What's Actually On FEMA's Emergency Kit Checklist

FEMA's advice for a home emergency kit starts with a specific number: one gallon of water per person, per day, for several days, according to the agency's official Ready.gov guidance. That covers drinking and basic sanitation before anything else goes in the bin.

From there, the list is short and practical rather than exotic. A battery-powered or hand-crank emergency radio with a NOAA weather-alert tone, a flashlight, and extra batteries for both. A basic first aid kit. A manual can opener, because several days of non-perishable food does no good if nothing can open it.

Ready.gov also calls for the less obvious items: a dust mask, plastic sheeting and duct tape for sheltering in place, moist towelettes and garbage bags for sanitation, a wrench or pliers to shut off utilities, local paper maps, and a phone charger with a backup battery. None of it is dramatic. All of it is the difference between riding out a bad storm at home and making a 2 a.m. run to a gas station that also has no power.

The agency's own benchmark for a workplace kit is blunter: be ready to shelter at your job for at least 24 hours. At home, the same logic just scales up. A sturdy water storage container rounds out the math for a family riding out a few days, and a sleeping bag or warm blanket per person covers the nights if the heat goes out along with the power.

Ready.gov's own advice is to build the kit gradually, not in one trip, and to review it once a year. The hardest part isn't affording any single item on the list. It's actually getting around to buying it before the week you need it.