How to Build an Emergency Kit (Encore)

Summary

The Wirecutter Show: How to Build an Emergency Kit (Encore) – Detailed Summary

Release Date: August 6, 2025

Introduction

In this encore episode of The Wirecutter Show, host Christine Cyr Clisset and Kyra Blackwell revisit a crucial topic: emergency preparedness. Re-airing a popular episode originally released last fall, the hosts emphasize the increasing importance of being prepared for natural disasters intensified by climate change. Bringing in expert insights from Harry Sawyers, Wirecutter’s Senior Editor covering emergency preparedness, the episode offers comprehensive guidance on assembling an effective emergency kit tailored to individual and family needs.

The Growing Importance of Emergency Preparedness

Kyra Blackwell underscores the relevance of the topic by highlighting recent severe natural disasters: “Since we first aired this episode, there have been a number of severe natural disasters across the country, just to name two, the LA wildfires and the Texas Hill country floods” (02:56). These events illustrate the unpredictable nature of disasters and the necessity for proactive preparation.

Introducing Harry Sawyers

Harry Sawyers, a seasoned editor with over five years overseeing Wirecutter’s emergency prep coverage, brings firsthand experience and expertise to the discussion. He shares personal anecdotes, such as living in Los Angeles and experiencing the constant threat of wildfires and earthquakes, contrasted with his upbringing in Georgia amidst tornadoes.

Establishing a Communication Plan

One of the foundational elements of emergency preparedness, as emphasized by Harry, is having a robust communication plan:

“One of the things that is necessary, in addition to all the gear you need to have, is just what some experts call soft resiliency, which is just knowing your neighbors, maybe being in a group text together...” (06:49)

Harry advises creating a plan that includes:

• Knowing Your Neighbors: Building a community network for mutual support.
• Group Communications: Utilizing group texts or other communication channels to stay connected.
• Contacting Out-of-Town Relatives: Ensuring someone outside the immediate area is aware of your plans to relay information if local lines fail.

Choosing the Right Container for Your Emergency Kit

Selecting an appropriate container is crucial for accessibility during a crisis:

“The first thing that it needs to be is just accessible. And for some people, maybe a waterproof storage bin would make sense. For others, maybe something like a backpack or a go bag would make more sense” (11:11)

Harry suggests considering:

• Waterproof Storage Bins: Ideal for keeping supplies dry.
• Backpacks or Go Bags: Portable options for those who may need to evacuate quickly.
• Home Configuration: Placement based on the layout of your home to ensure quick access.

Building the Emergency Kit: Five Essential Categories

Harry outlines five essential categories for an effective emergency kit, providing detailed recommendations for each:

1. Food and Water

   • Water: FEMA recommends at least one gallon per person per day for a minimum of three days, ideally extending to two weeks (14:11).

     Harry: “So FEMA recommends a gallon per person per day.”

   • Food: Stockpile shelf-stable, non-perishable foods that appeal to your family’s taste to ensure consumption during emergencies.

     Harry: “You're going to want to have things that are appealing to eat. So things that you would normally want to go through and just shelf stable versions of that.”

   • Water Storage Solutions:

     • Aquatainers: Durable 7-gallon containers ideal for long-term storage.
     • Water Filters: Devices like LifeStraw can convert contaminated water to potable.
     • Purification Tablets: Essential for treating water when filtration isn’t possible.

2. First Aid

   Maintaining an up-to-date first aid kit is vital:

   Harry: “You need to look at that. And you know, we recommend a lot of pre-stocked first aid kits which are just pretty useful to have on hand for general needs.”

   Recommendations include:

   • Pre-Stocked Kits: Comprehensive kits covering general injuries.
   • Prescription Medications: Ensure an adequate supply of all necessary prescriptions.
   • Sanitizers and Bug Spray: Important for hygiene and preventing mosquito-borne diseases post-disaster.

3. Light

   Reliable lighting options are essential when power is out:

   Harry: “One of the more popular items in our kit recommendations is this flashlight that's part of our flashlight guide... the Through-Night Archer 2, AV3.”

   Suggestions:

   • Flashlights: Prefer models with long-lasting batteries and multiple modes, such as dim “firefly” settings.
   • Headlamps: Allow for hands-free operation, especially useful during cleanup efforts.
   • Floating Lanterns: Waterproof options that can be used in flooded areas.

4. Power and Communication

   Maintaining power and staying informed are critical:

   Harry: “Emergency weather radios are one of these categories that I never really gave much thought to before I got into this coverage.”

   Key Items:

   • Generators: Gas-powered generators for sustained power needs, suitable for households with space and gas storage capabilities.
   • Portable Power Stations and Solar Panels: Rechargeable options that can power essential devices.
   • Emergency Weather Radios: Devices like the Midland ER310 that receive weather updates and emergency broadcasts without relying on cell service.

5. Tools

   Essential tools aid in disaster response and cleanup:

   Harry: “We often talk about starting with a multi tool just again, it's so useful. People carry them every day.”

   Essential Tools:

   • Multi-Tools: Versatile tools like the Leatherman Skeletool CX for basic repairs and adjustments.
   • Pruning Saws: High-quality hand saws such as the Silky Pocket Boy for clearing debris.
   • Wet/Dry Vacuums and Mops: Essential for managing flooding and water damage.

Special Considerations: Flood Preparedness

Flooding presents unique challenges, and Harry shares insights on effective mitigation:

Harry: “...just having a mop on hand. At the next step up, you've got a wet dry vac... at the sort of third level, if you Have a chronic flooding situation.”

