FEMA Go Bag Checklist: Supplies, Documents, and Disaster Aid Records

A FEMA go bag checklist covers two jobs at once: the supplies that keep each person in your household alive and reasonably comfortable for several days away from home, and the documents that let you prove who you are, file insurance claims, and apply for disaster assistance once the immediate danger has passed. Pack both halves before you need them, in a single bag per person that one adult can carry out the door in seconds.

Water, Food, and Warmth

Water comes first. FEMA recommends one gallon per person per day for drinking and sanitation, and at least a several-day supply.¹ Three gallons per person is heavy, so many people carry sealed water pouches or bottles and add a portable filter or purification tablets to stretch what they can drink from other sources.

For food, pack non-perishable items that need no cooking: protein bars, peanut butter, dried fruit, ready-to-eat meal pouches, canned goods with pull-tab lids. Throw in a manual can opener anyway; a stuck lid in a crisis is not the time to find out the tabs fail.¹

Warmth matters more than people expect. FEMA’s standard list includes a sleeping bag or warm blanket for each person.¹ Mylar emergency blankets weigh almost nothing but tear easily; a lightweight sleeping bag is better if you have the space. Add one complete change of weather-appropriate clothing per person and sturdy closed-toe shoes. Evacuations that begin at 2 a.m. often catch people in pajamas and sandals.

First Aid and Medications

A basic first aid kit should hold sterile gauze, adhesive bandages, antiseptic wipes, medical tape, tweezers, over-the-counter pain relievers, anti-diarrhea medication, and antacids. Digestive trouble is common in shelters from stress, unfamiliar water, and irregular eating.¹

Prescriptions are harder because many have short shelf lives and some need refrigeration. Keep a written list of every medication each household member takes, with dosages and the prescribing doctor’s name and phone number. That list helps emergency medical staff treat you and helps a pharmacist issue an emergency refill at an evacuation site.¹ If you wear prescription eyeglasses, pack a spare pair. Contact lens users should include solution and backup glasses.

Light, Power, and Information

A battery-powered or hand-crank radio that receives NOAA Weather Radio alerts may be your only source of official updates when cell towers fail or overload after a disaster.¹ Add a flashlight, with extra batteries stored separately so they cannot corrode the device. A whistle takes no space and signals rescuers when your voice gives out.

Your phone is a survival tool, so pack a portable power bank and a charging cable for every device your household uses. Ready.gov lists a cell phone with chargers and a backup battery on its recommended supply list.¹ One field tip worth remembering: text messages use far less bandwidth than voice calls and often get through when calls will not. In the first hours, text.²

Small Items That Earn Their Weight

A handful of items from FEMA’s supply list are easy to forget and hard to improvise:

Dust mask to filter contaminated air from smoke, chemicals, or debris.
Plastic sheeting, duct tape, and scissors for improvised shelter or sealing a room.
Moist towelettes, garbage bags, and plastic ties for sanitation when plumbing is out.
A wrench or pliers to shut off gas or water at your home before you leave.
Local paper maps in case GPS is unavailable.
Matches in a waterproof container.

Together they add little weight and cover situations you cannot predict.¹

Cash

ATMs go offline, card readers lose power, and banks may close for days. Ready.gov lists cash as a recommended supply.¹ Keep enough in small bills to cover gas, food, and a night or two of basic lodging for your household. Vendors during a crisis often cannot make change.

Identity, Insurance, and Legal Documents

When electronic systems go down, physical documents are the only way to prove who you are, where you live, and what you own. FEMA’s guidance on safeguarding critical documents emphasizes that keeping financial, medical, and identification records accessible is central to starting recovery quickly.³

Store copies (not originals) in a waterproof container inside the bag:

Identification: driver’s license, passport, birth certificate, Social Security card, marriage certificate, and any immigration documents such as a green card.
Insurance: homeowners or renters, flood, auto, life, and health policy numbers with carrier contacts.
Legal: will, trust documents, power of attorney, living will, and medical power of attorney.
Financial: bank account numbers, routing numbers, and recent statements.

Keep the originals in a fireproof safe or a bank safe deposit box. The go bag copies exist so you can use the information when you cannot get home.³

Records That Unlock Disaster Aid

Three specific paper trails determine how much money you actually recover after a disaster: proof of residency for FEMA, a home inventory for your insurer, and casualty loss records for the IRS.

Proof of Residency for FEMA Individual Assistance

If you apply for FEMA Individual Assistance after a federally declared disaster, you have to show you lived at the damaged address. FEMA accepts utility bills, bank or credit card statements, a written lease, rent receipts, motor vehicle registration showing the address, or letters from local schools or government benefit providers.⁴ A recent utility bill is usually the simplest.

The full application also requires your Social Security number, a description of the damage, your annual household income at the time of the disaster, insurance coverage details, and current contact information.⁵ For direct deposit of approved funds, you also need your bank’s routing number and your account number. Having all of this written down means you can file from a shelter or a relative’s kitchen table without pulling numbers from memory.

