How to Prep for Emergencies in the City

Emergencies can strike anywhere at any moment. A lack of preparation can quickly become panic and confusion if disaster strikes, so don’t let that be you. People living in a city face unique challenges during these crises due to high concentrations of people and complex infrastructure. 

If you’re a city dweller, use this guide to prepare better for emergencies and stay safe in the face of catastrophe.

What Is the Most Effective Way To Prepare for an Emergency?

A good preparation strategy is multi-pronged. To be well-prepared, try to include all of these aspects, from creating and maintaining a well-stocked kit to refining your disaster skills and knowing the best evacuation routes.

1. Make a Plan

Urban dwellers, especially New Yorkers, must craft a solid plan to serve as the first line of defense if disaster strikes. Start by considering different scenarios and gather your household members and, potentially, neighbors to discuss the best ways to respond. Identify a couple of meeting points within the neighborhood and outside of the city. It’s also wise to select a contact that lives out of state for news updates and communication during emergencies. 

Everyone in your group should have emergency phone numbers memorized in case mobile devices are unreliable or unusable. 

Other plan components can be customized to address your specific needs, including if you have pets, elderly family members, or specific medical needs. 

2. Gather Supplies

Your urban preparedness requires a well-stocked emergency kit. Make a robust kit with more than you need to accommodate any additional people or changes.

Your kit should contain plenty of non-perishable food and water to last your group at least three days. If you’re packing canned goods, remember a manual can opener.

It should also hold flashlights, lanterns (battery-operated or solar-powered), and extra batteries to top up when needed. A first-aid kit should also contain bandages, ointment, alcohol prep wipes, gauze, tools, and other dressings. It should also account for any medications essential to your family—prescriptions or OTC that you regularly use.

Tools like wrenches or pliers to access water or gas pipes can be handy.

If your digital tools fail, ensure you have a paper map on hand with meet-up points marked for easy navigation.

Do you have babies or pets? Remember their supplies, such as diapers, formula, pacifiers, pet food, and a leash/collar.

Ensure any critical paper goods, like written documents or cash, are inside a waterproof container in your kit. 

Other items you may like to have in your kit include a fire extinguisher, dishes and utensils, writing materials, and entertainment like books or puzzles.

3. Brush Up on Emergency Skills

When was the last time you practiced or learned emergency skills? A few that come in handy for city residents include fire suppression techniques (such as using a fire extinguisher), search and rescue methods, first aid, and even CPR certification. You never know when someone could be in crisis, and you could have the skills to save them.

Regularly practicing these skills differentiates those who spring into action when help is needed and those who flounder and panic in the moment. By keeping these skills top of mind, you’ll keep yourself and your family safe while contributing to the resilience of your entire community.

4. Have a Clean Water Source

In the urban jungle, you rely on your water tap for clean drinking water. But in an emergency, this might not be available. Plan ahead by stockpiling clean bottled water (around a gallon per person per day for at least three days) and consider other ways to optimize your city space to serve your emergency water needs. Water purification tablets and portable filters are two great options, as they don’t take up much room but can become lifesavers if the city’s water looks murky or unsafe.

If you have a bathtub in your home, it can also become an excellent water storage reservoir if needed. Collecting rainwater on your fire escape or backyard can stockpile more water and have a safe storage space. 

5. Plan for Medical Needs

Your medical preparation depends entirely on the health of those in your household. Are there essential medications someone needs to take daily? Is there special equipment, like a CPAP machine or oxygen tank, critical to their health? Know where to find them and how to keep them safe. Sometimes, you can even ask a pharmacy for a 90-day emergency supply of critical medications to act as a buffer in case of shortages.

It’s a good idea to create portable medical files for each family member, detailing their allergies, conditions, doctors, and any conditions they have. 

If you rely on a medical device, having a plan for outages is critical and can mean the difference between life and death. If AC electricity is out, you may need a backup option, like EcoFlow DELTA Series Portable Power Stations, to get you through periods of blackouts.

