I personally believe the most important thing you can have in a Urban Area is Light. Sunlight and moonlight will only reach so far into buildings and most often going deeper into them beyond the sunlight is required. A Flashlight that takes common cell sizes such as AA or AAA is best in my opinion. C or D cells are to heavy and currently with LED technology don't give much of a leg up for their size and weight.

My favorite forms of light for long term often are the cheapest smallest forms of flashlights. The 6-9 LED 3AAAcell Flashlights are decent for close quarters but do not reach that far. Same with most Inexpensive Pen lights. Often or not You will need to Reach long distances inside a building with a flashlight. Something around the lines of a LED 2AAcell Maglite May work best for those situations but with the amount of flashlights out there it would be easy to find a usable light.

A lantern would be great as well for downtime within a building tho im still not familiar with current lantern LED so on tech.


Last but not least DO NOT rely on Crank, Solar, Shake based Flashlights for emergencies. While in the long term They may Prove useful in the immediate Issues that would occur they may leave you worse off. The 3LED flashlight radio i own states for 3 hours of use you would have to crank it at 2 revs a second for 90seconds. If you have to Run and fast at night that 90 seconds of tiring your arm may be your undoing. Instant usable long term light is the best solution for such occurrences. Getting 15 Hours of up close usable light from a penlight such as the rayovac I own on 1AAA cell which can be changed in a few seconds instead of minutes can be a welcome comfort over cranking a light like a madman every 3 hours.


When You're taking refuge in a Building with no power and its pitch black nothing you carry will matter if you cannot see it.