The first thing to realize is that if you can’t live for at least 3-5 days without outside help there is a very real chance that you won’t live if a natural or man-made disaster hits.

You need a “bug-out bag” or “72 Hour” emergency pack

A “bug-out bag” is a portable kit that you can just grab and go and has everything you need to survive a short-term crisis situation.Since there is a real possibility that you may need to evacuate that pack needs to be light enough to carry, that means you need on for each person in your group and everyone should carry their own pack.

You might have heard that your survival kit should have everything you need to last at least 3 days (that’s why they call them 72 hour kits) truthfully though, you need to realize that in a major crisis its more likely that outside help won’t be available for 5 or more days so your “72 hour kit” should really be closer to a “120 hour kit”or longer if you can.

What should be in my 72 hour kit?

I’m going to go over a few things that you need to think about when preparing for a short term emergency.

Remember, in some situations you are stuck where you are, in others you are forced to evacuate. In both situations you need your emergency pack to be able to sustain you. You also need to have a plan of what you are going to do in either case.

You can have a preference on what you want to do if an emergency hits, but you need to be flexible enough to deal with unforeseen circumstances. Once you and I go over what you need for your survival pack, we’ll go over different things you’ll need to consider when creating your short term emergency plan

Your basic kits should meet these needs:

Why your packs should cover these needs.

While your pack needs to have everything you need to sustain physical life for 3 to 5 days it’s also important to include things that will help you sustain your mental and emotional health.

The reason for this is that your physical health is closely tied to the other two, and in a stressful situation your immune system is already weaker. In a crisis situation you absolutely do not want to get sick. You also want to be able to remain calm and clearheaded so that you can make the best decisions so that you’re not faced with mistakes or stupid actions that will haunt you later.

Now the better stocked your pack is the more likely you are to both survive and be comfortable through the whole situation, however you still need your kit light enough that you can carry it by yourself if you had to evacuate on foot to another location.

A few other things to consider.

Since you may need to carry your pack by foot, it’s best to get one of these packs for every person in your family or group.  Everyone needs to be able to carry their own pack, and it’s good to distribute group items that everyone will need to use across all the different packs, that way if something happens and you lose a pack you haven’t lost everything.

Of course everything we are talking about will need to be adapted to your own situation. If you have anyone who is unable to care for or carry their own pack (for example very small children, anyone elderly or disabled under your care) you’ll need to distribute their items to people in your group who can.

Pay Attention to What the Pack is Made out of

When preparing your emergency pack, you need to pay attention to the physical pack itself.

Make sure you consider these thins when choosing your packs

  • The pack you choose needs to be heavy-duty and sturdy and made of materials that won’t easily wear out, rip or tear.
  • You need to waterproof your pack, and also make sure it won’t attract insects or animals so seal up everything tightly (perhaps spray with insect and water repellent.)
  • It also needs to be big enough to hold all of the essential items each person, while still being small enough to be comfortable for the person carrying it.
  • You need to make sure the packs contents are well-balanced so that they don’t cause injury or unnecessary strain if you need to evacuate. Its a good idea to test the balance by having each person go hiking with their pack on and rearrange the contents until each pack is the most comfortable for the person carrying it.

Finally, once you have your packs you need to store them in a safe location that is secure, sealed and waterproof, close to but outside of your home (if a disaster such as flood, house fire, etc. hits your home, or makes it inaccessible, you don’t want your emergency packs to be trapped or destroyed also.)

More information:

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Next page: Step 3 –Basic Emergency Skills >>