Tuesday, May 5, 2009

72 Hour Kits


72 Hour Kits are basically used for any type of emergency situation in which you will not be able to get help within the first day or two... earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, etc.  You may need to evacuate with them or you may need them inside your house.  You will want a kit for each member of your family.

The above picture shows the contents of Caleb's kit. You can see that the kids' kits are a smaller version of the adult and/or car kits. I use smaller water bottles just because water is so heavy. Each kid has a mini first aid kit basically just containing band-aids and wipes .

 Alyssa's also contains allergy medication because she has pretty severe allergy problems. They each have a small fleece blanket (from the dollar store) and a mylar blanket. They have a heavy duty light stick, a flashlight and a liquid candle. Each kid kit has $5 emergency cash, a copy of their birth certificate and shot records, an emergency phone number and social security number list, the phone number of our bank and copies of their parents driver's licenses and military IDs. If my kids had to evacuate when I wasn't home or if we were separated, I'd want them to have all the available info they would need to track me down.

This is the newly purchased food for the kids' kits. The tuna fish and jerky usually have a longer shelf life and I didn't need to replace those this year for the kids. I put everything in ziplock bags. Granola bars were also placed in their kits and they each got a package of gummy worms (comfort food that doesn't melt or make you too thirsty).

This is the hygiene bag from my kit.

Really you just need the basics.

This is the first aid kit from my kit. Pretty simple and yet it has most everything we would need.


Each person has a pair of socks and underwear, a wash cloth, food, water, etc. Check out the list from last time and it pretty much applies here.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have really like reading these posts. Thanks for sharing.

The Old Parsonage said...

You are so full of great ideas. Thanks again for putting everything out there for us all to see/read.

BTW - I love the apron in your last post!

Have a great day!
Leann

Small House said...

A good reminder for me, that I need to replace the food in our 72 hour kit. Frightning, but I can't remember when the last time was that I did this. YIKES! Thanks for the kick in the pants.

Have a great day.
Sandra

Anonymous said...

You forgot shoes!
I keep a pair of boots in our basement. Tornadoes tend to happen in the evening when I'd be barefooted and, if one blows through, you do not want to be walking around with no shoes on.
Great posts. :)

American Homemaker said...

We don't have space for shoes in our kits :( I know it's suggested to keep clothes too, but I don't want to make the kits uncarryable (which is so not a word) or have to rotate clothes and shoes on a regular basis.

My kids usually keep a pair of shoes by the front door they could grab, although it would be just my luck something would happen on a day when they don't know where their shoes are :(

We don't have tornadoes, but I do worry about earthquakes and if one of those hits we'd also not wanna be barefoot. Maybe I should add a pair of dollar store flip-flops in. I'd still make them grab regular shoes, but just in case...

Anonymous said...

Excellent! And I love your upcycled apron. :)