Home Inventory for Insurance Claims

This is the piece most people skip, and it is arguably the most financially important item in the bag. After a loss, your insurer will ask you to prove what you owned and what it was worth. Without documentation, you are reconstructing every item in every room from memory while under stress.

FEMA recommends photos or videos of your belongings along with written descriptions that include year, make, and model where relevant. For valuable items, consider a professional appraisal.⁶ Walk through each room with your phone, open cabinets and closets, and save the resulting files in your go bag and to a cloud service. A quiet Saturday’s work can be the difference between a full payout and a fraction of what you lost.

Tax Records for Casualty Loss Deductions

Losses attributable to a federally declared disaster may qualify for a casualty loss deduction on your federal return. You report them on IRS Form 4684. Each loss is reduced by $100 per casualty event and then by 10% of your adjusted gross income; losses that meet the definition of a “qualified disaster loss” use a $500 threshold instead and skip the 10% AGI reduction.⁷

To back a claim, you need proof of what you owned, its value before and after the disaster, and what insurance reimbursed. The IRS looks for appraisals, repair costs, and documentation of pre-disaster condition.⁸ Your home inventory, insurance policy, and property tax records all feed into this. Copies in the bag let you start assembling the claim right away.

Digital Backups

Physical copies are your first line of defense; digital backups are the second. FEMA recommends storing electronic copies in a password-protected format on a removable flash drive or external hard drive, and also considering a secure cloud service.³ Do both. Scan every document above onto an encrypted USB drive that lives in your bag, and upload the same files to a cloud account with two-factor authentication on. The USB works with no internet. The cloud works when the USB is lost. Either alone has a single point of failure.

Family Communication Plan

The bag gets you out the door. A communication plan gets your household back together. Answer two questions in advance: who do we call, and where do we meet?

Ready.gov recommends picking an out-of-town contact as a central relay. Long-distance calls often connect when local lines are jammed, so a relative in another state can pass messages between family members who cannot reach each other directly. Set meeting places at three levels: one in your neighborhood for something like a house fire, one outside your neighborhood if you cannot get home, and one outside your city for a large-scale evacuation. Write the full addresses down and keep a copy in every household member’s bag or wallet.²

Include a printed list of phone numbers and email addresses for every family member, along with contacts for schools, workplaces, doctors, insurance companies, and the veterinarian. Store at least one emergency contact in each mobile phone under the name “ICE” so first responders can reach your family if you are incapacitated.²

Children, Pets, and Disability Needs

Standard checklists assume healthy adults. Adjust for who actually lives in your house.

For infants and young children, pack formula, bottles, diapers, wipes, diaper rash cream, and a comfort item. For older kids, a book or small game helps during long waits at shelters.¹

For pets, the federal PETS Act requires state and local emergency plans to include provisions for household pets and service animals during evacuations, including sheltering and veterinary care.⁹ Pack pet food, water, a leash or carrier, vaccination records, and a photo of you with your pet to prove ownership if you are separated.

For household members with disabilities, emergency shelters must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Shelters cannot exclude people with disabilities, must make reasonable modifications to policies and procedures, and must allow service animals even in facilities that otherwise ban pets.¹⁰ Pack backup batteries, chargers, and supplies for any assistive device — wheelchair, hearing aid, or otherwise. For household members who are deaf or hard of hearing, the communication plan should include relay service information for landline, mobile, or computer contact.²

Storage and Maintenance

Group supplies by category inside the bag: documents together in their waterproof pouch, medical items together, food and water in their own section. Searching for ibuprofen in a shelter parking lot at 2 a.m. is not the moment to discover your bag has no internal order.

Store the finished bag where you can grab it in seconds. A coat closet by the front door, under a bed near the bedroom exit, or by the garage door all work. The best bag in the world is useless in the back of an attic.

Maintenance is where most go bags quietly fail. Ready.gov advises replacing expired items as needed and rethinking your needs every year as your family changes.¹ A workable schedule: check food, water, and medications every six months (tie the reminder to daylight saving time), and inspect batteries and documents once a year. Rotate anything close to its expiration into daily use and refill with fresh stock. Review the communication plan and meeting places at the same time. Phone numbers change, kids switch schools, and the coffee shop you picked as a rendezvous may not be there anymore.

1
Ready.gov. Build A Kit
2
Ready.gov. Family Emergency Communication Plan
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Ready.gov. Safeguard Critical Documents and Valuables
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FEMA. How to Document Home Ownership and Occupancy for FEMA
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DisasterAssistance.gov. Application Checklist
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Ready.gov. Document and Insure Your Property
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 4684
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Internal Revenue Service. Publication 547, Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts
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FEMA. Service Animals and Household Pets
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U.S. Department of Justice – Civil Rights Division. The ADA and Emergency Shelters