Emergency Go Bag

One of the challenges with living on the Gulf Coast is the constant threat of storms and hurricanes. Flooding in low lying areas can be common near where we live. Hurricane Harvey taught us all an important lesson on being prepared for hurricane season and overall emergency situations.

To be prepared, many Houstonians put together emergency kits. I thought I’d tell you about mine.

First thing I needed was a bag to put it all in. Some people use a large plastic tote, I prefer a canvas bag that I can grab and sling over my shoulder if I need to move quickly. I wanted something that was red and said emergency on it – something that would stand out in the midst of a tense and chaotic situation. Unfortunately, after looking here and there for several weeks I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. I could find a nice red bag, but not one that said “Emergency” on the side.

To get around this, I chose a nice bright red bag and asked my wife to heat press vinyl lettering on to the side using her Cricut machine and heat press. Voila, I had an Emergency go bag ready to fill with the essentials.

Now, what to put in it? I started putting together a list and I was surprised at how expensive it all added up to. I had to limit the contents to the most essential items – and a few cool ones that my inner survivalist found too neat to pass up.

First – A first aid kit (of course). Having a large family, I wanted to make sure I had something a little bit more than the minimum. The problem was that every time I tried to go small, my mind couldn’t help but think about all the “what if’ scenarios. So I decided on a bit of overkill on this one. I figured if I’m going to save money somewhere, do it on something other than the first aid kit. Here is the one I chose:

Next – Communication Gear. In this day and age, cellular telephone towers are everywhere, especially near and around a big city. The problem with depending on your cell phone is that it quickly runs out of power. In a real big emergency, the cell phone towers themselves may lose power (but I have no control over that). I found these relatively small, hand crank battery chargers. They have a built in flashlight and battery cell along with a USB port that you connect to your phone. You turn the hand crank to recharge the battery. Pretty neat, and not too expensive and they are pretty rugged. I figure in a pinch I have plenty of kids to put to the task of hand cranking. Here is the one I chose:

Next – A radio. I found a similar unit to the hand crank USB unit above, but this one also has a solar panel built in along with a reading light. It can tune to the emergency weather stations and in total blackout at least you’ll have some kind of idea about what is going on. Here is the one I chose:

Next, I worried about water. We always have plenty of bottled water around, so I wasn’t too worried about this one, but I did go ahead and buy a couple of things. The first are some of those tablets you drop into a water bottle and it is supposed to allow you to drink water that you might be a bit uncertain about. The next item is a sort of straw with a filter built in. It allows you to put one end in dirty water and suck in clean water through the filter. Alternately, you can drain water through the filter using gravity. I figure between the two I should be able to keep the family in drinking water. Here is what I chose:

Next was an emergency blanket. This is more for when you are caught away from home and forced to sleep in the car, in cold weather, when you don’t have any gas. I had bought two Emergency Go Bags, so I keep one in the car and the other in the house. Thermal blankets are nice because they fold up to almost nothing and keep you super warm in a pinch. Here is what I chose:

Finally, I needed fire. Easiest thing is to buy some of those easy strike wooden matches and put them in some sturdy ziplock bags to keep the water out. But my inner survivalist nerd wanted the cool flint and steel kit. I couldn’t quiet the nerd, so I bought one. Probably won’t need it since I have so many matches, but then again, what if the ziplock bag fails and they are all wet? Somehow I talked myself into it – It would probably make for a cool little gift. Here is what I chose:

By the time I was done, I had a couple of Emergency Go Bags and was out of money. I figure over time I’ll add to it. Next thing I’m thinking about are some emergency road flares. Let me hear from you in the comments section. What would you add to yours?