Water
Where will it go? Can you lift it? What happens when storage runs out or local water becomes unsafe?
Keep water available
Keep Going
Start with what can't safely stop.
Water from the tap. A working toilet. Medication kept at the right temperature. A way to breathe, move, communicate, and care for the people and animals who depend on you.
Ordinary functions
A list of equipment is not a plan.
Each subject begins with the function, the life it serves, and the constraints a household actually has.
A toilet is part of a system.
Plan for hygiene, waste, and handwashing when water or wastewater service is interrupted.
Protect sanitationKeep people safely warm or cool.
Start with the room, clothing, shade, safe heat, sleep, power needs, and the place you could go.
Keep a safe temperatureMake one room easier to breathe in.
Smoke, ash, heat, cold, generators, and building systems can all change indoor air.
Protect indoor airKnow what needs cold, power, timing, or replacement.
Write down medication names, doses, and prescribers. “The small white one” is a poor description.
Protect food and medicationPlan for separation, not constant contact.
Choose contacts, meeting places, and a low-bandwidth way to say where you are.
Plan communication and reconnectionMake the next office easier.
Keep identity, insurance, account, property, and medical information findable without carrying everything.
Make records findableFit the route to the person.
Time, mobility, transit, fuel, children, animals, weather, and a locked building can all change the same departure.
Fit the route to the personPrepare for both until one is clearly right.
Current orders and conditions decide the moment. Earlier arrangements make either choice less difficult.
Prepare both pathsKeep one light and one trusted source working.
Use backup power where it changes a decision, and know which official source you will check next.
Keep light and information availableKeep care going when the routine moves.
Make food, medicine, equipment, authority, transport, and one willing backup person part of the plan.
Make care portableFit matters
Use the life you already have.
A renter can't change every building system. A household without a vehicle can't use a vehicle-based plan. Someone who depends on powered medical equipment needs more than a reminder to charge a phone. Storage, money, health, work, language, caregiving, transport, and trust belong in the main guidance.
Begin with one useful move. A few bottles won't cover a long outage, but they're more useful than an ideal supply you have nowhere to keep.
Reviewed July 25, 2026