A 72-hour go-bag to a place with a roof and a toilet — most evacuees end up with family or in a hotel, not the woods. Pack the things a gas station cannot sell you first.
0/34 packed
You can buy water and a flashlight on the way out of town. You cannot buy your deed, your prescriptions, or your kid’s inhaler. This tier is the whole point.
Boring competence: three days and maybe a night in the car before the guest room. This is the layer every other list spends all its words on.
Everything past the basics trades against weight and the speed you will actually grab the bag. The test: would you carry it for the evacuation that is likely, or the one you imagine?
Gear is the easy part. The failures are almost always these.
Why documents outrank paracord, what the evacuation research actually says people lose, and where the cosplay creeps in — the full article this checklist mirrors.
Read: What Actually Goes in a Bug-Out Bag (The Boring, Useful Version)The Go Bag (72-Hour Kit) is the 72-hour basics from this checklist as a curated kit — every item hand-picked, with the reasoning. Tier 1 stays on you: nobody can sell you your own documents.
See the Go Bag (72-Hour Kit)