Six principles that do most of the work
Plan for the first 72 hours, then the first 3 weeks
Outside help is usually organized within 72 hours, but in a widespread event it can take two to three weeks to reach every street. Build a 72-hour go-bag you can carry, and a 2-week shelter-in-place stock you can live on at home. Anything beyond that is a bonus, not a starting point.
Skills beat gear, and people beat both
A neighbor who is a nurse is worth more than a $400 trauma kit nobody can use. Map who around you can do medical, mechanical, electrical, childcare, cooking, radio and heavy-lifting work — that map is your real inventory.
Two is one, one is none
Every critical function — light, water treatment, heat, communication, ignition — needs a backup that fails in a different way. If your backup for a dead phone is a second phone, you do not have a backup.
Redundancy is cheaper when it is shared
Eight households do not each need a generator. One generator, one chainsaw, one pressure canner and one ham radio spread across a squad — with everyone knowing who holds what — is cheaper and more capable than eight duplicate closets.
Write it down, offline
Phone contacts, addresses, medication doses, insurance numbers and meeting points all live behind a screen that may be dead. Keep one printed page per person, laminated or in a zip bag.
Practice once a year
Run a two-hour drill: kill the household breaker, cook a meal on your backup stove, send one message on your backup comms, and drive your evacuation route. You will find three broken assumptions every single time.
The one-page family emergency plan
Fill this in tonight
- Primary meeting point within walking distance of home (end of the block, a specific tree, a mailbox).
- Secondary meeting point outside the neighborhood, in case the area is closed off.
- Out-of-area contact — one person in another state everyone calls or texts to check in, because local lines jam first.
- Two evacuation routes out of your region that do not use the same highway, each driven at least once.
- Who picks up which child, from which school, with a written authorization on file.
- Where the water shutoff, gas shutoff and main breaker are, plus the wrench needed, stored beside them.
- Pet plan: carriers, food, vaccination records, and two pet-friendly lodging options an hour away.
- Document pack: IDs, deeds, insurance, prescriptions, and photos of every room for claims — copies in a waterproof pouch and on an encrypted USB drive.
Scenario playbooks
Ten situations, what to do, and the mistakes that hurt people most often.
Communications when the network is down
- Text, do not call. SMS gets through congested networks when voice calls fail.
- Set an out-of-area contact as the hub, so local congestion does not break the chain.
- Give every squad a primary and backup radio plan: FRS/GMRS channel and privacy code for short range, ham 2m simplex frequency for longer, plus a listening schedule (for example, top of every even hour).
- Keep a NOAA weather radio with hand-crank or solar charging.
- Print the contact tree: who calls whom, in what order, with numbers written out.
- Establish a physical message drop — a mailbox, a marked post — for the case where nothing electronic works.
Sanitation, the thing nobody plans for
- Two 5-gallon buckets with a snap-on toilet seat, heavy contractor bags and sawdust, kitty litter or peat moss for cover material.
- Plan roughly 1 gallon of water per person per day for hygiene and flushing on top of drinking water.
- Soap and hand-washing beat sanitizer for anything involving food or waste.
- Bag and seal waste, store away from living space and water sources, and never bury near a well or creek.
- Menstrual supplies, diapers and incontinence supplies for the full planning window — these disappear from shelves fastest.
Food strategy
- Store what you already eat, then eat what you store — rotate first in, first out, and nothing goes to waste.
- Prioritize calorie density and zero-cook options for the first 72 hours: nut butter, tuna pouches, tortillas, dried fruit, bars.
- Aim for about 2,000 calories per adult per day as a floor, more for cold, labor or nursing.
- Keep comfort food, coffee, spices and hard candy — morale is a survival resource, especially with children.
- Have two cooking methods that need no grid: a propane or butane stove and a rocket or wood stove, both used outdoors.
- Store a manual can opener with the food, not in the kitchen drawer.
The supply checklist
Essential items come first — they cover the 2-week window. Suggested items extend you toward 30 days or make life meaningfully easier.
