Best Home Emergency Survival Kits for Families: 72-Hour, 2-Week and 30-Day

Best 72-hour food kit · best value per person

My Patriot Supply: $34.99, available · Food: 6,320 calories, 20 servings, one person for 72 hours · Owner rating: 4.8 from 2,888 reviews

Every family plan starts with three days, because that's the window Ready.gov, the Red Cross and every county emergency office plan around. Ready Hour's 72-Hour Food Kit is the cheapest real answer we found: $34.99 for 6,320 calories in four resealable pouches (potato soup, maple oatmeal, creamy chicken-flavored rice and mac and cheese). My Patriot Supply says that's 2,000-plus calories a day for one person for 72 hours, with a shelf life of up to 25 years.

It also has the biggest sales signal of anything in this guide: 2,888 reviews averaging 4.8 stars at My Patriot Supply. Owners in the review summary praise the taste, price and fast delivery.

Two honest notes. First, this is one person. A family of four needs four kits (about $140) for three days. Second, the "servings" are small: one Camping Survival reviewer says a "4 servings" pouch is closer to one large serving, so plan by calories, not servings. You'll need about 3.6 gallons of water and a way to boil it, which matters in a power outage.

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Best gear add-on for a 72-hour kit

My Patriot Supply: $34.99, available · Pieces: 47 in an 8 x 12 in. PVC pouch · Owner rating: 4.8 from 127 reviews

Food doesn't cover the rest of Ready.gov's checklist: light, a whistle, shelter, fire and a way to fix things. Ready Hour's 47-Piece Survival Kit covers a lot of those small items in one pouch for $34.99: two 5-hour candles, two 12-hour light sticks, waterproof matches, two fire starter sticks, an emergency thermal blanket, a poncho, a whistle, a signal mirror, a compass, duct tape, 35 feet of nylon cord, a multi-function tool, a sewing kit, sanitizing towelettes and a small survival guide, plus fishing and snare items.

It's a top seller in its own right, with 127 reviews averaging 4.8 stars at My Patriot Supply. The review summary says owners like how compact and complete it is; Camping Survival reviewers mention buying them for each of their kids' vehicles. One honest note from a Camping Survival owner: it's smaller than you'd expect for 47 pieces. Think of it as a pocket of basics, not a full home kit.

It has no radio, flashlight, first aid kit or water, all on Ready.gov's list. Add those separately (see our emergency radio guide and first aid kit picks).

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Best-tasting 72-hour food (real meat)

Sportsman's Warehouse: $165.99, in stock, ships to home · Food: 10,180 calories, 24 servings, 480 g protein · Owner rating: 4.6 from 5 reviews

If the family will eat the 72-hour food on a camping trip too, Peak Refuel is the upgrade. Its Basecamp 3.0 bucket holds 12 pouches, 24 servings and 10,180 calories: beef pasta marinara, biscuits and sausage gravy, chicken Alfredo, chicken and rice, beef stroganoff and strawberry granola, two of each. Peak Refuel says it uses 100% real meat and makes and packs the meals in the USA. It comes in a 5-gallon bucket with a hinged lid.

That's about 5 person-days of food, so one bucket covers two adults for a little over two days, or one adult for five. It's the most expensive food here at $32.61 per person-day, and Sportsman's shows only five owner reviews (4.6 stars). It was in stock and shipping to home on November 8, when Mountain House's emergency kits at Sportsman's were not.

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Best home water storage

Sportsman's Warehouse: $26.99, in stock, ships to home · Holds: 7 gallons · Owner rating: 4.1 from 15 reviews

Water is the part most "survival kits" skip, and it's the part you need first. Ready.gov says to store at least one gallon per person per day for drinking and sanitation, and the Red Cross says plan for three days for evacuation and two weeks at home. For a family of four that's 12 gallons for three days and 56 for two weeks.

A food-grade jug you fill from the tap does. Reliance's Jumbo-Tainer 2.0 holds 7 gallons for $26.99, has two handles and a hideaway spigot, and is FDA-approved and BPA-free, per the listing. Two of them hold 14 gallons, enough for a family of four for three days with a little left over. Ready.gov's rules for filling your own: clean and sanitize the container first, fill it with chlorinated tap water and replace it every six months.

The weak spot: 15 owner reviews average 4.1 stars, so not everyone loves it. And full, it weighs over 58 pounds (7 gallons at about 8.3 pounds each plus the 2.9-pound jug), so store it where it will live, low and away from sunlight.

