Prepare Your Home Emergency Supply Kit

Your home emergency supply kit doesn’t need to be a separate food stockpile. The key is to have enough food and other necessities at home to ensure your family and pets can manage for at least 72 hours.

– Preparedness helps you cope with unexpected disruptions, such as prolonged or exceptional weather events, or interruptions in electricity or water supply. It promotes safety and enhances your ability to handle other unforeseen situations. Proper preparation ensures that daily life can continue as smoothly as possible during a disruption, explains Fire Chief Sakari Innanen from the Rescue Department of Ostrobothnia.

Essential items to have at home

• Everyday food that you normally eat.

• Dry food, such as nuts or dried fruit.

• Food that you can cook even without electricity with e.g. a camp stove.

• A couple of liters of commercially bottled water. A person needs approximately 2 liters of clean drinking water per day, plus additional water for cooking and hygiene. Total water needs are about 1–2 buckets per person per day.

• Sealable containers or canisters for fetching water from distribution points.

• Garbage bags. If the water supply is cut off, you can place a garbage bag in the toilet bowl for waste disposal. Used bags should be sorted as mixed waste.

• Battery-powered radio and extra batteries, a charged phone and a fully charged power bank for recharging it.

• A flashlight, candles, and matches.

• Essential personal medicines, iodine tablets, hygiene and first aid supplies, basic firefighting equipment, and duct tape.

• Sufficient blankets, pillows, and warm clothing.

• Some cash.