72 Hour Kits - What are they and why need one?

What is a 72 Hour Kit anyway?
It is a kit that is full of food and supplies to sustain a person for three days.

Why three days?
Generally, that is the guesstimated time that a family can securely be located into a new safe location or that their own homes can be back to normal after a type of disaster. Granted, disasters can last much longer than 72 hours and three days may or may not sound like a long time. You can look at it as having food for your children for three days or not.

When building your kit, there are a few things to keep in mind so you can tailor yours to best suit your family needs.

* Are you in a natural disaster zone (flood, hurricane, earthquake, wildfire, tornado, blizzard, etc.)?
* How many people are you building your kits for?
* What ages are you building the kits for?
(Remember infants, pregnant women, elderly, people with special dietary/allergy concerns and special needs people may have additional or different items needed.)
* Are you building pet kits?
* Are you willing to have extra kits for others in need?
* Are you working with a budget and need to build your kits slowly or will you put everything together at once?

Hopefully, these ideas can get you started with planning out your kits. In this 72 Hour Kit series, we will explore actually putting the kits together.