Staying put: the first month

Bug-in is not bug-out

Many emergencies are ridden out at home. Ready.gov calls it staying at home: the storm, the outage, or the road closure means the safest place is the one you already live in. A bug-out bag is built to be carried. A bug-in plan is built to be lived with, which changes nearly every decision. Weight stops mattering, and quantity, rotation, and the boring logistics of a household start mattering a lot.

A note on the number. Federal guidance asks for supplies for several days. Thirty days is our planning horizon, not a government figure, and it is deliberately long: a month-deep household rides out a week-long event without strain. Build the three-day version first, then deepen it.

This page is gear and planning only: water, food, power, light, information, sanitation, medicine, and paper. That is the whole scope.

Water: do the arithmetic first

Ready.gov's number is at least one gallon of water per person per day, for drinking and sanitation. It also notes that a normally active person needs about three quarters of a gallon of fluid a day, and that children, nursing mothers, sick people, and hot weather all need more.

Water weighs about 8.3 pounds a gallon, so here is what that rate means when you multiply it out:

• Almost nobody stores 120 gallons, and that is fine. A realistic month is stored water for the first stretch, plus a way to treat water from a source you know. Our water guide covers treatment.
• Ready.gov suggests commercially bottled water, kept sealed in its original container somewhere cool and dark.
• If you fill your own, use food-grade containers, and Ready.gov says to replace water that was not commercially bottled every six months.
• Ready.gov says never to ration drinking water unless authorities tell you to. Drink what you need today and look for more tomorrow.

• Ready.gov: Water
• Our guide: water when the tap stops

Food: a deeper pantry, not a different one

Ready.gov's advice is short and right: store food your family will eat, remember special diets, and favor foods that need no refrigeration, cooking, water, or special preparation. Include a manual can opener. A month of food is the same pantry you already keep, just deeper and rotated. Buy the things you eat, put the new cans at the back, and eat from the front.

When the power goes out, eat in order. Ready.gov says a refrigerator keeps food cold for about four hours and a full freezer holds its temperature for about 48 hours if the doors stay closed. Fridge first, freezer second, pantry last. Its rule for anything doubtful is four words long: "When in doubt, throw it out."

• Infants, pets, and anyone on a special diet each need their own month, not a share of yours.
• Keep a way to heat food that is rated for outdoor use, and use it outdoors. See the power section.
• For month two and beyond, our survival gardening guide covers which crops actually carry calories.

• Ready.gov: Food
• Our guide: survival gardening, calories from stored seed

Light

Ready.gov asks for a flashlight for every household member. We would add a headlamp for each adult, because hands-free light is what lets you cook, fix, and care for someone in the dark. Pick lights that share one battery size and keep a month of spares. Battery light over open flame, always: a knocked-over candle in a dark house is how an outage becomes a fire.

• One area lantern per room you will actually live in, usually the kitchen and one other.
• Store alkaline batteries outside the light. They leak, and a leak ruins the light.

Information: the radio that needs no network

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting weather information and warnings straight from the nearest National Weather Service office, 24 hours a day. NOAA says it runs more than 1,000 transmitters covering all 50 states, and it also carries non-weather emergency information. It needs no cell service and no internet, only a receiver that can pick up its seven VHF frequencies.

Get one that runs on batteries or a hand crank, not wall power alone, and learn to set it for your county before you need it. Then write down a household plan: who calls whom, and where you meet if phones are down. Our comms guide covers radios you can talk back on.

• NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (National Weather Service)
• Our guide: comms when the grid is down

Sanitation

This is the least talked-about part of staying put and the one that goes wrong fastest. Ready.gov's kit list includes moist towelettes, garbage bags, and plastic ties for personal sanitation, and its water number counts sanitation on purpose. If water pressure fails, the toilet still works for as long as you can pour water into it, and after that you need a plan.

• Heavy-duty contractor bags, more than you think.
• A lidded bucket that is only ever used for this.
• Disposable gloves, hand sanitizer, and soap.
• A month of the household paper goods and hygiene items you already buy.

• Ready.gov: Build a Kit

Medical

Ready.gov points out that about half of Americans take a prescription medicine every day, and that an emergency can make refilling it hard. Ask your prescriber and pharmacist how to keep extra on hand, and keep a written list of every medication, dose, and prescriber. Ready.gov also says to talk to your medical provider about a power-outage plan for refrigerated medicines and powered devices, and to discard refrigerated medicine after more than a day without power unless the label says otherwise.

• The everyday first aid kit, stocked for a month: bandages, pain relievers, anti-diarrhea medicine, antacids, and whatever your household uses.
• Spare prescription glasses and contact lens solution.

Documents and cash

Ready.gov's financial preparedness page is plain about why this matters: getting back to normal runs on paperwork. Keep copies of insurance policies, identification, and bank records in a waterproof, portable container or saved electronically. Keep some cash at home in small bills, because ATMs and card readers may not work.

• Ready.gov: Financial Preparedness

What it all weighs

For a bug-in plan, weight is really floor space and shelf strength. A month of water for two people at the Ready.gov rate is about 60 gallons and 500 pounds, which is more than most closet shelves can hold. Store it low and spread out.

• Water: the heaviest thing you own, by far. Plan its floor space first.
• Food: a month for two fits on a few pantry shelves if it is food you already eat.
• Power: a small battery station weighs about as much as a full gallon jug or two.
• Everything else, from lights and radio to sanitation, medical, and documents, fits in two or three bins.

Where to start this month

Build the three-day kit first; our 72-hour kit guide lists it item by item. Then deepen it in this order: water, then light and the radio, then the pantry, then power. The kit builder can put the gear half of this list together against a budget.

• The 72-hour kit, item by item