Unknown to me, Mom and my siblings (adult) were woefully unprepared for Irma last week. I like 800 miles away and had no clue what their preps were. Turns out it was pretty much non-existent.

Fully electric house. No generator, no way to cook or boil water. No tarps in the garage. Like I said, pretty much nothing in the way of preparation.

So, I'm putting together a basic prep kit and am looking for light/lantern suggestions to put in it.

Any recommendations?

LED camping lantern. Lasts for days. While you're at it, get her a couple of battery operated camp fans.

Fans are on the list.

Thanks.

if they stock AA cells (I use AA Eneloop)...my most used light for Irma was a 3xAA LED headlamp (Black Diamond) and  a good pocket single AA task light (SolarForce Z2)... for area lantern I use a Coleman 3AA High Tech lantern .... Streamlight Siege AA is highly rated

if they stock D cells (most likely what will run the fans) a couple of  2 D Maglight LED and a D version of the Streamlight... store one without batteries

I'm sure less expensive options will be recommended....the Eneloops have been much less likely to leak than the carbon zinc

for cooking I switched to propane many years ago, and a single burner was all I used during Irma, but have a double burner Coleman as well as a single burner Coleman that will run on unleaded gasoline...

Another Streamlight Siege AA recommendation here. One will light a room nicely, a few will cover a house easily.

Both the AA & D cell Seige are great.I also use a Gearaid Flux.Rechargeable, but pricey.For small power needs check into a power station,I have a Schumacher,I use it all the time at my cabin.

+1.  I have both the Seige D, and Seige AA models, and the AA model is by far more user friendly due to the smaller, lighter size.

https://www.banggood.com/BlitzWolf-BW-LT5-Pro-IP68-Waterproof-LED-Panasonic-3350mAh-Powerbank-Emergency-Camping-Lantern-p-1090454.html?p=CB1422049448201201OE

I have a few of the little single AA Coast lights - the ones with the adjustable focus. We lost power for 3 days. Came home one evening and my parents had stuck one on it's tail end in the middle of the dining room with the focus at it's lowest. Little bastard lit up the whole room. I'm seriously impressed. I didn't have to change the batteries on any of the 4 little coast lamps we used, and they got a LOT of use. They ran me $9 a piece at Academy a year ago or so. I'll be getting more of them.
I do wish I had better headlamps though. Became a bit of a chore to get stuff done in the dark with one hand tied up the whole time.
Oh and if you have Streamlights and SureFires...make sure that the idiots in your house realize that they are NOT for general purpose lighting - like use it to go to the potty and then light up the whole room so you can read your kindle!

I have the Siege D model, a Coleman 6v SLA fluorescent, two mode jobbie and a GE Weather XYZ LED jobbie that can do 3D, or 3AA.

I was without power for 82 hours and have two dozen pimpy flashlights of various makes/models.  Frankly, go to the Dollar Store and buy up a bunch of small candles in clear glass cups--usually a buck, or so.

Three candles in a living room can throw off enough light to navigate and converse and they last a long time.  With those lanterns on hand, I found myself just using candles unless I needed to read something, which didn't happen all that much.  I had candles in the kitchen and bedroom, which were sufficient for most tasks.  Don't get me wrong, flashlights were used, just not for basic room lighting.

As far as cooking goes, I have two Coleman single burner stoves--one propane and one dual fuel, with a gallon of white gas.  I never needed to use the DF stove, or the lantern I have on hand, however.  I cooked scrambled eggs/ham/cheese one day and made coffee/iced tea more than a few times, but in the heat, I wasn't eating all that much.

The Coleman propane stove is easy to use, will work with all of their pots, pans and tea kettle and cook much faster than my Trangia spirit stoves.  For grilling, a $25 Char-Broil table top propane BBQ is easy enough to employ and doesn't take up much storage space.

USB 5v power banks are required for charging up cell phones and other assorted USB devices and you might get them one of the many 14w-21w folding solar panels, to charge up the power bank.

Finally, if water is present, but the taps aren't working, get a Sawyer Mini/Squeeze 1/Squeeze 2 water filters, a couple of 5 gallon Lowes/HD buckets, some basic tubing/fittings and make a gravity feed system, if one expects water/power to be off for a while.  Call that about $50

$35ish for a Siege D lantern ($70 for two), 15-20 candles for another $20-$30, $20 for the propane stove, $25 for the BBQ, $20 for 4-6 1# bottles of Coleman propane, $40 for an Anker power bank, $40 for the USB solar panel and another $30 for D/AA batteries.