6. Maintain Your Emergency Kit

You must keep your emergency kit up-to-date and functional. Inspect it regularly so you know every item is ready for action if the moment strikes. Check expiration dates on perishable goods and medications and replace them immediately. Also, consider seasonal shifts – in the summer, you may need extra water on hand, while the winter will demand blankets and clothes you can layer.

Outages are common in cities, so keep your backup battery supply ample and check that your flashlights and lanterns remain operational.

Has anyone in your family had their ID or personal documents updated? Ensure your emergency kit has copies of the most recent versions.

Creating your kit is just the first step – it needs to be maintained to work as it should.

7. Stay Informed

Staying informed before, during, and after emergencies will keep you safe and prepared for what’s to come. Ensure you know where to access trustworthy information – keep tabs on local news outlets and government alerts, and find one or two credible social media sources. 

While technology such as emergency apps and notifications can be beneficial, we can’t always rely on our electronics during an emergency. Having other options if technology fails us will prevent any panic. 

Keep a battery-powered radio with your other emergency supplies so you can still find updates even if digital news is unavailable. Another potential option is a set of walkie-talkies you share with household members or neighbors to allow you to communicate and coordinate your efforts even if your phones don’t work.

8. Find a Safe Space to Store Emergency Supplies

Storage space is famously hard to find in the city, but finding a safe spot for emergency supplies should be a top priority. Rather than carving out space specifically for your kit, try to find empty space around your current configuration. 

For example, is there space underneath your couch to put a plastic container holding your medications and first-aid supplies? What about the cabinet above the refrigerator that often remains empty? Get creative to find a spot to dedicate for emergency use. 

Avoid areas low to the ground or spots that experience extreme temperatures to keep your supplies safe from water and spoiling conditions. If you’re worried about finding what you need in a rush, take a moment to organize your emergency items. Use labels and color coding to make finding what you’re looking for easy and quick.

9. Invest in a Backup Power Source

Power outages can disrupt life any day but can be incredibly inconvenient during emergencies. Having an emergency electrical source of your own that you can rely on when and if the electricity grid goes out will give you peace of mind. Portable power stations like the EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3 or a solar generator like EcoFlow DELTA Series Solar Generators can store energy you can tap into in a pinch, providing home energy security. 

Portable power stations can hold onto energy pulled from AC power, while solar generators can generate and store clean, renewable energy drawn from the sun. This gives you a backup bank of electricity and the means to create more as needed, so you’ll never be fully in the dark. You can use the power for essential appliances, medical devices, and personal devices to keep your crew healthy, cared for, and in communication with important contacts.

When choosing a source for backup power, consider its capacity and output to ensure it can satisfy the full load of your most critical devices. While fuel generators are also an option, they require a fuel source to operate, and gasoline/propane/natural gas can be difficult to find in a disaster. Solar home generators can work independently with sunlight, are quiet, and don’t produce harmful emissions, making them a perfect option for city dwellers in close living quarters.

10. Know Your Evacuation Routes and Timing

You should know not one but multiple evacuation routes in case certain areas are inaccessible or crowds are prohibiting you from going the way of your primary evacuation route, especially if your evacuation plans are primarily pedestrian. Plan out potential routes on a paper map that you keep with your emergency kit and ensure everyone in the family knows what to do. 

Consider timing for things like weather and stampeding. You don’t want to leave when the conditions outside are dangerous, and getting out ahead of the crowds will help you save time and stay safe. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

Preparing for emergencies in the city will make you feel more at ease and allow you to minimize panic and disruptions if urgency strikes. You’ll know where to find your well-stocked and maintained emergency kit, how to navigate your evacuation routes, which sources of news to access, and the people you can depend on in times of crisis.

A massive help to emergency preparedness is having a backup power supply. Invest in something reliable and durable like EcoFlow Portable Power Stations to keep your essential appliances and devices running even if the grid is out.