­er.

Have a cel­lu­lar phone or phone that uses a land­line in case of an emer­gency and to report an out­age.