Emergency doesn’t wait to let you get prepared. It often sneaks up on you and strikes when you least expect it. That’s why it is imperative to ensure that you and your family not only have an emergency plan put in place, but also an emergency preparedness kit.
Emergency preparedness kits are chalked full of gear that can help you deal with a wide variety of situations. They are light enough that they can be easily carried, but they must have several essentials to be effective. In this post, we’ll discuss some of the most important pieces of gear that you need to ensure are inside of your family emergency preparedness kit, so you’ll be ready to face emergencies with confidence. Let’s get started.
Step 1: Get a Good Backpack
As we mentioned in the introduction, a good emergency preparedness kit will always need to be something that you can easily travel with. The reason why is that you never know whether your home will be a safe place to stay during an emergency or not. If floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, or other major natural disaster strikes, you need to be able to sling that kit on your back and get to safety.
To that end, we recommend that you pick up a backpack that will only serve as your emergency preparedness kit. Make sure that you mark your backpack so that you not only prevent yourself from putting anything other than emergency preparedness gear in it, but you make it easier to spot in situations when you’ve got to go quickly.
A great backpack that you can use for building your emergency preparedness kit inside of is the Camoredy First Responder Backpack. Its bright red shell combined with a big white cross and “FIRST AID” written at the top of it will ensure that you can easily identify your emergency preparedness kit. It’s also got plenty of storage space and organizational features to make it easier to find the gear you need when you need it.
Step 2: Fill it with Gear
After you’ve sourced a good backpack, it’s time to start filling it up with the gear that you’ll want to have with you in case of a major emergency. The biggest problem that most face is just narrowing down what they want to take with them in the event of an emergency.
The best way to determine what you want to bring in an emergency preparedness kit is to consider the immediate needs your family will have during an emergency and then build around the highest priority needs first, then fill in on secondary needs if you have room in your bag.
When it comes to the hierarchy of needs during an emergency, the first thing that you need to take care of is medical safety. This means that you need to prioritize getting a good first aid kit in your backpack so that you can ensure that any minor medical issues can get fixed quickly.
After you’ve dealt with any medical emergencies, the next biggest priority you’re going to need to deal with is getting potable water. Water is pretty heavy, weighing in at about 8lbs. per gallon, so it’s imperative that you have a way to create potable water as packing it along with you is not an option. Here at Prep Right, we’ve created a couple of solutions for this major problem: our Aquatabs and our Water Filtering Water Bottle.
Aquatabs are extremely lightweight and can create drinkable water in a matter of minutes. They’re ideal for creating large amounts of potable water as one tablet is capable of purifying about 0.5 gallons of water. Aquatabs come in a variety of package sizes so you can choose how many you’ll have with you.
Our Water Filtering Water Bottle is great to have on hand in addition to the Aquatabs because it’s easy to use on the go. You can fill it up from a contaminated water source, screw the lid on top, and simply drink from the attached straw for a fresh drink of water. The filter inside of the bottle automatically filters out all the contaminants, keeping you and your family safe from water borne illnesses.
After water is taken care of, it’s important to have a way to start a fire in your emergency preparedness kit. Hypothermia can set in quickly when you’re exposed to the elements. In fact, if you’re wet, hypothermia can begin taking effect at temperatures as high as 50°F! That’s why having a sure-fire way to get a fire started is important to keep inside of your emergency preparedness kit. Our Mini Fire Starters are excellent for getting a fire started quickly as they are made from ferrocerium and flint, which allows you to create a fire regardless of the weather conditions. It’ll always light!
The last piece of gear you want to ensure is in your emergency preparedness kit is extra calories and a way to consume them. Backpacker meals are great options, but they often take up a lot of space and require that you boil water in order to eat them. In an emergency, you may not be able to boil water, so having something that you can easily eat is important to have with you.
The Prep-Right Survival Tabs are a great option for getting extra calories stuffed into your pack. These tiny little food tablets don’t require any cooking or heating, simply open up the packaging and pop them in your mouth. They come in several tasty flavors so you can choose which ones you want to have along with you.
In addition to having the survival tabs with you, it’s also a good idea to pack along a way to eat should you find a food source while you’re dealing with an emergency. The Prep-Right Multipurpose Spork is a great way to ensure you’re able to eat quickly when you’re dealing with an emergency. Not only that, but it comes with 8 different tools built right into it, so when you add it to your emergency preparedness kit, you’re not only getting a spork. You’re also getting a knife, a bottle opener, and a saw!
Final Thoughts
Gathering your supplies is only the first part of ensuring that you’re ready for an emergency. Gear is only as good as the people who use it, so it’s really important to practice with your gear before an emergency strikes. Take a first aid class, practice using your water filtering water bottle and Aquatabs, and rehearse your emergency plan with your family often. Remember that emergencies often come out of nowhere, so you have to be ready to deal with them at all times. Stay prepared. Stay alive.