Key Strategies:

• Preventive Measures: Ensuring proper yard grading, functioning gutters, and downspout extenders to divert water away from the home.
• Emergency Tools: Pumps for removing water, wet/dry vacs for cleanup, and tarps for temporary waterproofing.
• Personal Anecdotes: Harry recounts a devastating flood experience to illustrate the emotional and financial toll of inadequate preparation.

Maintaining and Updating Your Emergency Kit

Harry emphasizes that emergency preparedness is an ongoing process:

Harry: “...it really varies how you go about it, depending on how you would normally get your water and what kind of threat you expect to face.”

Recommendations:

• Regularly Check Expiry Dates: Ensure food, water, and medications are fresh and safe to use.
• Rotate Supplies: Replace outdated items and update your kit based on changing family needs or new technologies.
• Tailor to Personal Needs: Customize the kit to suit specific circumstances, such as family size, medical requirements, and local disaster risks.

Conclusion and Takeaways

As the episode wraps up, the hosts reiterate the simplicity of starting with the five core categories:

1. Food and Water
2. First Aid
3. Light
4. Power and Communication
5. Tools

Kyra Blackwell summarizes:

“The big takeaway here is that if you're feeling a little intimidated about building an emergency supply kit, you can really kind of simplify this by thinking about this, like filling five categories.”

Final Thoughts

Harry's pragmatic approach encourages listeners to begin small, gradually building their emergency preparedness without feeling overwhelmed. By focusing on essential categories and personalizing their kits, individuals and families can significantly enhance their resilience against unpredictable disasters.

For more detailed recommendations and product reviews, listeners are directed to Wirecutter’s comprehensive coverage and the newly introduced emergency toolkit builder available on their website.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Kyra Blackwell (02:56): “Since we first aired this episode, there have been a number of severe natural disasters across the country...”
• Harry Sawyers (06:49): “...soft resiliency, which is just knowing your neighbors, maybe being in a group text together...”
• Harry Sawyers (11:11): “The first thing that it needs to be is just accessible. And for some people, maybe a waterproof storage bin would make sense...”
• Harry Sawyers (14:11): “So FEMA recommends a gallon per person per day.”
• Harry Sawyers (17:15): “I like the Aquatainers because I mean they're 7 gallons...”

Additional Resources

Listeners are encouraged to visit Wirecutter’s website for:

• Best Emergency Preparedness Supplies Guide
• Emergency Toolkit Builder Tool
• In-depth Product Reviews and Recommendations

Closing Remarks

The hosts conclude by motivating listeners to take actionable steps toward building their emergency kits, emphasizing preparedness as a manageable and essential task.

Christine Cyrclassette (40:33): “But maybe have one.”

Kyra Blackwell (40:29): “But maybe have one.”

Stay Prepared and Safe!

For more tips and expert advice on everyday products that improve your life, tune into future episodes of The Wirecutter Show.

Transcript

[Robert Vinlowen]

The Wirecutter show is supported by Rocket Mortgage. Your home is an active investment, not a passive one. And with Rocket Mortgage, you can put your home equity to work right away. When you unlock your home equity, you unlock new doors for your family, renovations, extensions, even buying your next property. Get started today with smarter tools and guidance from real mortgage experts. Find out [e-mail] Rocket Mortgage LLC, licensed in 50 states nmlsconsumeraccess.org 3031 of the.

[Harry Sawyers]

Things that we love to talk about that's just one small step short of a chainsaw are pruning saws. So the one we have recommended forever is called the Pocket Boy.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Ooh, Silky Pocket Boy.

[Harry Sawyers]

The Silky Pocket Boy does not sound.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Like a hand saw, let me just tell ya. I'm Christine Cyrclassette.

[Rosie Guerin]

I'm Kyra Blackwell.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

I'm Rosie Guerin and you're listening to the Wirecutter Show. So fam, we're trying something new today. We are re airing an episode that we originally released last fall about emergency preparedness. It's sadly something that we should all be more and are more aware of. I think with climate change increasing the intensity of certain types of disasters like wildfires and especially precipitation, extreme flooding, extreme snowstorms.

[Rosie Guerin]

Yeah. Since we first aired this episode, there have been a number of severe natural disasters across the country, just to name two, the LA wildfires and the Texas Hill country floods. It's scary, but getting prepared before something happens is the absolute best way to be ready if something does actually happen and you don't have to panic, buy anything.

[Kyra Blackwell]

That's right. Wirecutter has a ton of great coverage around emergency preparation. We've been covering this for years. We have really great specific recommendations and we just published a whole suite of new coverage around this topic. One thing I'm really excited about is a new tool we published, which is an emergency toolkit builder. It will build you a customized list of emergency supplies that you should have based on your family dynamic, the kinds of disasters you might face, whether you want to stay at home, shelter in place, or whether you want to evacuate. It gives very specific kinds of things that you should have on hand. We also have some other coverage on, you know, building out an emergency pantry, how to pick out a generator. We even have this very interesting piece from two of our Wirecutter writers who survived the LA fires on the things that they learned that they would want anyone to do in advance of any kind of disaster that they're facing. So it's, it's a very, very cool group of articles we just published and we'll drop links in the show notes.

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah, it's so helpful.

[Rosie Guerin]

And because we just published this new tool, we decided to actually re air this episode with one of our colleagues who knows a lot about emergency preparedness. His name is Harry Sawyers and Harry is a senior editor who's overseen our emergency prep cover for the last five years.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

I personally found this conversation to be hugely helpful. As you guys know, I had bought an emergency prep kit that was an all in one. And after the conversation, I realized that a lot of the things in the kit aren't things that would actually be practical for my family and my family situation. So I was able to go back and put together a kit that made more sense for me and for us.

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah.

