Welcome!
Welcome to week #15 in the “72 Hour Kit Ideas: A week by week approach” series.
This series is all about making it simple and doable to get a 72 hour kit put together for you and your family.
Creating such a kit can be overwhelming and financially difficult to do all at once. But through this series, I’ve broken it down for you into 26 small steps! You can see all the steps here. Just take one small baby step each week and in six months you will have a well stocked, personalized kit!
You can even go through the series a few times over a year or two adding just the most basic supplies the first six months, and then a few more “extra” supplies each time you cycle through it again.
Want even more help?
This series is also available as an e-book. Purchasing the e-book gives you a few additional benefits over just reading the free series:
- Additional details and tips
- The ability to print the entire book!
- Pictures of my own kit showing just how I pack each week.
Download “Your Own 72 Hour Kit Plan” E-Book Now!
* Some links in this post are affiliate links meaning, at no additional cost to you, I may get a small commission if you make a purchase. Some links (those to Thrive Life) actually provide you with a discounted price. Thanks for your support in this way!
Week #15: Communication
Communication during a large disaster can be difficult at best. Do you have ways in which you will be able to communicate with loved ones in the event that your cell phone stops working?
What about communicating with the outside world? Following the news/warnings about your area? Signaling for help?
This week, add tools to your kit that will aid with communication during a disaster.
Suggestions:
Communicating With Local Family
- Two way radio (walkie talkies)
- Change (quarters) and/or a prepaid calling card for pay phones. Know (and have in your kit) the number of the pay phone nearest your immediate family members (in addition to their cell and any landline)
- A predetermined meeting place and a map of how to get there if applicable
- A Long Distance Contact Phone Number (In the case of a large, but local power outage, you will likely be able to call long distance, but not locally. Have an out of state contact that you and other local family members can call to report to. When you also call that contact, they can take your info and tell you about how other family members are doing and where they are or what they need.)
Keeping up on the News
- AM/FM and NOAA weather radio (consider one that can be solar or cranked charged)
Signaling for Help
How About You?
Leave me a comment and tell me what you will be adding to your kit. Why? What communication tools do you need? What do you already have?
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| Week #14: Light | Week #16: Tools | Week #1: Water to Carry | Series Into: Survival Kit Series, A Week by Week Approach |
We have two way radios and whistles. I have been looking for a crank/solar radio that has all the extras I want. I never thought about a mirror, so I will add that as well.
We have a large lamp/hand crank NOAA/radio for the house and camper, a small hand crank/solar power NOAA/radio for the BOB. Everyone has whistles and mirrors. We have two sets of walkie talkies down at our bug out location for keeping in contact on the property. The phone relay may work but would be better if you texted instead of called since it takes a smaller band width and text can get through when voice can not. Also we have set up a family e-mail account that anyone in the family can go online and access. Here we can leave each other messages and instructions. It is also one of the e-mails we use for survival only info to come in like certain newsletters etc to make it easy to keep and share with in the whole family.
We were just on a cruise and didn’t have access to cell phones. Wow, what an adjustment to not be in constant contact with each other. We need to invest in some two way radios. I also need a good crank radio and would love a solar charger for our phones. I saw a You Tube video on how to make a hand crank charger for our phones. We do have whistles and mirrors in each kit.
We were also home during the blackout in Southern California and it was very comforting knowing that I had a good start on my emergency supplies. However, in all of my preparations, I completely forgot a good radio! We found an old CD player/radio that worked in a pinch. That same week I ordered an AM/FM NOAA solar/crank/batteries/AC radio/flashlight/charger.
We have one set of two-way radios and a CB radio, but I’d like to add another set of two-way radios. I also purchased a solar battery charger to keep all those batteries charged and in good working order.
On my list to purchase is a small folding solar charger for the phones and plugins. I want to be able to charge all of our phones, as well as any neighbors’ phones, in the case of an extended power outage.
Haha, I didn’t even notice that you skipped a week! I commented last week without even looking at the dates. Oops! Like I said, we have whistles, but we hope to add radios on the next time around.
Praying for some peace and rest for you; stress is good in small doses, but sometimes we just need a little break.
Thank you so much Erica! You are very kind!
We have whistles for each person in the family. I also have a hand-crank radio, mirror and flares.
I do need to save up for two-way radios, though. That’s on the list for this year!
