Eye drops in a winter storm kit

If you use eye drops regularly, they belong with the medications in your winter storm kit. Ready.gov advises gathering supplies for several days at home without power and keeping each person’s medication needs in mind. Keep a sealed spare bottle with the kit, store it indoors within the label’s temperature range rather than in a cold garage or car, and order it before storm season since no delivery date is promised.

What Ready.gov says to put in a winter storm kit

Ready.gov, the federal government’s emergency planning site, has a winter weather page and a general kit page. The winter page tells you to gather supplies in case you need to stay home for several days without power, to keep extra batteries for radios and flashlights, and to keep in mind each person’s specific needs, including medication. The general kit list includes:

• Water, one gallon per person per day for several days.
• At least a several-day supply of non-perishable food and a manual can opener.
• A battery-powered or hand-crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert.
• A flashlight, extra batteries, and a phone with chargers and a backup battery.
• A first aid kit, a whistle, and moist towelettes.
• Prescription medications and non-prescription medications.
• Prescription eyeglasses and contact lens solution.

Eye drops fit under the medications line. Quell is an over-the-counter drug with a Drug Facts panel, and if you count on it every day, a storm that closes roads for three days is exactly when you’d notice it missing.

Why a storm is hard on dry eyes

Winter storms change the air inside a house in ways that matter to eyes. When the power is on, the furnace runs hard and dries the air. When the power goes out, people huddle near whatever heat they have: a fireplace, a wood stove, a camp heater rated for indoor use, or a space heater once power returns. Sitting close to radiant heat with dry air moving across your face speeds evaporation from the tear film. Dry eyes from a space heater covers where to sit and how to aim one.

There’s also the screen effect. With little else to do, people stare at phones for hours to follow storm updates, and staring slows blinking. A battery radio from the kit list gives your eyes a break and saves phone battery at the same time.

Safety first during an outage

Ready.gov’s winter guidance is firm on carbon monoxide: install working CO detectors on every level of your home, and use generators and grills only outdoors. Generators and their fuel should be at least 20 feet from windows, doors and attached garages. Dry, irritated eyes are uncomfortable; carbon monoxide can kill. If a CO alarm goes off, get everyone into fresh air and call for help before worrying about anything else.

How to store eye drops in an emergency kit

Quell’s label gives the storage range: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). That rules out some common kit locations:

• An unheated garage or shed in a northern winter falls below the range.
• A car kit left in the trunk through January cold falls below it too, and a summer trunk goes far above it.
• A hall closet, a bedroom shelf or a bin inside the heated part of the house usually stays within it.

Ready.gov suggests keeping kits at home, at work and in the car. For eye drops, the home kit is the reliable spot. If you want a bottle on the road, carry it in your coat or bag and bring it inside with you rather than leaving it in the car kit. Eye drops for a winter road trip has more on traveling in the cold.

If a bottle does get very cold during an outage, let it come back to room temperature and look at it before using it. The label’s line is: If this product changes color. For reference, it also says: Product appears as a milky brown solution.

Keeping the kit current

Ready.gov recommends replacing expired items as needed and rethinking your needs every year. For eye drops, that means:

• Check the expiration date on the carton when you set up the kit each fall. Where is the expiration date on eye drops? shows where to look.
• Keep the spare sealed. An unopened bottle is the one to store; rotate it into daily use and replace it before it nears its date.
• Write the bottle’s location on the kit’s checklist so anyone in the house can find it in the dark.
• If more than one person uses drops, store one bottle per person. Bottles shouldn’t be shared.

Using drops when the power is out

The directions don’t change in a storm: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. Hand hygiene is harder without running hot water, so use the moist towelettes from the kit to clean your hands first, and follow the label’s handling rule: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination. A headlamp or flashlight from the kit helps you see the bottle tip.

If your eyes hurt, your vision changes, or something gets into an eye while you’re clearing snow or splitting wood, a lubricating drop isn’t the answer. Follow the label: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours.

Order before the storm, not during it

Quell ships from Brentwood, Tennessee, and the site doesn’t promise a delivery date. Storms slow deliveries everywhere, so the time to add a spare to your kit is in the fall, before the first forecast. Shipping is $10.00, free on 3 or more bottles. Keeping spare bottles explains how to rotate them.