Create a Family Emergency Plan Now
There is nothing scarier for a parent or grandparent than to be separated from their kids or grandkids during an emergency and not be able to reach them. It’s nothing short of terrifying.
If a disaster strikes when your kids or grandkids are at home or school while you are at work or out of town, will they know what to do?
There’s one way to make sure they know exactly what you want them to do in that type of situation. That’s by creating a family emergency plan and regularly discussing it with your family.
Some parents and grandparents don’t do this because they don’t want to alarm their kids or cause them to worry. Their intentions may be good, but that’s not something they don’t need to be concerned about.
A Plan to Ease Their Minds
Actually, the kids will rest easier knowing there is a plan in place should an emergency occur. They will feel like important members of the family when it comes to preparing for a disaster and will be more likely to respond appropriately once a crisis strikes.
Not knowing about a family emergency plan, on the other hand, is likely to put them more at risk.
Even the government, which usually does not see eye to eye with us regarding the potential for a crisis situation, agrees that preparedness is important. They even have a website set up for that very thing.
Helpful Tips
Here are 12 tips for parents who have chosen to talk to their kids about being prepared for a crisis:
- Include your children or grandchildren in family preparedness discussions, answering their questions honestly.
- Have your kids or grandkids memorize their personal information, including their names, parents’ and grandparents’ names, addresses and phone numbers.
- Learn the disaster response policies of your kids’ and grandkids’ school or day care center and have a back-up plan in place for someone to pick them up if you can’t.
- Ensure that your kids’ or grandkids’ school or daycare center has your current emergency contact information.
- Have at least two pre-arranged meeting places for your family and make sure the kids or grandkids know where they are, as returning to your home in a crisis might not be possible.
- Establish an out-of-state contact known by your children or grandchildren and their school or day care center, in case local lines are down and only long distance circuits are functioning.
- Teach your kids or grandkids how to use 911 and rehearse what they should say to a dispatcher.
- Make sure your kids or grandkids know to stay away from downed power lines, utility poles and trees.
- Practice evacuation routes and strategies as a family.
- Teach your children or grandchildren responses such as Drop, Cover and Hold, and Stop, Drop and Roll.
- Prepare a small “bug-out bag” for each child or grandchild, including items such as a family photo, toy, game, book or puzzle, plus treats.
- Place copies of your kids’ or grandkids’ birth certificates, recent photos and kids’ comfort foods in your bug-out bag.
As always, the key is to do it now. The longer you delay, the less likely you will be to do it.
A lot of useful information was posted in the comments section. I hope that you will use that info in your blog and make a new list. I’m so grateful to have found this site. You’re certainly performing a community service! Thank you!
I’ve been prepared for years. As they say, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. I have about 10KW of solar panels and other emergency supplies stored in an EMP-proof metal building. 30 years of food storage and enough guns & ammo to supply a small army. Never keep all of your eggs in one basket. Spread it out in hiding spots that you can get to just in case your home or property gets overrun by those desperate enough to kill for what you have.
I am 83 years old, still able to get around some. I have stockpiled 5 buckets of your survival food, plus some canned foods, etc, plus some bottled water. Also have the water purifier, the straw kind, plus the pitcher kind, only problem now is i need a way to store large supply of water. I was thinking on getting some of those plastic jerry cans, also need some sort of pump to pump water out of the Columbia river, into the cans. Have a 357 magnum, and some ammo, plus a small shotgun. Gonna have to move my food supply into the house-presently in the garage and easily broken into. Stay safe and prepared folks!!
How would you purify water with bleach and eyedropper? wondering how much
Thank you for helping us get organized. We’re 72 and 73 years old with my sister in law with mental incapabiities since she was a baby (born with high fever and burned logical brain cells) ; we are all not too healthy and do not move swiftly. Appreciate your guidance and concern. Bless you.
I am 83 years old and use a cane to keep my balance outside my home and sometimes my walker if I plan to do a lot of walking. to defend myself in public, I have signed up for a defensive cane class. call your local karate school to find out if they have such a class or be willing to start one. I’m doing exercises in my chair for strength. I just want to feel less vulnerable in public-thus the cane defense.
my problem being i do not have the money to buy a gun,or a place to go to i would have to stay put
Thank you Frank ! I commend you for putting this out there for all to see and learn. We are never to old to learn. No matter our survival background ! Many just don’t understand, that if it is possible to help others , that is what we must do. It is refreshing to see this without a price at the end of it. There are so many out there with valuable information especialy in the Health and medical field that never leave their lips without a pricetag on it. What a shame ! God Bless you and Good Luck ! …Felix
I also tried to print your information. I made sure all the settings were correct. The pages are blank after: “Teach your children how to use 911…” Any other suggestions for how to print?
