How to make a hurricane emergency kit for $100

How to create an emergency kit on a budget

Hurricane season is here, and it’s time to pull together your emergency preparedness kit. But buying extra food, water and supplies can add up fast. So JD and Heather Sullivan are back with a combined Hurricane Gear Test and Sullivan’s Smart Sense to show you how to pull an emergency kit together for your family for $100.

HOUSTON - Now that we're in hurricane season, Meteorologist John Dawson and I have teamed up again to help you assemble an emergency kit for just $100.

This plan will feed a family of four for three days and provide essential power during an outage.

What are the essentials?

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As JD always mentions in his Hurricane Gear Tests, every emergency kit should have at least the five essentials:

• food
• water
• a light source
• power/cell phone charger
• first aid kit

Which foods should be included?

Real Simple magazine publishes a great article each year on the importance of nutrition to stay healthy, and which foods to gather for a potential power outage.  We based our shopping on that list, which includes:

• peanut butter
• whole wheat crackers
• nuts 
• trail mix
• cereal
• granola bars, power bars
• dried fruits, apricots, raisins
• canned tuna, salmon, chicken, turkey
• canned vegetables, green beans, carrots, peas
• canned beans
• canned soups, chili
• dry pasta, pasta sauce
• quinoa, brown rice
• bottled water
• sports drinks with electrolytes
• powdered milk
• sugar, salt, pepper
• multivitamins

Real Simple also includes some perishable foods that will last a few days in warm temperatures, which you can purchase in the day or two before a storm is expected to hit.  They include:

• apples
• citrus fruits, oranges, grapefruit
• avacados
• tomatoes
• potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams
• hard, packaged sausages
• whole grain bread, tortillas

Emergency kits should also contain a gallon of water per person per day.  For our family of four, that means 12 gallons for three days.

Other essentials on a budget

By the numbers:

We spent about $75 on food and water for three days.

We found low-cost light sources, such as kits that have several small, battery-powered lanterns and flashlights for $10 to $13.

If you have a cell phone charger for your car, you can charge your cell phone and electronic devices using that.  You can buy a cell phone charger/power source for about $6 to $12.

And we found first aid kits starting as low as $7.

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That totals about $100.  Remember you can eat the food at the end of the season so you can put it to good use.  And you can plan on adding items each year, such as a propane camping stove or outdoor grill for cooking.