EH-Net

This isn't really technical but with the recent events unfolding in Japan and knowing the crowd that frequents these forums I'm sure some will have some input.

I'm looking to put together a disaster kit to keep at home and/or in the car for personal use for me and my family in the event it's needed. It's something I've considered doing in the past and just never followed through.

How many of you have a kit? What's in it if you do or what would you include if you were building one?

It depends on what kind of emergency you're dealing with. Japan is getting hit by 3 in a hard way. Earthqukes and Tsunami / Flooding you have to worry about the infrastructure of the place you live. Fallout, you need a way to stay inside and seal things off (or so the government told us).

Anyway I think there are some basics that should be had:

For home, and staying there, I think just a really well stocked pantry can do the majority of it. Learn to cook over fire.

Basics:
Food, water, more than one way to start fire, hatchet, solar blanket, couple of flash lights.

car: change of clothes. solar blanket, flash light, flares.

Things I thining of adding to my kits:
- small / portable solar panels to help charge things like rechargeable batteries and phones
- something beyond spare brita filters for water purification.
- Maybe a couple of gallons of water.
- Emergency wind up radio AM/FM/Weather/Emergency Services.
- Emergency frequency scanner (police scanner)

The problem is, food, water, batteries all have a shelf life, and need to be rotated. Where I say a well stocked pantry comes in.

And I think the one thing that everyone over looks, get to know your neighbors.

the FEMA list isn't too bad... Couple things I'd swap out / add. As I listed in my other post.

http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/assemble_disaster_supplies_kit.shtm

You can get a case of MRE's that will feed you for quite some time for fairly inexpensively. The great thing about MRE's too is you don't need a heat source to eat them....the heat source is included! If you go this route, be sure you get some newer MRE's. They do have a shelf life. Plus, the newer ones taste better than the older ones.

I'd get rechargeable batteries and a kit for solar power. I haven't specifically seen this anywhere, but I'm sure they exist somewhere...

I like the MRE option too, but because of the shelf life I'd want something I like eating on a regular basis. I though about mentioning them above. The Army Surplus store around here sells them for about 110.00 a case (Harry's Army Surplus (Billv should know that name)).

The down side to the built in heater. You need water for it, and you'll be putting your food container in it. Sacrifice drinking water for heating food, or use questionable water and worry about cross contamination.

They actually take very little water to activate the heater. Also, I wouldn't worry too much about cross-contamination. I'm not sure what they put in the heaters and maybe this isn't true, but we were always told that the chemical that was activated for the heaters was pretty toxic itself....the plastic/foil containers that the food come in is pretty dang hefty, though, so you shouldn't have much to worry about.

Other things I'd have in my survival kit:

 - plenty of duct tape
 - a well stocked first aid kit
 - environmentally conscious clothing
 - gun/ammo (lots of ammo)
 - as much water as you can store (Keep your bathtub clean. If you have warning of 
   whatever is coming you can fill it up with clean potable water.)
 - plenty of batteries (see my previous post)
 - crank radio
 - plastic sheeting
 - MREs
 - flashlights
 - heavy duty Leatherman-type of utility knife

That's about all I can think of right now...

Thanks for the replies guys :)

I wasn't really thinking about being stuck at home, more of something like "the world is ending and I need to get out and survive" type of thing. That way I should be prepared for anything less than that :-p

As I've been searching around, this is what I've come up with so far (I don't think I have any duplicates but I haven't edited this list - though some items aren't required if you include other things listed), in no particular order:

LED lights
solar power
flashlight
batteries
light sticks
radio (handcrank)
thermal/polar fleece blankets
ponchos
tents
whistle
knife
gun(s)/ammo
firestarter
duct tape
rope/cord
fishing kit
water/fireproof container (important documents)
water purification tablets
water pouches and/or bottled water
food bars and/or MREs (can opener)
multi-tool
gloves
clothes/shoes/boots
chemical suits + masks
N95 respirator mask
goggles
signal mirror
gas/water wrench
matches (waterproof)
personal hygiene kits
N95 mask
trash bags
body/hand/foot warmers
pen/pencils/paper
two-way radios
pry bar/crow bar
lockpick tools
rubber/plastic wedge (or big easy lockout kit)
snare wire
handheld gps unit
various maps
toys/child activities

first-aid kit (which is a sub-category of itself that I haven't looked into yet)

If I'm doing the world is ending survival thing. I want to be a light as possable and move as quickly and quietly as I can.

Sturdy boots
Cargo Pants
1 book
1 deck of playing cards
lock picks
hatchet or machette (multi-use tool)
a way to sharpen said tool (and I perfer hatchets)
small prybar
pocket knife
Solar Blanket (Space Blanket / Thermal Blanket / Mylar Blanket / Emergency Blanket. I first heard it called a solar blanket in scouts and it's stuck)
Some food.

The get out and survive is less about possessions and more about skills.

Know how to preserve what you have.
learn you're local climate
learn how to make a shelter, short and long term
rope handling (knots, storage, repair)
Learn how to tell a good shelter from a bad one
Hunting without guns
how to identify edible plants

I think if things went that way, ammo and store goods (canned food etc) will be the first to go.

Yeah, I think the difference is whether you're planning for yourself or for a family - in my case with two young children that are going to require some of that extra stuff.

If it were just me, my list would surely be shorter.

Even with kids, I'd just use the same list, but would have more of the items, wouldn't spread the items around in case we got separated.

But that's just me.

Binoculars would probably be something to add too.

A friend of mine sent this over earlier:
http://www.nukalert.com

A bit pricey though... but if I felt the need to spend the $ on it, guess it could be a valuable tool.

A book that was only available to the military has been recently released to the public.

Nuclear War Survival Skills (http://www.oism.org/nwss/)

Source: io9.com's "Advice From the US Government on How To Furnish Your Nuclear Apocalypse Shelter (http://io9.com/#!5773092/advice-from-the-us-government-on-how-to-furnish-your-nuclear-apocalypse-shelter)"

When I was in Jr. High some kids started a MRE and decided they didn't want it so they gave it to me.  It had one of those heating packs and I got confused and ate half of the heating pack (!!!) since I was eating in the dark (others had gone to bed).   All I can remember thinking was that it was bland, but at least it was warm and left a weird warmth in my tummy.

I ended up ok, since that was before I worried about poisoning and all that so I didn't puke or drink milk or anything.