Did you try the handy print icon I put up there in the right top corner? There’s the font larger and font smaller buttons and that one that looks like a printer – it formats my pages for easy printing. Try it out!
I copied/pasted the entire article on a Word document, then printed a pdf copy and hard copy.
Frank, your print icon and your blog settings for printing need adjustment.
Dear Frank: I am a 68 year old lady with disabilities and living alone…Your articles are a lifesaver, and I have already bought some of your food supplies. The lists for being prepared are great, but I can only print the first page. Please check on your end and see if you can fix it. I am also planning on purchasing a small handgun and taking a course about guns (concealed permit too). Thanks for all of your assistance.
Leslie, To print, be sure you click the little grey printer icon that’s up in the right hand page. That *should* solve your problem.
Leslie ,
I use a pump shotgun and I do have a small handgun . I would recommend to you as I did my wife . She bought a .357 mag. revolver and runs .38 p+ rounds less kick and plenty good hit .
We also have baby monitors . They are a very inexpensive security system and you hear what’s coming before it gets near you .
Try and know your neighbors also , how they feel and believe could be better , in time length , than even 911 .
Hope I helped ,
pearler
I live in an urban/suburban area and have supplies to last here for a couple of months. I am nearing my elder years and understand the concerns of seniors and folks on very limited income. Every time you shop, buy something that you can use toward survival, even if it’s a can of tuna on sale. Start now’ stop saying you don’t have enough $; just start with your few extra cents. And pray. Wisdom and/or help will come. I’m single, and as I prepped, a loved one purchased land and home in a remote area an hour or so away with a bed with my name on it. But I won’t go there empty-handed; I keep my tank full, am packing grab bags, have extra food for the cats, extra meds and supplies for me, and a ready weapon and ammo. Get started if you’re still on the sidelines, and trust God, too. If you do, He’ll take your small and increase it.
HOW DOES ONE CONTACT VIA TELEPHONE
You don’t say who you want to contact, Steve. If you want to call our Customer Service, they can be reached at (800) 304-4202.
Need to finish my set up, did start but still have a few things left to get. Thank you for all info.
Thanks! Frank.
Prepare before it happens! It’s good advice I’ve known for a long times when I’ve learned from high school and life experience. But I feel very lonely if I survive alone! To me, No matter what happen, stay together! We’re alive together, or died together! Help each other!
How come none of these prep lists ever mention family pets and their needs? Is it expected that pets will just be abandoned? I hope not. I have provided for mine in my plan and preparations and encourage others to do so as well – and you, Frank, to include some suggestions in your blog – which I find useful, entertaining and thought provoking.
Those has r/v camper or any camping equitements all ready stock up? This will be idea set up to stored most of these list in case of 72 hrs emergency plans.. note : during winter ,fill your holding fresh water tank and turn on propane heater to keep water from freezing..when emergency do come…
Charles ,
We have a camper trailer and it does make leaving better and faster , but where would you go ?
We prefer to ride it out here and then the camper is a draw and just beyond the point of defending it with ease . We do have to wait for family to show as this is the git gone spot . I did choose this place because of local , and population and a water well on the property that has never gone dry .We can produce our own electricity and then there’s the greenhouse .
you can prepare for a disaster .I enter twine this survival business , as I do my retiring from the workforce . I must have something or -things that will pay for necessities to retire without becoming inactive . I have chosen a couple of paths , been at this for some years , as I was one of the doom and gloom sayers of the 80’s and am really past a lot of po’boy survivalist , needs . Something I hate to point out but silence is a MUST . You will be hunted never believe you will not be ! The ant & the grasshopper comes to mind ;). A little more violent , and you got a couple of ruff scenarios , that you like all of us will experience . We have alternatives but we do not supply them , only bring to .
From my round go round with our government and that mouthy do nothing ice back I have for a representative Mr. Cruz , all talk no walk and that will be his memory as , if yawl make a mistake like voting for him . He stalled me for two years then bailed on helping me show , we the people that some criminal terrorist have infiltrated our governmental agencies to terrorize we the people , of whom these ones are not and I have the evidence that dams them and no part of the government will get involved , not one and some it is there job to investigate and they refuse !
