Preparedness Kit

In comments on a previous post, loosecanon suggested discussions by her, me, and gwynt_y_storm, of what sorts of things would be needed for "a backpack kit of practical solutions for normal problems, such as when we lost power for a few weeks 3 years ago." baronessmartha is also interested in this. gwynt_y_storm, you probably haven't seen this discussion yet, so here's the idea, and any and all input are most welcome! And hey, bytchearse, I bet you have some good ideas too.

loosecanon went on to say "I think between the batch of several of us, we can find inexpensive, practical solutions to such simple problems as not being able to cook on an open fire in an apartment, and so on. Perhaps a "practical planning" set of posts shared amongst us?"

These would be things that can be taken with you, as well as things that could be used in one place (say your home is all right, but the power's down for several days).

I'll start off with a general list of needs, and some info on them. I'm sure the other folks will point out things I've missed, post recipes, ideas on cheaper and/or better ways to do things.

General Categories

- Water
- Food
- Shelter
- Bedding
- First Aid
- Clothing
- Sanitation Supplies
- Light, Fire, Cooking
- Communications
- Misc
(If I left out a category, let me know)

( More info on each of the categories )

Whew! That was an awful lot of stuff! And took me a lot longer to write than I thought it would. Guess I know more about disaster preparedness than I realized, LOL