Emergency Preparedness List
Make an emergency preparedness list well in advance of a disaster. Why? When a disaster is imminent, most supplies will be gone. Rather than rushing out for food or bottled water, have everything you need on hand months in advance.
An emergency preparedness list needs to touch on three aspects: first aid, food, and water. While a first aid kit can be purchased, build up your food and water storage over time. For the latter, have a water storage tank inside your home, and fill it up over time. Made out of blue high-density food-grade polyethylene, a water storage tank must be kept away from light and should be placed on a nonporous barrier. When cold weather hits, prevent your tank from cracking by filling it up no more than 90 percent.
Water inside a tank is in a raw state and must be purified and filtered before use. In the event of an emergency, make sure your purifier and filter are portable. A purifier must kill or sterilize all microorganisms, viruses, and bacteria in the water, while the filter must remove the remainder of the impurities.
Water is necessary for preparing food in times of an emergency. At the same time, your emergency preparedness list should include the basics and enough nonperishable items to last a year. While everything shouldn't be bought at once, make sure your food storage includes grains, beans, dehydrated milk, seeds, salt, sugar, and oil. Food made out of these components, however, will start to be bland, and a supply unit should supplement your food storage.
With #2 ½ and #10 cans and pouches, supply units by Mountain House, Provident Pantry, AlpineAire, and Wise Foods contain enough food for an individual to last two weeks to a year. Some of the dehydrated or freeze-dried foods are prepared meals, while others include ingredients that can be combined and cooked into a dish. If all serving suggestions are followed, supply units allow you to consume 1,100 to 1,800 calories per day.
When creating your food storage, choose a location in your home that is 50°F to 60°F, dry, and dark; a basement, closet, or crawl space with no heat, moisture, or light is ideal. At the same time, do not keep your food in the same room as chemicals, and do not bury it or keep it in a trash can.
#10 cans, in particular, contain several servings, and eating or preparing everything at once is not recommended. Instead, all leftover dehydrated or freeze-dried foods need to be kept in an airtight container. To keep the leftovers in good condition, store them in a bag inside a container, freeze them, or reseal the can with a commercial resealer.
