Stock your emergency kit

If a blizzard or other emergency struck this winter, would you be prepared to hole up for two weeks at home?

Eighty-two percent of Americans we surveyed said they’d survive just fine or with only a little difficulty. Yet only 1 percent of them had the 16 items we consider necessary in a home emergency kit. (The average respondent had fewer than 10 of them; that’s a D- in our book.)

Renters were the least prepared, followed by adults 29 and younger. Those living in New England and the mid-Atlantic states were a little better but still worse than average. Our telephone survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, polled 1,007 adults at the end of August.