[Rosie Guerin]

So we're gonna take a quick break right now and when we're back, you'll hear our conversation with Harry Sawy from 2024. Enjoy.

[Robert Vinlowen]

The Wirecutter show is supported by Rocket Mortgage. Your home is an active investment, not a passive one. And with Rocket Mortgage, you can put your home equity to work right away. When you unlock your home equity, you unlock new doors for your family, renovations, extensions, even buying your next property. Get started today with smarter tools and guidance from real mortgage experts. Find out [e-mail] Rocket Mortgage, LLC, licensed in 50 states. Nmlsconsumeraccess.org 3030 hey, I'm Robert Vinlowen.

[Unknown]

I'm from New York Times Games, and I'm here talking to people about wordle and the wordle Archive. Do you all play wordle?

[Harry Sawyers]

I play it every day.

[Unknown]

All right. I have something exciting to show you. It's the wordle Archive.

[Harry Sawyers]

What? Okay, that's awesome.

[Unknown]

So now you can. You can play every wordle that has ever existed. There's like a thousand puzzles.

[Harry Sawyers]

What? Wordle Archive.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Oh, cool.

[Harry Sawyers]

Now you can do yesterday's wordle if you missed it. Yeah.

[Unknown]

New York Times game subscribers can now access the entire Wordle archive. Find out more at nytimes.com games.

[Rosie Guerin]

Welcome back to the Wirecutter show. Today we're talking with Harry Sawyers, Wirecutter's senior editor covering emergency preparation. Wirecutter has robust coverage on how to prepare for a range of natural disasters from wildfires to earthquakes to hurricanes. And Harry is the one who edits all of this coverage. We're going to be talking about a guide on our site. It's called the Best Emergency Preparedness Supplies. And we've got a link to that in our show notes if you want to follow along. Harry also knows a ton about home repair and upkeep, which is relevant for flooding. And I'm super excited to hear about that because my bedroom is in a glorified basement.

[Harry Sawyers]

Woo hoo.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Yay. Hey Harry, welcome to the show.

[Harry Sawyers]

Hello.

[Kyra Blackwell]

It's great to have you here. You've got some experience with natural disasters in your life. You live in la, which is like ground zero for fires and earthquakes and all sorts of stuff. But you also, you grew up in Georgia. What was it like growing up with tornadoes?

[Harry Sawyers]

Well, one thing about living in LA and being worried about earthquakes is you never really know when to plan for anything. And you know, not that it was easier to plan for a tornado, but at least you could kind of see it coming. You know, you had storms on the horizon, you had the forecast and you could of had a, you know, you had a little window of time to prepare. So the mindset is a little different where it's not. You always need to be ready and it could strike at any moment. It's more like 24 hours. Get your stuff together and let's, let's get serious about this incoming storm.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Did you ever have to kind of like hide out during a tornado a lot.

[Harry Sawyers]

I spent countless hours in basements and huddled in school hallways just waiting out tornado sirens and warnings and it was terrifying and dull at the same time.

[Rosie Guerin]

But Harry, in your team's reporting, you guys always recommend that before you buy anything, people should actually have a communication plan. Can you walk us through what that might look like in real time?

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah. One of the things that is necessary, in addition to all the gear you need to have is just what some experts call soft resiliency, which is just knowing your neighbors, maybe being in a group text together, or having some means of communicating with people around you, having a way to communicate with people out of town that would be concerned about you and letting them know how you intend to communicate and just really just having a plan that involves everyone that might be affected by you being affected so that they can at least stay in touch with you and you know, provide help if needed or at least just be reassured that you're doing okay.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Is there any kind of planning that you would recommend? Like I have a family. Should we be making a plan about where we meet or, you know, what, what we do in specific types of emergencies?

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah, a lot of folks recommend just having just a plan. I mean, kind of whatever works for your family. A lot of the thing with this advice that we'll get into is it's consistent in that the sort of basic framework of what you need to do is pretty from place to place. But then from that point things diverge into all sorts of specific considerations about, you know, where your house is, the type of house and all that. And then if you have kids, then yeah, I mean what your family needs are who's going to be responsible, where you're going to meet, how you're going to do it, you know. Yeah. Getting your kids involved in the planning is just a great way to reassure everybody. Part of the preparation is just having a mindset and having a plan to begin with. Where you're going to meet and how you're going to be in touch is a big part of that.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

I remember when we were kids the local fire department encouraged families like in the elementary school to go home, make a plan, work with your parents, or I guess maybe they were encouraging parents to work with their kids to make a plan. And I remember we had a plan and it was I think fairly bare bones. But it was just that like if something happens, get your brother, meet at this place. And then, you know, I like to assume they had a plan after that. Cause I think that's where we kind of jumped off.

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah, I mean for us it was like the storms coming. Meet in the basement. If a fire, the house catches on fire. Meet at the mailbox.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Meet at the mailbox. And Harry, we've referenced the guide a couple of times, but can I ask, how do you and your team approach writing a guide like this? Because obviously there are many different kinds of disasters someone might be dealing with.

