Family Emergency Plan

Preparation Steps

• Hold a family meeting to create the plan together — every household member must know and understand it, not just the adults.
• Assign age-appropriate roles to each person: who grabs the emergency bag, who accounts for pets, who locks the door, who calls the out-of-area contact.
• Identify two meeting points: one close to your home (such as a specific neighbor's front yard) and one away from your neighborhood for use when you cannot return home.
• Designate a single out-of-area contact whom every family member calls to check in with — this prevents overload on local lines and gives everyone one reliable information source.
• Learn how to shut off gas, water, and electricity at your home and ensure all household members old enough to do so know the locations and procedures.

Immediate Actions

• When an emergency activates the plan, account for all household members before doing anything else — know immediately who is home, who is at school or work, and who needs to be contacted.
• Grab the prepared emergency bag without delay — do not spend time collecting items that should already be packed.
• Contact your out-of-area designate to confirm status and location for all family members, then follow the planned route to your first meeting point.
• If evacuation is ordered, take your two pre-identified routes — know which is the primary and which is the alternate in case the primary is blocked.
• Follow official instructions from emergency services — do not deviate from evacuation orders based on assumptions about what is happening.

What to Avoid

• Do not keep the emergency plan only in one person's head — if that person is unreachable or incapacitated, the plan fails entirely.
• Do not assume children will know what to do without practice — children who have not drilled their role will freeze or make unsafe decisions under stress.
• Do not store all copies of critical documents in one location — keep copies in your emergency bag and maintain a secure encrypted digital backup.
• Do not forget to include pets, elderly relatives, and family members with disabilities or medical needs in every element of the planning.
• Do not allow the plan to become outdated — it must be reviewed and updated whenever family members, contact numbers, addresses, or home layout changes.

Supplies Needed

• A written family emergency card with key contacts, meeting points, and medical information, small enough for each person's wallet.
• Emergency contact cards for children to keep in their school backpacks — include names, phone numbers, and the out-of-area contact.
• Copies of critical documents in a waterproof bag inside the emergency go-bag: passports, ID cards, insurance policies, prescriptions, bank account details.
• A current photograph of every family member stored on all household phones — useful for identification if the family is separated.
• A pre-packed emergency bag maintained and refreshed at least every 12 months.

Recovery Steps

• After any event that activates the plan, hold a family debrief: what worked, what was confusing, what was missing.
• Update contact lists, document copies, meeting points, and assigned roles based on what you learned.
• Re-brief all family members on any changes — a plan that has been updated but not communicated is as useless as no plan.
• Replace any supplies consumed during the emergency immediately while stores are restocked and accessible.
• Increase drill frequency to twice yearly minimum — include at least one unannounced drill to test genuine, unprepared response.