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Putting together a family emergency kit can mean planning for several generations at once. Children, partners, and aging parents may all depend on the same supplies during a power outage or evacuation. The person putting a kit together has to account for those people, the conditions they could face and the money available.
LIMA-TANGO Survival, a Georgia-based emergency preparedness and outdoor survival business, designs and assembles kits around those decisions. Its baseline and custom survival kits account for how many people need supplies, how long they may need them, the local climate and the family’s budget.
The experience behind the planning
LIMA-TANGO Survival founder William Petit is a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, command and instructor pilot, aerospace engineer and combat veteran with 25 years of service. He completed initial and advanced combat survival training, along with combat water survival. His SERE training, short for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, informs the planning behind LIMA-TANGO Survival’s civilian kits.
That work considers shelter, water, fire, food, signaling and movement together. A family may need supplies to stay dry, drink, eat and communicate, with equipment it can carry if it has to leave. Backup options are part of the design, especially for water and fire.
Years of building and testing kits for Georgia weather and families also helped shape the business. That work with equipment in wet and cold conditions complemented Petit’s military training. A spinal cord injury made vulnerability personal for him.
The resulting focus is close to home. LIMA-TANGO Survival builds for Southeast emergencies first, translating Petit’s experience into choices for parents, partners and caregivers arranging supplies for the people around them.
Looking inside the 72-hour label
An early challenge for LIMA-TANGO Survival was helping buyers understand what goes into a kit’s price. A packing list can show that shelter, tools and water supplies are included without explaining why particular components were chosen.
The differences become clearer when looking at the equipment. Its two-person emergency kit, labeled for 72+ hours, includes a heat-reflective emergency tent. Its longer-duration two-person kit, labeled for four or more days, includes an A-frame tent and sleeping bags. Both list shelter, but the equipment a family would unpack is different.
Those differences give buyers specific questions to ask about weather protection and intended use. Tools deserve the same attention. A large piece count tells a family little about whether the included tools suit the jobs they may need to do.
Water and fire bring the value of backup equipment into focus. LIMA-TANGO Survival packs more than one water option and includes backup fire equipment so users have alternatives available. Understanding when and how to use each item is part of getting familiar with the kit before it’s needed.
Helping families work through those choices has become part of the business. LIMA-TANGO Survival labels kits by the number of people and days they’re built around, explains what to look for in budget kits and offers custom builds. That gives a parent somewhere to start, with room to adjust the supplies for the people at home and the money available.
Choosing a family emergency kit
A parent putting supplies aside for the whole family has more to think about than the person packing a single-person survival kit. LIMA-TANGO Survival starts with baseline options like a two-person starter kit, then adapts the selection around a few practical questions:
- Who needs to use it? Count everyone who will depend on the supplies, including children and aging relatives. Food and water need to cover the people in the plan.
- How long are you planning for? The number of people and the number of days belong together. A kit’s duration label only makes sense when you know how many people it’s intended to support.
- What weather could you face? In Georgia and the Southeast, that includes hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, ice and heat. Those conditions shape the equipment choices, especially shelter. The business also builds cold-weather kits and adapts systems for arid climates.
- What can you spend? A family’s budget is part of the starting point. Custom work gives LIMA-TANGO Survival room to adjust the selection around both the supplies needed and the money available.
Where the kit will be kept matters, too. Supplies stored at home serve a different purpose from a get-home bag kept in the car or equipment packed for a family evacuation. What needs to be carried, and by whom, deserves attention before the bag is filled. Personal items still need to be added, such as spare prescription glasses and pre-filled water bottles.
Keeping the work close to the family
LIMA-TANGO Survival is a founder-operated, veteran-owned business. Family members help with inventory, shipping and customer contact, while the people choosing the kit contents also handle the equipment during assembly. The business sources components and assembles its systems by hand in the United States.
For a custom order, that work follows the needs and budget of a particular family through to packing and shipping. The team selects gear its members would be willing to carry themselves.
Customer feedback also feeds into product-line adjustments. Plans for growth include more custom work and better preparedness education through the blog, social channels and field notes. Petit intends to remain involved with the equipment as that work expands.
Choosing emergency supplies starts with knowing who will use them, where they may be needed and what the family can afford. Building kits around those decisions, and helping people understand the equipment they are taking home, is the goal behind LIMA-TANGO Survival.
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