Thanks to Briggs & Stratton for making this review of the American Red Cross Basic Emergency Preparedness Kit possible! All thoughts and opinions are my own.
September is National Preparedness Month. Sometimes, when we consider emergency preparedness, we think about the extreme measures that the individuals featured on shows like Doomsday Preppers. As it happens, though, preparedness can be as simple or as complex as you wish.
Taking Simple Steps
In the event of smaller emergencies like short-term power outages, storm damage, etc. or if you are close to resources that can support you, you may only need simple preparations to get through. Stocking extra water, having cut firewood, and storing various emergency supplies (i.e. flashlight, first aid kit, batteries) together in an easily accessible location can make life a lot easier in an emergency. Even having a full gas can to run any power tools can save you from having to make a trip out to deal with panicky crowds.
This Basic Emergency Preparedness Kit available from the American Red Cross is a great start. One of these for each member of your family should sustain you for a full three days!
Longer Term Preparedness
If you are worried about longer term emergency situations or simply choose not to live without for those few days, you might consider taking preparedness to the next level. A couple of winters ago, we had an awful storm that knocked out power for several days. Thankfully, we had a fireplace that we used to heat the house and to melt water. We also had a grill with a full propane tank for cooking hot meals. Not ideal, but enough to get through. At those times, I really wish that we could afford a generator to keep the power turned on in the house.
Whether a portable or standby generator, enough energy to keep the heat and water going and the refrigerator running would have been very nice! Moreover, we could certainly have helped out a lot of our neighbors.
If you want to find out more about National Preparedness Month, check out Ready.gov.
Are you ready for an emergency? What have you done to prepare? What do you have left to do?
This would help us get started on our emergency supply start up.
I live in Texas and the weather is really unpredictable. We even had a tornado in December one time! We experience rolling blackouts (mostly in Summer and Winter), freak snow storms, tornadoes, flooding, you name it, we have it. Unfortunately, my family isn’t prepared and this would truly help us for the moments.
We just moved to a much more rural state and this would really give us peace of mind with the very unpredictable weather.
New England weather is odd so having a kit like this would be great with Winter approaching!
Currently we do not have any emergency kit. You never know when you’ll need one. This would save the day someday.
It would help by providing the basics in case of an unexpected emergency. 🙂 Thank you.
Knowing that we have some supplies in an emergency is a good feeling.
We always keep saying we need to get a kit together in case of emergency, but we never have. This owuld be such a relief knowing we have it all together.
Being in the MidWest, tornadoes are a concern as is flooding . A kit in one place would be helpful!
We don’t have an emergancy kit, but we could really use one.
We live in earthquake country and I’m reminded that we are really overdue for our “big” one. Emergency preparedness helps us feel assured that we can be ready to survive the madness when it hits!
During the winter there are storms in the area with strong winds that down trees causing a power outage. It ca be a number of days without power.
We wouldn’t have to stop to think or grab things at the last minute.
Having everything in one bag that we can grab would be very useful in a storm rather than our current, find a flashlight then scour for what we need method.
It is good to have all these items together. I have some of them, but I need to get them all in one bag.
Winning this emergency preparedness kit would get us started in preparing our family for an emergency
It would make me feel more at ease for my families safety.
This would be great for an emergency situation, whether we had to leave quickly or shelter in place.
We don’t have one and definitely need one!
We don’t have one right now.
You can never be to ready- and we don’t have everything in this kit.
Thanks for the chance.
[email protected]
We live in a hurricane zone, an emergency kit would be a great thing to have.
I know its so important to have one and a plan in place, but it one thing I have kept putting off. Would bring great peace of mind to know that we had a kit handy in case of an unexpected emergency!
Well, we live in an earthquake zone, also near a mountain that is overdue….
and every few winters we get blizzards, last time the power was out for 3 days, all the businesses were closed. That wasn’t fun
well we live on an island and if a natural disaster happens here, we need to be prepared because it would be awhile before help could get to us.
It would be something we could grab quickly in the case of a natural disaster.
WE Need this emergency kit; power outages are common where we live, so it would be nice to have an extra flashlight and other supplies on hand.
Living in RI, we suffer from hurricanes, blizzards and flooding. We have lost power for days at a time. This kit would come in very handy.
Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it!!!
I live in Colorado and after the floods last week, I think it would be a great thing to have such a kit.
We live in a hurricane zone. This would come in handy.
We get lots of bad lightning storms and flooding in my area, so this kit would be a big help!
this kit would help our family start to prepare for an emergency
I’ve seen all kinds of crazy weather here in TX
It would help us be prepapred for an unexpected emergency
We are all so super clumsy in my house, and we don’t have this, so it would be good to have.
