Living in an apartment?
Preparing for an emergency looks a little different when storage is limited, elevators may stop working, and leaving home means taking the stairs. Our guide to emergency preparedness for apartment living covers what to keep on hand, where to store it, and what to consider before an evacuation.
Why doesn't standard preparedness advice fit city life?
About 80% of Americans live in urban areas, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Yet most preparedness advice assumes a garage for storage, a car to evacuate in, and open roads to drive out on.
City life works differently. Storage is a closet shelf. Evacuation may mean a stairwell and a sidewalk. And a single outage can take out the elevator and the water pressure at once.
A kit built for a farmhouse doesn't fit a fourth-floor walk-up. It shouldn't have to.
What should an urban disaster kit include?
The first 72 hours come down to four categories: food and water, lighting, first aid, and communication. Those are the same categories used by Ready.gov, FEMA's preparedness campaign.
What changes in a city is the form factor. Weight matters because you may be carrying it down stairs. Size matters because you're storing it in a closet, not a basement.
Which urban survival kit fits your situation?
These are ordered by how much room you have and how far you might have to go.
- NightWatch. Seven pounds and 16 by 12 by 6 inches, so it lives on a hall closet shelf. Two hand-crank flashlights, a lantern, a radio, and four sleeping bags with body warmers for a cold apartment with no heat. No food or water, so keep both on the shelf beside it.
- SideBySide. Three days of emergency food rations in one backpack, two-person at 14 pounds or four-person at 18. Includes drinking water pouches, water purification tablets, and a blanket, poncho, and warmer for each person. A practical starting point for households that want food, basic supplies, and water treatment organized in one place. Store additional drinking water at home.
- Urban Escape Gear. Built for leaving on foot. A 2-person kit at 15 pounds, manageable down a stairwell and across town, and also available for four. Layers water pouches for the first hours with Chlor-Floc purification and a folding container for treating more.
- PocketShield. Under half a pound, in a tin small enough for a desk drawer, a glove box or a daypack. The one most likely to actually be with you when something happens away from home.
Most households want two: something small that stays home, and something you could carry out. If you only buy one, buy for the thing most likely to happen where you live.
What about water during a city emergency?
Municipal systems can be disrupted or overwhelmed, and a water advisory can last longer than an outage.
The Urban Escape Gear layers more than one solution: ready-to-drink water pouches for the first hours, plus Chlor-Floc purification pouches and a folding container for treating more. The SideBySide carries tablets and a hydration bag. That gives you some ready-to-drink water immediately, plus a way to treat additional water if needed.
Store water at home as well. A case under the bed changes your first day more than any kit does.
What to add yourself
- Prescriptions and copies of ID, in a waterproof bag.
- A copy of your building's emergency plan, if you can get one from management.
- Water stored at home. Even a case under the bed changes your first day.
- A charged power bank, since a stairwell is a bad place to lose your phone.
- Shoes you can walk a mile in, kept by the door.
