What You Need to be Prepared for an Emergency

Are you prepared if a natural disaster hits your home today? Sadly, most of us are not! So today, I want to share what you need to be prepared for an emergency!

Wherever you live, there is a chance that a natural disaster could strike. It could be a hurricane, tornado, fire, flood, earthquake, ice storm, or mudslide, to name a few!

I know, most people think a tragedy will not strike them. I used to be one of them!

What not to do in an emergency

When I was twenty-something, not so long ago, lol, I lived in a second-floor apartment!

I was blessed with a wonderful roommate!

One night, she woke me up saying, “We need to take cover! We are under a tornado warning!”

To which I replied, “If I’m going to die, I want to die in my bed!”

Lucky for me, the tornado did not hit our area!

She has never let me forget that night!

Now that I’m a wife and mother, I take natural disasters more seriously!

Especially after we had a crazy ice storm in Kentucky in 2009, and did not have power for a week!

Here’s a picture of my parent’s backyard after the storm. The heavy ice broke many tree limbs and power lines, and hundreds of people were without electricity!

Here in Florida, we can have tornadoes, and hurricane season starts on June 1st and lasts through November 30th.

I thought it might be helpful to share with you how we organized and prepared in case of an emergency!

Your prep will be different but you can tweak our tips to meet your needs!

Prepare an Emergency Plan

It is extremely important to prepare for an emergency before it happens!

Here are the beginning steps to prepare your family for an emergency!

Safe place

Determine a safe place within your home to shelter during extreme weather emergencies, such as a tornado.

Meeting place

In case of a fire determine how your family should escape your home and where to meet outside.

Decide on a meeting place, outside your neighborhood, in case you are away from home when a disaster strikes and can’t return home.

Organize Important papers

Re-evaluate your homeowner’s policy to make sure you have adequate coverage!

Gather important papers and store them in a fire-safe box. If this is not in your budget keep important papers organized in a binder and put them in a waterproof container. Gather insurance policies and numbers. Family health info-allergies, medication lists, blood type, and medical history. Recent family picture. Relative/friends’ phone numbers, emergency numbers for police, fire, poison control, etc.

Collect Cash and coins

Have a stash of cash and coins and store them, with your important papers, in a fireproof/waterproof container. Have at least $100 per person- save a few dollars each week until you reach your goal!

Prepare an emergency KIT

It is important to have emergency supplies on hand and ready to take with you if you need to evacuate.

We store our emergency kit in our safe place. If we have to take shelter for a tornado warning, we have items we may need like flashlights, weather radio, etc. in place!

If we need to evacuate our home, we can grab our container on the way out the door!

Find a plastic container to hold your emergency kit items.

Gather or purchase the following items to put in your container:

• AM/FM radio & batteries
• Flashlight/Lantern
• Batteries
• Watertight boxes
• Pocket knife/multi knife
• Waterproof matches
• Non-electric can opener
• Local & US maps/atlas
• Emergency Preparedness Manual
• Compass
• Toilet paper/qt Ziploc bags
• Hand sanitizer/moist towelettes
• First aid kit
• N-95 Mask
• Eating utensils

Items to store in your garage:

• Generator/gasoline- start your generator every year to be sure it is in good working order!
• Camp Stove/propane (for power outages)

Items to put in the car if you need to evacuate:

• Grab your emergency kit and important papers
• Blankets & pillows
• Work gloves
• Duct tape & plastic sheeting (to shelter in place)
• Ponchos

Prepare to have 3 Days of food and water

Plan to have a three-day supply of water and nonperishable food for each person in your household.

Here is the start of our water stash! Each week I will purchase more! If we don’t need it during hurricane season, we take it camping with us!!

• Water -collect one gallon per person, per day. Fill the bathtub with water if you have items to purify the water. You can purchase water purification tablets or a Lifestraw personal water filter (linked below).
• Non-perishable food
• Non-electric can opener
• Eating utensils

Prepare a hygiene kit

We have a camper, and each family member has a hygiene kit we take to the bathhouse. I store them in a container in my closet and can grab them if we need to evacuate!

Prepare a Plan for your pets

Have pet supplies organized in one place in your home so you can grab them if you need to evacuate? See how we store our pet supplies here!

Prepare A kid’s kit

If you have young kids, put together a plastic tub with items to keep them busy and preoccupied instead of worrying. Coloring books, crayons, and travel games that don’t require batteries.

Now you know what you need to be prepared for in an emergency are you ready? Let me know in the comments below what type of emergency you need to be prepared for!

Blessings, Donna and Rich

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be prepared for an emergency

We have linked similar items to ours to help you prepare for an emergency!

Click the blue links for more information on each item!

Road Atlas 2024 //  Water Purification Tablets  // Personal Water Filter // Retro First Aid Box

 Emergency kit  // Waterproof Dry Box //  Watertight Box // Emergency Weather Radio

Generator // Emergency Rain Poncho // Waterproof Matches // Portable Toiletry Bag