We live in upstate NY, in a rural area. It would be good for us to have this kit for emergencies.
After experiencing 911 and the big black out here in nyc its obvious that anything can happen and you should be prepared
An emergency kit is essential for my family, as I live in earthquake territory.
Hope to win!
I need an emergency kit because I no longer have one.
wendym at cableone dot net
Having an emergency kit would prevent me from having to scramble around for these items wasting precious minutes once an emergency hits. It could save our lives.
We’ve had ice storms – once we were without power for 13 days – so a kit that helps in bad situations would be welcome
It would give me piece of mind in case anything did happen
We live in Florida. So, we can get some nasty storms. Our power was already knocked out twice in the past month, and we didn’t have any flashlights working.
This would give me peace of mind because unfortunately I am not prepared for an emergency!
this would come in handy for road trips, especially in the winter months
We live in an area that gets a lot of snow in the winter and we lose power and have to stay in, this would be a great addition to our prep gear.
We do not currently have one and I know that I desperately need one. This would be a great start.
never know what will happen
It would be nice we moved to mn from texas and winter is coming and we are not prepared at all
It would help my family during snowstorms!
Living in Iowa have to be prepared for tornados and also live next to the river so need flood plans also
Wife is disabled. The more I have ready to go at a moment’s notice, the better her chances of making it.
Our family could use one!! Even small disasters could cause big problems if your not prepared!
You can’t be too prepared for an emergency when you live on the coast with the threat of Hurricanes.
never know what you might need
we have lived thru so many hurricanes, it’s insane… you would think we would have some form of action by now! This would be great to have!
I live in Ohio. Weather can range from tornados to ice storms. From hail storms to flash floods. This would help me be more prepared for our unpredictable weather.
lyndsey.rullman at hotmail dot com
Where we live when a big event hits we are not prepared in our county as we saw in hurricane floyd
Tornadoes are a real threat where we live and our son had his roof blown off and his swimming pool destroyed several years ago. Fortunately, he and his family were visiting us when this happened.
We used to never really have to worry about adverse weather in NC. But over the years tornado threats have been real and it seems as if they are more prominent than before. So we definitely need to get things in order just in case.
This would be a big help.
jweezie43[at]gmail[dot]com
always wise to prepare!
We are in the middle of no where and if something was to happen we wouldn’t have access to supplies. Having one of these on hand in case of emergancy would be great.
I live in FL- I think that says it all 🙂
It would help us because the weather here can turn ugly fast.
A kit like this would be great for us because we have a lot of power outages in the winter.
We live in the county and so far out that if a tornado come it would most definitely take awhile for the emergency crew to reach me and my neighbors. This kit would help a community survive the unthinkable. Thanks!
This would go right along with the rest of my “prepping” supplies.
We don’t have an emergency kit. We get very harsh winters and we can get nasty storms in the summer, so this would be nice to have available for our family.
An emergency preparedness kit would help my family be ready for an emergency because it would house all the basics in an easily-identifiable bag; we wouldn’t have to hunt for this or search for that when an emergency strikes. Thanks for the chance to win one!
It would help because we don’t have a kit..
Because when an emergency happens it is normally quick so you need to have everything ready to go in seconds!
i dont know of anyone who has too much emergency supplies, i sure know i could always use some and thie package looks nicely convienent
I live in a hurricane area so emergency supplies are always needed.
We live in Central Florida and need to stay prepared for the worst and hope for the best
We don’t currently have an emergency kit, although I really know we should. We get tornadoes here frequently in the spring and should really be prepared just in case.
I’m guilty of not having any supplies or anything put together. We have general emergency supplies, but they are in random places. It would probably take some time to gather everything together. So this would really come in handy if there were ever a problem.
This would be great cause we don’t really have anything to prepare ourselves with at the moment.
An emergency preparedness kit is essential for any home. I keep certain supplies on hand all the time just in case. I get laughed at by my family since I take it so seriously but they appreciate it when the power goes out & the like.
We have an emergency preparedness kit for our family. We are in Colorado where we often get hit with bad weather. I want a kit for my son to have to keep in his car and take to college with him. I think it is important to be prepared.
The emergency preparedness kit would help my family be ready for an emergency because currently I am not prepared at all. I need to use this kit as a starting point to get prepared in case of emergencies in my area.
It would help because I am not prepared at all I don’t even think I have batteries in my flashlight
Like other posters, it would help me because it would make the supplies easier to find.
It would help as we live in hurricane country!
