Where To Buy Emergency Kits
After an emergency, you may need to survive on your own for several days. Being prepared means having your own food, water and other supplies to last for several days. A disaster supplies kit is a collection of basic items your household may need in the event of an emergency.
where to buy emergency kits
Make sure your emergency kit is stocked with the items on the checklist below. Download a printable version to take with you to the store. Once you take a look at the basic items consider what unique needs your family might have, such as supplies for pets or seniors.
Being prepared means being equipped with the proper supplies you may need in the event of an emergency or disaster. Keep your supplies in an easy-to-carry emergency preparedness kit that you can use at home or take with you in case you must evacuate.
While it is important to have these supplies at home, you should also consider having a smaller emergency kit stored in your car or ready to grab if you are evacuated from your home and need to leave quickly.
Having an emergency kit can prepare you to protect you and your family. Visit the National Preparedness Month on ready.gov to read more actions you can take this month, and all year round, to prepare for disasters.
Though it's impossible to know when you'd need an emergency preparedness kit, the word "preparedness" is key. Should a disaster strike, you might find yourself cut off from outside help, relying on whatever rations and supplies you have on hand.
If this happens, food with a multi-year shelf life and supplies included in a first aid kit like light sources, fire-starting tools, and other essentials are literal lifesavers. But buying an emergency kit is only the first step in readying yourself and your household to respond to a crisis properly.
We compiled the following guide to the best emergency kits currently available. Though we've not been able to accurately test each one during an emergency situation, we've included kits that have been intensely researched or those we've been able to spend some time with in person.
Many survival kits have items like toothbrushes and hair combs that may make mornings more pleasant but aren't entirely imperative for survival during an emergency. In other words, that means they're just extra weight. The Comfort4 kit from Sustain Supply Co. is stocked almost exactly as I'd have built a kit from scratch.
Thus, the Comfort4 comes stocked with foods that may have a 30-year shelf life and that actually taste good once rehydrated and cooked. It includes more emergency drinking water than you'll find in almost any other emergency kit, too. The kit also has all the basics, like first aid supplies, fire starters, emergency blankets, a razor-sharp knife, and more.
Fully stocked emergency kits aren't exactly inexpensive, so the one you buy should not only have enough contents to support multiple people but it should hold up across multiple use cases, too. Black Hawk Survival's aptly named 2-Person Deluxe Survival Kit does exactly this, and even comes packed in an easy-to-haul, easy-to-store wheel bag.
At $205, it's certainly not cheap but few comprehensively stocked emergency kits like this are (and you don't want to skimp on something intended to save your life). It's worth the investment and has more use cases than you'll (hopefully) know what to do with it.
Along with a standard 107-piece first aid kit, it also features hygiene kits, a water carrier, 40 purification tablets, several high-calorie food bars, a 30-hour candle, and a hand-crank flashlight that also acts as a phone charger and radio. There are even hand warmers and emergency ponchos, as well as waterproof matches and four mylar sleeping bags.
But here's the thing: The basic necessities needed for survival don't actually include a light source, a cutting tool, or even fire. They amount to hydration, nutrition, and protection from the elements, and this low-cost emergency prep kit has you and one other adult covered on those fronts.
The pair of emergency blankets and ponchos keep you relatively warm and dry even in harsh environs, the food and water rations keep you sufficiently nourished, and the first aid kit helps with most minor medical issues.
Packed inside a durable, weather-resistant D-Bag backpack is almost anything you could want in an emergency situation. There's a roll of duct tape, a multi-tool and a knife, a fully stocked first aid kit and a couple air filtration masks, as well as things like hand warmers, an emergency shelter, and some waterproof gloves. It also has 12 200 calorie ration bars, a water filter, and stainless steel water bottle.
And although this seems like a ton of supplies to pack into the bag itself, each comes pre-packed in easy-to-read pouches that are neatly organized. This makes it easy to know exactly where and what is in the pack. A large front panel zips open and shut to allow for easy access to everything packed inside, too, and padded shoulder straps allow users to comfortably tote the thing around either as a backpack or slung across their shoulder.
