ten steps in preparing your family in an emergency plan,

I know there are alot of preparedness threads already up however after searching I could not find this one. I read Activist post daily today they have a different idea on emergency preparedness it reaches beyond the bug out bag, I wanted to share..

It is titled the same as this thread name:
Ten steps in preparing your family in an emergency.
Gaye Levy, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Sometimes it is the simplest things that are overlooked. Case in point? The Family Emergency Plan.

Here we are, so diligently putting away food, storing water and purchasing gear when perhaps one of the most important aspects of emergency and crisis planning has to do with having a plan to get in touch with family members and loved ones after disaster strikes. Equally important is having a plan for meeting up at a safe location as well an evacuation plan for getting there.
Whew! Sounds like a lot of work pulling this all together. But it does not have to be difficult. Below you will find ten easy steps for creating a family emergency plan, as well as on online tool to get you started. Don’t worry, this is going to be easy.

The Family Emergency Plan – Let’s get started
1. Sit down with your family members and decide how you will get in contact with each other in an emergency. Possible methods may be by cell phone, texting, email, or a standard land line.
2. Once you figure this out, document the contact information on both a master sheet and on wallet sized cards to be carried by all family members. This document will become your “Family Communication Plan” and it will form the cornerstone of your family emergency plan. It will list all family members, their date of birth, and other important information. Include a photo for each person as well as any important medical information. Also include a contact number for an out of town contact person.
3. Determine a meeting place where you will meet in the event you can not get home. This may be your workplace, the home of a parent or relative, your church or even at a school if there are children involved. Whatever you decide, you will need at least three possible locations:

Your home or the home of a designated family member
A safe meeting place near home
A safe meeting place outside your immediate neighborhood
4. Determine the best evacuation routes from your home or workplace to the safe meeting places. Go to Google Maps or some other online tool and create maps showing your evacuation route along with printed directions. Then take the route and make sure it is accurate and that you understand the directions. This is important! You must drill and practice your evacuation procedure.
5. Prepare a list of all workplaces along with the address, telephone number, and closest evacuation location in the event getting to the pre-designated meeting place is not possible.
6. Also prepare a list of all schools that are attended by your children along with the address, contact names, and telephone numbers. Contact the schools now to learn about their own emergency evaluation policies and procedures
7. Prepare a list of your doctors and your veterinarian along with their telephone numbers.

8. Prepare a list of your insurance policies, including the carrier, the telephone number for claims, and the policy number itself. Include health insurance, homeowners or rental insurance, life insurance policies.

9. Consider creating a phone tree. Think of your phone tree as a pyramid where the person at the top of the pyramid contacts two people, who each call two more people, and so on, until every person on the tree has been contacted. This will allow you to distribute information quickly without redundancy and without placing the burden of work on one person.

10. Store all if the information you have carefully compiled in multiple locations:

Your bug out bags and go-bags
Your family preparedness binder
On a flash drive that you carry with you
In your desk drawer at work
Whatever you do, do not fall prey to rip-off artists who will want to charge your hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to prepare a Family Emergency Plan for you. Unless you are independently wealthy, you can do it yourself over the course of one weekend. (Be sure to read my article, The Black Umbrella Rip Off to give you an idea of the sneaky ways folks will try to coax you out of your money.)

Then don’t forget to practice your evacuation plan and to test your escape routes. Your safety – and your life – may depend on it.


Gaye Levy, the SurvivalWoman, grew up and attended school in the Greater Seattle area. After spending many years as an executive in the software industry, she started a specialized accounting practice offering contract CFO work to emerging high tech and service industries. She has now abandoned city life and moved to a serenely beautiful rural area on an island in NW Washington State. She lives and teaches the principles of a sustainable, self-reliant and stylish lifestyle through emergency preparation and disaster planning through her website at BackdoorSurvival.com. SurvivalWoman speaks her mind and delivers her message with optimism and grace, regardless of mayhem swirling around us.

Here is a link to The Back Door an article named, The Black Unbrella rip off, www.backdoorsurvival.com, it is good information for the possibility of survival.
Hope you all enjoy, sorry if it is already posted peace out

Step 1 should be: Convince your family that you arent crazy.


But seriously, good points. A preparedness plan never hurts, who knows when youll be struck by a tornado, or flood, hurricane. etc.


One point Ill bring up, on a personal level...

Learn to live with less. Even if its just for a couple of days, knowing you can live without your everyday conveniences will make it easier if you ever have to say goodbye to them indefinitely.

I will prepare your family emergency plan for you. I will not charge thousands of dollars, but I will need that credit card number....just to be sure you are a real person and not a bot.

Good post it is just common sense to have a plan in place for whatever. We've planned routes from work to home and other places we might be. Keep a small BOB in each vehicle. I've found out that I use the first aid kit in it a lot.

Your family might think you're crazy at first but each time you are the one prepared in a situation they take notice. If you are prepared for natural disasters and power outages your family will look to you for guidance. When an emergency happens they will be more apt to listen to you because you have proven to them that planning pays off.

Originally posted by osirys
Step 1 should be: Convince your family that you arent crazy.


But seriously, good points. A preparedness plan never hurts, who knows when youll be struck by a tornado, or flood, hurricane. etc.


