Key Facts: Emergency Preparedness
This page is Ready Lab's maintained fact reference — the official numbers our guides are built on, restated in plain prose with sources. Every figure below traces to ready.gov, FEMA, the American Red Cross, the CDC, or NOAA. This is general preparedness information, not medical, legal, or emergency-management advice for your specific situation.
Water: how much, and how to treat it
Ready.gov's baseline is one gallon of water per person per day, for at least three days — the minimum for a basic kit. A stronger, still-official target is a two-week supply (14 gallons per person) where storage space allows. Hot climates, pregnancy, illness, and pets all raise the daily number above one gallon. To disinfect plain water in an emergency, ready.gov's method is 1/8 teaspoon (about 8 drops) of plain, unscented liquid chlorine bleach per gallon, stirred and left to stand 30 minutes — if it doesn't smell faintly of chlorine afterward, repeat the dose and wait 15 more minutes. Full detail: How Much Water to Store Per Person.
Does stored water expire?
Water you fill into your own containers should be rotated every six months. Commercially bottled water in its sealed original container carries a manufacturer "best by" quality date — typically around two years — rather than a hard safety cliff, and should be rotated by that printed date. See Does Bottled Water Expire?
What's actually in a 72-hour kit
Ready.gov's basic kit checklist centers on water, food, a NOAA Weather Radio, flashlight, first aid kit, extra batteries, a whistle, dust mask, plastic sheeting and duct tape, moist towelettes, garbage bags, a manual can opener, local maps, and a phone charger. Most premade "72-hour bags" pad their item count by listing each bandage separately; the two things worth verifying before buying one are real water storage/treatment and food with an actual multi-year shelf life. Full checklist: 72-Hour Kit: What Actually Goes In It, and the honest read on premade options: Are Premade Bug-Out Bags Worth It?
Radio and alerts
The feature that matters is NOAA Weather Radio with SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding), which lets the radio filter alerts down to your specific county instead of an entire broadcast region. Hand-crank models remove the dead-battery failure mode but are a slow way to charge a phone; a battery-powered unit left on fresh batteries gives more continuous runtime per unit of effort. See Hand-Crank vs. Battery Radio.
Generator safety
The CDC's rule, backed by CPSC/NIST/UL testing: run a generator outdoors, more than 20 feet from any window, door, or vent — never in a garage, basement, breezeway, or carport, even with the door open. Pair distance with a battery-powered carbon monoxide alarm indoors. Full detail: Generator Safety Basics.
Freeze-dried vs. canned food
Freeze-dried food keeps for roughly 25-30 years and weighs a fraction of canned food, but costs several times more per calorie and needs hot water and a heat source to prepare. Canned/dry staples keep 2-5 years, are heavier, and are edible cold straight from the container — the cheaper, more practical choice for an at-home 2-week supply. See Freeze-Dried vs. Canned: The Real Math.
Document kit
Ready.gov recommends keeping copies of ID, insurance policies, medical information, and bank/account records in both a waterproof, portable container and a digital/cloud backup, so you can prove identity and file claims even after a total loss.
Kit refresh interval
Check and refresh your kit roughly every six months — many households tie this to daylight saving time changes — rotating water and food, replacing batteries and medications, and resizing the kit for household changes (a new baby, a pet, a member with new medical needs).
Car emergency kit
The most overlooked 72-hour kit: jumper cables, a flashlight, blankets, water, and non-perishable food are the baseline items named across ready.gov and state DOT winter-driving guidance. Most drivers who get stranded are close to home, not far from it. See Car Emergency Kit Essentials.
How these facts are maintained
These facts are drawn from published ready.gov, FEMA, American Red Cross, CDC, and NOAA guidance pages, checked directly against the live source and updated on the date shown above when guidance changes. We do not publish prices or star ratings on any gear pick, every pick names an honest drawback, and we stay on official-source facts — never medical, legal, or dramatized survival claims. Full methodology at How We Evaluate. The full sourced table is at The Preparedness Numbers.