A cumbersome first aid kit can sometimes make it hard to easily take it while on the go. With the Monoki First Aid Survival Kit, not only is it a highly portable emergency kit but it doesn't sacrifice any of the gear you'd need to rely on it in times of an emergency.
The kit manages to stay small enough to fit into a roughly 8-inch by 5-inch waterproof container that easily fits into backpacks, bags, or gloveboxes (it's small enough to carry, too). This does mean it won't feature any extended support gear like emergency shelters, sleeping bags, or food and water.
You may have some of the items already, such as food, water and a battery operated or wind-up flashlight. The key is to make sure they are organized and easy to find. Would you be able to find your flashlight in the dark? Make sure your kit is easy to carry and everyone in the household knows where it is. Keep it in a backpack, duffle bag or suitcase with wheels, in an easy-to-reach, accessible place, such as your front-hall closet. If you have many people in your household, your emergency kit could get heavy.
It may seem like a lot, but you probably already have many of the items you need. Print off an emergency kit checklist and the next time you're running errands, pick up a few items to add. Or you can buy a prepackaged kit
A well-stocked first-aid kit can help you respond effectively to common injuries and emergencies. Keep at least one first-aid kit in your home and one in your car. Store your kits someplace easy to get to and out of the reach of young children. Make sure children old enough to understand the purpose of the kits know where they're stored.
Consider keeping aspirin in your first-aid kit, as well. Aspirin may be life-saving in an adult with chest pain. If you or someone else has new or unexplained chest pain or may be having a heart attack, call for emergency medical help immediately. Then chew a regular-strength aspirin. However, don't take aspirin if you are allergic to aspirin, have bleeding problems or take another blood-thinning medication, or if your doctor previously told you not to do so.
The Sportsman 400 kit includes supplies not typically packed into smaller kits, like a one-way-valve CPR mask and a C-splint (for stabilizing broken or sprained limbs). To help stop serious bleeding, this kit also has WoundStop trauma dressing and a SWAT-T tourniquet, as well as the instructions on how and when to use them. To accommodate all this gear, the 400 is heavier and larger than our main pick, measuring 11 by 8 by 3 inches and weighing 2 pounds.
If you smell, hear, or see evidence of a gas leak in the aftermath of an earthquake or other disaster, your first priority is to turn your gas off. To accomplish that, you need to do two simple things: Learn where your gas valve is (ahead of time), and find a wrench that will do the job.
We also like that the carabiner adds the convenience and security of being able to attach the multi-tool to a backpack or a belt loop, rather than just having it loose in a pocket. Short of a hammer or a socket set, this pick has just about everything you could possibly need to make an emergency repair in the field or around the house.
The Iris also comes in 12 different sizes across different retailers. But only the two largest sizes, 74 quarts and 103 quarts, were big enough to store all of our key emergency gear (minus water and extra food) with room to spare. Consider a second bin for storing emergency meals.
For parents (of children and pets): If you have small children, formula and/or baby food and diapers may be important items in your emergency kit. Prepare on behalf of your pets by stocking up on extra food and prescription meds, and by keeping a leash or crate at hand. The ASPCA has comprehensive information on how to handle pets in a disaster.
In the car: Keeping emergency drinking water, some long-lasting but appetizing snack bars, a basic first-aid kit, an emergency blanket or two, and some old running shoes in your vehicle is a good idea for everyday breakdowns as well as for times of greater crisis. We also have recommendations for a number of other car-specific emergency supplies in our road-trip guide. Keeping your gas tank full is also one of the smartest things you can do.
We recently bought a few winter emergency kits online to gauge what they offer and how useful they might be in a pinch. The kits we bought cost between $50 and $85. See our reviews of these kits, below.
Among these kits, our team favors the Winter Cross Country Kit for its organization and the All-in-One Winter Roadside Kit for its large variety of helpful gear that struck us as more robust than the items in the other kits we bought. The kits we bought are presented below in order of price, from least to most expensive.
Price paid: $49.97This is the smallest kit we purchased. Despite its tidy dimensions, the soft case includes many of the things we recommend, including a flashlight and batteries, an ice scraper, a light strobe, an emergency whistle, candles and a fire starter, and basic first-aid supplies. 041b061a72