Apocalypse Survivalist. The name is the joke. The checklist is not.
For the night the lights go out and everyone looks at you.
A small team writing plain guides to light, power, water, packs and camp tools, from the manuals nobody in your house has read. We read them, so the person everyone looks at knows what to grab. Every guide names its sources at the bottom.
Start with what is about to happen to you.
An outage at home. A tap you can't trust. A bag by the door. A weekend outdoors. Pick the one you are actually planning for. Starting with nothing? Open the household plan or the gear checklist first, then the guide for what you are missing.
Power outages
Every house has a flashlight drawer, and every flashlight in it is dead. Start with a light that leaves both hands free, then power for the phones and a radio for the warning.
Emergency headlamp
Both hands free for the breaker panel. The guide shows which runtime number is yours and the buttons everyone in the house should know.
Read the guide →
Emergency flashlight
The light you hand to someone else. Pick it by the mode you will leave on and how it recharges when the wall socket is dead.
Read the guide →
Emergency power bank
More output watts do not mean more phone charges. Two Anker banks with nearly the same capacity, compared by ports and recharging; both have pages of their own.
Read the guide →More: NOAA weather radio, for warnings when the phone goes quietHousehold plan: warnings, meeting up, stay or leavePandemic preparedness: a household plan before an outbreak
Water
A boil notice, a stream, a shelf in the garage. What a filter removes, what it cannot, and why stored water comes first.
Emergency drinking water
How much to store, starting with the CDC's 1 gallon per person per day for at least 3 days, and how to make more when it runs out.
Read the guide →
Emergency water filter
For one person on the move, not the whole house. The straw in this guide does not remove viruses, chemicals or salt, so at home stored water comes first.
Read the guide →
Water storage containers
Food-grade, sized for the person who has to lift it, and dated the day you fill it. CDC advises replacing water you filled yourself every six months.
Read the guide →Packs & gear
The bag is the last thing you choose. Lay out what goes in it, then find a pack that fits the person carrying it.
Bug out bag backpack
Three packs chosen by fit, load and access: two open at the front, one loads from the top. Each pack has its own page.
Read the guide →
Osprey Farpoint 55
Opens like a suitcase and carries on your hips. Osprey rates it to about 35 lb, so the family's water may need a second bag.
See the pack →
Teton Scout 55L
For shorter torsos and a light kit. It loads from the top and comes with a rain cover.
See the pack →More: Survival gear checklist: water first, then light and power
Camp tools
A weekend outdoors. A knife, a hatchet for kindling, and a sharpener for the day the knife won't get through a carrot.
Camping knife
Owners in the threads keep naming the plain Morakniv Companion. The guide links their comments, says what it can't do and adds three other knives.
Read the guide →
Camping hatchet
For kindling and small camp wood where fires are allowed. Four compact hatchets, compared by build and by like-for-like measurements.
Read the guide →
Portable knife sharpener
Match the tool to your knife's edge: a guided sharpener for a dull camp knife, or a one-ounce pocket backup. Both have their own pages.
Read the guide →How we write these.
We read the manufacturer's manual and the public guidance (the CDC on water, the National Weather Service on alerts, the Red Cross on household plans), then write down what it means for an ordinary bad day, with the whole family in the room.
Every guide names its sources at the bottom. We say what a product cannot do, we leave out numbers its own maker cannot agree on, and we never dress up a spec sheet as a test of our own. When owners report something, the page says it is theirs. Our editorial policy explains how we handle sources and corrections.
A good guide helps you decide before the lights go out. It does not rush you; the person asking where the candles are has that covered.
Photos: africaimages / Envato, Simon Migaj / Pexels, photobalance / Envato, ratmaner / Envato, ervin.fon Trichev / Pexels, Image-Source / Envato, africaimages / Envato, shiwork / Envato, SRS_LIFE / Envato, AFGreen / Envato.