[Harry Sawyers]

You know, one thing with this coverage, just to kind of be clear with you guys, you know, we're trying to hit such a broad swath of needs. You know, on the one extreme end there's like a bunker person who has like just this extensive collection of prep tools. And then if you're super, super prepared, there's like a version of it where you're almost like an isolated person and you're going to really be self reliant and fend for yourself. And that's a mindset. But it's so extensive and expensive that it's just not like all that realistic for everybody to consider. And then shifting a little bit. There's a huge range in these scenarios. You know, you look at the numbers and you have a handful of devastated homes that have been destroyed by tornadoes or completely flooded. And then you have hundreds of thousands, thousands of people without power and their homes are essentially fine, but they're without power for an indefinite period of time, depending on how long it takes to restore that power. And so we're really trying to span this huge range of needs. And we have things like fire starters and almost wilderness survival tools in the mix, because it's not inappropriate to consider that. But it's also. Some of it comes across as so extreme that it feels inappropriate in the context of for you to have just lost power for maybe a week. You might not need to go out and start a fire to deal with your needs, but you sure are going to want to be able to charge your phones, have some light to get to the bathroom, be able to try to keep your food fresh, and you're still living in your home. It's just a really uncomfortable situation. And you need to be able to endure that using whatever means necessary. So one of the reasons it's so broad is because we just want to give people the sort of full range of options and let them determine what they need and kind of make their own decisions about what to buy. But, you know, it's a topic that's just. It's kind of difficult to talk about because it's just like the needs just vary so much, even within the same event.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

And they're so personal, too. All right, so if someone wants to start making an emergency preparedness kit, what kind of container would you recommend they put all of this stuff in? Cause we're about to kind of jump into talking about a lot of things you might want to think about getting. But this seems like a good first step. What do you want to put it in?

[Harry Sawyers]

Well, the first thing that it needs to be is just accessible. And for some people, maybe a waterproof storage bin would make sense. For others, maybe something like. Like a backpack or a go bag would make more sense. But whatever it is, it's gotta be reachable in the time of the crisis. So I was just talking to another editor here about earthquake prep and how her stuff is in her garage. And she's concerned that if a huge earthquake hit, she's in San Francisco Bay Area, that it would, like, pancake her house and flatten her garage, and then she wouldn't be able to reach her stuff. Our stuff in LA is in a closet that we feel would probably be accessible. It all really depends on the configuration of your house and kind of what you think you can get to. And if you had a shed or something that you felt was relative, protected from building situation, if you couldn't enter the building afterward Then that would be great. In Georgia, it was, things were in the basement, they were just kind of down there where we would be anyway. And it was a mix of, you know, real legit emergency prep items and also just like the same old board games that we busted out every time a storm came through.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Is there a situation where you would ever want to have something outside of your home accessible, like outside of the basement or outside of the actual home?

[Harry Sawyers]

I mean, a lot of people keep items in their car. If they're, you know, if it's more of a bug out bag situation and they're just planning to evacuate, they would just keep it ready to go. And so you wouldn't have to gather it up if you had just, you know, minutes to make your way.

[Kyra Blackwell]

So we're going to talk about all the things that you might want to have in a kit. And I would imagine some of these things are maybe things people already have in their homes that they just need to gather together. But in our emergency preparation guide, we kind of bucket the different types of emergency supplies you might want to have into five basic categories we want to talk about today. The first one is food and water. Second is first aid. Third, you want to have light. Fourth, power and communication. And the fifth is tools. Now walk us through these categories and what you recommend in each. Let's start with water and food.

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah, I mean, a lot of the experts we talk to really begin with water and food as the kind of first and foremost consideration because that's the most crucial need that you're going to have to meet after something happens.

[Kyra Blackwell]

What would you want to have on hand for water in an emergency?

[Harry Sawyers]

So with water, even though it seems like a specific thing, it really varies how you go about it, depending on how you would normally get your water and what kind of threat you expect to face. I mean, the most basic way to do it would just be to stockpile water in big impermeous containers that you can just, you know, keep and refresh and rotate out as needed. For other folks, it might make more sense to freeze water if you're expecting a loss of power. You can prolong the freshness of your food when you do lose power and you know, give you some potable water to drink. For other folks, it might make sense to get a filtration system that you can use contaminated water in. And for others, it might make sense to look at purification tablets or some way to treat water.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Is there an amount, like a recommended amount of water you should have on hand?

[Harry Sawyers]

So FEMA recommends a gallon per person per day.

[Rosie Guerin]

FEMA being the Federal Emergency Management Agency, right?

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah. And you're gonna need to look at at least a three day supply to just have a basic preparation set up. And ideally you could get by for more like two weeks.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Okay, great. And if you, you know, let's say you're in the mindset of just prepping your basement with like all this water or whatever, can you just like fill it up once and you're done and you can just wait or is there some like time period that water goes? I mean, I hate to say it, but does water go bad in containers or should you be changing out the water?

[Harry Sawyers]

One of the things about emergency prep that is so difficult for people is that it's not just a one and done thing. It's really more of a practice and a routine. And even water, you think you've got your water covered, but in fact really it's six months is the cutoff that FEMA recommends for the amount of time that it's really able to be used for any purpose, drinking and cooking. So for a lot of folks the challenge becomes how do I get into a practice where I'm really thinking about this and where I'm able to maintain my supplies, water or food as well and all the other things that need to be just kind of just continually thought of. And how do you stay in that mindset when you'd probably rather not think about an emergency at all?

[Kyra Blackwell]

Do you think, Harry, that it's worth investing in specific water bottles that are like for emergency situations? We have these blue.

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah, they're called Aquatainer.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Yeah. Is it worth getting those or can you just get by with like buying a bunch of gallons from the supermarket?

[Harry Sawyers]

I like the Aquatainers because I mean they're 7 gallons, so they're pretty big. They're balanced really nicely. I don't know if you've ever used like a water cool bottle, but when it's pretty unwieldy, the handles on the side versus these aquataners with the handles on the top. So you know you're lugging it around. I mean it is upwards of 60 to 70 pounds, so it's not easy to lift. But it is nicely balanced and just has a little couple of convenience features. There's a little valve that just makes it easier to pour and the plastic is just really thick. So it's durable, it can withstand things falling on it. You don't get UV light in there. So there's just other kinds of protection that it has.

