On the tail end of one of the worst natural disasters on record in the wake of Hurricane Helene, I am taking a few minutes to update and share my recommendations for emergency preparedness. This is not the end-all-be-guide, but it is a summary of some readily available resources which I share links to at the end. I encourage you to take time to learn about the best options and most likely challenges in your area. Those in cities may have a harder time accessing resources outside their homes than those in the country.
I am currently an acupuncturist, coach, and herbal medicine practitioner—but once upon a time I was the Force Protection Officer for my ship and squadron—which meant it was my job to prepare our crew for emergencies. After the Navy, I was a volunteer EMT and search and rescue rider. I’ve lived in areas subject to wildfires, volcanoes, earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes, tornados, and the threat of terrorist attacks. I’ve seen what can go quickly wrong firsthand. This is not an exhaustive guide but meant rather to help you think about your own needs and start you on the process of developing your plan.
No one ever thinks they will be affected by a disaster—but having lived through one of the worst typhoons on record, washing away buildings and marinas in the San Francisco Bay Area, earthquakes and wildfires disrupting services and transportation, hurricanes, tornadoes and accidental losses of water and basic sanitation due to strikes—I can tell you it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, sometimes S&*t happens. Even if it is not large scale, even a house fire can have less of an impact if you take some time to prepare in advance.
So what should you consider?
In addition to the general considerations I will outline below, it’s important to remember that emergencies happen on different scales and you may face different scenarios. Some realistic scenarios I recommend having plans for because I’ve seen them happen frequently and experienced most of them are:
For each of these, you should have an idea of how you will provide water, shelter, food, and transportation. Think ahead—If you work in dress shoes keep an old pair of sneakers and socks in your vehicle emergency kit so you aren’t left with the prospect of hiking in heels. Ditto for clothing—you may want a change of clothes in that situation. You may definitely want layers. In today's digital age, we are used to hitting a button and being connected to help. It’s fabulous when it works. Think about what you will do if that doesn’t work. If you lose your barn, do you have a place your animals can go? It can seem overwhelming at first. Take a deep breath and break it down.
Water: Your Lifeline in Emergencies
First, look around at your basic needs—water should be first on your list. You can go much longer without food than water. Only cold can kill you faster if you don’t have a way to stay warm. Why don’t I put air on this list? Primarily because if air is your limited resource on a large scale there may be very little you can do. In some areas, it may make sense to have respirators in case of air particles, but water is the thing I’ve seen people struggle with the most.
Do you carry water with you in your vehicles? At home or work—where do you get your water? Is it piped in by the city or county? Do you have a well? How does that well get the water to the surface? Do you have creeks or springs near you? Do they run year-round? Are they contaminated by agriculture or industry? Water is essential. If you rely on city or county water a safe rule of thumb is 1 gallon of water per person per day for basic hygiene needs (brushing teeth and washing hands) and drinking water. If you think you may lose water, fill your tubs and extra sinks and cover them. Saran Wrap may work—test your method before an emergency. In addition, you should have jugs of water, enough to meet your needs for your family and small animals. Livestock are another matter…
Showers and baths use extra water—so how will you keep clean without water? Baby wipes can provide some much-needed sense of cleanliness when water is scarce. How much water can you store? If you have a bathtub—possibly quite a bit—but it will need to be filled while water is available and kept clean. You must have a tight drain plug and a way to filter and purify it before drinking. If you have a well that relies on city power to function is there an option to power it with a generator? If not, you may want to keep extra water on hand. If you have a spring on your land, especially a tested safe one, a gravity-fed spring system can be installed and run no matter what. If you live near a beach, salt water won’t give you extra drinking water but you can certainly wash dishes and even bathe in salt water and rinse briefly with fresh water or wipe off the salt with a baby wipe. This was how we bathed on the sailboat in the middle of the ocean to conserve fresh water.