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Best backup water filter

Sportsman's Warehouse: $33.99, in stock, ships to home · Rated: up to 100,000 gallons (Sawyer) · Weight: 2 oz

Stored water runs out. A filter turns rain barrels, ponds and creeks into a backup. Sawyer's Micro Squeeze is a 2-ounce filter that screws onto the included 32-ounce pouch or a standard bottle; Sawyer says it removes 99.99999% of bacteria, 99.9999% of protozoa and 100% of microplastics, and is rated up to 100,000 gallons. It comes with a straw, a cleaning plunger and a spare gasket.

The listing names bacteria, protozoa and microplastics, not viruses or chemicals. Ready.gov says boiling is the safest way to treat water (a rolling boil for one full minute), so think of the Sawyer as a fast backup, and boil or treat with plain bleach as Ready.gov describes when in doubt. Sportsman's shows just two reviews, both five stars; for more filter options see our water filter guide.

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Best 2-week food kit (most calories per day)

Be Prepared: $374.90, available, ships in 7 to 9 business days · Food: 33,045 calories in ten #10 cans · Owner reviews: none shown

Two weeks is the Red Cross home number, and it's where most families should aim. Emergency Essentials' 2-Week True Survival Food Kit is built for one person for 14 days, and Be Prepared says it delivers 2,360 calories and 108 grams of protein a day, more than the usual 2,000-calorie kits. It comes in ten #10 metal cans: black bean burger mix, freeze-dried pork sausage crumbles, Santa Fe black beans and rice, freeze-dried peaches, strawberries and sweet corn, carrots, mashed potatoes, rolled oats and nonfat dry milk.

Metal cans are the right container for a home pantry: Be Prepared calls them water-, light-, pest- and chemical-resistant, and lists a shelf life of 25 to 30 years by component. The kit weighs 19.1 pounds and needs about 10.8 gallons of water to prepare. At $22.69 per person-day it costs more than double the Ready Hour 4-week kit, and Be Prepared's page showed no owner reviews on November 8, so the sales signal is thin. What you get for the money is more protein and real ingredients you can cook with.

Family math: four people for two weeks takes four kits, about $1,500.

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Best value 30-day food (order early)

My Patriot Supply: $277.95, available to order, estimated 10 to 12 weeks to ship, limit 2 per person · Food: 56,460 calories · Owner rating: 4.9 from 3,445 reviews

On cost alone, nothing beats Ready Hour's 4-Week Emergency Food Supply: $277.95 for 56,460 calories, or $9.85 per person-day, the lowest in our chart. My Patriot Supply says it feeds one person for four weeks, two people for two weeks or a family of four for one week at 2,000-plus calories a day. Inside two stackable buckets (31.65 pounds total) are 250 servings of 16 foods: pancakes, oatmeal, creamy wheat, mac and cheese, stroganoff, chili mac, Alfredo, several rice dishes, honey wheat bread, banana chips, puddings and an orange drink mix. Shelf life is up to 25 years.

It's also the most-reviewed kit we found: 3,445 reviews averaging 4.9 stars. Many reviewers praise service and delivery and haven't opened the buckets yet, so read them as buyer satisfaction, not a taste test.

The big catch on November 8: My Patriot Supply and Ready Hour both showed a shipping notice of 10 to 12 weeks and a limit of two per person. That makes this a "build your reserve" purchase, not a "storm is coming Friday" purchase. Order it now for winter and spring, and cover the next few weeks with the 72-hour kits above. Most meals need about 9.14 gallons of water and a heat source to cook. For food-only buckets in more sizes, see our emergency food supply guide and My Patriot Supply review.

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Best 30-day kit that ships now (real meat)

Be Prepared: $697.85, available, ships in 7 to 9 business days · Food: 57,295 calories in 15 #10 cans · Owner reviews: none shown (new kit)

If you want a month of food in the house soon, and you want it to include meat, Emergency Essentials' new 30-Day Premium Emergency Meal Kit is the one that was ready to ship on November 8. It's 15 #10 cans: freeze-dried cooked beef crumbles, white chicken and pork sausage crumbles, plus hash browns, mashed potatoes, white cheddar mac and cheese, black beans and rice, corn, green beans, strawberries, banana slices, whole egg powder, nonfat dry milk, 9-grain cereal and honey wheat bread mix.

Be Prepared lists 57,295 calories and 2,964 grams of protein, which it says works out to about 1,910 calories and 99 grams of protein a day for one person over 30 days. That's close to the 4-week Ready Hour kit on calories with more than twice the protein, but it costs $24.36 per person-day versus $9.85. It weighs 30.1 pounds and needs about 16.9 gallons of water; the bread mix needs a way to bake. Shelf life runs 10 to 30 years by can (egg and banana are the 10-year items).

Being new, it had no owner reviews on November 8. Buy it for the menu and the ship date, not for a track record.

See it at Be Prepared →