[Rosie Guerin]

What about a personal water filter? Like I've heard about these LifeStraws. It's all over my TikTok with like the preppers who are like, if you don't have a supply of water on hand, then this thing can make any non potable water drinkable essentially, right?

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean the lifestraw itself that we see advertised is really kind of a backpacker's tool. And it totally, it works. The filtration media is, you know, it's tested, it's reliable. That is a pretty small amount of water per use. And so for a single person it could be totally adequate. LifeStraw does make a larger filtration system that we've tested which is really capable of producing an amount of water that a family or a couple of families on a street could use. And it's a bit more of an investment. But yeah, their technology is proven.

[Rosie Guerin]

So you would. The picture that they have on Amazon cracks me up because it's just a dude in a creek sucking out of this straw. You would do that? You trust it?

[Harry Sawyers]

I think if I were going to use it, I would probably try to gather up some water and let sediment settle out and then try to just filter kind of like a little less sediment rich water. But I mean that's what the product is designed to do.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Harry, part of this first category is in addition to water is also food. So what would you want to have on hand when it comes to food for an emergency?

[Harry Sawyers]

I mean, you're going to want to have things that are appealing to eat. So things that you would normally want to go through and just shelf stable versions of that. You'll need canned foods, you'll need a can opener and you're just going to need to have something that can get you by for a while.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Great. So you don't necessarily need to go out and get like special food for an emergency.

[Rosie Guerin]

Don't be an aspirational shopper.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Yeah, don't be an aspirational shopper. But Harry, what you're basically saying is, you know, get things that you like to eat. You don't want to have a bunch of stuff in your pantry that your family doesn't like to eat. Right. That'll just sit there forever and you may not want to eat in an emergency anyways.

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah. And ideally you're rotating that stuff out too. Just kind of keeping it fresh and just once in a while having, you know, canned food gourmet and restocking everything you've got in there and maybe testing some stuff out and making some improvements for things you might like better taste.

[Rosie Guerin]

Testing your apocalypse menu.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I like it. Yeah, I think that's a good plan.

[Rosie Guerin]

The second category here is first aid. I'm wondering because I don't want to buy anything new, but I do have this very old first aid kit that I threw under my kitchen sink and now it's soggy because obviously my kitchen sink leaks. Do I need to replace that? Can I use it?

[Christine Cyrclassette]

It's a rhetorical question, right? K?

[Rosie Guerin]

I don't know, like maybe there's a.

[Harry Sawyers]

Chance you do need to keep an eye on expiration dates. I was recently digging through my backpacking backpack and I found some medicine that expired in 2007, so I probably would not be taking that. But you need to look at that. And you know, we recommend a lot of pre stocked first aid kits which are just pretty useful to have on hand for general needs. But there are also ways to supplement those kits with things that are more particular to your needs. And certainly for any prescription medications that's a part of all the recommendations. It's just, just have your medications sorted out.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

What are the other everyday things like? Is it, you know, I assume hand sanitizer is one of them.

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah, hand sanitizer comes up. I mean, if you have very limited water, you're going to want to use sanitizer to preserve your water supplies. Mosquitoes get really bad, especially in severe storm situations when you have standing water. So bug spray is on a lot of experts list as a top of mind item to have. And then you know, just for cleanup and just kind of starting your aftermath work. Just an endless amount of heavy duty garbage bags, very useful contractor bags for just cleaning up debris, cleaning up storm branches and things that have come down. Or also you just splitting them open to use them as tarps to drag things around and maybe even cover a few things for just emergency waterproofing. Right. As the storm approaches.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

And then the other thing that we all hopefully have on hand based on the last several years. Masks. Right?

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah. I mean that's something that in Wildfire concerns, they're just a constant for smoke inhalation, but just, you know, in general it can just be kind of a useful thing to have. You know, air quality can get compromised. Hmm.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Okay.

[Rosie Guerin]

I feel like I do have most of those things at home actually, so you don't have to buy everything new. Just maybe a few select things.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I mean, I feel like half this stuff or most of this stuff is in my camping gear that I barely ever use, but I Should go check the expiration dates, but I've got a lot of this stuff already.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Why would you go camping?

[Kyra Blackwell]

I mean, Rosie, I am an aspirational camper as well.

[Rosie Guerin]

We're going to take a quick break and then when we come back, we're going to talk about keeping things lit during an emergency. But like not fun lit, like literally lit.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Yeah, like light and how to keep.

[Rosie Guerin]

Your devices running during an emergency.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Be right back.

[Rosie Guerin]

Welcome back to the Wirecutter Show. Our guest this episode is Harry Sawyers, wirecutter's senior editor overseeing all of the site's emergency prep coverage.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Before the break, we discussed how to create an emergency communication plan and the first two categories of basics that you should really have on hand. And those include food and water and your first aid setup. These are going to be helpful in any kind of emergency or natural disaster. So now we're going to get, get into number three, light. When I was a kid, I lived in the country, the power would go out all the time and we had kerosene lamps. They seem kind of, in retrospect, kind of dangerous. Is there a better option these days than keeping like live flame going inside your home?

