201 A week

What a week actually is

201 assumes you already did 101. You know where you would go, the bag exists, and you know who you trust. This rung is for staying put, or for being stuck, while ordinary life is off for days.

A week is long enough that snacks and a phone charger are not a plan. It is short of “the grid is gone.” Think: stores are closed or empty, tap water may be unsafe or the pump is off, and you may not be able to ask the internet what to do.

Food and water

Ready.gov’s water guidance says to store at least one gallon of water per person per day for several days, for drinking and sanitation. A normally active person needs about three quarters of a gallon of fluid a day from water and other drinks. The rest of that gallon is for washing and sanitation, not for a bigger glass.

For a week, do the multiplication on paper. One person is about seven gallons before pets, cooking, and a hot climate. Four people is about twenty-eight gallons. That is several jugs, not a vibe. Florida heat raises what people drink. So does illness.

• Store what you can carry, rotate, and actually use. Old water you will not drink is not a supply.
• If someone needs formula, a special diet, or extra fluid for a medical reason, add that on top of the gallon. Do not subtract it from someone else.
• Pets get their own water and food. They are not a rounding error.
• Food is the same idea: a several-day supply you will eat, then enough more to cover the week. Include a manual can opener. Comfort food counts. A week of food you hate is a week people will not stick to.

More detail on food storage is on Ready.gov’s food page. Read it. Then buy the overlap with what your household already cooks.

Supplies and medicine

Medicine is the supply people forget because it lives in a cabinet and feels permanent. Make a paper list: name, dose, what it is for, and the prescriber. Put a copy in the go bag.

Ask the pharmacist or the prescriber what an extra few days looks like for your prescriptions. Do not skip doses in order to build a stash. Do not share prescription medicine with the neighbor who ran out. That feels like help and it can hurt both of you.

• Hygiene for a week with low water: soap, wipes, trash bags, menstrual supplies, diapers, pet waste bags.
• A basic first-aid kit you know how to use. A kit you have never opened is a box.
• Glasses, hearing-aid batteries, and the charger for any device a person needs in order to be safe.

Power, for a week

List what must have electricity and what can wait. For most homes the short list is: a phone, a light after dark, medicine that has to stay cool, and any medical device that plugs in. The refrigerator matters, and then it doesn’t, once the food in it has warmed. The television does not.

A car charger or a small power station can keep phones and LED lights going. That is the direct-current side of the house, and rung 301 goes into it on purpose. A generator is a different tool: it makes household outlets work, and it can kill you with carbon monoxide if it runs indoors or in the garage. If you do not already own one and know the rule, do not buy one in a panic and learn later. The rule is on the 301 power section and on CDC’s carbon monoxide page.

Ready.gov’s power-outage page also says not to heat the house with a gas stove or oven. That is a fire and a poisoning problem, not a clever backup.

When the phone and the internet stop

Cell service and home internet fail in the same storms, blackouts, and broken backhaul. Sometimes the phone still has a battery and no network. It is then a flashlight and a photo album.

• The paper list from 101. Names and numbers, including the out-of-area person.
• A radio that does not need the internet. Ready.gov’s kit list includes a battery or hand-crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert. That radio is how official weather warnings still arrive when the apps do not.
• A check-in time. “We will try at noon” is a plan. Refreshing a dead app every four minutes is not.
• One place you will go if you cannot reach each other. You already named it on 101. This is why that rung comes first.

How officials want you to stay informed, in normal times and in a warning, is covered at Ready.gov: Be Informed.