There is probably nothing more universally important to securing your family’s safety in a disaster than a survival kit. There are three key elements that every survival kit should have: supplies, food, and water.
Supplies
Supplies would be everything you might need to survive in a disaster. This will be different depending on where you are. Your supplies will be based on what kind of disaster is likely where you are. If you are preparing for simple winter power outages, you don’t need to include any of the things you always have in your house, like pots and knives. If you will be using a storm shelter or an evacuation kit (for hurricanes), then you should have everything you might need if you had to spend several days in your shelter or your car.
Water
Water Supply is pretty straightforward. You should have enough water for each person in your family to have one gallon per day. Typically survival kits will be four three or four days, as that is as long as it would normally take for emergency crews to reach you, or for power to be restored. If you have specific concerns, three-week blizzards for example, then you should adjust your emergency planning to account for that.
Food
Your emergency food kit should provide you enough nutrients for the same period of time you have water for. If you are stranded for three days, water might be the difference between life and death. Three days isn’t long enough for food to be vital to life, but it is long enough to make you feel like killing someone if you didn’t have food.
Survival food kit items should be a mixture of convenient items that can be eaten with no work, and comforting items that will help keep your spirits up when you are stranded for a period of time. You should plan for about 2000 calories a day for each adult in your family, and 1300 for each child. There are a few subcategories of food that work well for your survival food. Lets go over a few of them:
Ramen/ Instant Soup Cups
Ramen noodles in all their forms are great survival food. They have 200 easy-to-digest calories per pack, and only need hot water to make an adequate meal. You can even rehydrate in cool water if you need to; it just takes a little longer. In a real pinch, you can eat the noodles dry. The noodle cups are even better because you don’t have to worry about dishes. Just add hot water and go. You can rehydrate jerky in boiling water and add to your noodle cup to make a complete meal.
Nutrition Bars
These are great because you don’t have to burn energy to prepare them. Open and eat for easy calories. There are many varieties that taste much better than the bars of a few years ago.
Dehydrated Meals
There are many options for dehydrated meals that can be prepared by adding boiling water to them and letting it sit. This might be the easiest way to get a complete meal without complicated cooking.
MREs
Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs are as military as they sound. Originally created as a portable meal for the military that could be held at room temperature, MREs will fill you up, even if they might not be the first choice, they are a great way to set aside the needed meals.
Premade Kits
If you don’t want to deal with putting together your survival kit, it is possible to buy premade kits for your survival kit. These kits will have everything you need and are often customizable. If you want a convenient way to pack your survival kit, buy yourself a complete food kit today.
