The Most Approachable Way To Prepare For An Emergency

The Importance Of Being Prepared For Emergencies

Between earthquakes, fires, floods, and other emergencies we’ve witnessed over the last few years, I’ve been reminded of the importance of being prepared for emergencies. In the event of a disaster or evacuation, it could be difficult or even impossible to find necessities like food and water for a time.

Having the necessities on hand won’t solve all your problems, but knowing you’ll be able to survive the immediate aftermath of a disaster is a lot better than the alternative. So how you do start preparing for an emergency?

Starting An Emergency Kit From Scratch

If you have next to nothing on hand for emergencies, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed at the thought of the task ahead of you. But you don’t need to find a bunker and fill it with months of shelf-stable food — the key is to start with the basics, then work your way up from there.

Emergency preparedness is usually discussed in terms of time, and a good length of time to shoot for as a beginner is 3 days, or 72 hours. That means having enough food, water, and other supplies for everyone in the house to last you 72 hours. It’s enough to be genuinely useful in a large-scale emergency, without being totally overwhelming to those who are starting at square one.

To help make it easier for you to build up a 72-hour emergency stockpile, I’ve put together a checklist of everything you’d need to keep your family fed and in good health. Whether you have some emergency supplies already or have absolutely nothing, this checklist will help ensure you don’t forget anything important.

Download A Printable 72-Hour Emergency Checklist

The checklist you can download below covers what you’ll need by way of food, supplies, water, tools, and other items for a full 72 hours. You may already have many of these things at home, and anything you don’t already have should be easy to find.

And keep in mind that you don’t have to get everything on the list at once. You can acquire these items over time by adding one or two of the list items to your shopping list whenever you go grocery shopping.

So download the 72-Hour Emergency Checklist PDF below, print it out, and start putting together your kit today. Hopefully you’ll never need to use it, but it’s better to be than safe than sorry!

Have you started an emergency kit yet?