Romania builds its advice around one object: the emergency backpack, the rucsacul de urgență. Its list is long, covering 33 of the 51 items we track. Here is what it contains and how it compares with the other 23 national guides we compiled.
The official guide
- Title: Fii pregătit ("Be prepared"), step 2: Crează-ți rucsacul de urgență ("Make your emergency backpack")
- Publisher: Departamentul pentru Situații de Urgență (DSU), Romania's Department for Emergency Situations
- Horizon: 72 hours
- Link: fiipregatit.ro (Romanian)
A note on sourcing: the backpack list opens inside the Fii pregătit site and we could not load it again for this article. What follows is the list as we recorded it when we compiled our data. The site gives the advice in three steps: follow official sources of information, make your emergency backpack, and draw up and practise an emergency plan.
What the backpack contains
Water and food
- Drinking water
- Water purification tablets
- Tinned food
- Ready-to-eat dry food
- Dry staples
- Infant milk and baby food, if you have a baby
- Food and water for pets
Warmth and shelter
- Blankets and warm clothes
- A sleeping bag
- A foil survival blanket
- Rain gear and sturdy shoes
Light, power and information
- A torch
- A radio
- Spare batteries
- A charged power bank, and a phone charger
- Important phone numbers on paper
- A paper map of your area
Health and hygiene
- Personal medication
- A first-aid kit
- Spare glasses
- Respiratory masks
- Hand sanitiser
- Toilet paper and wet wipes
- Soap, toothbrush and toothpaste
- Strong bin bags
Money, papers and tools
- Cash
- ID and copies of documents
- Spare house and car keys
- A pocket knife or multi-tool
- A whistle
- Games and books
No stove, no candles
One detail matters if you read the site in English. Its English version adds a camping stove to the list; the Romanian original does not. We follow the Romanian original, so our data counts neither a stove nor candles for Romania.
Candles are the one widely listed item Romania leaves out: 19 of the 24 guides include them. For a backpack that makes sense, as a torch and spare batteries are safer and lighter to carry. At home, during a long power cut, candles and matches are a cheap back-up, as long as you never leave a flame unattended.
How Romania compares
None of Romania's 33 items is rare: each appears in at least five of the 24 guides. Several of them are on fewer than half the lists, though:
- A whistle, on six lists: the Netherlands, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Portugal and Cyprus.
- A paper map, also on six.
- Water purification tablets, on six.
- Spare keys, on seven.
- Games and books, on seven.
Romania is also one of 13 guides that list a phone charger alongside the power bank, one of eight guides that list a foil survival blanket, and one of 16 that build their advice around a grab-and-go bag.
Because the list is built as a single bag, think about weight. Water is the heaviest part. Carry what you can for the first day and keep the rest of your water stock at home. Twenty of the 24 guides plan for three days, and the other four for longer.
Quantities
We could not reopen the backpack list to check the quantities it gives, so we don't quote any here. As a reference, Germany and France plan 2 litres of water per person per day, and Sweden and the Netherlands 3. See how much water to store for the sums.
Build yours
Our checklist includes every item on Romania's list and works out amounts for your household. For packing the bag, see our grab bag checklist.