7 Essential Items in your Emergency Survival Kit

Emergencies need immediate attention. Yes, they won’t wait for you to get prepared. You should be primed to deal with such sudden, usually unexpected occurrence. Are you? Well, you can be, by including the following 7 essentials items to your survival kit.

1. Water – There is no life without water. You should keep 3 gallons of water per person for a 3-day supply. There can be numerous ways of its consumption like drinking, cooking, and sanitation. Replace your bottled water once every year. You can also consider using water specifically packaged for emergency, which can last from anywhere between 5 to 50 years.

2. Food – Since you are making an emergency kit, consider adding non-perishable food, with minimum of 3-day supply per person. Some bars and freeze dried fruits have a shelf life of 5 to 25 years, as they are specifically formulated for such uses. If you have a young one in your family, add baby food accordingly. Separate food needs to be added for pets. You need to keep a check on the expiration of food items in your kit annually.

3. Lighting and Communication – You would definitely not want to deal with power outage without any backup option as they are the source of communication, giving you the required information and can act as a source of lighting. Consider adding a solar powered or hand-cranked radio, flashlight, lantern and light sticks, waterproof matches, candles, whistle for signaling, some extra batteries, and cell phone chargers.

4. First-Aid – It is another very important element in your kit. Your first-aid box should have a thermometer, hydrogen peroxide to wash and disinfect wounds, antibiotic ointment, sting relief pads, bandage strips, cotton for medical purposes, adhesive tape, scissors, aspirin, eye drops, glucose for diabetes patients and burn gel. Add to this list to meet your specific requirement for any prescribed medicine.

5. Shelter and Warmth – Weather can ditch, but not your survival kit. Do not make a mistake to overlook these items as they are absolutely necessary. Some of them include vinyl tarps for covering the ground, a tent, warmers for your body and hands, plastic ties, garbage bags, rain ponchos for everyone, sleeping bags and thermal blankets for each person.

6. Sanitation and Hygiene – You must keep your supplies for sanitation and hygiene with you, for tackling emergency situations. A pail to use as toilet, a seat for pail, toothbrush and toothpaste, garbage bags, tissues, plastic ties, sanitizer, sunscreen, and soap are some of the items that should be a part of this list.

7. Survival Gear – Your survival kit needs to have some tools like multi-function knife, duct tape, dust masks, a sturdy rope for towing, a portable stove, heavy duty gloves, can opener, plastic sheeting, shovel, axe, and fuel.

8. Other Items that should be added to your survival kit are eye glasses, study shoes, fire extinguisher, some cash in the form of small bills, garden hose for siphoning and firefighting, extra clothes and baby diapers.

Don’t let the questions daunt you. Check out this infographic by More Prepared, survival experts to know even more about Survival Kits.