21 Items The CDC Wants You to Keep In Your Home

hey my name is Malcolm lawsuit the YouTube channel survival know-how city prepping is kind enough let me post one of my videos to his YouTube channel did you know that the CDC has a list of 21 very specific items that it wants you to keep in your home at all times so these items will help you be prepared for any number of natural and man-made disasters everything from a hurricane to biological warfare to a pandemic so in today's video we're gonna break down each of these 21 items I'll give you my thoughts on each of them and at the end of the video I'm gonna give you a few additional items that I recommend you keep in your mergency kit as well the CDC did not include on their list so the CDC really breaks their list down into two sections the first 15 items are going to be kind of the core and like essential items of your emergency kit and the last six items are going to be more specific to your specific situation so one of the first items that they recommend that you buy is a NOAA Weather Radio and I absolutely agree with this I think that an emergency radio like this is incredibly valuable during really bad weather like a bad thunderstorm or hurricane or right after a tornado having access to information is gonna be critical during a disaster and you can't always rely on your internet or on the cellphone but during most disasters should still be able to get information from your radio and what I like about this particular one is it has multiple sources of power so on the back here you can see that it just takes double-a batteries which we all probably have in our home already but it also has a rechargeable battery right here and you can recharge this in a couple of different ways one is you can literally just plug this into a USB port to maybe plug into your car or charge the batter before a bad hurricane or storm but you can also charge it from this solar panel on top of the radio and then lastly you can also charge it from the crank on the side of the radio as well and what's great is that this also doubles as a flashlight so during an emergency if the power goes out you at a very least have a minimum one flashlight with yourself with you're right here and it's a rechargeable flashlight it also has a few different like emergency beacon settings on it as well remember when hurricane sandy struck New York City and saw huge sections of the city go without power for up to a week FEMA actually came in with food clean water blankets and other resources but the problem is most of the residents they didn't know that FEMA's literally just a few blocks away giving away food and water if those residents had an emergency radio like this they would able to hear the broadcasts and know that FEMA is giving away food and water literally just a few blocks down the street from them and that's why I think an emergency radio like this that gets the NOAA weather station is one of the first items that you should buy for your emergency kit so the next item that the CDC wants you to keep in your home is water specifically they want you to keep one gown of water per person per day for up to three days so if you have a family of five that means they want you to keep us bare fifteen gallons of water in your home and the purpose of the water is not just for drinking but it's also for cooking food is for sanitation is for cleaning your clothes and you can buy a gallon of water like this for less than a dollar so you've got a family of five go down to your grocery store spend $15 buy 15 gallons of water like this and just go store it under your stairs or in a closet somewhere the next thing that they want you to keep is physical copies of important documents so birth certificates marriage certificates copies of your deed and keep them all in one secure spot and I'd even recommend that you buy something like this so this is a portable fireproof safe that has a handle on it and I have copies of all my important records in this safe and if there ever isn't a disaster an emergency and I need to evacuate it has a handle so I can easily and quickly grab this there's a fire in my house or my house floods everything is still gonna be safe right here and it's gonna make it so much easier for me to rebuild and kind of recover after a major natural disaster next they want you to have three days worth of food for you and your entire family there's a couple different routes that you can go with this you could just buy extra quantities of food that you typically eat that is non-perishable so maybe some like Cheerios and some macaroni and cheese some tuna fish cans something like that the other options you can buy some freeze-dried packaged meals like this this is really meant for a camping but all you do is add some hot water and you've got some biscuits and gravy so buy enough of these for three meals for each member of your family for up to three days you can also buy some military surplus MREs this stands for meal ready-to-eat this is what they hand out in the military now I will say that some of these MREs have a lot of calories and very chlorophyll a dense some of them may have up to 2000 calories but they're a completely self-enclosed and have everything that you need in here they've even got a little heaters in here to heat up your food they typically have like some Gatorade or some kind of powder to mix with water to give you some electrolytes they usually have something sweet in there as well and you can usually find these for eight to ten dollars per MRE the last option is that you can simply buy a bucket of emergency freeze-dried food like this you can see here that this has 60 servings of meals and it will last you up to 25 years in reality it probably lasts even longer than that so if you just want to check this box off and not think about anymore