Emergency Kits (Part 4): Creating an Emergency Plan
Note: This is Part 4 of a five-part series about emergency kits and emergency planning.
By Melissa Spencer
“There’s no harm in hoping for the best as long as you’re prepared for the worst.” – Stephen King
Up until this point, I’ve talked a lot about physical supplies we’ve compiled to help prepare for emergencies. But today I want to share with you about something that is just as – if not even more – important: having an emergency plan.
Chances are, the Spencer family may never use the majority of our emergency supply stash. And honestly, despite the time and effort and money we’ve put into it, we wouldn’t mind that one little bit!
But it’s very likely that at some point in time, we will be faced with a situation where an emergency plan would greatly help our family members navigate and stay safe in an emergency situation. And the best part? The only cost to put it together is our time.
The emergency plan we came up with is a compilation of the best ideas and suggestions I found in my research. We felt like it was much more approachable for us as a family than many plans or forms we found online, and hope you find it helpful.
What do we include in an emergency plan?
Time and time again we found that the top two suggested things to include in a written emergency plan were: meeting places and emergency contacts.
If disaster strikes – especially when our family is apart or may not be able to leave our house together – we want all of us to be very clear on how we will communicate and where we will meet up.
Identify meeting places
Choose a neighborhood meeting place for your family that is (a) within walking distance of your home, (b) at least 3-4 houses away, and (c) a recognizable landmark. Determine at least 2 routes to this meeting point. This meeting place would most likely be used if you had to evacuate your house quickly due to an unsafe situation such as a fire or gas leak.
Identify a regional place to gather that is central to your frequent destinations (work/school/gym/etc.) in the case that returning to your neighborhood isn’t possible. This would more likely be used if you needed to leave your neighborhood when not every family member is at home.
Emergency contacts
Choose two emergency contacts outside your household: (a) a local primary contact and (b) an out-of-state secondary contact. These 2 people would be the contact points for all family members. If there is a local or regional emergency, it may be easier to contact someone outside the area than someone local.
Create, label, and save an emergency text group in your phone favorites that includes your household members and your two emergency contacts.
Encourage family members and emergency contacts to use short texts to communicate in emergencies as they are more likely to get through than a call when cell towers may be overtaxed.
Carry your Emergency Plan with you at all times
Make a small printed copy of your meeting places and emergency contacts and give every family member a copy to carry in a wallet/purse/backpack, and/or to keep on their phone. If you have small children, you could laminate the list and put it in their backpacks. Just make sure they know where it is if they need it.
Other planning
Some planning doesn’t need to be written down necessarily, but should definitely be discussed and decided upon as a family.
Determine and create in-house safe places
Find out which extreme weather conditions are more likely in your area (earthquakes, floods, storms, etc.) and locate a safe place within your house for each scenario.
Make sure to anchor large and/or tall pieces of furniture to the walls.
Locate in-house exits & shutoffs
As a family, find two exit routes to the outdoors from every room.
If you have a multi-story home, it may be wise to invest in a few portable fire escape ladders. The ones we have fold up and easily fit beneath the beds in our upstairs bedrooms.
Locate and communicate to family members where the gas/water/electrical shutoffs are.
Emergency plans for frequent destinations
Ask for and review the emergency plans for your work, school(s), church, etc.
Talk with children about what to do if an emergency occurs while they are apart from the family.
Prep your phone(s) for emergencies
Set up ICE (In Case of Emergency) numbers in each family member’s phone (these can be accessed by emergency personnel even if the phone owner is unresponsive or unable to communicate).
Set up alerts and download apps. A few to consider are:
Government Alerts (in iPhones this can be turned on by going to Settings > Notifications > Government Alerts)
FEMA app: Sign up for alerts for your zip code and/or city
PulsePoint Respond app: Get emergency alerts from your local fire department
Red Cross Emergency Alerts app: Use for additional info on planning for all sorts of emergencies
Practice and update your plan!
Once you have your emergency plan in place, review and practice it as a family.
A few ideas:
It would be wise to schedule a time to practice and/or talk through your plan several times a year (especially if you have kids!).
Life and family situations change over time so review it annually to make sure it’s still current.
Don’t forget to update your emergency supplies as needed. We suggest whenever daylight savings time changes.
Summary
The Spencers are still working on some of the steps in completing our family’s emergency plan.
At first, when we talked with our kids about facing emergencies it made the younger ones a little nervous and uncomfortable. But we believe that having a plan and talking about it as a family on a regular basis will decrease their nerves and increase their confidence (as well as ours!) that should an emergency take place, we’re prepared.
With our next (and final!) blog post of this series, we’re going to wrap up by talking about what all of this cost, share a few final thoughts, and provide The Emergency Planning Top 10 Checklist that will hopefully be helpful for any of you who want to try to do some of your own emergency planning.