One point Ill bring up, on a personal level...

Learn to live with less. Even if its just for a couple of days, knowing you can live without your everyday conveniences will make it easier if you ever have to say goodbye to them indefinitely.

I have been slowly learning to live with less for a few months know. BAck about 3 months ago my pump for the well went out, where i live I cannot get to any local business by foot, there is a hugh lake between me and the nearest city on one side and the other side is a large river each having a bridge that you cannot walk over, plus at that time we only had one vehicle and my husband hadit out of state. I went 4 days scavaging water, I live a distant to any neighbor. It was hard and taught me alot..

I like this post but in our family we are slowly introducing the subject to the children. Like the other poster said, we don't want them to think we are crazy and we also don't want them scared. Family meetings every other week are getting us slowly to the point that we can discuss, "In case of an emergency...." I think about how to get the children to dress in sensible shoes everyday in case they need to walk home or making sure they are prepared clothing wise. To change from a materialistic lifestyle to a prepared/old fashion lifestyle is harder then it sounds.

I printed out these steps and plan to incorporate them into our lives. I want it to be just how we live vs. just in case. I hope that makes sense.

Originally posted by AuntB
I like this post but in our family we are slowly introducing the subject to the children. Like the other poster said, we don't want them to think we are crazy and we also don't want them scared. Family meetings every other week are getting us slowly to the point that we can discuss, "In case of an emergency...." I think about how to get the children to dress in sensible shoes everyday in case they need to walk home or making sure they are prepared clothing wise. To change from a materialistic lifestyle to a prepared/old fashion lifestyle is harder then it sounds.

I printed out these steps and plan to incorporate them into our lives. I want it to be just how we live vs. just in case. I hope that makes sense. [/quote)

You make complete sense

Good for you on your processing the kids. So far my family thinks I'm crazy, sometimes I feel totally alone but it doesn't stop me preparing.

reply to post by lbndhr


Make a PLAN for the event happening while you are at work and the kids in school.

This is so important because many schools already have emergency plans in place in the event of a major disaster/emergency.

The children may be taken to an outside location!

Know where this location is if you are able and plan accordingly.

Covert plans aside from parents knowledge may already be in the works and this to me would drive me insane to be seperated from my young ones in a major event whether natural or manmade.

My family has discussed this but after a tornado I rushed to the school to find out none of them had the nerve to cross the lines and go against directions, instead stayed with their classmates and teachers...

I have one in highschool, one in Jr. High and one in elementary.

The oldest one was to check on his little brothers, he did not.

The middle child was to head for the youngest, he did not.

The youngest did not even notice that his older brothers did not come.

In this situation, everything worked out just fine, but arriving at the school I headed first for the youngest childs class then directly across the hall to the middle, and finally over to the oldest in a different section of the school.

My point here is that "IF" they were to be single filed out to busses and taken to another location the children would have been seperated by age and would not have been able to protect one another or meet at our designated spot a small store across from their school.

Now the store scenario is ONLY in the event they begin to load the kids up to take them away. But I have my doubts that they would follow through if say a Nuck went off or a terror event happened. As I am only 5 minutes away at 70MPH, they would not have a very long wait, and it is possible I could keep them from being relocated.

Now another thing to consider is that if you are at work, you may be instructed to stay in place, to not open doors or leave.

Now what? Are your children in school? At a babysitter/daycare? Or home alone?

So many things to think about and the best laid plans can be diverted so easily in disaster or emergency, no one plan is going to work and to share your plan it would have to have many contingencies.

Too much information can be scary to small children and the already over burdened teens. How to create plans in a way that causes the least amount of stress is what you need to consider first.

There are some really wonderful WWWsites that can help you to introduce these various types of emergencies to your younger children as well as some pretty cool interactive ones for older kids.

I have visited several and the kids have had some fun learning as well. NASA, Several.GOV sites as well as some of the 3 letter agencies can help learn about safety and making your plans according to age appropriate activitiy levels.

Flexibility is something like intuition and common sense, these are qualities that are as important to develop in your children as any best laid plan.

reply to post by antar


When 9-11 happened the 2nd plane to hit the towers my daughter and sons were in school, I drove quickly to the closest school my daughter, the school tried to keep her their but I directly said no, went to her class and took her out, they were mumbling something about, they are safe at the school the school has emergency plans, I told them, well I have emergency plans also and they include my children being with me in the event of a major disaster and this is a major disaster, I proceeded to the jr, and high schools grabbed my sons went home and we stayed together that day, infact a few days I kept them near me. Point being, first step quickly get the children if it is safely capable. 9-11 kinda woke me up to Yes disaster can strike american soil...lol before 9-11 americans ( come on america admit it) were pretty darn nieve to "reality" we didnt realize anythign mischieveous was happening up in our leadership. If the leadership was trying to scare us, well it worked for some but, it woke up many many of us at the same time.

reply to post by lbndhr
I love your post. When the first plane hit I was dropping one child off at school. We were told, don't say anything because it may scare the children. Had I not had to work that day I would have done exactly what you did.

The mention of the schools moving the children, that is a very good point, I don't think I have told my husband where they move the little kids to. Thanks, for the reminder. It is his duty to get the younger one.