The new go bag: what you need in your emergency escape kit

As hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, mudslides and floods become more common, people across the country are preparing by keeping a bag packed with what they’ll need to grab if they must

leave home in an emergency. JoAnn Rash realized the need for an emergency go bag after a California friend was forced to evacuate quickly during an earthquake. Rash consulted the American

Red Cross for recommendations on a disaster preparedness kit in case she and her family ever have to flee their home in Vancouver, Washington. She found an oversize backpack with lots of

pockets and filled it with essentials, from flashlights and batteries to bottled water. “I felt like we needed to be ready for whatever comes our way,” Rash explains. Last year was replete

with natural disasters with 27 major events including Hurricane Helene which unleashed devasting floods in the mountains of western North Carolina. This year has seen wildfires sweep through

Los Angeles neighborhoods, giving some just minutes to escape the flames. As part of his emergency preparedness, Dick Cooper, 77, has a generator at his home in Sarasota, Florida. The

retired journalist says that if he needs to leave unexpectedly, he could pack a bag and be ready within an hour. All of his 300,000 photos and other important information are backed up on a

few external hard drives the size of novels, he notes, so he’d just need to grab those, his computer, medication, clothes and a few other items and he’d be ready to go. “It’s like packing

three library books and I’m out the door with all my writing and my photography,” Cooper says. A heightened awareness of natural disasters has led to better disaster preparedness planning,

according to Jonathan Sury, senior staff associate at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Columbia Climate School at Columbia University. A 2025 University of Michigan poll found

that three-quarters of adults over 50 had experienced at least one extreme weather during the past two years. “Investing time and energy into getting prepared will save a lot of stress and

fear when a disaster hits,” Sury says.