How prepared are you f

Good question! We have two flashlights. One we keep in our bedroom which is at the opposite end of the house to the one just inside the front door. We have a cupboard there that's a catch all.
 
Blankets - check
 
Food - check because I keep plenty of canned goods around.
 
Water - yes. We keep bottled water all the time.
 
Medicines - bandaids, allergy meds and ibuprofen are about all we ever have.
 
Candles - check.
 
Batteries - maybe. I don't always have what I need when I need it.
 
Battery powered radio - check. But probably no batteries.
 
I guess I'm more prepared than I thought. It's not all gathered in one cupboard though.
 

Donna, this American Red Cross emergency radio has a hand crank and flashlight. The Amazon price is $30 reduced from $40. It's also waterproof and shatterproof.

The American Red Cross FR-150 Microlink brings together some of the most popular features of the American Red Cross FR-1000 Voicelink in a more compact design. This ultra-portable device is ideal to have on hand when you’re out roughing it. It also makes a great addition to any emergency-preparedness kit. No plugs or wires are required. Instead, turn the hand crank to power the Microlink, or capture the sun’s energy and run it on solar power. An optional AC power supply can also be used. You’ll always know what’s going on, thanks to the AM, FM and NOAA Weather Band tuners. You can also tune in to the FCC and EAS public alert systems. This, along with the flashlight and cell phone charger, make the FR-150 Microlink one versatile little device.

 
http://www.amazon.com/FR150-Solar-Powered-Self-Powered-Weatherband-Flash...

Having been through the hundred year ice storm that hit the south in Jan and without electricity for 11 days, I learned a few things.
 
You can never have enough candles. All mine were decorative smallish ones and we used them up very fast. Now I would have bigger ones and more utility candles.
 
I had a flashlight but the stores when they eventually reopened had sold out of the batteries we needed. Don't assume you can run out and buy anything because everyone else is doing that too. Stock up now.
 
Fuel - the gas stations couldn't open because they had no power to operate the pumps. Once they did get backup power running, the tankers couldn't get through the roads to refuel the stations. When they ran out, that was it. Keep adequate gas to fuel cars and generators if you have one.
 
Don't get caught with price gouging. We heard of a local store that was getting in generators and had tripled the price on them. If you do get caught by a business that takes advantage of a bad situation, report them to the Better Business Bureau.
 
Coffee. The morning after the storm, all the neighbors were out in the street to inspect the damage and then find out who could still make coffee LOL. A neighbor gave us a campfire coffee pot and we did it for the whole street because we had a propane gas stove. It was one of the things that kept us all in good spirits since it was freezing.
 
Heating. Think about how you would heat your home if you lost power. In addition to our heating which was all electric, we had two wall mounted propane gas fires in different parts of the house. That kept a dozen people warm throughout the days and nights. Out of six homes, we were the only one that had heat of any kind so we took in any neighbors plus their pets that needed a place to warm up in between working on clearing the mess or wanted to sleep in our home. No heat in Jan is no fun at all.
 
Oil filled lamps. Buy them. We managed to get four of the old fashioned looking glass lanterns and they were a godsend. I think we paid $6 each. Stock up on spare fuel and wicks for them. The hardest thing of all was when it got dark and keeping the house lit without knowing if the stores would get more fuel in for them. We also worried about safety with so many people and dogs in the house that they would get knocked over. If the store is sold out in the lighting section, double check in the garden section for any  of the small types you'd use outdoors. That's what we started with thanks to a neighbor sharing theirs.
 
Stock your pantry with canned goods you could eat without cooking at all. Don't take any chances on eating food that's in the fridge that may be spoiled. If in doubt, throw it out. Unfortunately we lost an entire chest freezer full and that still breaks my heart. We've never switched it back on since.
 
Stay upbeat as best you can. At first it was a novelty then it became harder and harder the longer it went on. Tempers become short. You can't shower with hot water, you can't wash clothes without doing them in the tub, it's impossible to dry anything anyway, you're having to boil pans of water for everything and you have nothing to do except wait. People are all in close proximity because you're trying to keep the heat in one place. (Our local propane supplier was closed too so anyone that needed to get more couldn't.) Keep cards, books and board games in a box to play with. It's a long long day when you can't work nor do anything around the home you normally would.
 
Radio. Now I would buy an emergency one with a crank. ( I like the Red Cross one.) I had no batteries for mine since it ran on electric too. The worst thing of all was having no idea what was happening. Rumors flew around. Roads were completely blocked by downed trees so you couldn't even go around the block. We tried to get our car out the drive and it just slid straight across the road like on a skating rink. This was after the neighbors had arrived with chainsaws to cut our car free of a fallen tree and clear our driveway which had a canopy right over the end of it of broken limbs. Cell phone towers were completely iced over and there was no way to communicate with anyone by phone for days and no way to recharge them unless you had a generator. I don't even know if the radio stations were on air.
 
What worried me most was with phone lines being down too was I had no way to let family know we were okay. We knew people had been killed and homes devastated and it would be on the news. The good old USPS came to the rescue there because they were first to make it through. I did the old fashioned thing and mailed a letter. (Keep stamps.)
 
If I think of more I'll add it. Oh and have plenty of toilet paper LOL. At least we had water. Some places didn't have that either. Now, I think I could cope with anything. :)
 
 

I hate being caught without batteries or candles and always have them. Like Donna said when you have light it makes power cuts bearable. We have blankets, water and canned food. What I want is the family to be in one room and not shoeless in case we need to escape fast. When you see a tornado out the window, that's not the time to wonder where your sneakers are!