@bcrypt
Big question! 😅

Emergencies for me are most likely to happen in the woods so I look for a VHF, part 90 comershial with amature segments, GPS, and has the weather channels available. I chose part 90 because sometimes you need to talk to someone else besides another ham.

An AT-878UV is a solid, reasonably priced, VHF/UHF dual mode radio that can do all of this.

To be honest, the best radio to have in an emergency will be the one most conformal with. A cheap $40 baofeng are still valid.