How to prepare a family emergency plan

Disasters can strike quickly and without warning. A lot of times, families are apart when these things happen, so it is good to work out a plan with your family so that they know what to do. Here is how to work with your family on an emergency plan!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Sit down at dinner, and work out an emergency plan.

1. the first thing to do is to get everyone together at the dinner table and talk about what should be done in the case of an emergency. Your kids have already been doing this in school, so it is a good idea to work with them to create a plan when they are not in school. Let them know that your family will create their own plan in case an emergency happens.

2. The first this to create in the plan is a Family Communication Plan. Simply talk to everyone about how they will contact each other in an emergency if you are not together. Write a contact list of all the numbers that you can think of where you and your children are during the day. Include work, school, daycare, babysitters, friends, and family. Keep this list handy and give your children these lists to have at school. You should also give your children your cell phone number so that they can reach you in case of an emergency.

3. The next step in creating a family emergency plan is to Create a Personal Support Network. Think of the people on the contact list that you just created, and let them know that you are creating a family emergency plan, and that you would like to include them on your emergency support network. Get them involved, as they will also want to create a plan, and they can rely on you as well in the event of an emergency. Having a group of people ready to help out is always the best way to quickly deal with an issue.

4. The third step in creating a family emergency plan is to discuss whether or not your family stays put in your home during an emergency, or if you all need to meet at a local shelter in your area. Because different areas are prone to different types of disasters, this is going to be relevant to your families geographical location and the type of emergencies that you encounter. If there are ever life threatening emergencies that damage your home, you should plan on having everyone gather together at a safe shelter as a meeting point. Create an evacuation plan to help everyone get to the shelter, and discuss this with your network of support.

5. When creating your emergency plan, you should also consider in advance what to do about protecting any pets that you have as well. Think about forms of shelter, or animal protection shelters you can use for your pet if you cannot take them with you.

6. It is also very important to work with the members of your family on home safety plans. Be sure to discuss what to do with your family in the case of a fire, flood, tornado, or other disaster. Discuss escape routes, and how to meet locally first if you ever need to get out of your home during an emergency.

7. Finally, create an emergency kit that you can have ready at a moments notice. Keep this in the home, and let everyone know where it is. Assign someone to pick it up in the event of an emergency. I have created an ehow article at the link below that shows you how to create an emergency kit:
   
   http://forms.ehow.com/contribute.aspx?P=10&id=4562533

Resources

• Family Emergency Kit Article

[CBeatrix]

on 11/2/2008 Very necessary steps, without a doubt! Thanks for putting it together in an organized way! 5*