Being prepared for an emergency situation is more than just a state of mind. It’s one thing to feel prepared and to know about preparedness, but it’s another thing completely to actually have the possessions in hand that will help you actually be prepared. Who knows what tomorrow may bring in this unpredictable world? Natural disasters of all sorts may happen at a moment’s notice and it helps if you are mentally and physically equipped to handle any situation that comes your way. 

In any event, it helps to have a bug out bag on hand that will help you either get home safely or to help you and yours get bugged out to wherever you need to be in order to stay safe in an emergency situation. Even the CDC recommends several takes on the preparedness kit or bug out bag, which can be seen here: https://www.ready.gov/kit. We’ve put together a variation of this kit which can be contained within an average sized backpack or duffle bag that you can either store in your car or at home or both with multiple backups. Let us know if you would add anything to this kit or if you have used your kit in an emergency situation lately. Either way, we would love to hear from you!

Fire Starting Supplies

With your bug out bag, you may need to start a fire for a variety of reasons. You may need to cook some food or boil water or start a fire to signal help or to keep warm. It is paramount to have good fire starting equipment on hand. We recommend a few redundant backups in order to ensure you always have a good firestarter on hand. 

• Waterproof matches ~100 to 200
• Cheap disposable lighters (like the classic Bic lighter, which are surprisingly resilient) 
• A flint and/or large ferro rod combo
• Zippo style lighter (optional)

Basic Hand Tools

You never know when you might need to perform basic mechanical tasks like cutting a seatbelt, changing a car battery, or even opening a can of tuna. For all of those things, you will need some basic hand tools. Here’s what we recommend. 

• Folding multi-tool with the following functions:
• Knife
• Saw
• Pliers and/or scissors
• Can opener
• Screw driver (phillips head and flat head)
• Bottle opener
• Hammer
• Hatchet
• Shovel

Medical Supplies

Aside from your basic prescriptions and whatnot, it’s helpful to have a few medical supplies on hand in case of a minor injury. Here’s a few things to keep on hand: 

• Needle and thread
• Multi use band-aid kit
• Gauze
• Duct tape
• Isopropyl alcohol or hydrogen peroxide for sanitizing
• Over the counter pain medications

Water Purification

While it can be impractical to keep a steady supply of water on hand, it can be useful to keep a small purification kit on hand. Here are a few ideas.

• Small container of household bleach and an eye dropper
• Emergency straw
• Water purification tabs
• A few bottles of water (rotate regularly)
• An empty container for storing water when you find a safe source

Communication

If your cell phone isn’t working, you will want the latest news and instructions from your local authorities. It helps to have something on hand outside of your cell phone. Here are a few things to keep on hand:

• Hand powered emergency radio
• Road flares or signal flares (to signal to outside help)
• Extra cell phone chargers and battery charging packs
• Portable HAM radio (optional)

Food

Nothing gets you through an emergency like staving off hunger. Try some of these hunger fighting solutions.

• Freeze dried meal kits (2 to 3 per person)
• Canned food
• Protein bars (rotate regularly!)

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed these emergency preparedness suggestions! No matter what you do this year, we hope you have a wonderful year from Better Man Beard.