For <$400, give or take (used/budget stuff), you can have the basics addressed, sans food.  

Chris

The siege lantern for around the house and if your up to splurge a little I find the streamlight 1aa-1L about as perfect as a edc light can get. it has a double sided clip so you can clip it into a pocket to keep it secured and clip it onto the brim of a hat to use it as a headlamp runs on a single aa or cr123a for a max of 350 lumens (think its' about 150 or so with a aa) I have also found it will work with a AAA battery in a pinch. you can just wrap some paper/tape/ect to help it stay centered in the light housing and it will get the job done.

run time is respectable. I personally program mine to come on low power and a double tap enters it into hi power. I'm going to order some 14500 batteries and see how the runtime/performance is in the near future.

I also tried a AAAA cell once just to try it, I wrapped it with paper like the aaa like mentioned above it too worked, however I did have to use a pic to pull the spring terminal up for a cr123 to contact it again as it pushed past the plunger hole since it so small in diameter. I would say this is for emergency use only.

one may say uhh ok but who the hell keeps AAAA batteries on hand...well a 9V battery has 6 of these little gems in them. anybody have fire detectors in there house? yup thought so.

If their resupply system is still greatly compromised, go with something solar, to minimize having to keep a steady resupply of batteries going.
This is for personal use, not perimeter security, etc

I'm a old hand at hurricanes.  Basics is gonna be food, water storage, lights and power.

Look on amazon for "solar bulb" and you will see a few options of led light bulbs that charge via supplied solar panels. They run about 10 bucks and actually work very well. A 10,000mah USB battery pack or two and a 20 plus watt solar folding panel can keep a cell phone powered for communication purposes. Water bobs or other chosen water storage. Sterno/fuel tab stoves are affordabl, easy and relatively safe to heat up water or soups. Generators are fantastic but they are not to be used unless properly set up. My department ran a few CO calls after Irma, including one with 7 victims. People don't understand to not run these things in the house or garage.

I bought several of these LED lanterns from Walmart and really like them. They are rechargeable and offer good run time.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/OT-700L-Rechargeable-Lantern/55505070

Was that the one in Miami, after the storm had passed, where everybody was passed out dying, except for one and they called 911?

It was a similar number and they all would have died, but for the person didn't pass out and called.

Chris

I would say, that whatever you go with, go with standardized batteries to make it easy for the end user.  AA seems to be the most popular these days.

This.

We used camping lights. Got them off Amazon.
They look like light bulbs. We hook them on stair rails,,cabinet door pulls,towel bars in the bath room.
Head lamps for all.
Flash lights for all.
Led camp lanterns 
Old school oil lamps.

Electric lamps (we had a gen).

I would suggest inexpensive lanterns but with good lithium batteries since chances of them checking and rotating batteries will be pretty much 0. I bought these and am very pleased with them for what they are and though the exact item I bought is now unavailable you should be able to find some similar.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01C5QSENQ/ref=ya_aw_oh_bia_dp?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have 5 or so of the same brand lantern from amazon, 4 of em came in a bulk case they sold this summer on lightening deals. 

Pull it up, it turns on.  Push it down it turns off.

4 aa batteries to run it. 

etekcity is the brand. 

I have a lot of energizer lithium aa batteries around as well, they keep for a long time and won't leak and ruin my stuff.  I don't care if the maker of the alkaline stuff will repair or replace whatever their leaky battery killed.  During a power outage I want my stuff to work right now.

I agree on headlamps and small handheld lights already mentioned, I would run off price and battery choices.

I highly recomend running some searches and figuring out the best way to send some lithium batteries with your gifts.  Search for price, I like the energizer aa cause sams sells them and now the aaa is available there as well.  I can give my aunt some money and have her pick some up whenever she is over there, generally I can't give her money and she grabs some every winter anyway just cause she likes to give gifts even though the extended family has tried to kill off gifts.

Your welcome, 400 lumens, D cells, and my daughter cant break it and she can destroy damn near anything.....the 2 d cell flashlights are awesome too

What you seek