We have monsoon season here where I live and the power goes out several times during the season. This kit would help us be prepared when the electricity is out.
I’m ashamed to say that we don’t have any sort of Emergency Kit so something like this would be great. We’ve have snow/ice storms, tornadoes, blackouts in the summer so I really should put something together instead of always stumbling around in the dark trying to find things!
WOUld love to have a compete kit like this especially with winter around the corner. Never know when power might go out or other emergency
brich22 at earthlink dot net
The kit would be wonderful for my family. We have pleanty of stuff at home to help us survive but if we had to leave home we have NOTHING.
I’d be nice to feel a sense of security if something happened.
Its easier to keep your family safe when your prepared ahead of time.
I think the kit would be great because it comes with the pack to keep everything in its place so in case of an emergancy you can just grab it and go.
You don’t have to look for everything, especially if the power goes out. You’ll have what you need in one place
It would help in case we got stuck somewhere on the road
We just moved to a new house and have very few emergency supplies. We live in an area that has pretty sever snowstorms every once in a while. It would be nice to have supplies so I don’t worry when we have a big storm.
I have two dare devil boys anything can and will happen =)
It would help because it has all the essentials for just about any emergency.
We have most of the items we might need in an emergency but, we don’t have a kit to keep all the vital supplies in one easy to find location.
This would be great to have while we are traveling in case something unexpected happens.
This would give me the supplies I would need to quickly escape!
For years I maintained an emergency kit, (plus a small one in the car). It’s been ages since I updated them, much of the stuff is probably expired or needs replacing.
We’ve been working to establish an emergency stash but haven’t got around to any core medical stuff lately. This would help fill out our kit and be handy as well for the home we are trying to setup as a cabin on the farm
this would be great..living in vermont I never thought any disasters would happen here until Hurricane Irene dropped so much rain and we lost a lot of our roads ,covered bridges and power throughout the state..it was very scary and I learned that we need to be prepared for whatever might come even hurricanes.
http://www.pinterest.com/klp1965/hurricane-irene-floods-vermont/
In a house full of boys you never know when you’ll need something like this!
Big fan of being prepared! Thank for the giveaway!
Currently not prepared at all – need to get prepared!
I live in a hurricane prone area and disaster preparedness is very important
we have bad winters where we get cut off from the outside would and this would make me feel more secure
We do not have a kit, and with all of the recent floods here, we realize we are not prepared at all
This would go great with our “bug out” bags.
The weather here is crazy and sometimes we have to act fast.
I can’t really think of a good reason why having an emergency preparedness kit wouldn’t help. There are always emergency situations that can arise without notice. Being prepared is essential.
We are a busy family of 5 and this kit would be the perfect easy to keep stored and organized way to help my family be prepared for an emergency.
to help get started with preparing
It’s a huge help to spend time on other things instead of shuffling around looking for supplies.
it would help my family if we had a weather emergency
We don’t have much of an emergency kit. It is still hurricane season and this would definitely help out!
an emergency preparedness kit would come in handy because we live in florida and there are always natural disasters that we need to be prepared for.
I just moved to the midwest from the east coast. Where I lived we didn’t have tornadoes but now we live in a area where they are common
Super storm Sandy taught you have to be prepared!
jofo120 at yahoo dot com
To be prepared during hurricane season in Florida!
I’m a new mom and a new homeowner– my husband and I have been looking at emergency kits to get ready for Nebraska’s next tornado season!
Because part of Colorado just had floods and you have to be prepared
I don’t have a emergency kit would really love to keeping fingers crossed
I live on the West Coast. We are expecting “the big one” earthquake any day. I really need to start preparing for my family. Thank you for sharing.
This would help us be prepared in case of an emergancy.
We’d be ready for an emergency…
Oh man, we dont have anything stocked so this would be so great!
I think every family should have an emergency kit, but we don’t have one yet, so I would love to have this.
I dont have any kind of kit prepared and I think everyone needs one
It would help so that we are prepared for medical emergencies during a possible disaster. Also making sure you have a box filled with 3 days worth of food and water is a must.
Fingers crossed!
To be prepared.
Well, I should have thought about this before. You have made me realize how unprepared I am. Living in Florida, I should have a set emergency kit, but I don’t. This would be great to have.
This would help any family in an emergency but since my family doesn’t really have an “emergency plan” this would be a good start for that!
Between Superstorm Sandy, nor’easters and way too many power outages lately, we really need this!
I was curious if you picked a winner yet? Just following up on a few giveaways that I entered that don’t have a winner listed on the widget yet 🙂