Radios · Go Bags · Light · Fire · Storm Prep

Gear that still works when the grid doesn't

Guides to off-grid mesh radios, GMRS and ham, go bags, lanterns, fire starters, water storage and storm prep. We build them from the maker's specs and check every pick against its live Amazon listing.

Maker specsNumbers come from the manufacturer or the product listing, and we say which.
Checked on AmazonEvery pick is checked against its live listing, and we note who sells it.
No paid placementsBrands don't pay to be included. See our standards.
Several small LoRa mesh radios with stubby antennas laid out on a wooden table
Off-Grid Radios & Mesh

Best Meshtastic Device in 2026: Which Board to Buy First

If you are buying your first Meshtastic node and want it to work out of the box, get the Seeed Wio Tracker L1 Pro: it ships flashed, cased, with a battery and a GPS, and it runs on the low-power...

Read the full guide →

Latest Guides

Storm & Outage Prep

Natural Disasters by State: 73 Years of FEMA Declarations, Ranked and Explained

The question that matters in emergency prep is what has actually happened where you live. FEMA has kept a public record...

7 min read
Storm & Outage Prep

Natural Disasters in Alabama: Two Tornado Seasons, a Hurricane Coast, and the Counties That Get Both

Alabama is a tornado state with a hurricane coast, and the record of natural disasters in Alabama reads that way. Of...

11 min read
Storm & Outage Prep

Natural Disasters in Arizona: Two Seasons of Trouble in the FEMA Record

More than half of the wildfire declarations FEMA has ever issued for Arizona started in June. Nearly everything else in...

10 min read
Storm & Outage Prep

Natural Disasters in California: Fire, Flood and Earthquake by the Numbers, 1954 to 2026

California has more federal disaster declarations than any state in this series, 398 of them by FEMA's count, and it...

11 min read
Storm & Outage Prep

Natural Disasters in Colorado: Fire Is the Big One, and the Season Keeps Getting Longer

In most states, wildfire shows up in FEMA's file as a long list of small firefighting grants and almost never as a full...

11 min read
Storm & Outage Prep

Natural Disasters in Florida: 39 Hurricane Declarations, a Spring Fire Season and the Freezes Nobody Plans For

Florida has 39 major hurricane declarations on FEMA's books, more than any other state we've pulled, and that's the...

10 min read
Storm & Outage Prep

Natural Disasters in Georgia: Spring Tornadoes First, Hurricanes That Reach All 159 Counties Second

The natural disasters in Georgia that earn federal declarations are mostly not hurricanes, whatever the coast suggests....

10 min read
Storm & Outage Prep

Natural Disasters in Idaho: Spring Floods, August Fire and a Panhandle That Takes the Worst of Both

Idaho's FEMA file is one of the shortest in our series, 61 declarations between April 1956 and August 2026, and that's...

10 min read
Storm & Outage Prep

Natural Disasters in Kentucky: Why February Is the Worst Month and the East Gets Hit Hardest

The month that produces the most natural disasters in Kentucky is February. Not May, not the heart of tornado season:...

10 min read

Browse by Section

Off-Grid Radios & Mesh 9 guides Go Bags & Kits 5 guides Power & Light 2 guides Fire & Shelter 2 guides Storm & Outage Prep 28 guides