72-Hour Emergency Kit Checklist: Prepare for Disasters

Disasters can strike at any moment, be it an earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, tornado or other natural disaster. The smartest thing you can do is create an emergency kit with the basic essentials to sustain life for 72 hours. Prepare yourself and your family from some of the chaos and trials that result from disasters. These tips will get you started.

Things You'll Need

• Three lunch meals per person
• Baby supplies
• Sanitary supplies
• Three breakfast meals per person
• Three dinner meals per person
• At least three water bottles per person
• Six snacks per person
• One backpack per person
• Medication for three days

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Instructions

• 1

  Buy a sturdy backpack for each member of your family. It should be
  large enough to fit your bare minimums and large enough for you to add
  to your kit as needed.

• 2

  Buy food for three breakfast meals per person. Cereal bars and granola bars are great. If you're making kits for a four-member family, you'll need 12 breakfast items.

• 3

  Buy food for three lunch meals per person. Individual servings
  of peanut butter or cheese-filled crackers along with canned fruit works
  well. For a family of four, you'll need 12 packages of crackers
  and 12 fruit cups.

• 4

  Buy dinner foods. Ready-to-serve cups, pasta and soup work great.
  Look for little dinners for kids that just need to be heated or can be eaten cold. Include packages of saltine crackers if desired. A family of four will need 12 dinner items.

• 5

  Buy snack foods. Individual servings of nuts, beef jerky, cheese and crackers, fruit snacks and granola bars are great snacks. Purchase enough snacks for each member to have two snacks per day. A family of four would need 24 snacks.

• 6

  Buy water bottles. You need a bare minimum of three per person. Add additional bottles according to each individual's ability to carry their own pack. A young child may only be able to handle the weight of three or four bottles while an adult may be able to carry nine.

• 7

  Add a three-day supply of personal needs like medicine, diapers, wipes or tampons.

• 8

  Make copies of important documents like your driver licenses, social security cards and birth certificates. Store these in an adult's pack along with about $100 in cash.