They all slipped doing numbers in their head and best I can gather SHTF around now and 2017 one secretary was even more blunt she was remembering aloud what someone had told them all . Folks when this all hits . We will be like candy on the ground . Can you do strenuous stuff for ten hours for ten days then fight . Some of them that will be hunting you can , promise . Be afraid folks , but be afraid with by God determination it won’t Happen ,not in our Country !
I AM and appreciate yawl thinking about it , Thanks
pearler .
For those of you that have an RV do as we do. On return from any outing we top up the fuel, water and replenish staples that we have used during an outing. It is a wonderful safety net.
I got lost while hunting in Pocomoke State Forest. The temp dropped from 30deg to -10deg. I was wearing expensive goose down clothing. I walked out the next day. Do the math….Be prepped for cold weather.
Question: In terms of survival; I have never seen nor found anything about how seniors, who have no one to help them, are suppose to survive…particularly in the wild. What is one is disabled? Are we to be left for dead? We have never relied nor asked help from others nor do we ask for help from the evil government. We prepare as best we can, but living just outside city limits in a small country town, may make it unsafe for us. I say this because every town, no matter the size, has those who believe they are entitled and owed a living and will do what they have to do to survive, including murdering the elderly.
Thank you for all you have done to help others; keep up the good work and may God Bless you and yours.
Fern,
I too share your concern. We are living on limited funds because of the recession in 2008. I can’t buy all the things they say we have and my husband is a diabetic. I guess we just wait on the Lord to take us home. It does seem very lonesome for us seniors!
I am in a similar situation, pushing 70 yrs old, not very mobile, hard to get around. Bugging out is out of the question. I live about 6 miles from a small city, with a lot of farmland and developments between me & the mutts downtown. My only option is to prepare well, plan ahead, and have enough guns & ammo to hold out. My fences, hedges & fireewood stacks are arranged to give me maximum cover and keep intruders exposed.
I have a solid brick house & thick wooden shutters that can go up quickly, with gun ports in each one. I also have a dozen large dogs that can be released if necessary, to keep the goons at a disadvantage.
Between the SKS, the Anshcutz 22magnum target rile, assorted other rifles, shotguns, and a dozen revolvers & semi=autos, I have about 14,000 rounds stocked, plus a high-velocity RWS target airgun in .33 cal, and around 20,000 pellets of various types, to conserve on regular ammo. The two of us can effectively defend the homestead, with any luck, until another younger couple can arrive from 3 miles away to hunker down with us.
In our case we’re lucky to have a great pond with bass & bluegill to eat, and enough deer & small game to hold out indefinitely — or at least until everyone else has either starved, killed each other, or moved on to a less hazardous (to them) place. For us, the hardest part was finding space to store a full ton of dog food inside the house, but it was essential to the defsnse in our case.
For us old or handicapped preppers, the only answer is a very careful plan for armed defense.
Oops. The air rifle is a .22 caliber, and the target rifle is a .22 magnum Anschutz.
An needless to say, we have lots of canned & dry goods to last up to a year, about a years worth of firewood, and almost a year’s worth of our regular medications stockpiled, along with lots of painkillers & antibiotics — thanks to some other preppers in the medical community.
You forgot a most essential item. What do you have to defend yourself and your family from the desperate people who didn’t prepare, and are coming to take what you have? You need to include guns on your list.
Denial can be the biggest single factor in whether you, and your family survive “Natural” or “Manmade” disasters. Investing in the basic essentials of life must be done before the disaster strikes, and panic buying by a frantic populace becomes impossible.
Now is the time for all thinking people to start a workable “PLAN B”. When the supermarkets have been picked clean, and paranoia grips the land it will be too late.
Thank you, Frank. I have much to do. Good stuff there.
Thank you Frank this is great information I like having list and you are doing agreat job informing us.Thank you again Marilyn
Being prepared is very important and most people will not even try to be. The problem that we face here is you have to train your children and make sure that the schools do prepare them for eventualities, you have to know the dangers each will face according to your area and the real dangers you each will face. Fire, flooding and wind problems are very common in many areas, earthquakes are a probability in others. But, rigth now violence and terrorism are the one’s we are less prepared for and really never prepared for as we never think it could happen to us, here hidding and taking cover are needed the children should know how to cover themselves and where it will be the best places will be according to where they are.
Thanks for this information and the lists they are very well thought and needed.