Basic Items To Gather For Any Emergency

Today, it’s all about gathering basic items for any emergency. It could be a fire, a flood, a tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake, or another emergency. It could even be a bad windstorm that dismantled some above-ground power lines or blew off part of your roof.

Let’s consider this: If you have some items you’ve put in one spot for emergency use and you need them quickly for any reason, you have them ready to go.

We have all had power outages, and we’re scrambling for flashlights, lanterns, or headlamps, right? The power could be out for an hour, a day, a week, or even longer in some situations. Look at what has recently happened in the Southeast and all the way up the East Coast from Hurricane Helene!

The longer the power outage lasts, the more prepared we must be. But let’s talk about putting together a box for the hall closet, garage shelf, or somewhere else easily accessible that works for you.

“Prepare Your Family for Survival” by Linda Loosli

“Bugging In” By Raymond Dean White

This is Different than your 72 to 96-Hour Kits/Bags

Yes, we all have our 72-96-hour kits or bags, or at least we know we should. But at home, we may not need everything in that bag. That bag is for an evacuation, typically. But let’s say we’re home watching television, and the TV goes off, and so do all the lights.

We look across the street to see if our neighbor’s lights are out. Yes, they’re out as well. Now, the neighbors are coming out of their homes to see if we all have lost power. That’s Day One.

On day two, the power is still out, and people are wondering what will happen to the food in their freezers.

Please keep the freezer closed, cover it with blankets or quilts. Hopefully, you have some frozen bottles of water or bags of ice in the freezer to help keep other contents frozen longer.

You are blessed if you have a generator; most of us don’t. This practice lasts just two days, is pretty simple, not too long, and somewhat typical for a power outage in certain areas of the country.

Now, those who have a CPAP may need some power. Two days will seem like two years to those who need one. What about a nebulizer for those who have asthma? Two days is way too long for someone who may have trouble breathing. Those of us on oxygen 24/7 need to be prepared for a significant power outage.

A power outage during the day may be easier to handle because we can read a book or go for a walk. It would be nice to have a box filled with flashlights, lanterns, or headlamps when the sun goes down.

Many of us are very experienced and well aware of what we need, but some of you may be new to preparedness, and some need a little nudge to get back on target for those original emergency prep goals. It’s all good.

Basic Items To Gather For Any Emergency

It would be awesome to buy the needed items and place them in a box or a plastic tub with handles. The idea is to have everything you need in one place.

You won’t put your water or food in the bucket, but I would put the water containers in the same closet or area in the garage if that works for you. The food would be in your pantry.

Water

The American Red Cross recommends drinking one gallon of water per person per day, but that doesn’t work for me. I highly recommend four gallons per person per day. Please store at least two weeks’ water for every family member.

Food

Here’s the deal: I hope most families have at least two weeks’ worth of food in a pantry by now. All you have to do is open a can and prepare a hot meal using a Butane Stove, a gas stove, or use a Dutch Oven outside with charcoal you have stocked. 6-Quart Dutch Oven

You may remember that I gave each of my daughters a Butane Stove with extra fuel canisters. These stoves are very versatile. They can boil water, heat a can of chili, make scrambled eggs, or Creamed Chip Beef on toast, and so much more.

The easiest things to stock are cans of beef stew, Spaghettios®, soups, ravioli, etc. Let each family member label their favorite cans of food with their name; they will love it, I promise. Give a kid a magic marker, and life is good. Permanent Magic Markers

Basic Items To Gather For Any Emergency

Flashlights

I confess I don’t like the dark, period. If we lose power, I have flashlights everywhere in my home.

My favorite place for Solar Flashlights is my front window, so they stay charged all the time. People often ask me what they are.

Then they see the small solar panels of the small flashlights. Here is the larger one. I have it’s a Goal Zero Solar Flashlight

My friend, Matt, introduced me to this flashlight; it’s the best. OLIGHT S2R II 1150 Lumens EDC Flashlight

Emergency Outlet Flashlights

These are awesome, they are plugged in all the time and will turn on when the power goes out. Plus, they have a flashlight, ENERGIZER Compact Rechargeable Emergency LED Flashlight

Batteries

Be sure and stock batteries the correct way. The batteries’ + end and the – end can’t touch each other, or they may lose their shelf-life or just short out. Keeping them in their original packaging or placing them in a battery box is much better. Fireproof Battery Organizer Storage Box

Lanterns

The nice thing about lanterns is that you can walk around with them, and some will light up a small room. So if you have more than one, just think of the light you will have. Goal Zero Lighthouse 600 Camping Lantern and Goal Zero Crush Light Solar Powered Lantern

My grandkids love headlamps, they chase each other around the yard or in the house. What’s nice is the fact that they are practicing for an emergency when life is calm; this is why we do it. HeadLamps

Jan has these and loves them, UST Spright 3AAA LED Collapsible Lanterns

Hand Cranked Can Opener

Now, many canned goods come with the pull tab, but many still need a can opener to open them. Remember the slogan, “One is none, and two is one?”

Please make sure you have more than one can opener. This one is for small cans, the Can Opener. This one is better for those large #10 cans: Commercial Can Opener. The top can opener is commercial-grade, and the one below it is the regular everyday one we all use. I use an electric can opener. Electric Can Opener

Basic Items To Gather For Any Emergency

Battery-Powered NOAA Radio

We must have a battery-powered NOAA radio. Midland NOAA Battery-Powered Radio.

I quote Wikipedia: “NOAA is an American scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charts the seas, conducts deep-sea exploration, and manages fishing and protects marine mammals and endangered species in the U.S. exclusive economic zone.”

The radio I have in the picture I bought off eBay. It’s made in Germany and is called a Grundig. But I think the Midland one above looks awesome.

There are so many good ones out there. Of course, if you have your Ham Radio License, you rock!

Cell Phone Chargers

We always hope our cell phones are fully charged, right? Sometimes we get busy and forget to charge it, I get it. But, I compare it almost to keeping your gas tank 3/4 full, if not nearly full. We need our cell phones to work whenever we need them to. Here is the updated Goal Zero one similar to the one in the picture above. Goal Zero GUIDE 12 + NOMAD 5 KIT

Goal Zero Flip 24 Portable Phone Charger

In case you missed this post, 15 Emergency Numbers You Need, or this one, What to Cook in an Emergency

Final Word

I hope today’s post on the basic items to gather for any emergency makes us all think about where our “stuff” is and if it’s easy to find. It’s pretty simple to do, and most of us have all of the things above and more.

It’s all about being prepared for the unexpected, we can do it, my friends, yes we can. May God bless this world, Linda

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