15 Emergency Essentials You Don’t Want to Be Without

Cooling

With air conditioners out of commission during hot-weather power outages, battery-operated fans are the next best thing.

The ideal minimum is one fan per person, plus two extra fans to draw air in and out of open windows.

People who live in hot but dry climates can set up a makeshift “swamp cooler” by simply running a battery-operated fan over a shallow pan of water.

The moving air causes the water to evaporate, drawing heat out of the atmosphere as it does.

But swamp coolers won’t work in humid conditions; if the air is already hot and muggy, adding more water to it will only make matters worse.