[Harry Sawyers]

Well, I don't know if I can reproduce that warm kerosene glow. But one of the things that keeps people able to stock their kits and, and moving forward toward preparation is just recommending things that are just useful in day to day life and also in emergency. And so one of the more popular items in our kit recommendations is this flashlight that's part of our flashlight guide. We've tested against a lot of others and we landed on through Night Archer 2, AV3. And one of the great things about it is it has this firefly mode that can just project this really dim light and the batteries can last for days with it like that. And so in routine power outages, a lot of our testers have just like hung it in the bathroom as kind of a nightlight just so you can see your way through there. And it's just a really powerful beam when you need to just actually use it like a regular flashlight flashlight for finding something. It's just once you start using it, you just really never go back to the flashlight on your phone. It's just so much better. I mean, so, you know, in addition to a flashlight, sometimes you really need your hands free, especially if you're dealing with some flood water and you're dealing with some cleanup. So our headlamp recommendation is, is one of those things that just comes in handy a lot. I Was just talking to a staff member whose house had been flooded a few times. And she picked up the headlamp and it was just a revelation for her just how much easier it was to just get down there and deal with things with her hands free. And another thing that we have found when we're interviewing people post disaster, especially when there's floods, are floating lanterns, which was kind of a new item for us and something that we've just been testing. Now, what are they?

[Rosie Guerin]

Yeah, what do they look like?

[Harry Sawyers]

Probably a little like Christine's old kerosene lamps, but, you know, way more plastic, way more waterproof.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Like it's got like a bulb at the bottom and like a kind of like a hurricane lantern type on the top.

[Rosie Guerin]

And you hold it like an old man going, who goes there?

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah, you go down in the crypt and shine your light, Bring up a couple of bottles of port. They're handy too, because they're a little techier and they have a little charger on there. There's a USB on a lot of them. They can charge with a small solar panel. And we've tested it and it works. You know, one of our intentions with a lot of this mach material is to just do more on the ground reporting in the aftermath of disaster. This one is more a mix of staged testing, which is super useful. I mean, the solar lanterns testing was set up and our correspondent Ellen Earhart tested them in a bathtub and just left them floating there, immersed them a little, pushed them around, and just kind of recreated some rough conditions. But more so than a lot of other guides, the reason the stage testing even happened was just due to firsthand reporting and just seeing what people were actually using in the field.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

So we're moving to this fourth category, which is power. I remember after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the lower part of Manhattan was out of power for days. You know, there were people coming uptown to charge their phones. People were running extension cords out of their windows to let other people charge their phones. It was a mess. So what should you have on hand if the power goes out?

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah, Sandy was a wake up call for us too. At the time we had some battery backup, but things have come a long way in the past 12 years. I mean, there's always gas generators that are just the kind of tried and true for certain people. Depending on your living situation, if you can use those outdoors, if you have the space, the ability to store gas, then a generator is by far the preferred method. Just in terms of how much time you can get out of it and how much power you can get out of it. But generators are not for everybody. We've seen a ton of development in, in rechargeables and power inverters that can use power tool batteries and portable power stations that we've tested as part of our powering coverage. And you can get sometimes days of use out of them. But one thing that people almost in any living situation might want to consider are any portable solar panels that can just plug and play, go out on the balcony, put them out in the window, out in the yard, and just generate a limited amount of power, but certainly enough to get a phone charge, enough to get a lamp running if you just need just a little bit of light to supplement your flashlight and headlamp operation. One of the ones we recommend in our emergency prep guide is one that we've really been using for years called the big blue 28 watt. It's a USB solar charger. It is not the newest, but it's really reliable. And I think it's a great starting point for a lot of people who are just kind of maybe new to the idea of a little foldable portable solar panel. If anyone just wants to have just a basic preparation and just have something that they can rely on, it's a great place to start. And really like the flashlight. It is something that you may find useful in your day to day life if you're camping. Absolutely.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

How do they work and what do they actually look like?

[Harry Sawyers]

The Big Blue is a smaller one. That's one of the reasons we recommend it. It can easily just tuck into an emergency kit or a bag. It's quite portable. And how they work, I mean, they just, you know, they're just little solar panels that collect power. You can bank it if you have a place to store it. If you have a power bank, that's probably the most versatile way to do it because then you can just really optimize conditions. You don't have to just like sit out there in the blazing sun yourself.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

The solar panel connects to a power bank to collect the power that is coming from the sun. And then you would take the power bank and go charge your phone or something like that.

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah. And run things off the power bank. And a lot of the panels that we recommend you can plug directly into the panel.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Oh, wow.

[Harry Sawyers]

So that's a convenience. But again, you're kind of out in the sun.

[Rosie Guerin]

That's pretty cool. Cool.

[Harry Sawyers]

It's so much better than nothing like being able to generate just a trickle of a charge on a phone. I mean, just for the functionality of it and also just the reduction of anxiety. Even if you don't have cell service at the time, it's usually one of the first things to go. Just knowing that you're not out on a limb with no way to charge a dying battery is just, I don't know, we're so reliant on our phones. I think it just. If you can just take that off the table of all the anxieties you're dealing with in the aftermath of a storm. As a sort of a side benefit, just be able to run lamps and other small electronics as needed. You know, I don't even think I'd even be able to get anything done at my house because my kids would be hounding me about their iPads the entire time. And so I would at least be able to charge that and then focus on how I was going to feed everybody that night.

[Rosie Guerin]

Okay, so what if you don't have cell service or a TV or anything, but you want to keep up with what's going on? What would you recommend in that situation?

[Harry Sawyers]

We love our emergency weather radios. The Midland ER310 is a stalw. Emergency weather radios are one of these categories that I never really gave much thought to before I got into this coverage. And it just came up again and again very consistently with a lot of experts. And so we tested some and we could really see why. They're hand crank, which is kind of fun for a little while. You know, they have batteries as well, so they can run on batteries, but if push comes to shove, you can just make it half power. They're just, you know, long range radios that are just tuned to weather bands and can just give you some, you know, we're talking about a serious disaster where you're getting, you know, emergency messages from the local authorities. You'll be able to at least receive that and just have a sense of what's going on and what the rescue effort's looking like.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Fun fact. These radios are also really fun for little kids. They find them very fun to play. Crank, Crank, Crank. I have one and my daughters love to play.

