Once again, around the blogosphere, conversation has turned to emergency planning. Of course, September is National Preparedness Month. Over on Wise Bread, they’re discussing stocking up food for an emergency. So far, it sounds like readers have anywhere from enough food for the rest of the week to enough food for a few years. I’m definitely somewhere in between those two numbers, but much closer to the one week mark. In terms of food alone, I’ve probably got enough to get me through 2 weeks comfortably, probably more if I start to get creative. As for water, I’ve got a few gallons of drinking water in a closet, plus some 2 liter bottles of tap water for things like toilet flushing and washing.
Of course, all this talk has me back to thinking about what sort of emergency kit I should have. Ideally, I should have some sort of portable go bag with the emergency supplies that I would need to last me and the cats for a few days. I go back and forth on this, but over the weekend, I finally made a list of things that I need to put together an emergency kit – one that I can take with me in an emergency, as well as some extra things I should keep on hand in the apartment in case I’m stuck here for a longer period of time.
I created my list with the help of Ready.gov as well as the lists of items within pre-made emergency kits that you can buy from any number of sources. I was thinking about buying a big plastic tub, but then I remembered the old rolling suitcase in my closet. The wheels are a bit wonky and I’m worried that it won’t last another round of rough baggage handling, but it absolutely would work for storing and transporting my emergency kit. Now I just need to buy things to fill the kit. Everything from food to first aid supplies to a spare set of clothing to a book of Sudoku puzzles to keep me occupied. (And perhaps a copy of Ulysses. I could read that book a million times and still find something new in it.)
I know that I’ve mentioned this before and I’ve just never done anything about it. I think that’s because it feels like an overwhelming task. After all, this list is pretty extensive. That said, if I do it in bits and pieces and make it my goal to have the kit completed by the end of the year, it becomes a lot easier to deal with. Plus I do have a lot of the items already – just not stashed in one place. I have a first aid kit and I have some cash stashed away. I’ve got water. And it’s not hard to put some cat food and cat litter into big ziplocs and stash them away. I often have extra deodorant and toothpaste in the house – I can just keep my “spare” in the emergency kit, as long as I replace it when I remove it. So that’s my goa. Emergency kit by the end of the year. I think it’s doable.
What sort of emergency kit do you have in place?
