How Can an Emergency Kit Save Your Life?

A standard emergency kit contains vital supplies that you can use to treat various life-threatening conditions, potentially making all the difference in whether or not you survive the circumstances.

Signal Device

• Emergency kits contain items such as blow whistles, roadside flares and/or high-visibility, battery-operated laser flares so that you can send out a signal for help.

Emergency Prescription Medication

• Create a custom emergency prescription medication kit and keep it current with your personal prescriptions. This will prevent an emergency situation from getting worse by ensuring that you don't miss doses of essential medication such as blood pressure pills or insulin.

Extreme Weather Protection

• Extreme weather emergency kits contain supplies designed to preserve a regular body temperature. One such item, a mylar space blanket, both insulates you to defend against hypothermia and wards off heat stroke by deflecting the sun's rays.

Wound Treatment

• A tube of fast-acting super adhesive glue in your emergency kit can be instrumental in treating wounds. In the absence of a needle and thread, plus the skill to use them surgically, you can glue a wound closed. Clean a deep gash with disinfectant and seal it temporarily with a line of the adhesive applied along the outside edges of the wound. Done properly, this trick can prevent severe infection. In his New York Times article, "The Claim: Super Glue Can Heal Wounds," science and health writer Anahad O'Connor reports that soldiers, athletes and veterinarians have used this technique in a pinch with excellent results.

Nourishment and Energy

• Emergency kit foods are non-perishable, packed with vitamins and high in calories, specifically selected for their value in helping to sustain human life in an emergency situation. Items like food bars and MREs (Meal, Ready to Eat) provide you with several days worth of vital calories until help arrives.