Water
Essential
- 1 gallon per person per day, 2-week minimum at home
- 72-hour portable water in the go-bag (3 liters per person)
- Water filter rated for bacteria and protozoa (0.2 micron or better)
- Purification tablets or unscented household bleach with dropper
- Collapsible 5-gallon jugs plus a bathtub bladder
- Metal pot for boiling
Suggested
- Gravity filter for group use
- Rain catchment barrel and first-flush diverter
- Water test strips
- Hose rated as potable for transfer
Food
Essential
- 14 days of shelf-stable food per person, rotated
- 3 days of no-cook food in the go-bag
- Manual can opener
- Off-grid stove with fuel for 14 days
- Salt, sugar, oil, spices, coffee or tea
- Infant formula, pet food and special-diet items as applicable
Suggested
- Freeze-dried long-term buckets for the 30-day tier
- Cast iron and a Dutch oven
- Sprouting seeds or a garden plan for fresh nutrients
- Vacuum sealer and food-grade buckets with gamma lids
Medical
Essential
- Full first-aid kit with trauma shears and a CPR barrier
- Tourniquet and hemostatic gauze, plus training to use them
- 30-day supply of all prescriptions
- Pain relievers, antihistamine, anti-diarrheal, rehydration salts
- Thermometer, tweezers, splint, elastic wrap
- Printed medical page per person: conditions, doses, allergies, doctors
Suggested
- Suture or wound-closure kit if trained
- Blood-pressure cuff and pulse oximeter
- Spare eyeglasses and hearing-aid batteries
- N95 respirators, one per person per day of smoke
Light, power & heat
Essential
- Headlamp per person plus spare batteries
- Two lanterns and a hand-crank or solar light
- Power bank sized to at least four phone charges
- Weather radio (NOAA) with crank or solar
- Warm sleeping bag or wool blankets rated for local winter lows
- Fire: lighter, stormproof matches, ferro rod, tinder
Suggested
- Solar panel with a small battery station
- Generator with fuel stabilizer and a transfer plan
- Indoor-rated propane heater with a CO detector
- Battery CO and smoke detectors on every level
Shelter & warmth
Essential
- Tarp, paracord and duct tape
- Emergency bivvy or space blanket per person
- Work gloves and sturdy boots per person
- Rain shell and layered clothing set per person
- Plastic sheeting and staples for a sealed room
Suggested
- Four-season tent for the squad
- Wool base layers and extra socks
- Canvas repair kit and spare tarps
Sanitation & hygiene
Essential
- Bucket toilet with seat, bags and cover material
- Toilet paper for the planning window
- Soap, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes
- Trash bags, heavy duty
- Feminine hygiene, diapers, wipes as applicable
Suggested
- Portable camp shower
- Bleach for surface disinfection
- Nitrile gloves and N95 masks for cleanup
Tools & repair
Essential
- Multi-tool and a fixed-blade knife
- Adjustable wrench sized for the gas shutoff, kept at the meter
- Hammer, pry bar, hand saw
- Duct tape, zip ties, wire, tarp clips
- Fire extinguisher (ABC) on each floor
Suggested
- Chainsaw with chaps, fuel and a spare chain
- Cordless drill with charged spares
- Shovel, axe, bolt cutters
- Tire plug kit and 12V compressor
Communications
Essential
- FRS/GMRS radios with charged spares and a written channel plan
- Printed contact tree and out-of-area contact
- Paper maps of the region with routes marked
- Whistle per person
Suggested
- Ham radio license and a 2m/70cm handheld
- Satellite messenger for the squad
- Signal mirror and chem lights
Documents & cash
Essential
- Waterproof pouch: IDs, insurance, deeds, birth certificates, medical records
- Encrypted USB with scans and room-by-room home photos
- $200–$500 in small bills per household
- Written list of account and policy numbers
Suggested
- Notarized child-pickup authorizations
- Copies stored with the out-of-area contact
- Pet vaccination records and microchip numbers
Squad-level shared assets
Essential
- Roster of who holds what gear and which skills
- Shared meeting points, primary and secondary
- Offline packet printed and carried by every household
- Agreed radio schedule and check-in cadence
Suggested
- Shared generator, chainsaw, pressure canner, cargo trailer
- Pooled bulk food and fuel storage with a rotation owner
- Annual squad drill on the calendar
- One trained medic, one trained radio operator, one trained cook per squad
How much do you actually need?
The checklist tells you what. The calculator tells you how much — water, calories, food weight and consumables sized to your squad's real bodies, climate and timeframe.
Preparedness is not a purchase, it is a habit. Pick one line from this checklist each week, and one drill each year. In twelve months you will be the household your street depends on — and if you build a squad around you, your whole block will be. This guide is general information, not medical or legal advice, and never replaces instructions from your local emergency management agency.