10 Essential Items for Your Hurricane Emergency Kit

Works in its favor

• Inverter output is the right kind of power for phones, routers, and medical devices
• Quiet and fuel-efficient compared with an open-frame generator of the same watts
• Light enough for one person to move, which matters when you are staging it 20 feet from the house

Know this first

• It will not run central air or a large well pump
• It still produces carbon monoxide. Never run it in a garage, carport, or under a window
• Honda inverter pricing sits well above no-name units

Works in its favor

• Inverter power in the wattage most households actually need for a multi-day outage
• Stackable design lets you add capacity later instead of overbuying now
• Lower purchase price than the Honda class of inverter

Know this first

• Same carbon-monoxide rules as any gasoline generator
• Two thousand watts is a ceiling, not a suggestion. A window air conditioner plus a fridge can trip it
• You still need fuel, a heavy outdoor cord, and a plan for rain

Works in its favor

• Receives NOAA Weather Radio alerts without a phone or Wi-Fi
• Crank, battery, and USB charging so one dead source is not the end of the radio
• Small enough to live in the go-bag, not the garage

Know this first

• A compact radio is not a whole-house alert system. You have to be near it
• Cranking is a backup, not a way to run the radio all night
• Specific-area message encoding only helps if you program your county

Works in its favor

• Food-grade HDPE, with a spigot, beats a row of milk jugs
• Seven gallons is a meaningful share of a household's drinking water
• Stacks and stores in a closet when the season is quiet

Know this first

• Full, it weighs about 58 pounds. Five-gallon jugs are easier to carry
• You still have to refill and date it. Water stored in your own container should be replaced every six months
• One jug is not a seven-day supply for a family

Works in its favor

• Uses a tub you already have, so you are not storing 100 gallons year-round
• Includes a hand pump for getting water back out
• Cheap relative to the volume

Know this first

• Treat this water before drinking. It is for flushing, washing, and cleaning
• You need a bathtub. A shower stall does not work
• Fill it before landfall. It does nothing if you wait until the water is already off

Works in its favor

• Hard case plus a smaller kit you can move to the go-bag
• Hundreds of pieces, so you are not down to two bandages on day two
• Organized enough that someone else can find gauze in the dark

Know this first

• A consumer kit is not a trauma kit and does not include your prescriptions
• Check dates every season. Adhesive and medications age out
• The case is bulky for a one-night evacuation bag

Works in its favor

• Covers the common cuts, scrapes, and over-the-counter basics
• Small enough for a closet shelf or a trunk
• Lower price than the two-part case

Know this first

• You will run out faster with more than two people
• Still not a substitute for a 14-day supply of prescription medication
• Contents vary by production run. Open it and look before you rely on it

Works in its favor

• Runs phones and small USB devices indoors, with no carbon monoxide
• USB-C power delivery is enough for a phone and many handheld radios
• Lives in a drawer. You do not store gasoline for it

Know this first

• It will not run a refrigerator, a fan for very long, or a CPAP through the night unless the machine is a low-watt model and you do the math
• You have to charge it before the outage
• Twenty watts out is a phone charger, not a job-site inverter

Works in its favor

• Safe to use inside. No exhaust
• Enough energy for communications and a low-watt medical device, which is the failure that actually strands people
• Pairs well with a short daily generator run that recharges it

Know this first

• 292 Wh will not hold a refrigerator overnight. A fridge is roughly 1 to 1.5 kWh a day
• Solar charging is a separate purchase
• Heavier and more expensive than a phone power bank

Works in its favor

• Wheels and a telescoping handle matter when the cooler is full
• Rotomolded construction holds ice longer than a typical foam cooler
• Large enough for a household's cold medication and a day of food

Know this first

• This is an expensive cooler. Ice retention is the only thing you are paying for
• A 48-quart box is awkward in a small apartment
• No cooler makes food safe if you let it sit in the warm zone for hours

Works in its favor

• Wheels, so you are not carrying 50 quarts of ice
• Enough volume for food plus cold packs or bagged ice
• A price that makes sense for a tool you hope not to use

Know this first

• Ice retention is shorter than a rotomolded cooler in Gulf heat
• Pre-chill it and freeze water bottles. A warm cooler wastes the first bags of ice
• Not a substitute for a generator if you need the fridge for many days