Preparing

The Household Emergency Preparedness Manual. Every topic in one chapter: what to have and what to practice before anything happens.

Preface, seventeen chapters, and three appendices, organized by tier (Hours–14 Days through Sustainable Community), not by disaster type.

This is the "what to own and know" half of the site: every category's own chapter, organized by tier rather than by when in an event it applies. Once something's actually happened, Surviving picks up from here instead, organized by chronology, from the first hour through recovery (the same content is also reachable as How to Not Die, How to Survive Immediately After, and How to Survive When No Help Is Coming, Phases 2 through 4 of the site's five-phase framing). For founding and sustaining a lasting community past any one event, see Thriving (Phase 5, How to Thrive If No Help Ever Comes).

The Shopping List pulls every suggested purchase from across Preparing into one place, organized by tier and category, if you're ready to buy rather than read.

Tier, Stage, or Phase?

Three different numbers show up across this site:

  • Phase (1-5) is the timeline of an actual event: from before it happens (Phase 1, most likely where you are right now) to long after, with no fixed end (Phase 5).
  • Tier (1-4) is how deep you've prepared in one category, from the bare minimum (Tier 1, about 14 days) to ready for the worst (Tier 4, a self-sustaining community).
  • Stage (1-4) is your own level of expertise at any single skill. This is not directly tied to a disaster and can be pursued at your own pace.

See the Glossary for the full definitions.

Already ahead in some categories?

Don't open all 17 chapters to find out where you actually stand. The Preface's own Preparedness Matrix at a Glance lays out all 68 cells, 17 categories by 4 tiers, with the real trigger condition that signals it's time for that tier in that category. One table, one look, instead of a chapter-by-chapter check.