How to purify water:
Boiling: There are several options. If you have a way to make fire you can boil water. Most sources, including the CDC, recommend bringing water to a rolling boil (full bubbles rising and bursting) for 1 minute and then cooling water before drinking.
Filtration: No fire? No problem— you can use a Life Straw (A straw-like device that filtrates and purifies water) to drink from almost any water source including a puddle. They are amazing and worth having in your emergency kit. They also make pitchers that filter out nearly everything including bacteria.
Bleach: Plain old simple unscented bleach is your friend. I write the ratios on the bottles with a sharpie because if you need to bleach your water to make it safe to drink the internet may not be available to google the ratios. I use different ratios for storing water than for purifying a stock tank to keep algae and funk from growing so I write both those on the bottles and I keep one in the barn, 1 in the house, and 1 in my horse trailer emergency kit. I’m mildly dyslexic so I don’t rely on my memory when it comes to keeping ratios straight in my head. You can find the EPA Drinking Water Guidelines here.
Emergency Food Essentials:
Second on my list of basic needs is food, which includes having a way to prepare said food. Many people rely on freezers and generators to keep their food reserves fresh but generators can fail so your absolute emergency food reserve should be entirely independent of power. If your freezer and generator are going strong—enjoy that steak you saved for a rainy day but don’t let frozen food be your only option.
How much food do you need? 2 weeks per person is a general rule of thumb. Where you live will affect that. Urban areas generally have services back before rural areas but after a severe earthquake or tornado, the roads may not allow for easy restocking. I would plan for a little more food on hand if going out to hunt and forage for some of your food is not an option. If hunting is part of your food planning be sure you have all the needed equipment on hand and know how to safely clean and prepare the meat. Understand that the same disaster that affected you may have also made your food more skittish and pushed it to a less accessible area.
What kind of food? There are options—you can buy kits of pre-assembled freeze-dried food or you can assemble an assortment of canned and store-bought foods. MREs from military surplus are popular (but after serving in the military, I try to avoid them personally). I opt for options made for camping including freeze-dried meals. Whatever your food plan is, be sure you have a way to prepare your food. If it will require cooking be sure you have a gas stove or way to make a fire safely and cookware that can be used on an open flame. At the very least you should have a single camping burner to boil water for drinking and heat food and enough fuel for 2 weeks. There are camping foods designed to be reconstituted with water only, no heating is required. I keep a few of these on hand in case we need a couple of meals that don’t require cooking. It might not be a bad idea to have a couple in the emergency kit of your vehicle as well.
If you have animals you should have enough food for them for 2 weeks on hand; keep a spare bag of food (or case of cans) on hand. You’ll want to use it frequently but if you invest in 1 extra bag so there’s always a full one in the house, you should be prepared. I keep canned food for my cats and dogs so if they aren’t eating well due to stress I can entice them to eat, and it adds a little extra water to their diets. Same for horses—I try not to wait until I’m out of feed to restock, especially any crucial supplements. When there are plenty of bugs out and plants growing I don’t worry about keeping extra feed for my flock as they can forage quite happily if need be, but I do keep extra feed on hand in the winter.
Powering Through:
How will you keep warm or cool? Heat your food and water? Power your lights? If you have a generator, learn how to hook it up, know in advance what it will power, and have a plan to keep fuel for it fresh and usable. Make sure everyone in the house can/learns how to run it. Even if you do have a generator they can sometimes fail. Flashlights and extra batteries are a must. Write when you buy them on the package. Check them periodically and replace them if needed. Keep some candles and matches or lighters as well—they keep for a very long time. Kinetic torches, hand-cranked flashlights, and solar-powered lights can be handy in case of emergency. If you have a wood-burning stove or fireplace be sure you have fuel and kindling on hand. If you live in a hot area, solar or battery-powered fans to keep air moving through the house may be a great investment.
Power also applies to your vehicles. Keep extra fuel for four-wheelers and essential equipment. Try to keep your car at ½ a tank or above regularly—especially if it’s your escape vehicle. All vehicles should have spare water and blankets in them. A space blanket takes up no room at all. Most people carry water bottles these days, keep a couple of extra ones in your car/truck or tucked away with your blanket. If you get stranded in the snow or hot sun, you’ll be happy you did!
