Every home should have one

Published on 22 December 2016

She’ll be right” isn’t an acceptable attitude when it comes to keeping you and your family safe. Every home in New Zealand needs to have an emergency survival kit.

If a major event happened right now, you might be able to get by for the next few hours without power or running water, but what about tomorrow? Could you heat food or warm a baby's bottle? Do you have a full gas bottle for your barbecue? Could you and your family get through with what you have on hand?

An emergency survival kit should be a vital part of your contingency plan, especially if you have children under five.

In most emergencies you should be able to stay in your own home. Our civil defence team recommends you have enough supplies to be self-sufficient for at least three days and that means stocking your survival kit with more than food and water rations.

Think about what you use during a normal day – from preparing meals to bathing and washing clothes.

As well as the obvious essentials like food and water, your kit needs to contain clothes, spare nappies, shoes, plus medicines like Panadol or asthma inhalers. If you've got a cat or dog you'll need to stock up on pet food as well. And don't forget to include a few books, games or toys. If you need to evacuate, some distractions for the kids could come in handy.

So if you don't have one, make it a family exercise to organise your emergency kit. Make it your number one priority this weekend.