The Preparedness Numbers
Every baseline emergency-preparedness number in one sourced table — water and food minimums, the exact bleach-disinfection ratio, the generator carbon-monoxide safety distance, NOAA SAME radio alerting, document-kit contents, and kit refresh interval. Every row is sourced directly to FEMA/Ready.gov, the American Red Cross, the CDC, or NOAA — no secondhand paraphrasing, no dramatized framing.
The dataset
| Category | Metric | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water — daily minimum | 1 gallon per person per day (drinking + sanitation) | Baseline for a normally active person; hot climates, pregnancy, illness, and pet needs raise this. | FEMA / Ready.gov — Water |
| Water — minimum supply | 3-day supply minimum (3 gallons/person) | The floor for a basic emergency kit per ready.gov's Build A Kit guidance. | FEMA / Ready.gov — Build A Kit |
| Water — better target | 2-week supply where possible (14 gallons/person) | Recommended at-home benchmark beyond the 3-day minimum, used by state emergency-management 'Two Weeks Ready' campaigns built on FEMA guidance. | Ready.gov — Water / state 'Two Weeks Ready' programs |
| Water treatment — bleach | 1/8 tsp (~8 drops) unscented bleach per gallon, wait 30 min | Official ready.gov emergency disinfection method for plain household water; repeat dose and wait 15 more minutes if no faint chlorine smell after 30 minutes. Use plain, unscented liquid chlorine bleach only. | Ready.gov — Water |
| Water storage — self-filled | Rotate every 6 months | Applies to tap water you store yourself in your own clean containers, not commercially bottled water. | Red Cross / Ready.gov water-storage guidance |
| Water storage — commercial bottled | Rotate by printed date, typically ~2 years | Sealed commercial bottled water carries a manufacturer 'best by' quality date rather than a 6-month rule; follow the printed date. | Ready.gov / bottled-water industry guidance |
| Food — minimum supply | 3-day supply of non-perishable, no-cook food minimum | Canned goods, dry mixes, and staples that need no refrigeration, cooking, or added water; include a manual can opener. | FEMA / Ready.gov — Food |
| Food — better target | 2-week supply where possible | Same rationale as the water 2-week benchmark: covers longer utility/supply-chain disruptions beyond a 72-hour event. | Ready.gov — Food / state readiness programs |
| Radio — required feature | NOAA Weather Radio with SAME tone alert | SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) lets the radio filter alerts to your specific county rather than the whole broadcast region. | NWS / NOAA Weather Radio |
| Generator — CO safety distance | 20+ feet from any window, door, or vent; never indoors/garage | CDC/CPSC/NIST/UL-backed distance; testing found nearly half of non-fatal CO poisonings during hurricanes involved generators within 7 feet of the home. Pair with an indoor battery-powered CO alarm. | CDC — Carbon Monoxide / Generator Safety |
| Documents kit | Copies of ID, insurance, medical & bank records, waterproof + digital | Ready.gov recommends both a physical waterproof container and a digital/cloud backup so you can prove identity and file claims after a loss. | Ready.gov — Financial Preparedness / Safeguard Documents |
| Kit refresh interval | Check kit every 6 months (batteries, food/water rotation, sizes) | Ready.gov recommends a semiannual check tied to daylight saving time changes, refreshing water, food, batteries, and medications, and resizing for household changes (new baby, pet, member with new needs). | Ready.gov — Build A Kit maintenance guidance |
Every source link points to the live government or Red Cross page the figure was checked against at time of publication.
Reading the table correctly
- 3-day figures are minimums, not targets. Ready.gov states them as the floor for a basic kit; the 2-week figures are the stronger, still-official benchmark for households that can store more.
- The bleach ratio applies to plain, unscented liquid chlorine bleach only. Scented, color-safe, or "splash-less" formulas are different products and are not part of this guidance.
- The 20-foot generator rule is a minimum distance, not a suggestion. It applies outdoors only — a generator should never run in a garage, basement, breezeway, or carport, even with the door open.
- Local guidance overrides general reference. Always follow your local emergency management office and official evacuation orders during an actual event.
Methodology & versioning
Version 1.0 — published July 30, 2026. Every figure was checked directly against the live ready.gov, FEMA, American Red Cross, CDC, or NOAA source page linked in the table above. We do not run our own field tests or surveys; this is a citation-facts reference, not original research. Corrections: if official guidance changes, this page and the CSV below are updated in place and the version/date bumped — see How We Evaluate for our full editorial policy.
Machine-readable download: the full table is available as CSV at /preparedness-numbers.csv, and a condensed digest is maintained in /llms-full.txt. Licensed CC BY 4.0 — reuse with attribution to Ready Lab.
Ready Lab. "The Preparedness Numbers." Version 1.0, July 30, 2026. https://ready-lab.pages.dev/preparedness-numbers/
This page is general preparedness information, not medical, legal, or emergency-management advice for your specific situation. Follow your local authorities during an actual emergency.
Frequently Asked Questions
A normalized reference table of the official emergency-preparedness baselines — water, food, disinfection ratios, generator safety distance, radio alerting, document kits, and kit refresh intervals — each sourced directly to the FEMA/Ready.gov, American Red Cross, CDC, or NOAA page it comes from. It exists because most preparedness content repeats these numbers secondhand without a checkable source.
It's ready.gov's published baseline for a normally active person's drinking and sanitation needs, not a universal ceiling. Hot climates, pregnancy, illness, and pets all raise the real number above one gallon — treat it as a floor to plan from, not a target to stop at.
Ready.gov's method (1/8 teaspoon, about 8 drops, per gallon) is calibrated for plain, unscented liquid household chlorine bleach at typical retail concentration. Scented or color-safe bleach formulas are different products and aren't part of this guidance — using the wrong bleach or the wrong ratio can under- or over-treat the water.
The CDC, working with the CPSC, NIST, and UL, tested carbon monoxide behavior around running generators and found nearly half of non-fatal CO poisonings during hurricanes involved generators within 7 feet of a home. Their published rule is more than 20 feet from any window, door, or vent, with a battery-powered CO alarm as a backup, not a replacement.
No. This table normalizes national FEMA/Red Cross/CDC/NOAA guidance for general planning. Always follow your local emergency management office and official evacuation orders during an actual event — local conditions and instructions take precedence over any general reference.