How to Prepare Emergency Survival Kits

In order to be able to react quickly, and get through the crucial early hours of a crisis, you should prepare a family emergency survival kit.

The emergency survival kit should contain a first-aid kit and first-aid instructions, emergency food, water, water-purifying chemicals and a water filter, some source of light and the other items that you may want or need in order to survive (like duct tape to seal off the room, a radio, medicines, hygiene necessities, baby needs, candles, matches, a tin opener...).

The emergency survival kit should also contain an emergency decontamination kit.

You can buy ready-made survival kits or you can also take care of preparing them yourself.

Ideally, you should have enough identical ones, so that each member of the family can easily access one: at home, at work or school and in the car. At a minimum, you should have at least one in your 'safe room'.

Everyone in your family should know where to find the survival kit and know what it contains and how to use it.

Family emergency drills are an excellent way to familiarize everyone with use of the survival kits (they can also be fun and a great psychological help if a real crisis ever occurs). You should run a drill every three to six months.