Do you have an emergency go-bag? What to pack and what insurance covers

An emergency go-bag holds the water, food, medication and paperwork your household would need for three days away from home. You should pack an emergency go-bag well before you need it, because evacuation orders often come with only minutes of warning, and having the bag ready means you can get everyone in the car and out of the neighborhood without stopping to think about what to grab.

The American Red Cross recommends a three-day supply of food and water for an evacuation kit, and Ready.gov warns you may have to get by on your own for several days after a disaster, when stores are closed and the power is out. 

Cash and documents matter as much as the food. Card readers and ATMs go down when the power does, and the paperwork that starts an insurance claim is usually sitting in the house you just left.

What you add past the basics depends on where you live and who’s leaving with you. Wildfire areas call for N95 masks, cold-weather evacuations call for hand warmers, and a family bag carries the prescriptions, pet food and formula nobody can go three days without.

Who needs an emergency go-bag?

Everyone needs an emergency bag — even if you don’t live in wildfire or hurricane country. Apartment fires, gas leaks, chemical spills and flash flooding force evacuations in every state, and renters need a bag as much as homeowners do.

Plan for everyone under your roof before you pack, including pets, since supplies for a toddler or a dog aren’t things you can grab on the way out. Pack one bag per person so nobody is stranded if you get separated and nobody is carrying more than they can walk with.

• Kids get their own bag. Include a laminated card with their name, your contact information, allergies and medical details, plus a photo of you together to speed up reunification.
• Pets get their own bag. Food, water, a leash, medication and a current photo of the animal with you, which is what proves ownership at a shelter.
• Keep a second kit in the car. Ready.gov suggests storing supplies in the places you spend time, so a car kit covers an order that comes while you’re at work or school.

How to build an emergency go-bag

What you add past the basics comes down to where you live, the time of year and who you’re packing for. Set a reminder to open the bag twice a year, when you swap seasonal gear and replace the food, water and medication before it expires.

• Pack for the disaster your area actually gets. N95 respirator masks filter wildfire smoke, a wrench lets you shut off a gas line after an earthquake, and a NOAA weather radio picks up warnings in tornado and hurricane country.
• Change the bag out with the seasons. Hand warmers, a hat and gloves for a winter evacuation; sunscreen, bug spray and extra water for a summer one.
• Pack personal belongings. Prescriptions, spare glasses, hearing aid batteries, infant formula, diapers and pet food.
• Add a charger and a backup battery. A phone is how you reach family, get evacuation updates and photograph damage for a claim, and shelters run out of outlets fast.

Emergency go-bag checklist for 72 hours

Pack the items below, then test the weight by carrying the go-bag around the block. An evacuation can mean walking to a shelter or to a car parked a few streets over, so anything you can’t carry that far comes back out.

Open the bag twice a year and replace the water, food and medication, so nothing in it is expired on the day you need it.

• Water (three bottles plus water purification tablets)
• Food (three-day supply of non-perishable items such as energy bars, jerky or cans with pull-top lids)
• Prescription or daily medication (3-7 day supply)
• First-aid kit
• Change of clothes
• Emergency blanket
• Flashlight
• Battery-operated radio
• Extra batteries
• Plastic bags
• Spare glasses
• Personal hygiene supplies
• Cash
• Important documents such as copies of identification, insurance policies and medical consent forms

Will your home insurance actually cover a sudden disaster evacuation?

Your policy pays your evacuation costs when a covered disaster damages your home and you can’t live there while it’s repaired. The loss of use coverage on your policy covers your hotel, the meals that cost more than eating at home, and other expenses you wouldn’t have had otherwise, for as long as the repairs take.

It doesn’t pay when your house comes through undamaged. If you leave ahead of a wildfire, spend four nights in a hotel and come home to a house the fire never reached, that hotel bill is yours.

The exception is a street you’re not allowed back onto. When a covered disaster damages the homes around you, and officials block access to the area, your policy covers those same living expenses for up to two weeks, even with your own house intact.

Flood and earthquake damage are excluded from nearly every homeowners policy, so an evacuation caused by either one is only covered if you carry a separate flood or earthquake policy.

How to get your evacuation costs paid

Loss of use reimburses the difference between what you’d normally spend at home and what being displaced costs you, which means the claim comes down to what you can document.

• Check your loss of use limit on your declarations page. It’s usually written as a percentage of your dwelling coverage, and some policies cap it by number of months instead.
• Save every receipt from the day you leave. Hotel bills, meals, laundry and extra mileage all count toward the claim.
• Call your insurer before booking a long stay. Adjusters can set up direct billing on a rental, which keeps you from fronting weeks of costs.
• File as soon as you have your policy number. You can open a claim from the hotel and add details later.

When does homeowners insurance pay for a hotel after an evacuation?

Homeowners insurance pays for a hotel when covered damage makes your home unlivable, through the additional living expense coverage in your policy. It reimburses what displacement adds to your normal spending, so if groceries run $250 a week at home and restaurant meals run $400 a week while you’re out, the claim pays the $150 difference.

That same rule decides what else qualifies. A short-term rental, laundry, pet boarding, storage and the added mileage from a longer commute are all costs you have only because you’re out of the house, so they’re covered, while your mortgage and property taxes come due either way and aren’t.

Find your additional living expense limit and any time cap on your declarations page now, so you know how many weeks of hotel and restaurant bills your policy carries before the rest falls to you.

How to practice an evacuation with your family

Run a timed drill twice a year, on the same weekend you swap out the food and water. Give everyone 10 minutes to grab their bag, load the car and pull out of the driveway, and you’ll find out whether the plan works before the night you need it.

The drill is where you catch the problems no checklist shows you. Bags buried in a closet nobody can reach, a dog crate that doesn’t fit in the trunk with everyone in the car, a teenager who doesn’t know where the bags live, a car sitting on a quarter tank.

Fix whatever the run exposes and note the route you took, including a second one out of your neighborhood in case the first is blocked.

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