With all the hurricanes & disasters happening today like Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma and the earthquakes in Idaho, it really got me thinking about how prepared my family is for an emergency.
There are some disasters you can know about in advance like Hurricanes or Tropical Storms, and there are some that come as a surprise, at any moment, like earthquakes, tornadoes and terrorist attacks.
Does your family have a plan?
If a natural disaster or terrorist attack happens, will they know what to do?
If your kids are older and in school it’s more than likely that a disaster will happen when they are away from home. Will they know how to find you? Will they know where to go? Will your supplies last?
Today I’m going to take you step by step through the process of creating an evacuation plan for your family.
And not only will you be getting my printables, but also some other amazing preparedness printables from other bloggers that are joining me today. Scroll to the bottom to see all that you will be getting.
1. The first thing to consider when creating your evacuation plan is what kind of disasters could affect your area.
Here is a list of the different types of disasters that could happen. Click on the links to learn more about each one. Add the ones that could affect you to a list and discuss them with your family. Be very careful about discussing these things with your children. Some children are more sensitive than others and may not handle thinking about these situations. Be mindful of their feelings when talking about these topics. Take it slow and talk about one disaster a week. Talk about what you would do if any of these happened.
2. Know how you’ll contact one another. Establish a family meeting place that’s familiar and easy to find for all the members of you family. Choose a church, store, restaurant or neighborhood park. Save all phone numbers in your phone. Phone numbers of your children’s friends too. Keep the list of emergency numbers and shelter addresses written on a paper in your home and your car just in case your phone is not working or lost.
3. If you are not able be at hour house in an emergency you will need to choose a shelter that is closest to you and teach your kids how to find out what shelters are close to them. You can search for open shelters by texting SHELTER and a Zip Code to 43362 (4FEMA). Ex: Shelter 01234.
If you are able to stay in your home, here are some great tips for you on staying safe in your home. Use common sense to assess the situation in your home and decide if there is immediate danger. If there is a lot of debris in the air or or if the air is contaminated outside you will want to put your family in a sealed room. Learn how to do that HERE.
4. Make sure you have 72-Hour Kits for your whole family and they are accessible in emergencies. We need to update our kits, but we have learned that these kits should be stored under each persons bed. If an emergency happens in the middle of the night, you’ll want your family to be able to grab their bag and run out of the house. There are some great articles on how to create 72 kits, but here are a few of my suggestions that you may not have thought about. Be sure to add a CD of family pictures to your kit. Also copies of your ID and important documents like the title to your cars and home. Cash, pocket knife, extra cell phone, batteries, etc. Here are some of my favorite posts about 72-Hour kits.
- 72-Hour Kit Checklist Tips and Printables from Clark’s Condensed
- Utah.gov 72 Hour Checklist
- Ready.gov Build a Kit
- What to pack in a 72-Hour Kit
5. Create a plan for evacuating your home. This is very important for your kids to know. The more they think about it and practice exiting the house the better they will remember how to get out when there is an emergency. Especially when there’s a fire. There is a large graph paper as part of these printables where you can draw a layout of your home to create a plan. Print more than one if you have more than one floor in your house. Teach the kids at least two different ways to exit the house. Teach them that if the smoke alarms are going off that they need to crawl on the floor and if they touch the door knob and it’s hot, to exit out a window. Practice actually climbing out the window so they know how to open it themselves and get out. Then plan where in your yard or neighborhood you will meet so you know who has gotten out. Teach them to NOT GRAB ANYTHING on their way out except their 72 hour kit that is under their bed.
Now, are you ready to download your Printable Family Evacuation Plan Printables?
Well, I have them right here for you. Along with some amazing other resources from some of my favorite bloggers. We are partnering again to bring you some great resources for your family in an emergency.
Enter your email below to be subscribed to our mailing lists and you will be emailed the link to download all of these smart printables.
Annette from Tips from a Typical Mom has a Family Evacuation Plan which includes things like Meeting locations, emergency contacts, shelters and evacuation routes, and other emergency numbers.
Katelyn from What’s up Fagans? has a Personal Document Protection printable, which is basically a simplified checklist to help you make sure your old photos, videos, audio files, journals, and other documents protected physically and digitally!
Carrie of A Mother’s Shadow has a great Dutch Oven Guide! In many emergencies, you may find yourself without power which can make cooking food difficult, unless you have something like a dutch oven which is easy to carry and to cook a wide variety of foods in.
Katie of Clarks Condensed has a very helpful 72 Hour Kit Checklist. Should you find yourself having to leave in a hurry, you and your family can simply grab your 72-Hour kits and head out the door, knowing that you’ll have the food, bedding, clothes, tools, medicine, toiletries, fuel, and personal documents you need.
Kristina from Mother’s Niche has an Emergency Car Kit printable so that you are never stranded helplessly on the side of the road, not knowing what to do, nor having the tools and supplies to help in this emergency.
Camille of My Mommy Style has a handy Family Fire Safety Log where you can track your family’s readiness in case of a fire in your house, as well as make sure you are checking your smoke and CO detectors.