How and Where you Start Getting Ready...

We always recommend that people start with a well prepared and possibly personalized 72-hour kit. This is a basic item that can be a starting point to prepare your family.

Each person in your family or home needs a 72-hour kit with food and water to last at least 3 days. You can personalize the kit by adding a change of clothes, and important documentation like birth certificates, a marriage license, or health records.

In a child's kit you can also add items that will keep them entertained, like a few of their favorite light weight toys, a coloring book and some crayons, or anything else that is lightweight and can easily fit into their pack along with the basic emergency preparedness items that should already be included.

Next is water. Water is one of the most overlooked items in emergency preparedness, but it is easily one of the most important. Water is one of the first things to become contaminated after a disaster, but it is essential to life.

How much water should you store? One gallon per person per day is the recommended amount. Death caused by dehydration can occur in 3 days or even less in hot weather.

Even if dehydration doesn't cause death it can have some serious consequences when you're vulnerable that will make surviving more of a challenge. Once those basic needs are efficiently taken care of, it is then appropriate to think about what would make your family comfortable.

You would not be able to hear newscasts or when emergency relief groups are in your area when your power is down. The perfect solution would be a hand crank or solar-generated radio. It would be impossible to use your cell phone when the telephone lines are down as well as power lines. In this case you would find a hand crank cell phone charger to be a life saver.

It would not be efficient to rely on scented candles to light your home in case of a black out. You might prefer light sticks for your children and a 115 hour ReadyCandle to light your kitchen.

Rotating your food storage is time consuming, inconvenient, and can add up after a few rotations. It's also hard to know exactly when to rotate which items, and making sure you use it all before the expiration date is pretty difficult to track.

All of The Ready Store's #10 cans of freeze-dried food last for 30 years and since they are freeze dried, that means they keep more nutrients, taste, and color than dehydrated food storage..The Ultimate Year Supply of Freeze-Dried Food covers all the basics and more, including breakfast, lunch, fruit, vegetables, dinner, and a side.

We have also recently added some dehydrated food to our menu if you wanted to add calories to your meal. These require cooking, more water, and take much longer to make, but they cost a little less.