Do You Have a Family Emergency Plan in Place?

Quick question.

If the power went out tonight — and stayed out three days — would your family know what to do?

Not the end-of-the-world stuff. Just a bad storm. A dark house. No water from the tap.

Most folks don't know. That's no knock on anybody. Life is busy.

But a family emergency plan takes about 20 minutes to write down. Do it once, and it's done. Everybody in the house sleeps better.

Why a plan beats a pile of supplies

Supplies matter. But supplies without a plan turn into a scramble.

In a real emergency, nobody thinks clearly. Your heart pounds. The kids ask questions. Nobody can find the flashlight.

That's the worst time to make big decisions. A plan makes them ahead of time — while you're calm.

FEMA asked, and only about 4 in 10 adults have made one. Fewer than 1 in 5 ever tested how they'd reach each other.

Let's fix that. Six steps.

1. Answer 5 questions on one page

Where do we meet? Two spots. One near home, one outside the neighborhood. How do we reach each other? Pick one out-of-state contact. Local lines jam first. And text — texts get through when calls won't. Who does what? A job for every adult. The bags. The water. The pets. The medicine. Which way out? Two routes. One by car, one on foot. What if we're apart? Work, school, the store.

Free printable: Family Emergency Plan. Fill in the blanks and stick it on the fridge. → [DOWNLOAD]

2. Walk your house like a stranger

Fifteen minutes this weekend:

• Find the water shutoff, the gas, and the breaker box. Show every adult.
• Test the smoke alarms. Fresh batteries.
• Check the date on the fire extinguisher.
• Two ways out of every room.
• A flashlight in every bedroom — a real one, not your phone.

Free printable: Home Safety Walkthrough. Room-by-room, so you miss nothing. → [DOWNLOAD]

3. Know what you'd grab in 5 minutes

Papers in a waterproof folder. Medicine, plus a written list of doses. Water and food that needs no cooking. Chargers. Cash in small bills — card readers go down with the power. Pet food and vet records. One comfort item per kid.

One tip most people skip: video every room on your phone. Open the closets. If you ever file a claim, that video does the arguing for you.

Free printable: Grab-In-5 Inventory Log. What you'd take, and where it lives. → [DOWNLOAD]

4. Give the kids a real job

Kids handle hard things better with a job to do.

Have them memorize their full name, their parents' names, the address, and a phone number. Make it a game. Ask the school who's allowed to pick them up — add a backup person today. Then practice twice a year. Ten minutes.

And put a card in every backpack. A phone dies. A card doesn't.

Free printable: Kids' Emergency Contact Cards. → [DOWNLOAD]

5. Get your papers in order

Paper works when the power doesn't. Copies of IDs, passports, birth certificates, insurance and Medicare cards, your medicine list, will, power of attorney, policy numbers, deed or lease, doctor and vet info, spare keys.

Keep one waterproof folder at home and a second set elsewhere — a bank box, or with that out-of-state contact.

One caution: don't write your passwords on that list, and don't park them in a shared cloud folder. Note where the accounts are. Keep passwords in a locked box or a password app.

6. Review it twice a year

Kids switch schools. Numbers change. So do prescriptions.

Easy trick: review the plan when the clocks change. Same afternoon you swap the smoke alarm batteries. Ten minutes, twice a year.

The 20 minutes that changes everything

When something goes sideways, most folks will be scrambling. Hunting for a flashlight. Arguing about where to meet.

That won't be you. Yours will be on the fridge, in your own handwriting.

That's what protecting your family looks like. Not fear. A plan — and the calm that comes with it.

Grab all four printables, free:

• Family Emergency Plan — your one-page fridge plan → [DOWNLOAD]
• Home Safety Walkthrough — 15-minute room-by-room check → [DOWNLOAD]
• Grab-In-5 Inventory Log — what to take, and where it lives → [DOWNLOAD]
• Kids' Emergency Contact Cards — one for every backpack → [DOWNLOAD]

To your survival, 

Frank Bates