Building a Home Emergency Kit  Last year we were without electricity for three days. During that time I realized how unprepared I was. I had no way to cook, keep my small dogs warm or make coffee. I created an area under my basement stairs that has all the essentials to keep my home going in the dark and without power for at least a week. Everything is portable in case we needed to leave in a hurry too. I have many cases of drinking water; I even purchased some of those water purification tablets just in case. I have two gallons of chlorine bleach, which is also a good disinfectant, and I can clean anything with it. I went to a sporting goods store and purchased those sealed dinners where you just add water and squeeze. The food actually gets warm and is pretty tasty if you add some garlic powder. I purchased bags of tuna, jars of peanut butter, canned goods that I could heat up on my new camp stove. I am not a camper but I can now boil water and have coffee, tea or cook the meat in the freezer if it starts to thaw. I made sure to have crackers, canned meat and dried fruits, energy bars, as well as things for my dogs to eat and a manual can opener. I packed a poncho, disposable plates, cups and plastic wear; a couple of those thermal blankets NASA designed. Work gloves, dust masks, duct tape, a Leatherman multi-function tool and hand tools, especially a wrench that would allow me to shut the gas supply to my house off. I added tissue packs, paper towels, a lot of baby wipes and moist towellets, trash bags, personal hygiene items, extra medicine for us and the dogs, a fire extinguisher, whistles, candles, matches in a waterproof container, flares, dog toys and treats, first aid kit, rubber gloves, flashlights, 12 hour light sticks and more batteries than you can imagine. I have extra clothes for every member of the family for summer and winter wear and sweaters for the dogs, I hate to see them shiver. I even brought one of those hand held battery TV's and a small radio. I scanned all of our important papers and put them on a CD. I made sure to have a picture of all or our credit cards--front and back, our house and car papers, all of our insurance and medical information, anything I could think of from our office that I might need, I copied onto a disk and put into a waterproof box. We have a family meeting place outside the home in case of a natural emergency and everyone carries contact numbers at all times. Everything is packed into two easy rolling bags and I can pack it all into the car in a hurry if need be. Did you know that coffee comes on a string? Yep, little tea bags of caffeine, I have many boxes of that as well as a bag of my favorite blend. I will not be caught off guard again.