72 Hr Kit

I am amazed by the increased frequency and severity of natural disasters recently- fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, etc. Our church leaders have been warning us to be prepared for quite some time now (certainly my whole life), so really it shouldn't come as any surprise. But it's good to be reminded from time to time and update our supplies. Here's a list someone gave us when we first put our 72 hr kits together, right before Y2K. Remember that? Of course it turned out to be nothing, but at least it helped us get our act together.

• sweat suit
• socks (2-3 pairs)
• underwear
• poncho
• drop cloth
• nylon rope
• gloves
• wash cloth
• towel
• mess kit with eating utensils
• whistle
• water purification tablets
• first aid kit (band-aids, 4x4 pads, alcohol pads, hand sanitizer, wrap dressing)
• fire-starting kit (lint, kindling, water proof matches, lighter, steel wool, candle)
• miniature shovel
• knife
• water (3-16 oz bottles per person)
• food (we do canned meat, beef jerky, canned fruit and protein bars)
• toiletries (toothbrush/paste, deodorant, shampoo, soap, comb, wipes)
• flashlight/batteries (we have one of those wind-up ones too)

So if you don't have yours together, I hope this encourages you to work on it. We put mine and Dave's stuff and all the supplies in big water-proof buckets, and the kids' clothes, toiletries, food and water in small backpacks. You can put it all into backpacks if you want, since that would be easier to carry. Then once you have it done, you just need to rotate the food and update the clothes for the kids every year or two. Probably 4 years is too long.