Family emergency supplies we’ve tried and tested and keep in our emergency preparedness kits for disasters, weather emergencies and other prepping reasons. Here’s how to prepare for an emergency with your own house emergency kit or for your emergency survival kit ideas.
Best Family Emergency Supplies And Short-Term Survival Needs List For Times Without Power
With recent weather events (like hurricanes!) and other scary news, I’ve been taking stock of what we have in our emergency bags and preparedness supplies in the house and things to help when there’s no power.
FYI: You don’t need a doomsday zombie apocalypse forecast to be prepared for emergencies or disasters, so don’t fall for scare tactics!
Think of things like power outage emergencies, snow days, tornado prepping or other weather outages, supply shortages, or any other times you may need to have extra supplies on hand to get you through hard times.
Here are our top picks for family emergency prep supplies — all things we’ve bought and used during emergencies (even on vacation, at our family’s remote farm, and for our car emergency bags)!
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Emergency Headlamps
I can’t even tell you how many times these cheap emergency head lamps saved us!
We were once in a rental vacation home and the area lost power due to a tornado. These lamps helped all of us, but especially my daughter. (Anything you can do to help kids in an emergency situations will be better for all of you!)
I buy them in bulk sets like this and keep them EVERYWHERE — our emergency home kits, car emergency kits, and I even carry one in my work backpack that I take to the library (or wherever I’m working that day!).
EMERGENCY PREPPING TIP: These also make great Christmas gifts or stocking stuffers. Everyone has always been excited to get these when we’ve given them as gifts!
Don’t forget to get extra batteries to keep with them! (I put the head lights and batteries in a Ziploc together so I don’t have to hunt for everything in the dark with the power out. I can just hand everyone their own Ziploc bag.)
Jackery Charger Battery Backup
If I could choose only one battery backup source, it would be this Jackery portable power station.
I SWEAR BY this charger power station. Last year, I charged it to 100% maybe once. I got it out of the closet recently in light of all the weather disasters and power outages happening and it was STILL charged to 100% (which is insane!).
One of my favorite things about it is the amount of power supply you get from it — 30 hours of laptop use, 9 hours of a fan (!!), and tons of power to charge up phones for many, many, many hours!
Another thing I love is that it has a handle and is easy to throw in the car or carry for camping. On a gut feeling a few months ago, I threw it in our car for the first time ever on our trip to the family farm. Tornadoes hit and the power went out! It was so easy to take this with us and be able to charge to get emergency info on our phones!
They also have a great portable solar panel and battery package to add to your device charging stash.
SEE ALL THE JACKERY PRODUCTS HERE
Solar Radio
One thing I learned recently is how much an old-school radio (I’m talking AM / FM radio) is still needed for emergency situations.
Like I mentioned earlier, we were at our remote rural Virginia family farm a few months ago when a tornado hit and took the power out in the middle of the night.
We had no way to get information (on good days, we often don’t get cell service there because it’s remote) and it would’ve been really scary without this radio if I could not track the storm and know when we needed to go to the cellar.
After that storm, I bought an extra one of these to keep at the farm house so there’s always one there, too!
BONUS POINTS: This is a battery operated radio, but it is also solar powered and crank powered, so there are several ways to “charge” it. It also has a flash light and you can charge your phone with it.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS EMERGENCY RADIO
WIFI Hotspots
One thing that you may want to consider is a Starlink or a WIFI hotspot to try to get connected on your cellphone during emergencies.
I have this SIMO Solis hotspot that I absolutely love and use regularly for work as a portable WIFI connection.
There have been plenty of times that we were at the family farm and I had no cell service but the Solis picked up a signal and I could connect that way. (I think you can connect up to 10 devices to one Solis.)
I will never go to our remote farm or travel without this WIFI connection!
No matter the device, you will most likely need to pay a monthly connection fee, meaning you can’t just plug it in and connect to the internet.
I pay monthly for my Solis WIFI connection, but I can pause it at any time.
You can also buy blocks of data, but I caution against that. Your devices use way more data than you imagine. I learned the hard way early on and ended up paying way more than if I had just gotten a month unlimited data plan.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If cell towers are down, you may not be able to get out on devices like the Solis, but may still be able to connect on Starlink (If you have a way to power it and have a monthly subscription). Also, I’ve heard the cords to the Starlink are very fragile / finicky (fyi).
Although these are not guaranteed solutions, it might be worth it especially if you live in areas that regularly get hit by bad weather or in areas that can easily be cut off from supplies.
If you own one of these and know storms are coming, it may be worth it to get a monthly subscription for those times.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SOLIS HOTSPOT
Portable Chargers
I have multiple portable chargers.
I keep this mini portable phone charger in my purse at all times. (It’s even saved me when we’ve been out all festivals and my phone died.) It’s small and inexpensive enough for everyone in their family to have their own. (Again, great stocking stuffers!)
IMPORTANT PREPPER TIP: Make sure you’re getting the right charger for your phone or devices!
We also have this portable solar power bank charger that also has an emergency flashing light and flashlight.
These are both great ways to charge devices during power outages or emergencies! It has three ports for charging devices at one time.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SOLAR CHARGER.
GET OUR ULTIMATE PARENT’S GUIDE TO EMERGENCY SITUATIONS FOR 45% OFF!
Other Emergency Kit And Emergency Bag Items We Love
We’ve covered mostly things you would use without electricity, but here are some other things I like to keep for emergencies or even that we can throw in a go bag backpack if we have to evacuate:
- I SWEAR BY THIS FAN. (If you follow on Facebook, you’ve seen me talk about it many times!) If your power is out and you’re miserably hot, this fan WILL cool you down! NOTE: It is NOT battery operated and you do need it plugged it, but it uses very little electricity and can easily be powered by one of the bigger portable chargers I mentioned above. I’ve bought them for all family members and as gifts and everyone loves it and can’t believe how much power this fan has (3 speeds!). I always travel with this fan (and so does my husband and daughter now!).
ALSO CHECK OUT: 15 Easy Pantry Recipes For Emergencies Or Power Outage Cooking
- This durable pet backpack has a spot for everything (and I mean everything!). We use it for travel with our dog, but we also keep it packed in case there’s an emergency where we have to just grab and go!
- Distraction items (like games and toys) are a must during power outages or if you have to evacuate to a shelter. I try to keep several small games in our car emergency kit and in our 72 hour bags for evacuations. Try this easy travel tile game (that clips onto a backpack), this tiny travel Yahtzee that we love, or just throw some cards or dice into your emergency supplies for any game play. Sometimes small distraction items will help kids calm down in scary situations, so don’t forget to pack a few in your emergency bags.
ALSO CHECK OUT MORE HELPFUL PREPPING TIPS FOR FAMILIES: THINGS TO DO WITH KIDS DURING A POWER OUTAGE
If you have legit family emergency supplies at your house you love, share them with everyone in the comments!