A two way radio was on my list for Christmas but we couldn’t afford it, so for now just our phones,and whistles. We do have a solar charger for our phones, and a sharpie in case we needed to leave a message for each other on something permenant
Unfortunately we won’t be adding anything for a few weeks as this week we added a tetnis shot and crutches because of toys left on the floor. But it got me thinking. That a tetnis shot could be s good thing to keep up to date on before you need it, just in case you couldn’t get to a hospital for a while and needed it.
We have 2 way radios and whistles…we are planning on adding an AM/FM NOAA crank radio. I have also added whistles to the adult kits to just in case the batteries die or the radios quite working.
We definitely need to add the two way radios to our kits. We have crank radios and whistles already but since my hubby and I work 17 miles apart we would definitely feel better with the 2 ways in our kits. We also have a solar charger for our cell phones and various other small electronics. Love it! Thanks for the tips.
We have a hand crank radio, scanner and whistles. I am going to get our two radios out and see how far they reach. Thanks for all your posts. I am sure your house will look terrific. Can’t wait to see some pics.
We have the whistles and only one mirror. Need to get everyone a signal mirror and some NOAA/solar/hand cranked radios. I would also love to get two sets of two way radios.
I’ll definitely be adding some solar/crank radios/walkies to our main kit. Also some whistles to the kids’ kits! Do you think it would be good to attach a lanyard to them for the kids?
We have the mirrors and whistles. We also have a red cross radio that runs on crank, battery or solar and will also recharge our cell phones. We don’t have flares, but do have the glow sticks. I would really like to get some two way long range radios sometime, but haven’t found any that were economical and good quality yet. Thanks for the reminder!
First time visitor and grateful to have found this resource. Thank you for all your hard work that I’m sure many will benefit from.
In the interest of reduce, reuse, and recycle, I’ll be reusing the flashlight/whistle combos we bought for my son’s Halloween outfit (Buzz Lightyear!) We have three different colors for each of us, but my task will be to get new batteries for them all so they can flash/glow properly. I love the idea of having mirrors, so in the kits they will go! I have a crank radio that will have to suffice until the next go around in six months, unless I find a good deal on two way radios at a thrift store 🙂
Right now we have two whistles in our bag, which each of us will wear during an emergency. we also have a mirror. Hopefully, on the next time around, we will be able to add a crank radio.
I was bummed when I didn’t see your email this week in my inbox. But I do see that the date on your post is January 30th 2012 instead of 2013. Maybe that is why I didn’t get it. But I also noticed you have only had one person comment this week. You may want to update the date so everyone can benefit from this wonderful post. Thanks!
We still need to get som NOAA radios.
I plan on adding mirrors and flares to my kits this week.
We have a radio, but I’m going to add mirrors and whistles to our kits. Also, the tip about communicating through your mother is great! My mother-in-law lives in IL, so my husband and I could communicate through her if we ever found ourselves in that situation. Great tip to remember!
I have a couple hand crank radios but they don’t have NOAA. We also have whistles and I have a signal mirror in my pack. I need to get some radios with the NOAA with solar capabilities.
I have been reading over all the weeks (I just started last week) trying to figure out what I already had on hand. I commented already today but just curious, what are we supposed to use flares for and how are we gonna carry all this stuff if we have to leave our homes? I am not trying to be negative, just want to get the best way possible to carry it all especially if we have to leave with no vehicles.
Sorry for the late reply Lyn! Flares would be good if you needed to get the attention of rescue workers. And check out week #1 where I go over a bunch of options for ways to carry your stuff!
https://simplefamilypreparedness.com/survival-kit-series-week-one/
I got my whistles but need to get some flares. I already had two-way radios that have NOAA on them. Going to try to find something that will solar charge batteries and/or itself. Thanks for the ideas!
We have a hand crank am/fm radio/lantern. We can get the local radio station on it. We also have a battery powered clock radio. We did have walkies but they weren’t very good and we want to get a pair of quality walkies. We have a whistle in every first aid kit. I have wanted to get a weather raido for awhile now. Anything solar powered is great!
By the way, I have not been able to see the guest post about spices. It gives me an error message.
I just stumbled across your blog today while looking for Burn Book tips- you’ve inspired me to get moving on our 72 hour kit. We don’t own a battery
Powered radio at all (maybe 1 alarm clock radio…) so I think my first step is to get a backpack and a wind up radio.
i already have whistles, and an AM/FM radio. i think ill look into getting two way radio and some flares