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A few ongoing and imminent events in Europe — a war in Ukraine, devastating floods, earthquakes, the impending Terminator uprising, et al — have many EU governments eager to raise the preparedness of their citizenry. Sweden has issued a booklet, as did Finland, and so did Germany — all three made them available in English as well, and they all offer guidelines for emergency response kits tailored to their conditions.
While we wait for Portugal to issue its own guide (France and Spain are in the same company as of April 4, as far as we can tell), we have put together an emergency preparedness kit, aka the Flight Bag, for Lisbon, for a family of four. Tailor yours as needed!
Disclaimer: this is only a guide and should in no way be considered professional advice. Atlas will not be held liable for the use or misuse of the information herein.
What to put in a 72-hour emergency kit for Portugal
Documents
Copies of passports (with visa if you have one), residency/cidadão cards; a sheet with your bank account, insurance, and other account numbers; important phone numbers, all inside a ziplock bag.
Survival
Water purifier – you need a system that kills viruses, not just a filter for other pathogens. While filters are cheaper and kill almost everything, we assumed the collapse of the water system would mean viruses.
We are happy with our 750ml Water-to-Go Active kits, which can be bought for 40€, plus extra filters – it cleans water in 15 minutes, and one filter cartridge is good for 200 rounds.
Decathlon carries several options as well, ranging in price from about 20€ all the way to 400€ and up.
Redundancy – have a backup for all essentials where possible. Our alternative to mechanical water purification is a chemical process: Aquatabs or iodine (6 drops per 1 liter of water, and it can also be used to disinfect surface wounds), both available at most Portuguese pharmacies.
You can also boil water to make it potable, if you have heat, of course. However, this doesn’t remove all contaminants.
Water – you need 2 liters of water per person per day, with at least .75L of it in a non-breakable metal canister, the rest we store (up to a year) in these 10-liter plastic bags.
Food – shoot for about 2000 calories per day, per person. Since this is Portugal, we have plenty of yummy sardinhas, lulas, cavala, and pota, or vegetarian spreads in tins (no glass); protein and cereal bars; soups in packets; crackers and long-lasting bread; dehydrated meals from Decathlon, which you can prepare by adding boiling water to the bag, or just eat cold; chocolate, trail mix, nuts, dried fruit.
Emergency blanket – one or two per person, 3€-8€ at decathlon.
Rain poncho – we have the 8€ ones from Decathlon. There are others. A poncho is more versatile than a jacket, as it can function as a tent, and you can put it over your backpack or another person. Rain pants are optional.
Extra pair of socks – wool or synthetic, not cotton. We love the local Pedemeia merino selection because they’re light. You may want something thicker.
Headlamp for each person (a headlamp means your hands are free), loaded with fresh rechargeable batteries, with an extra set of rechargeable batteries. Available from Decathlon starting at 6€ (which is plenty), all the way to 100€ and up.
Redundancy – hand-cranked flashlight, in case you lose all the batteries. The 9€ option from Decathlon is perfect.
Compass, whistle, magnifying glass. Or just get this 6€ Decathlon all-in-one.
Folding knife (we like Opinel, light and inexpensive, as well as the Swiss army knives because they have other tools).
Duct tape (not the whole roll, just about a meter or so) for fixing things.
Lighter/matches, tea candles
Depending on the time of year, you should also bring:
- Down jacket or vest
- Wool or fleece hat, gloves
- Sun hat, sunscreen, light scarf for covering up
First aid
Medication: ibuprofen, paracetamol, antihistamines, antacids, and whatever you take daily, taken out of bulky boxes and kept together in a ziplock bag.
Band-Aids, compresses, tape, scissors, gloves, disinfectant (iodine is great, see above, hydrogen peroxide stings less, or whatever you normally use).
Communications
Whistle, see above.
Emergency radio, with hand crank, to listen to instructions from the government and/or rescue services, and to listen to music as the world comes to an end. We have this one from Midland, which also has a strong flashlight and acts as a power bank for charging other devices, although it’s not strong enough to power modern smartphones.
Optional: Walkie-talkies, for two-way communication with your group. We have the XT30 from Midland (also sometimes available at Fnac), which have a 6 km range with no obstructions, but closer to about 0.5-1 km in the city at ground level, in our experience. They carry more expensive ones with higher ranges, up to 12 km.
Make sure everyone knows the channel and sub-channel for the group, as well as a Plan B channel and sub-channel.
You can also get a Midland kit with the radio, two walkies talkies, and some emergency blankets.
Power bank, since the emergency radio doesn’t charge the phones (ideally, the power bank should be able to charge through a USB — from the Midland radio, for example — and by solar panel, like this one at Fnac).
AA and AAA battery charger that’s powered by USB. This setup — the Midland radio, the power bank, the AA battery charger — means you have redundancy and can charge all the electronics without any grid power.
Note: to keep the batteries inside the radio and walkie talkies from draining, take them out or insert a plastic tab between one of the batteries at + and one of the contacts.
Container
We keep all of the above to-go things in this 3€ decathlon collapsible backpack, ready to grab at a moment’s notice.
People
We have agreed upon a channel and subchannel with our family and friends for our walkie-talkies, plus plan B channels, and we have each other’s phone numbers printed out, including home numbers.
We also have an emergency meeting point between our homes and agreed on a 1-hour slot daily if there are no communications, plus a plan B spot and time.
Get a Landline Phone If You Don’t Have One
As many people have learned during telecom blackouts, mobile phones usually go first, landlines go last — have one at your house, as simple as possible, non-cordless.
Here’s to not having to use any of this stuff any time soon — but you should practice before you put it all in a bag. Good luck!
