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Preparedness has an unusually bad signal-to-noise ratio. Most of what is written about it is written by someone selling a bucket, and the advice tends to skip straight to the dramatic scenarios because those are the ones that sell equipment.
This page is the opposite order. It starts with the events that actually happen to households — a multi-day outage, a boil-water notice, a storm that takes the heat out with the power — and works out what each one really requires. Almost none of it is expensive, and a fair amount of it is free.
Read these six in any order. The one rule worth following is to finish the arithmetic before buying anything, because every piece of equipment on the market is sized in a unit designed to make it look sufficient.
Six things worth knowing first
Build a 7-Day Home Emergency Plan
A written plan covering power, water, food, heat and communications for one week, sized to your household rather than copied from a generic list.
Cornerstone guide in progress. The pieces it will assemble are already published — start with the two below.
- How Long Does the Power Actually Stay Out Where You Live?The average American household loses power for somewhere between two hours and thirty-one hours a year, depending entirely on which state it sits in.…
- "Three Days of Food": Where That Number Comes From and What It Actually MeansYou have heard it in every preparedness pitch: grocery stores hold only three days of food. It's usually deployed to imply that the country is three…
Power Outage Basics
What actually fails when the electricity stops, which loads are worth backing up, and the two numbers that decide what equipment you need.
- What Size Generator Do You Actually Need? Sizing It Without OverbuyingMost people buy too much generator. They add up the nameplate wattage of everything in the house, arrive at a frightening number, and buy a unit that…
- How Long Does the Power Actually Stay Out Where You Live?The average American household loses power for somewhere between two hours and thirty-one hours a year, depending entirely on which state it sits in.…
Emergency Water Basics
How much water a household really needs, and the difference between filtering, purifying and distilling it.
Food and Cooking During Disruptions
Where the "three days" figure comes from, what keeps without power, and how to compare emergency food honestly.
- Preserving Food Without Power: What Actually WorksEvery method of preserving food does one of three things: removes the water, changes the pH, or drops the temperature below what bacteria tolerate.…
- What Emergency Food Actually Costs Per CalorieA popular emergency food bucket sells for about eighty dollars and advertises 150 servings. It contains 25,280 calories.
Communications and Alerts
What will wake you at three in the morning when a warning is issued, and what information you can still reach with no network.
Home and Severe Weather Preparedness
Shelter choices, how homes are actually entered, and the dull measures that prevent the most damage.
- Home Hardening: What Actually Stops a Break-InMost residential break-ins are opportunistic, fast, and decided in under a minute from the street. The intruder is not defeating your security; he is…
- Battery Backup, Water-Powered, or Generator: Which Sump Pump Backup Actually Works?The storm that floods your basement is frequently the same storm that takes out your power. That correlation is the entire problem, and it is why a…
Then run your own numbers
Every recommendation on this site can be recomputed for your own household. Results are free and there is no signup to see them.
Solar Sizing Calculator
Array, battery bank and charge controller for the loads you actually run.
OpenWater Storage Calculator
Gallons, containers, full weight and floor space for your household.
OpenPower Station Runtime Calculator
Inside the guideHow long a given battery will really run a refrigerator or freezer.
OpenGenerator Cord Size Calculator
Inside the guideGauge and length for your load, before you buy the wrong cord.
OpenRainwater Collection Calculator
Inside the guideGallons per inch of rainfall from your actual roof area.
OpenThen prepare for what is likely where you live
Flooding matters in one place and ice storms in another. The problem hubs let you skip straight to the events that are actually plausible for your household.
- Power OutageGenerators, battery backup, fuel and runtime.
- Water OutageStorage, treatment, rain collection and sanitation.
- Food DisruptionStorage, preservation, cooking and calories.
- Severe WeatherShelter, alerts and household resilience.
- Home SecurityHardening, entry points and practical household defense.
- Communication FailureAlerts, radios and offline information.
- Long-Term DisruptionSlow problems: supply, water rights, self-supply, and claims worth checking.