[Rosie Guerin]

If your iPad is dead.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Yeah, if your it's dead, quote unquote dead, go play with the weather radio.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

It's a annual favorite when you see stations doing pledge.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Oh, I got mine from wnyc. Thank you, wnyc.

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Shout out to wnyc.

[Harry Sawyers]

Sure.

[Kyra Blackwell]

All right, this brings us to our final category. Tools. Harry, you are the person I always go to on staff when I have some kind of question about like what tool I should get. But if somebody is not a handy person, they don't have like a wood shop or a bunch of tools in their garage. What are the tools someone might want to consider investing in to be ready for an emergency?

[Harry Sawyers]

We often talk about starting with a multi tool just again, it's so useful. People carry them every day. You may not be the kind of person that thinks you need a screwdriver in your pocket at all times, but one thing we hear is a lot of people just get so accustomed to having that tool on them that we published an ode to this one tool, the Leatherman Skeletool cx that the writer described as feeling naked without it. So it's a good place to start. It's just a really basic thing. It's a great gift if you are looking for somebody that needs it. It's a stripped down version of a Leatherman that just has a knife, pliers and some driver bits just to meet the most basic needs. And it's one of the things we feature in our multi tool coverage and we have full featured tools too that can do more if you feel like that's not enough for you. One thing that always happened with severe storms in Georgia was you would have downed trees. Downed trees would hit power lines and cause power outages and they would block roads. And the advice often was stay away from it, especially if there's a downed power line. But for the other 80% or so of all these downed branches that are just on people's properties, they've got to just clear them out and start cleaning up. We have coverage on some electric chainsaws that are super capable and they're wonderful tools that may be overkill for just a few small branches. And one of the things that we love to talk about that's just one small step short of a chainsaw are pruning saws. We like ones by Silky. My longtime collaborator Doug Mahoney thinks I am sponsored by Silky because I'm constantly talking about silky saws. But they are amazing. So the one we have recommended forever is called the Pocket Boy.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Silky Pocket Boy.

[Harry Sawyers]

The Silky Pocket Boy does not sound.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Like a handsome Let me just tell.

[Harry Sawyers]

You, it's a very, very capable Pocket boy. The the blade is about a foot long. It can cut pretty aggressively through a branch 3 to 4 inches in diameter, no problem. But I was looking to see if anybody had tried the bigger version, which is called the Silky Big Boy. And nobody had used the Big Boy. But I did have our whose Name.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Sorry, Joey, but these names.

[Harry Sawyers]

I didn't have any takers on the Big Boy, but one of our writers, Tim Heffernan, had used the Silky Zubot, which is a fixed blade version of it, to clear a bunch of pretty large branches in Virginia. And this is more storm cleanup. These were about 6 inch diameter maple branches and some ash. Pretty tough hardwoods. If you watch a lot of survivalist YouTube videos like I might, you see over and over a lot of these folks that are out building rustic cabins in the woods using no power tools. They're busting out a Silky Zubot or a Big Boy. And you can just make pretty short work of some kind of amazingly thick branches. You wouldn't really think a hand saw could do it, but they're fantastic tools. They cut on the pull stroke, so it's not like you're like the old shipbuilding type saw. It's just a kind of an elegant blade that just slices right there.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

So to recap, that's the Pocket Boy, the Big Boy and the Zubot.

[Harry Sawyers]

Mm.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

What about for flooding? Any tools that would be particularly helpful for that?

[Harry Sawyers]

I mean, flooding is difficult because it doesn't take much water for it to be such a serious situation that it's beyond prep. But when you're trying to get ready for just a small amount of water entering the house, you are often gonna want to at least have have a mop on hand. To be able to mop up a wet dry vac is excellent too. And one thing that just a versatile thing that comes up so much is just a tarp. Having a tarp is something that you can use to just divert water. It's so versatile and yet it's sometimes inadequate. So it's kind of hard to describe it in a way that's like, oh, you simply put a tarp up and all your problems are solved. It's like you can cover stuff with it, but also you can drag stuff on it. So it's just this sort of like multipurpose thing. I don't want to mislead people and say like, you know, you just like string up a tarp and everything's going to be okay. But it is. It's just one of those things that you just need to have because it just can come into play in so many different sort of minor supplemental ways. But to get to Kyra's question, at the basic level, you've got a mop. At the next step up, you've got a wet dry vac. At the sort of third level, if you Have a chronic flooding situation. You're going to have a pump installed in your flood prone area and you're going to pump the water out as much as you can. And then you're going to go back with your wet, dry vac, get what's left, and then you're going to mop up after that. It's a serious, serious situation. I have trepidation validation about talking about flooding because it's just like you can get an inch of water in your house and have to redo your baseboards, your drywall, your flooring. You can be in a situation where you can't sell your house over an inch of water. You can be in a situation where you can't insure your house anymore over an inch of water. And all you need to do is just live near a creek. It's not like, clearly we're right on the ocean two inches from the shore. Like, your first and primary step is going to be mitigating the risk by changing your yard and changing your rain situation. Like making sure your gutters are working properly, making sure you have extenders on downspouts to just pull the water as far away from your place as possible and take every step you can. So that when a flash flood starts to happen and water just starts to kind of like build up in the area, that it at least has somewhere to go before it starts going into your house. House. I really, like, I have this like image in my mind of my cousin. I'm talking about that inch of water thing because that's like a real example from my cousin who lived in Asheville. He was telling me about this, this flood event they had. And they really had a very hard time. They were trying to sell their house. They had a very hard time afterward because of this. And he was telling me about it. He was like, we were standing there at the door and we were bailing it out. Bailing it out, bailing it out. At a certain point we just looked at each other and just stopped because there was just no stopping it. And they just had to kind of just stand there and just sort of let it play out.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

It's devastating.

