Are you ready for an Emergency? What would happen if you had to evacuate your home today? Would you be prepared? Those are many of the questions that were addressed during an Emergency Preparedness Fair that I participated in on Saturday.
I put together a booth about 72 hour kits. During a crisis, these kits can be life saving. I divided my table into 10 sections that cover the basic needs during a 72 hour emergency period. As I began to speak with those that came to my booth, I realized that most people were a little bit overwhelmed by the amount of information and the many things they needed to purchase and put together for their family. I thought it would be a good idea to take the kit apart and give you a step-by-step guide to how I put my together. There will be 10 Mini-Lessons in this series. Over the next few weeks, I will share 1 Step at a time. Take it slow and focus on one task at a time and you help your family become more prepared for the future.
Step 1: Today's task will be to focus on Food and Water, two of the most essential items for your 72 hour kits. I store all of the food in two gallon size ziploc bags. The food items were purchased at Walmart unless otherwise noted. You don't need to be buy exactly what I did, but I wanted to give you at least an example of what you could put together for your family. Most items last about 2 years, but the granola bars and fruit cups are good for about 1 year. I wrote down a list of all the food I purchased with the date of expiration. When it comes closer to expiring, I take the food out of the bags and add it to our pantry and my children's snack bags for school. This helps to not waste any money. Another idea would be to take your 72 hour kits on a family road trip and eat what is there before it expires. It will also give you an idea if you have enough food to last for 72 hours.
Food (items are for one person)
1. Can of Chili
2. Can of Soup
3. 2 100% Juice Box
4. 2 Applesauce Cups
5. Cup of peaches (or other fruit cup)
6. 2 Tuna Salad kits
7. Sunflower Kernels
8. Cashews
9. Dry Roasted Peanuts
10. Dried Mixed Fruits
11. Beef Jerky (Target)
12. 2 Tuna Salad bags
13. 4 different granola bars
14. 3 100% fruit sticks (Costco)
15. Raisins
Water
You will need 1 gallon of water per day per person. I love these stackable 1 gallon water jugs that are super easy to store from Arrowhead. You can find them in most grocery stores. Walmart sells them for $1.18 each, but my sister purchased them awhile ago on sale at Safeway for about 50 cents each! Check your weekly ads for the best price.
I also have 1 water filtration bottle per person inside their backpacks as well. You can purchase one from the LDS Distribution Center online. The bottle will filter 100 gallons of water with just one filter and it will remove up to 99.99 percent of pollutants. It also removes up to 90% of fluoride. It only costs $16.50.
The Seychelle found at the Distribution center says that you can filter water from tap or rainwater, rivers, streams or even lakes, turbid and stagnant water. There is a list of other filters that you can purchase as well like Heavy Metals and Radiological Contaminants and one that enhances the alkalinity (pH) of drinking water. Those filters can be purchased directly from Seychelle. I did notice that if you purchase through the LDS Distribution Center it is less expensive.
We also have the Sport Berkey Water Bottle. They are a little more expensive at $24.95. It also does not filter out fluoride.
We also have a Berkey Water Filter that we use on a daily basis in our kitchen. It works great and the water is clean and just the right temperature even though it sits on the counter all day.
Whichever you choose, pick one up today. It will help in an emergency when you run out of your stored water source.
Are you to excited to get going now? Here's a basic check-off list that you can use to build your 72 hour kits. Stop by for the rest of the 72 hour kit Series so that you can find some tricks and tips on how we get our family better prepared.
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For $40 on Amazon you can get a Sawyer complete water filtration system that removes all pollutants and bacteria up to .1 micron and goes for 100k gallons before the filter needs to be replaced and 540 gallons per filter backwash and sanitation.
I would add matches, blanket, can opener, & flashlight to this list.
My question is, how do you fit all this stuff in a backpack (go bag) if you have to evacuate with young children and leave your vehicle behind?
I have used backpack’s that have wheels on them, but recently I bought a rolling Husky tool box that works perfectly. The kids can pull it or push and then use it as a chair to sit on. I need to update this post.
THANK YOU for posting this nice list of food. I have been overwhelmed with making our family’s go-bags and this helps SO much!
I would add basic medications to the list like Tylenol and Benadryl. Plus any medication that your family takes regularly. I have young children and with teething and allergies Tylenol and Benadryl are just a must have. Thank you for listing nail clippers. I hadn’t thought about that!
You should add stuff in your kit for pet