72-Hour Family Kit — Family of Four

Three days. That's how long you should be ready to go on your own. FEMA has said it for years, and this month the UK, Japan, and Germany said it again. Most families nod at that and never do it, because the list is long and nobody knows where to start.

This is the whole list, in one waterproof bag, for a family of four. Every piece was picked by a firefighter/EMT who has worked the other side of those three days.

What's inside

• Water: 13 gallons of storage, folded flat. Five 10-liter jugs that live on a closet shelf and get filled from the tap when a storm is on the forecast. That's FEMA's one gallon per person per day, for four people, for three days. Plus a 0.01-micron filter for when the jugs run dry.
• Food: about 2,270 calories per person per day, no cooking. 24 genuine military MRE entrees in six varieties, four Datrex 3,600-calorie Coast Guard-approved ration bars, Sailor pilot bread, canned peanut butter, and banana chips the kids will actually eat. Two can openers included.
• Radio: an OutagePro NOAA weather radio. Switch it to alert mode and it sounds an alarm when the National Weather Service issues a warning. It charges by solar, hand crank, or USB-C, and doubles as a phone charger, so you hear the alerts when the cell towers don't.
• Light: four motion-sensor headlamps. One per person, not one shared flashlight.
• Power: a Dark Energy Poseidon Nano rugged power bank to keep phones alive.
• Warmth and signal: four reusable high-visibility orange thermal bivvies, each with a 120-decibel whistle.
• First aid: a 120-piece family first aid bag for the cuts, burns, and 2 a.m. fevers that don't stop just because the power did.
• Fire: a sealed can of 50 matchbooks, plus a 10mm ferro rod with a folding scraper that throws sparks even after the matches get wet.
• The bag: a Buffalo Gear 63-quart roll-top waterproof duffel that holds all of it and stays dry in a flood.

What's not inside, and why

Your prescriptions, your documents, your cash, your baby formula, and your pet food. No kit on the internet can pack those. That's your half of the job, and the free 72-Hour Family Checklist walks you through it line by line.

Honest note on shipping

This kit ships from several warehouses, so expect several tracked packages over a few days, not one big box. Unopened items can be returned within 30 days.

Calorie figure is an estimate from published nutrition labels.

Stand Ready. Stay Unbreakable.