Essential Knowledge & Documentation:
In this digital age, information has become one of our basic needs. If the internet is down you can’t just transfer money to your account, look up how to make water safe, or Google directions for an alternate route. Keep a list of critical information such as phone numbers and addresses on paper, along with account numbers and bank information, insurance contacts and policy numbers, social security cards, business EINs, prescription medication lists, and an emergency stash of cash. I recommend keeping a copy of this list and even some key documents in a safe deposit box or at the very least in a sealed envelope with a trusted family member or friend who doesn’t live with you. How much cash depends on your location, needs, and number of family members you need to provide for. Figure your average weekly grocery and fuel bill, add 20% for price gouging and aim to save that amount as a minimum.
Have paper maps of your local area. Print them if you have to know alternate routes in and out of where you live and anyone you care for, and mark them on your map. If you may have to evacuate with animals, drive the route in advance—are you comfortable with it, can you turn around if parts of it are blocked? As you practice your routes, look at it from a worst-case scenario. Are there bridges or low-lying roads that may be easily washed out? Do you know how to bypass them? Are there a lot of trees that could fall on a given section or is it clear? A chainsaw, shovel, and tow chain should be part of your emergency plan if you have space to keep them and your roads have lots of trees. Have a spare tire in your vehicle and know how to use it. Carry jumper cables or a charging box in case of a dead battery.
You may not get stranded at home, so consider talking to co-workers and develop a plan for your workspace as well. Know who can and will give you a ride home if your vehicle can’t handle bad conditions.
If your home is damaged, you won't be thinking about work, so more savings put away for an emergency fund is always wise. Put funds into high-interest savings for an emergency fund to make money while it's waiting. Expect to spend it one day.
Teach your kids who are old enough what to do in case of an emergency. When the earthquake that rattled San Francisco Bay dropped parts of bridges and highways I was just riding my bike home from school and was wondering why the road was so bumpy and yet flat. When I stopped to catch my balance I realized the asphalt was a wave under my feet, power lines were flipping like jump ropes around me—I was staring in awe at the buildings across the estuary in downtown Oakland swaying visibly out of vertical! I knew to keep away from the power lines and any trees. I couldn’t get inside so I waited it out where I was since none of the lines would fall on me.
My parents were at work across that estuary. We didn’t know if the tunnels or bridges to the island were accessible but we knew our jobs. My brother and I knew what to do! We filled all the water tanks and every spare jug on the boat immediately after in case the city water went away—and we waited. Phones were down, power was down. We lived on a boat so were relatively self-contained and there was no chance our structure was damaged. Our job was to stay with the boat. If anything on land made us feel unsafe our job was to get the boat underway and anchor close to the harbor until our parents came back. About 4 hours later our dad made it home. The bridge was open, but the tunnels closed until they could be inspected. About 6 hours later our mom made it home. We all came through it ok. Not everyone did. But I learned that maybe my dad wasn’t so crazy to teach us to think about making sure we had water, food, power, and shelter no matter what.
Go-bags and other considerations:
The idea of having a “go bag” can sound like an extreme prepper mindset, but ask any new mother or father how nice it was to have a bag with everything they would need in the hospital packed and ready at a moment's notice, and you begin to see the value. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it should be small and easy to grab, and each person should have their own. It doesn’t have to be a huge investment—pick up some backpacks at the thrift store or repurpose last year's school bag—just be sure it fits the person it’s assigned to and is comfortable to carry if needed.
