Stuck in the Car? Essential Items for Your Car’s Winter Survival Kit

A massive snowstorm buried the East Coast during the holidays in 2021, stranding hundreds of motorists along the I-95 corridor in freezing temperatures. Many were stuck for 24 hours or more, without food or water. If you were driving through Virginia that day, would you have been among them? If you're unsure, the answer is probably "yes."

We all need to have a car survival kit. That's a given. But your kit needs to be flexible. It needs to grow and change depending on where your vehicle will be at any given moment. And if you're traveling? You need to review it before you hit the road. Many of those stranded motorists in Virginia were families from the Northeast who had driven down to Florida for the holidays.

That's why we've put together this list of stuff you may want to consider stashing in your vehicle if you're driving in winter. Plenty of these are common-sense items, like emergency flares and power packs. But several are winter-specific; for example, did you know that while water bottles will freeze solid, juice boxes and pouches will not?