Water and food, counted

Ready.gov says one gallon per person per day for several days, for drinking and sanitation. The kit page and the water page do not define “several days” as a single number. The Red Cross describes a three-day go kit and a two-week supply at home. This file finishes three days first. Fourteen days is the later pass, after the three days are stored.

Say the sentence out loud, then write it on sheet 8. People, times 1 gallon, times 3 days, stored in this place. Children, nursing parents, illness, and extreme heat can need more than one gallon. There is no calorie target on the sheet.

Food is what this household will actually eat, and it should not need a stove or a refrigerator for those same three days. Write down a manual can opener. If you know how many of one food a person here eats in a day, multiply by the people and by 3. That is the count to have. A week uses the same rate and waits until the 3-day count is in the house. The sheet still has no calorie target. Toothpaste is the same kind of line: how many days one tube lasts this house. The car stays at half a tank. Generator fuel is the rate on the label times the hours, and only if the house already owns one.

An unopened refrigerator keeps food cold for about four hours. Refrigerated food should be safe if the outage was no longer than that. Throw out perishable food — meat, poultry, fish, eggs, leftovers — that has been above 40°F for two hours or more. Those figures are on the Ready.gov food page updated 12 March 2026. The same rules are on the fridge card.

If the water you stored is not already sealed and safe, follow the current Ready.gov water page. Older printouts disagree with that page. This file does not print a bleach recipe.

Pet food and water stay “several days.” Ready.gov does not print a gallon number for a pet. Do not borrow a state figure unless that is the program you are following on purpose.