[Harry Sawyers]

And just watch this water just like flow their house. This is like, you know, like $130,000 house. I mean, this is like kind of all they had.

[Kyra Blackwell]

And we do have some coverage on the site, like a couple pieces on how to prepare for a potential flood and what to do afterwards. Like kind of the steps you might want to take for cleaning out a basement, right?

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah, we do we have a piece on how to clean out a flooded basement, presuming it's cleanout a bowl. And then we have one that's very personal. It's called How I Flood Proofed My House. And the ideas there are universally applicable when you read it a certain way, but they're so specific to that one property that it just really to be just about this one person.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

You talked about watching a lot of survivalist videos on YouTube. I wonder, do you experience any kind of burnout like putting yourself in the mindset of people who are dealing with disasters or emergency situations? Because you cover so many products, so many scenarios, you're thinking about so many different eventualities. I wonder, and you live in a la. Do you get fatigued or are you sort of hyped and anxious?

[Harry Sawyers]

I think I try to be realistic about how much of this people can tolerate because it's a difficult thing to contemplate and it's also super expensive to try to get yourself prepared all at once. So I try to look at it like what is a realistic, like a routine that you could get into. Don't try to think of this all in one fell swoop, but think of it in terms of these categories like we're talking about today. Think of your food and water needs, think of your communication needs, think of the tools you might need, think of how you're going to get power and take it step by step and try to just apply all the generic advice to your own situation. Find a way to just make it affordable for you and something that you can feel that you can rely on. And I wouldn't say that I feel burnout, but I try to just stay realistic about a topic that is. Is something that we can all prepare for and we can take seriously just with the understanding that a lot of these threats are so far beyond consumer products, that the advice that we give is not going to be sufficient all the time, but that the headline making things about people losing their homes are really just a part of any disaster. And for any of the people who are being severely affected, there are probably 100,000 more that are simply deeply inconvenienced for some amount of time. And a lot of the objective of what we're trying to do is just help people deal with that.

[Rosie Guerin]

On a lighter note. Harry, before we wrap, we ask all of our guests one final question. So what was the last thing that you bought recently that you really loved?

[Harry Sawyers]

Oh man, I already blew my whole spiel on the silkies.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Well, what is a thing that you Bought recently.

[Harry Sawyers]

I have recently become the proud owner of about 144 chlorine dioxide water purification tablets.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Congratulations. Congratulations.

[Harry Sawyers]

I hope at least for the next few years until they expire.

[Kyra Blackwell]

They're for an emergency.

[Harry Sawyers]

They're for an emergency. I bought them more immediately because my kids were aghast at the shape of the water in our water rower, the exercise machine which takes on a little bit of sunlight and had developed a nice culture of algae with them. And they said, dad, I clean your gross rower. And I said, I need to buy those water purification tablets anyway. What a perfect.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

I've never heard of someone taking such good care of the water inside their rower.

[Harry Sawyers]

It was gross.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Harry, thanks so much for joining us. This was really, really helpful.

[Harry Sawyers]

Thank you.

[Kyra Blackwell]

All right, you guys, do you feel prepared? Do you feel like you know what you need to get?

[Christine Cyrclassette]

I'm ready.

[Kyra Blackwell]

You ready?

[Rosie Guerin]

I know what I need to get. I am not prepared.

[Kyra Blackwell]

You're not prepared.

[Rosie Guerin]

Okay.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Rosie, can you salvage anything from this kit you bought?

[Christine Cyrclassette]

I definitely can. There's some first aid stuff particularly that I think will be really useful. However, I have to look at expiration dates.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Yeah, I think the big takeaway here is that if you're feeling a little intimidated about building an emergency supply kit, you can really kind of simplify this by thinking about this, like filling five categories. Right? So that's food and water.

[Harry Sawyers]

Yep.

[Kyra Blackwell]

You got first aid, right, Rosie, you're covered.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Light. Light.

[Rosie Guerin]

Which is my fave because I'm a le.

[Kyra Blackwell]

You're going to want some power and have your communication plan like a radio, weather radio. And then we got to have the tools, right? The tools are important.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Got to have tools.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Yeah.

[Rosie Guerin]

Those folding saws.

[Kyra Blackwell]

The folding saws. The names of those folding saws are a little intense, but will not be repeated here.

[Rosie Guerin]

But maybe have one.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

That's great. You can find more about Wirecutters coverage and the products we recommended today at our website or in. In the show notes. Plus, we'll drop a link to that new emergency preparedness tool that's on the Wirecutter website. You should check it out. That's it for us till next week.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Get prepared.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

Get prepared.

[Harry Sawyers]

Bye.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Bye.

[Rosie Guerin]

The Wirecutter show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Matty Mazziello and Nick Pittman. Today's episode was mixed by Katherine Anderson, original music by Dan Powell, Marian Lozano, Alicia Paul, YouTube and Diane Wong. Cliff Levy is Wirecutter's deputy publisher and general manager Ben Fruman is Wirecutter's editor in chief. I'm Kyra Blackwell.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I'm Christine Cyrclassette.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

And I'm Rosie Guerin.

[Rosie Guerin]

Thanks for listening. Thank you so.

[Harry Sawyers]

Yeah.

[Rosie Guerin]

Thank you so much. So sorry.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

We're almost done, buddy. You got this.

[Rosie Guerin]

I'm like my last brain cell is just fighting for its life right now.

[Christine Cyrclassette]

You got it.