For each adult, you should have 2-3 pairs of underwear and socks, a change of clothes suitable to your outside environment, a headlamp, strike-anywhere matches and a lighter, a knife, a space blanket, shoes you can walk or hike in (especially if you work in dress shoes), maybe a small hikers towel and possibly sunscreen and bug spray. You should also have a small first aid kit with saline for flushing wounds and eyes, a disinfectant, bandaids, individually wrapped alcohol pads, butterfly closures, a suitable fever reducer, some kind of antihistamine, and maybe an ace bandage or two depending on your training. A couple of those previously mentioned camping meals and Life Water filter should also be in this bag along with a water bottle that can be refilled and easily cleaned. Add some single-serving electrolytes for good measure. Also handy to have is part of a roll of toilet paper in a ziplock bag and a spare ziplock bag in case you have to store that used paper. Ladies—have some feminine supplies in there as well. A small travel bottle of dish soap has a myriad of uses from cleaning dishes to helping to defog glasses.
A small solar charger for battery-powered lights and headlamps or cell phones could also be handy, test it before you rely on it. And when you think you have a good pack, go for a long walk with it and make sure it’s not too heavy and fits well.
Those key insurance policy numbers and contact info and your basic maps should be in this bag too—preferably in a waterproof container or at least double ziplock bags. A write-anywhere pen like a Sharpie or paint marker makes it easier to leave notes for people—even on your door if necessary. If you have to leave your home or abandon your vehicle it may be a good idea to write your names, intended destination, and day and time of departure on your wall or door in a visible space. “EG- “leaving for Grandma’s at 111 Safe Lane on foot on Jan 1 at 11:11am—the phone number there is:…..” This will make it much easier to find you.
If you have room, a travel pack of baby wipes is always handy. In cold weather, a good scarf, hat, and gloves are great to tuck in there. If you carry a weapon, add in some spare ammunition just in case. I like to have a compass as well.
If you have children, especially very young children, be sure you have plenty of diapers, formula or baby food, and whatever creams, wipes, and supplies you will need. Keep a special stash of snacks for younger kids. Talk to them about what might go wrong. Practice having no power and eating with flashlights and camp food, and spend an evening keeping busy without electronics. Teach them about safe water and not safe water. Show them where you keep the safe water and extra food. Make sure they have a special place to find phone numbers and names of people who can help them if you aren’t there. You can laminate these. Their go-bags should have extra clothes, shoes, space blankets, diapering supplies, formula & bottles if needed and food, a water bottle and filter, electrolytes for them, and a special “travel buddy” like a small stuffed toy or simple toy like a yo-yo or small kaleidoscope may help make a scary situation easier. If they can’t carry theirs it should easily attach to an adult's bag or be part of it.
For Animals: My dogs will likely be with us if we have to go, so they have wearable dog packs too! Ours contain boots for bad terrain, a collapsible bowl to drink from, lightweight waterproof blankets so they have a dry spot to sleep, water for them and dry food, some basic meds for them (pain relievers and antibiotics suitable for dogs) as well as extra bright reflective collars with our phone numbers on them.
Be careful not to make your dog's backpack pack too heavy. A general rule of thumb is 10% of their body weight if they are in good condition with no joint issues—but no more than 15% max. So for a 100lb dog, that’s 10lbs. Weigh their loaded packs to be sure and teach them to carry the load and wear their boots (if you will use them) well in advance. Not every dog is comfortable in a pack or boots, and during an emergency isn’t when you want to find that out!
Bottom line, try to think through what might be needed. Ask friends and family who have been through similar situations. Ask them what they were glad they had, what they found they didn’t need, and what they would have done differently. Write it out, try it out, and change what doesn’t work for you. There are many resources available. Educate yourself. Take some classes in first aid. The Red Cross offers them. https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/first-aid/first-aid-training. Your local health department and fire departments may offer basic classes—check with them to see.
A good starting point for making your plan is:
ready.gov. You can find forms for planning, information about basic emergencies, and safety guides. They also have a recommended monthly calendar for reviewing your readiness.
emergency.cdc.gov for more health-related emergency planning resources
osha.gov/emergency-preparedness for workplace preparedness and more details on natural threats (lightning, wildfires, flooding, etc.)
Yours in health,
JennyMarie
