FEATURED GUIDE
How to Start Emergency Preparedness at Home Without Buying Everything at Once
A beginner-friendly sequence for household planning, water, food, alerts, lighting, medical needs, sanitation and backup power.
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PRACTICAL PREPAREDNESS FOR REAL LIFE
Know what you need.
Prepare what matters.
Build a practical household emergency plan, identify meaningful gaps, and understand what to do next—without scare tactics or unnecessary gear.
◈ Source-backed guidance☷ Personalized planning✓ Practical next steps
Prepare for what matters
Start with your situation, not a shopping list.
Power Outage
Plan for disruptions that last hours or days.
Explore →Hurricane
Prepare for wind, rain, outages and evacuation.
Explore →Winter Storm
Stay warm, informed and ready during severe cold.
Explore →General Emergency
Build a solid household preparedness baseline.
Explore →Starting From Scratch
Create a practical plan without overbuying.
Explore →Already Have Supplies
Check what you own and identify real gaps.
Explore →PREP CHECK
Not sure where to start? Find the gaps first.
Prep Check filters a 52-item source-backed Master Requirements model down to the core, household-specific and hazard-specific items that apply to you. It does not sell you a kit or pretend to certify that you are “ready.”
1 Household2 Risks3 Checklist4 Action plan
Example planning gapsShown only after your answers
💧 WaterReview quantity
◉ Emergency informationBackup channel
⚡ Essential-device powerDefine loads
▣ SanitationPlan fallback
Every result points to a practical next action, calculator or guide—not automatically to a product.
Build your preparedness
Understand the essentials before choosing gear.
Essential tools
Turn questions into practical numbers.
What to do next
- Take the Prep CheckBuild your household baseline.
- Review Your GapsFocus on high-impact needs first.
- Build Your PlanUse guides and tools to take action.
- Stay ReadyReview and update over time.
Expert guides & resources
Source-backed answers designed around real household decisions.
FEATURED GUIDE
How Much Emergency Water Should You Store?
CDC recommends storing at least one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days and trying to build toward a two-week supply when possible.
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FEATURED GUIDE
How to Prepare for a 3-Day Power Outage
A realistic household plan for lighting, communication, food safety, water, medical needs and selective backup power.
Read guide →Guidance you can verify.
Core preparedness content is built around authoritative U.S. public guidance and transparent editorial standards.
FEMAReady.govNOAACDCAmerican Red Cross