Your first priority in any emergency is to have enough water and have an adequate variety of emergency preparedness foods. You will need to store at least one gallon of water per person per day for everyone in your family. If you live in a very hot area, you may want to store two gallons of water per person per day. If you are planning on storing emergency preparedness foods, it is important to choose a large variety of foods that are already cooked and do not require refrigeration. For example, soups, broths, beans, some fish and select meats, which can be eaten straight out of the can will require no refrigeration and will store well. Also, peanut butter and jelly, dry granolas and cereals, trail mixes, meat jerky, cookies, crackers, hard candy, nuts, seeds and dried fruits are also emergency preparedness food that will keep really well without any electricity.

You can extend the shelf life of these foods by vacuum-sealing small amounts of them into bags and then storing them with your canned foods. Some families swap out the food as it gets older. You can put a reminder on your calendar to swap out your emergency preparedness food so that none goes to waste if you want to.

As an extra precaution, if you have a little one or are expecting a little one, include baby food and formula as well as foods more suited for seniors in your household. It is a good idea to have a selection of foods for those that may be ill at the time of the emergency as well. Dried soups, instant potatoes and rice, powdered drink mixes, instant oatmeal, grits, pudding and dry milk are some other ideas for emergency preparedness foods. Although these foods do need heat to cook, they can be easily prepared over an open fire or in a fireplace. Throughout the year you can put aside any extra food you may have to store in case of an emergency. Also, can your leftover garden vegetables and fruit to use as part of your emergency food stock as well. You can also dry leftover meat in a dehydrator to make homemade jerky, and then put it into small bags and then vacuum seal them.

Besides food, it is always a good idea for a family to have emergency clothing and communication items in store in case of an emergency situation such as a terrorist attack or tornado. Communication items may include: a hand-powered radio, or one that runs on batteries along with extra batteries and a flashlight.
If you have planned ahead in case of a crisis, having adequate emergency preparedness food, clothing and communication items can help to relieve stress caused by the crisis and give everyone a more stable environment until the crisis is over.