if you easily just buy a variety pack of prepackaged freeze-dried food like this and it's be more than enough for you and your whole family for three days the next time they want you to have is a first aid kit and this is kind of a no-brainer you should absolutely have one of these in your homes for emergencies and there are a few specific items that you want to make sure your first aid kit has or buy and include in your first-aid kit and one of those is going to be n95 respirators obviously right now during the pandemic these are invaluable and there's a complete shortage of them when this pandemic first hit there's a lot of other situations that an n95 respirator could come in handy let's say there's bad hurricane and there's flood water in your area after those flood waters receive there may be dead fish dead animals there may be raw sewage that leaked into that water as well or let's say your home did experience flooding during a hurricane now you have to worry about mold over the next few days so having some n95 respirators will protect you from being around dead animals as well as from mold spores next to CDC once you have an extra cell phone charger in your emergency kit and it's definitely a smart move you can buy a cell phone chargers for five dollars now they're incredibly cheap and I would actually take this a step further and also recommend that you get a battery backup for your phone as well every time I know that there's a hurricane or a bad storm coming my way I always charge this battery backup and I can actually charge my phone off this little battery up to three times so if I lose power in my home I'll know that I'll have a charge phone for the next couple of days and you can buy these anywhere from $10 only up to 50 or $60 depending on how good of a battery backup you want to buy next they want you to keep extra sanitation and personal hygiene items so these are things like extra toothpaste toothbrush some hand sanitizer some soap and they also include bleach in this and bleach is actually incredibly useful during emergency situation one for sanitation but there's also a lot of practical uses for it you mix a little bleach with some water in a spray bottle and you can pretty effectively kill a lot of mold with them you can also sanitize a water with just a little bit of bleach in your water as well if you get through a tornado or hurricane or a bad storm you may have to go up to a week without any power so that's a week without you taking a shower or having access to hot water so you're really gonna have to focus on your personal hygiene and try to stay as clean as possible so the next item that they want you to keep in your home is cash and this is something that I've personally done for a long time I usually try to keep it at least $1,000 cash in my home at all times and preferably in as small of a bill as possible and the real reason behind this is let's say your entire community has to go without power let's say for up to a week but you still need gas for your generator or food from the grocery store but their ATMs and their credit card machines are not working without power they're still gonna be selling gas and selling groceries but only to those customers that have cash and this is the biggest reason why you need to have some cash on hand for emergency situations the next is going to be an extra set of clothes and a sleeping bag or blankets for each member of your family so let's say you do suffer through a bad flood and the entire first floor of your home gets flooded out and everybody's clothes gets ruined and all your bedding gets ruined if you leave stored away extra clothes and blankets for each member your family up on the second floor you know that everybody at least stay dry in warm during an emergency next it's gonna be physical maps of your local area so let's say there is a major disaster and the roads are now no longer possible by vehicle you and your family may need to evacuate your area on foot if your phone is also dead you're not gonna be able to rely on your GPS anymore so having a physical map will help you evacuate your city or even navigate to the local hospital or police station during an emergency the next are saying multi-purpose supplies so these are gonna be things like pliers and screwdrivers and also duct tape and these items will come in handy in any number of situations that may arise that it's kind of hard to specifically predict so next I recommend at least 7 days of supplies of any medication they are on so don't wait until you're on your very last pillow to finally go get that prescription refilled try to get the refill as soon as you can see you have some overlap and you never go without at least 7 days worth of medication and we actually saw this exact situation play out during the pandemic when we saw many pharmacies experience shortages of specific medications but let's say your car gets damaged from a bad storm or flooding or even the road itself gets damaged from an earthquake or from downed trees and you can't access your pharmacy if you're on any type of important medication you want to have as much supply of that on hand at all times so the next item they want you to have in your home is flashlights and there's really two different main categories of flashlights you can have a directional flashlight like this or you can get an omnidirectional flashlight otherwise known as a lantern like this and I got to be honest during an emergency situation during a power outage situation I much prefer having a lantern like this that can illuminate an entire room and really free up your hands if you're trying to cook something or use the bathroom but you have to kind of hold a flashlight at the same time while you're doing it it's really inconvenient and it really doesn't illuminate an entire room and you have to