FEMA Recommended Items To Include In A Basic Emergency Supply Kit:

• • 

    Distilled water is inexpensive and very easy to store.

    Water, one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation

    • I suggest purchasing inexpensive gallons of distilled water from your local store. When you bring them home, mark them with the date purchased. Over time, you can use and replace them with new ones.
  • Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
    • Include a lot of shelf-stable foods ready to be eaten without preparation–trail mix, dehydrated fruits and vegetables, etc.
    • FoodSafety.gov has an excellent guide to preserving, preparing and storing food
  • Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both
    • We’ve covered this one pretty thoroughly, haven’t we?
  • Flashlight and extra batteries
    • Also consider purchasing at least one flashlight that can be hand-cranked

• 

  A first aid kit is a must–make sure to include any specific medications family members may need

  First aid kit

• Whistle to signal for help
• Dust mask, to help filter contaminated air, and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
• Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
• Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
  • At least have a Gerber or Leatherman tool with a built-in pair of pliers.
• Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)
  • Very important–have you ever tried opening a can of food without a can opener? They’re cheap–buy one specifically for your kit
• Local maps
• Cell phone with chargers, inverter or solar charger
  • Many of the radios above can charge a USB-based cell phone. If you are looking for a durable solar panel, consider the Goal Zero foldable panel or any roll-up/foldable panel by Power Film Solar.

Additional Items To Consider Adding To An Emergency Supply Kit:

• Prescription medications and glasses
  • This is extremely important–you should certainly stock up on medical supplies if you’re in the path of a natural disaster like a hurricane. Pharmacies may be closed for several days and you certainly want your prescription heart medication on hand!
• Infant formula and diapers
• Pet food and extra water for your pet
  • Don’t forget Rover or Whiskers–!
• Cash or traveler’s checks and change
• Important family documents, such as copies of insurance policies, identification and bank account records in a waterproof, portable container. You can use the Emergency Financial First Aid Kit (EFFAK) – PDF, 277Kb) developed by Operation Hope, FEMA and Citizen Corps to help you organize your information.
• Emergency reference material, such as a first aid book or information from www.ready.gov.
• Sleeping bag or warm blanket for each person. Consider additional bedding if you live in a cold-weather climate.
• Complete change of clothing, including a long-sleeved shirt, long pants and sturdy shoes. Consider additional clothing if you live in a cold-weather climate.
• Household chlorine bleach and medicine dropper – When diluted nine parts water to one part bleach, bleach can be used as a disinfectant. Or in an emergency, you can use it to treat water by using 16 drops of regular household liquid bleach per gallon of water. Please do not use scented or color safe bleach, or bleaches with added cleaners.
• Fire Extinguisher
• Matches in a waterproof container
• Feminine supplies and personal hygiene items
• Mess kits, paper cups, plates and plastic utensils, paper towels
• Paper and pencil
• Books, games, puzzles or other activities for children
  • Often overlooked, but quite important–you may be without power, television and internet for days. You should have a back-up plan for your children. Board games are fun, burn a little time, and require absolutely no batteries!

Other recommendations I would add

• Fill up your vehicles with fuel.  Indeed, it’s not a bad idea to top-off your fuel on a regular basis.
• Listen to local radio stations and follow any directions from local officials who are coordinating recovery.
• Know potential evacuation routes and emergency contact information. This is especially important if you live in an area prone to hurricanes or typhoons

Making a plan and being informed

Ready.gov has an excellent guide to making a plan (including downloadable forms) and general information about being informed.

SWLing.com has a lot of guests (almost half of our guests!) who visit us from outside of the USA. The information I have posted above may not be relevant to the place you live (for example, NOAA weather radio).  Still, keep in mind the following:

• Check to see if your national weather service has specific frequencies with weather or emergency information. If so, make sure you have a radio that can receive these broadcasts.
• Check with your local emergency management office. If you have any specific needs (medical or otherwise), make sure your local authorities know.

This is, perhaps, one of the longest posts I’ve ever written on the SWLing Post; you can probably tell that I’m an advocate of preparedness.  I hope I’ve shown you that there’s a lot to think about prior to a disaster, whether natural or man-made. It’s not expensive to prepare, but does take a bit of dedicated time and energy.  Once you you do it, though, I promise that you will feel better prepared and more secure than before.  And one more thing:  once you’ve taken care of your own or your family’s needs, please be prepared to help others however you can–sharing and caring is part of any disaster recovery process.

I’ll start with recommendations of self-powered radios, then suggest a few portable digital radios and  self-powered shortwave radios. Finally, I’ll also include FEMA recommendations for supplies that should be kept on hand for emergencies, just in case.

Shortwave radios

I strongly recommend you have a capable, full-fledged digital shortwave radio tucked away for emergencies. If you already own one, just make sure you always have fresh batteries for it standing by.

What radio, specifically, am I talking about?  Basically any radio I have listed on our main reviews page that has SSB capabilities. With SSB, you can tune to the ham radio bands and listen to information which amateur radio operators (both locally, and across the globe) are sharing. If you’re riding out a hurricane (or living in the aftermath of one, such as Hurricane Katrina) SATERN or the Hurricane Watch Net could provide invaluable, immediate and practical information for your situation. You will need SSB to hear them. I actually wrote a tutorial on listening to hurricane watch nets here.

Here are a selection of radios I would recommend:

• The Grundig G3
• The Sony ICG-SW7600GR (also read about it in a review here)
• The Grundig G6
• The Degen DE1103
• The Degen DE1102

Self-powered shortwave radios

While these radios lack SSB and the advanced functionality of the modern digital portable, they can operate with the turn of the crank.  This is great, just in case you forget to have a set of fresh batteries among your supplies. All of the radios below have excellent reception characteristics for an analog radio. Why did I only choose analog radios?  Mainly because I have yet to find a self-powered digital shortwave radio that has the sensitivity of the analog ones, or the battery longevity. Digital radios look cool and are great for casual use, but I wouldn’t rely on one in an emergency. Stick with these analog units instead:

Tecsun Green 88/Grundig FR200 ($25-35 US)

My all-time favorite self-powered shortwave radio is the Grundig FR200 or Tecsun Green 88. This radio used to be widely available as the Grundig FR200, but Grundig has since stopped producing it. The radio can, however, still be purchased by Tecsun Corporation from vendors in Honk Kong on eBay (link provided below).

What do I love about the Tecsun Green 88? It is:

• durable
• covers the shortwave spectrum down to 3.2 MHz
• sensitive, even just using the built-in telescopic antenna
• has fine-tuning control
• runs for 40 minutes (with fresh NiMH battery pack) off of 2 minutes of hand-cranking