11 things you should do to prepare for an emergency

Stephen Shelton, MD

Emergency Medicine

Making sure you have bottled water and bread is important during an emergency, but there are other steps you should take that will help you and your family. Emergency medicine physician Steve Shelton, MD, offered these 11 suggestions: 

1. Listen to weather forecasts so you plan ahead.
2. Fill up your car with gas. 
3. Keep cash on hand. 
4. Charge cell phones and have chargers handy. 
5. Activate your family emergency plan that includes alternative arrangements should the need arise to leave your home. 
6. Make provisions for special needs family members such as the elderly, disabled, medically affected or infants. If you are dependent on electric-powered medical equipment, seek alternate arrangements in the event of an outage.
7. Make a list of emergency phone numbers.
8. Keep a first-aid kit in your home and one in your car. 
9. Keep one gallon of bottled water available for each person in the household for each anticipated day without electric service.
10. If your home is served by well water, fill a bathtub with water for sanitation use.
11. Make sure you have enough prescription medication to get through the emergency.

It is also important to keep the following items on hand:

• Fresh batteries
• A portable radio
• Flashlights
• A manual can opener
• Matches
• A battery-operated or wind-up clock 
• Non-perishable food (canned and dried food)
• Fuses 
• Sterno 
• Charcoal and propane to use when grilling outside