have a flashlight for each person but with the lantern like this you could have one Lantern for the entire family or the entire room I also recommend that you look into getting solar powered flashlights or lanterns so something like this is from hybrid light and during a bad emergency or a prolonged power outage you can store this outdoors for it to charge up in the daytime and then it be fully charged for you in the evening or at the nighttime but I like about hybrid lightest they actually have two different batteries in there they have a replaceable battery and then they also have their rechargeable battery so if you have batteries on you and you need light right now you can use your replaceable battery then the rechargeable battery is more of a backup in case you don't have anymore the replaceable batteries so next I want to make sure you have extra batteries in your home as well and the type of battery is gonna be specific to what your flashlights and radios used and I would try to get purposeful when you're buying these items and try to get your flashlights and your emergency radios and any other items that you may have all to use the same type of battery or whatever that may be so the next item is gonna be a copy of your family disaster plan and a big part of your disaster plan is gonna have all your emergency contacts the truth is for many of us we don't memorize phone numbers anymore most people only have one or two phone numbers memorized but you want to make sure that you have your aunt's and your uncles and your family members and friends their addresses and their phone numbers actually written out on a piece of paper in case there is some sort of emergency or some sort of disaster and you don't have access to your cell phone anymore so that's the core 15 items that the CDC wants you to keep in your emergency kit the next six items are going to be specific to specific situations that you may find yourself in so the next item is gonna be any specific medical supplies that you and your family may need so you may be things like hearing aids or extra pairs of glasses or contact lenses if you're diabetic you may want some extra syringes in your kit as well next if you have a baby or a toddler you want extra supplies for them so extra diapers extra formulas extra wet wipes it's very easy to overlook extra items like this but you want to make sure they have at least three days worth of baby supplies in your emergency kit next if you have any children you want games books activities in your emergency kit as well if you have to go three four days without any power those kids are gonna get incredibly restless incredibly bored and you want something to kind of keep their minds active and personally I think it's a good idea to have a of cards and some books in any emergency kids even for the adults you know when people get bored that's when they certainly seen their discipline and they start doing stupid things and some disaster is the best thing that you can do is literally just stay in doors and shelter in place and if you have some activities kind of keeping your mind stimulated most adults will be able to go longer sheltering in place and not lose your discipline and go outside when they know that they probably shouldn't next if you have pets you want extra leashes and food and carriers for your pets and I would even include copies of all the shots and vaccines that they receive so the next item on their list is a two-way radio and yeah this could definitely come in handy you've got a family and one of your family members is venturing off looking for gasoline or food something like that having that line of communication between your family and the person leaving your home is going to be very very important just make sure that you have extra batteries for your two-way radios as well so the next item I recommend is extra sets of your car keys and your house keys you know let's say you do experience a bad flooding or tornado or something to this effect and you lose your car key your car may still work and be perfectly fine but you just don't have that little key to get it started so having an extra backup key could definitely be incredibly valuable during specific types of disasters now there are a couple of items that I recommend that you keep in your mergency kit as well but the CDC did not have on their list and one of those items is gonna be a little propane camping stove but something like this is simple is compact and it's affordable well this will allow you to boil and sanitize water in a bad situation and also allow you to cook a lot of other foods and just kind of give you that mental boost of having a warm meal or even a warm drink in your belly if you do use a propane burner like this just make sure that you use it outdoors and the next time I recommend you keeping your emergency kit is gonna be some hand warmers if you have to go without power most likely you're going without any heat sources in your home as well and depending on your location and the specific situation it may get incredibly cold in your home and hand warmers like this maybe your source of heat for several days at a time and they're pretty inexpensive so you might as well buy a pack and keep it in your mergency kit if you want to learn more about urban and wilderness survival definitely check out my youtube channel survival know-how and on my channel I cover everything from the emergency preparedness the camping to wilderness survival skills once again a huge thank you to city prepping for hosting my video and I'll see you over at my channel

Channel: City Prepping

Views: 274,595

Rating: 4.9332213 out of 5

Keywords: prepper, preppers, emergency preparedness, cdc recommended supplies

Id: 3s5WALuhrVA

Length: 15min 37sec (937 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 26 2020