Emergency Kit Builder

Build a personalized earthquake emergency kit with quantities based on your household size.

Preparedness

Why Earthquake Emergency Preparedness Matters

After a major earthquake, essential services like water, electricity, and emergency response can be disrupted for days or even weeks. FEMA, the Red Cross, and Japan's Disaster Management Agency all recommend that households maintain a minimum 72-hour emergency supply kit. However, recent events like the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquakes demonstrated that disruptions can last far longer, leading many disaster preparedness experts to recommend supplies for at least 7 days.

This tool generates a personalized kit list based on your household composition. Water is the most critical item — the standard recommendation is one gallon (3.8 liters) per person per day for drinking and basic sanitation. Households with infants, elderly members, or pets have additional needs that generic checklists often overlook: infants need formula and diapers, elderly members may require prescription medications and mobility aids, and pets need food, water, and carriers. Climate considerations also affect kit contents — cold-weather kits should include thermal blankets and hand warmers, while hot-climate kits need extra water and electrolyte solutions.

Emergency Kit Best Practices

Store kits in easily accessible locations near exits — not in locked basements or upper floors that may become inaccessible after structural damage.
Rotate water and food supplies every 6 months. Commercially sealed water has a shelf life of about 2 years; canned food lasts 2–5 years.
Keep copies of important documents (IDs, insurance policies, emergency contacts) in a waterproof bag within your kit.
Include a battery-powered or hand-crank radio to receive emergency broadcasts when cell networks are down.

Common Uses

Building a family emergency kit with quantities tailored to your specific household size and needs.
Creating a shopping list for earthquake preparedness supplies.
Reviewing and updating an existing emergency kit to ensure nothing critical is missing.
Preparing workplace or school emergency supply kits based on occupant count.

How to Use

1
Enter Household Details
Specify the number of adults, children, infants, and pets in your household, plus any special medical needs. FEMA and the American Red Cross recommend a minimum 72-hour (3-day) supply for household preparedness, with 2 weeks recommended for major earthquake scenarios.
2
Select Your Risk Level
Choose your seismic zone (low, moderate, high, very high) based on your location. High-risk zones (California, Pacific Northwest, Japan, New Zealand) warrant larger supplies due to potential infrastructure disruption lasting weeks.
3
Review Your Personalized Kit List
Get a complete, quantified checklist with specific amounts for water (FEMA standard: 1 gallon per person per day), food, medical supplies, and communications equipment. Save or print for procurement tracking.

About

Emergency preparedness for earthquakes encompasses three phases that emergency managers call the '3 Ps': preparedness (building resilience before an event), response (actions taken in the immediate aftermath), and recovery (returning to normal function over weeks to months). The preparedness phase, where kit building occurs, is the most effective investment: research consistently shows that households with emergency supplies, practiced evacuation plans, and structural retrofits sustain fewer injuries and recover faster than unprepared households of similar socioeconomic status.

The 72-hour preparedness standard—maintaining 3 days of independent supplies—emerged from FEMA analysis of disaster response timelines: professional emergency responders typically cannot reach all affected households within the first 72 hours of a major event. For major earthquake scenarios on the scale of the anticipated Cascadia Subduction Zone event (estimated M8.0–9.2), FEMA's Cascadia Rising exercise projections suggest some communities may not receive substantial external aid for 2–4 weeks due to infrastructure (bridges, highways, ports) damage. Oregon and Washington emergency management now recommend 2-week household preparedness for residents in the subduction zone's projected impact area.

Community preparedness programs significantly amplify individual readiness. The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program, developed after the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake by the Los Angeles Fire Department and now administered nationally by FEMA, trains community members in basic disaster response skills including light search and rescue, first aid, and fire suppression. Japan's neighborhood-level disaster prevention associations (Jishubo) coordinate block-level evacuation drills and maintain shared emergency caches for communities. These collective approaches address the reality that the first responders in any major disaster are the disaster survivors themselves—the first professional responders typically arrive 30 to 60 minutes after an event begins.

FAQ

How much water should I store for an earthquake emergency?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and American Red Cross recommend a minimum of 1 gallon of water per person per day for drinking and basic sanitation, for a minimum of 3 days. For earthquake scenarios, where water infrastructure damage may last weeks, a 2-week supply is more appropriate for residents of seismically active regions. Water purification options—iodine tablets, portable filters (e.g., Sawyer Squeeze, LifeStraw), or UV sterilizers—extend stored supply effectively. Stored water should be replaced every 6–12 months; commercially sealed water has a shelf life of 2 years but can be consumed safely beyond that date if stored correctly (away from light, chemicals, and temperature extremes above 50°C).

What food should be in an earthquake emergency kit?

Emergency food should be calorie-dense, non-perishable, and require minimal preparation—particularly important when utility services are disrupted. FEMA recommends stocking 2,000+ calories per adult per day. Optimal items include commercially canned goods (vegetables, proteins, fruits) with ring-pull lids, freeze-dried meals (25-year shelf life, nutritionally complete), peanut butter (calorie-dense, shelf-stable), crackers, nuts, dried fruit, and protein or energy bars. A manual can opener is essential. High-sodium items should be limited if water supply is restricted. Infants, elderly individuals, and those with medical dietary requirements need specific provisions. The Ready.gov nutrition guidelines recommend selecting foods familiar to your household to maintain morale during extended emergencies.

What documents should I include in my earthquake emergency kit?

Critical documents should be stored in waterproof, portable containers or as secure digital backups. Essential items include: government-issued identification (passports, driver's licenses), insurance policies (homeowner's, renter's, health, vehicle), property deeds and mortgage documents, financial account information and recent statements, medical records and prescription information (including generic drug names), emergency contact lists (stored offline—mobile networks may be overwhelmed), and a local paper map. FEMA recommends photographing documents and uploading them to secure cloud storage as backup. The Federal Trade Commission also advises maintaining a list of credit card numbers and bank account information stored separately from physical cards.

How should I store emergency supplies to ensure they remain usable?

Storage location significantly affects the longevity and accessibility of emergency supplies. Ideal storage is cool (below 21°C), dry, dark, and away from gasoline or solvents. An interior closet, basement (above flood level), or garage corner (climate-permitting) works well. For earthquake preparedness specifically, supplies should be stored in low, stable locations—not in tall cupboards that may topple—and ideally in accessible 'go-bags' that can be grabbed quickly if evacuation is needed. Water containers should be food-grade plastic (HDPE, BPA-free); avoid reusing milk or juice jugs as their residual sugars promote bacterial growth. Rotate food on a first-in, first-out basis, integrating emergency food into regular meals to prevent expiration. Annual review and replacement of batteries, medications, and expired items is the minimum maintenance interval.

What communication tools are most reliable after a major earthquake?

Terrestrial cellular networks are frequently overwhelmed or damaged in major earthquakes. The most reliable communication tools during post-earthquake scenarios are: battery-powered or hand-crank NOAA Weather Radio receivers (which broadcast Emergency Alert System messages independent of internet infrastructure), satellite communicators (Garmin inReach, SPOT, Starlink emergency messaging), amateur (ham) radio (which requires licensing but offers maximum independence), and SMS text messaging (which queues and sends through congested networks more reliably than voice calls). The American Red Cross Safe and Well website enables family status check-ins via internet. Pre-establishing an out-of-area family contact—easier to reach than local lines—is standard Red Cross advice. Internet connectivity via Starlink low-earth-orbit satellite is now a practical option for households in disaster zones.