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Ready for less: getting prepared for an emergency at little or no cost

Most lists for getting ready for a storm, a fire or a flood start with things to buy. This one does not. Ready.gov, the U.S. government’s emergency preparedness website, has a page of steps that cost little or nothing: knowing what can happen where you live, writing phone numbers down somewhere besides your phone, talking about where you would go, putting papers on a high shelf in a plastic bag, building a kit one item at a time from what is already at home. This page turns those steps into a checklist you can work through on a calm day, a few at a time, and puts what is done and what is left on one sheet to print. There is no account and no price.

Private by design. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. What you write and tick is kept in this browser on this device from the first box you fill in or tick, and one button erases it. This page runs no analytics or tracking. How we handle privacy. That is not the same as secret: anyone who uses this browser on this device can read the list, including where you wrote that your papers are kept. On a shared or public computer print or download it and use Erase everything before you go.

If there is danger right now, call 911 and follow what local officials tell you. This page is for before. If the disaster has already happened, open After a disaster. If you are thinking about ending your life or hurting yourself, call or text 988 (in the U.S.) now, or open Get help now.

This tool needs JavaScript. You can do the same thing on paper: write what kinds of disaster are most common where you live, where your important phone numbers are written down, where you would go if told to evacuate and where your important papers are; under that, the next one or two things to add to your kit. Ready.gov’s own page is at ready.gov/low-and-no-cost.

Good to know

Where the steps come from

We added no advice of our own about what to do or what to get. The thirteen steps in step 1, the sentence that starts with “Ready.gov:” under each of the four boxes in step 2 and the twelve lines by kind of disaster in step 3 are Ready.gov’s words, from its page Low and No Cost Preparedness (marked last updated 06/23/2026). We read it on October 9, 2026. Three things are ours: the titles of the boxes in step 2 and the last sentence under each (the one that says what to write), the box for what to pick up next, and the short names the sheet uses for the steps. We left out one line of Ready.gov’s list, “Download free preparedness resources”, because it is a link to its own downloads; they are on its page.

What else to know about those steps

Ready.gov opens the page with: “Disasters are costly but preparing for them doesn’t have to be.”
In the second step, “our free template” is Ready.gov’s own form, not ours. Our page Before it happens keeps a household plan and the people to reach in this browser instead.
The step about the supply kit names community food banks. Our page When you need food has ways to find one.
The fire department step says they may have programs that provide detectors. Not every department does; it is a call to make, and this page cannot tell you the answer.
The hurricane line about needing help evacuating says to contact your local emergency manager now. If that is you, our page My plan, my needs has Ready.gov’s planning steps for people with disabilities.
The home fire lines go with Our way out, a fire escape plan with a drill timer.

How it works

Start today is the checklist: thirteen steps, in Ready.gov’s words. Tick one when it is done. Each has a small tick for “not for me”, so a step that is not about you leaves the list.
My notes has four boxes and one for what you will pick up next. Leaving a box after you change it keeps it; the Keep button does the same thing. An empty box is left off the sheet.
Where I live has Ready.gov’s lines for earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes and home fires. They stay closed until you open them. A ticked line goes on your sheet with an empty box beside it.
My sheet prints your notes, what to pick up next, your lines for where you live, what is done and what is still to do.

What this page can’t do

It does not know where you live. It cannot tell you which disasters are common there, whether you are in an evacuation or flood zone, or what your fire department offers. Ready.gov points to your state and local offices and to Floodsmart.gov for those.
It signs you up for nothing: no alerts, no app, no course. Those are steps you take yourself.
It sends no alerts and cannot warn you of anything.
It gives nothing away: no supplies, no detectors, no money. It is a list.
It cannot remind you to come back to the list, and it is not an official form: it is not a Ready.gov or FEMA page, and nobody from an emergency agency has looked at it.
It is not a full emergency plan or a full supply list. Ready.gov has four kinds of disaster on this page; floods, tornadoes, winter storms and heat are not among them.
The list does not move to another phone or computer by itself. Print it, download it, or use My data on this device to carry a backup across.

Tools that go with this

Before it happens: the household emergency plan and Ready.gov’s supply lists as a checklist.
Where things are: a sheet for the person who would need to find your papers.
My emergency card: a wallet card with who to call, so the numbers are somewhere besides your phone.
Our way out: a home fire escape plan with a drill timer.
Them too: an emergency plan and kit for the animals you live with.
My plan, my needs: an emergency plan for people with disabilities.
Money plan: one month of money, on one page.
After a disaster: where to sleep tonight, FEMA, replacing papers and the scams that follow.
All the free tools, and how to save them on your phone so they open with no signal.

A list on paper, not a promise. This page writes down what you decide and counts what you tick. It does not know your home or your area, and it does not replace the instructions of local officials. In an emergency, call 911.

The tool and the wording around it were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy); the steps and the lines by kind of disaster are Ready.gov’s, and the notes are written by the person using it. It was not reviewed by an emergency manager, and it has been checked by programs, not yet used by people. Also in Spanish: Listo con poco; both pages keep the same list on this device, and each shows Ready.gov’s lines as its own language’s page words them (the Spanish Ready.gov page has eleven steps, not thirteen). The page holds one list and keeps it until you erase it. Found a mistake, or something that does not work with your screen reader or switch? Email [email protected].