The Best Emergency Survival Kits Available

The best emergency survival kits are ones that contain three essential items: food, water, and tools/supplies. We believe you should put your own together because not all people will need the exact same items in their emergency preparedness kit.

You may not even use them for the same situations— some people need car survival kits because they frequently drive long distances, while others may be more concerned with what might happen while hiking and so would be more interested in having a survival backpack.

For example, people living on the coast should prepare more for natural disasters such as hurricanes, while those in the midwest can prepare for things like power outages. Also, each person has individual needs. Perhaps you have a baby in the family and need to include formula, or maybe someone is sick, and you need to stockpile a certain medication.

Whatever the situation may be, the best emergency survival kits are the ones that are tailored to help you be prepared. With that being said, all basic survival kits should contain some of the same survival tools across the board. These items are as follows:

• Food- Food kits are the smartest way to go when it comes to emergencies, but you can also purchase non-perishables to stock your pantry.
• Water- You should have enough clean water for each member of your household. The general rule of thumb is one gallon of water per person per day. You also might consider a water filter, so you don't need to worry about running out.
• Tools- At a minimum, your tool supply should include something to cut with (knife, a multi-tool, or scissors), a light source (flashlight or lantern), and a fire starter (matches or lighter).
• First Aid Supplies- This is a must, whether you're building a small go-bag or a bigger kit to keep at home or in your trunk for a car emergency. Medical supplies are essential survival items.

What you put into your survival kit also depends on the purpose of the kit. For example, if you are someone who travels often or is outside a lot (camping, hiking, etc.), then you would probably want your survival kit to fit into a backpack or bug out bag. This is a smaller bag of supplies typically made for one person that contains essential items that will help you survive for around 72 hours.

If you have a family or more than one person living with you, then you want to keep your focus on a survival kit. These kits are bigger and typically contain items for longer periods of time, like a week or more. However, you can adjust the amount of supplies you prep as needed.

What Should an Emergency Survival Kit Include?

We briefly outlined what emergency survival kits should include. As we mentioned, they should all contain food, water, and tools, though you may want to include some additional items. The specifics of what you purchase for each category depends on you and your family. There are many contributing factors, such as family size, home location, and accessibility to help and supplies during an emergency situation.

Obviously, an individual’s survival kit will look much different than a family of four will. With all this in mind, you now know the basic structure of what your survival kit should look like and what it should contain.

Let’s talk about food for your emergency survival kit. Most people think to stock up on non-perishables and dry goods when preparing their food supply. While this is totally fine and a great place to start, a better idea is to purchase our freeze-dried food kits.

Our 4Patriots Survival Food Kits are the best on the market. We have a wide variety of items to choose from, ranging from pre-packaged kits to individual emergency food supplies that you can combine to create your own kit. The best part of our freeze-dried food? It has a shelf-life of up to 25 years. That’s right; it won’t expire for over two decades.

That’s many years of peace of mind in knowing your emergency food supply won’t expire. The other great thing is all you have to do to enjoy a delicious meal is to add hot water. Each food kit contains enough food for each person to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a set amount of time.

For example, the kits range anywhere from 72 hours up to an entire year’s worth of food supply, all packaged in Mylar resealable pouches. To be the most prepared, you will definitely be safe buying a year’s supply. We know that’s a lot, and the idea of a year’s worth of food can be overwhelming. At the very least, we recommend starting with the 72-Hour Food Kit to make sure you are well stocked and well prepared.

We simply cannot survive without water. While we can go weeks on end without food, we can only go a matter of days without water. When preparing your survival kit, consider the amount of water that is needed for everyone in your household. This is typically one gallon of water per person per day.

With that being said, we strongly encourage you to have a water purifier as part of your survival kit. Our water purifiers can filter out 99.9% of harmful contaminants and last for up to 5,000 gallons of water. This is one way to ensure you will never have to worry about not having enough water, and you will never run out. You can also purchase water purification tablets, but these will eventually run out.

Unfortunately, you just do not know how long an emergency will last. We hope that it would only be a matter of days, but it’s not worth the risk of being underprepared. Always assume something will last longer than you plan for, and then plan for that instead. It truly is better to be safe than sorry, especially when it comes to absolutely essential supplies such as food and water in your disaster preparedness prep.

As for your supplies and tools, you should have something for cutting, a light source (whether that's a lantern or light sticks, and a fire starter. Having a solar-powered flashlight is a great idea because you will never have to worry about replacing its batteries. You will want to have a fire starter so that you can boil water and disinfect things, and possibly even start a signal fire if need be.

You definitely want to have a first aid kit included with your survival gear so that you can take care of yourself and your family members in the event of an emergency. You should have a cutting tool like a pocket knife to cut rope and tape. You can also consider having other multi-purpose tools (pliers, can opener, duct tape, etc.) and emergency supplies such as an emergency blanket, sleeping bags, or a rain poncho in your survival bag in case you need to find emergency shelter.

You also might want to look into a solar-powered charger for your cell phone, as well as a hand-crank weather radio, so you always have some form of communication, even if you're in an emergency zone. You might even want a signal mirror, in case all else fails.

Conclusion

When you put our Survival Food Kits and solar-powered tools together, you can’t go wrong. You can customize your kit based on you and your family’s specific needs, but all kits should contain food, water, and tools at the very least.

You should have at least a gallon of water per day per person or a water purifier for an unlimited supply of clean water. You should have enough food to keep each member of your household full and energized for at least 72 hours in survival situations, but having more than that is preferred.

Sources:

https://www.aarp.org/home-family/friends-family/info-2020/emergency-go-bag.html

https://www.ready.gov/

https://www.ors.od.nih.gov/ser/dem/emergencyPrep/Pages/Disaster-Preparedness-Tips.aspx