First Aid Kit. Battery powered radio. Flashlights for every family member. Lots of extra batteries. Extra flashlight bulbs. Wind-up clock. Battery powered fan to keep air circulating. Several gallons of bottled drinking water. Manual can opener. Non-perishable food: canned fruit, peanut butter, etc. Crackers and cookies in sealed containers. Pet food and treats. (They get frightened too.) A couple of new toys. An interesting novel.
No candles!! They're dangerous around pets and small children.
I freshen the basic Emergency Kit and add what's needed to it for each season.
We also have a flashlight in every room that plugs into an outlet. When the power goes out, the flashlights turn on automatically. We can then find the Emergency Kit that is "stored away in case we have a power outage". These flashlights can be found at any home improvement store and are relatively inexpensive.
Goodness i buy candles of all kinds when they are on sale and get them as gifts. I can light up our entire split level and look like we have lights on. I also have 3 laterns we keep in the house that we use for camping. Two take flashlight batteries the other you keep charged up. That with a lot of flashlights.. When hugo hit here we had no problem seeing at night. Our power was off for only two days and the rest of the area was two weeks. It pays to have things ready at all times.
I have taken and spray painted with glow in the dark paint my flash lights, and a box that I keep matches in so when it is dark since I keep these items out, they glow.
Be sure in your power outage emergency kit you keep some "glowsticks" (the kind you "break" and they glow for 12 hours), especially if you have kids. They provide a distraction from the dark, keep the kids from running down the flashlight batteries by playing with the flashlights, and they are a kind of "tracking" system because you know where the kids are by seeing their glowstick.
Some come with a string to be worn about the neck. Also, having them taped to items easily lost in the dark (such as turned off flashlights or lighters) makes items easier to find. They give off a small amount of light, come in various colors, and are much much safer than candles or matches or lighters. I buy mine at the local 99 cent store in a 4 pack of assorted sizes.
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