Household Emergency Preparedness: Plan, Stock and Practice Together

Start With a Written Family Plan

Ready.gov's plan questions include how you will receive emergency alerts and warnings, your shelter plan, your evacuation route and your family or household communication plan, so a written family plan answers each of them.

Here is what each of those questions means at home, in plain words:

• Alerts and warnings: how will you actually hear that something is coming - a phone alert, a radio, a neighbor knocking? If the answer is "somebody's phone, probably," write down a better one.
• Your shelter plan: if you are told to stay put, where in your home do you go, and what do you need with you there?
• Your evacuation route: if you are told to leave, which way do you go, and where are you headed?
• Your household communication plan: if phones are busy or people are spread across town, how do you reach each other?

Write the answers down and keep a copy where everyone can find it, not just on your phone. A plan that lives in one person's head only works when that person is home. For the current version of these questions, check Ready.gov directly.

Meeting Places and an Out-of-Area Contact

The American Red Cross suggests choosing two places to meet (right outside your home, and outside your neighborhood) and an out-of-area emergency contact person, and Ready.gov advises establishing a family meeting place that is familiar and easy to find.

Ready.gov advises knowing how your family will contact one another and reconnect if separated, and establishing a family meeting place that is familiar and easy to find.

So pick a spot right outside the house that everyone can picture, like the mailbox or a neighbor's tree, and a spot outside the neighborhood for when you cannot get home, like a library or a relative's place. Then pick an out-of-area contact everyone can call or text to say where they are. Ready.gov and the American Red Cross both keep current planning guidance on their own sites, so check there for the latest detail.

Know Your Local Hazards

Ask neighbors or local officials which storms, floods, fires or earthquakes have affected your area, and plan for the likeliest ones before anything else.

People who have lived on your street for years usually remember what went wrong last time, and your local government's own site can tell you what it plans for. You do not have to prepare for everything at once. Start with whatever has actually happened where you live, then work outward from there.

Keep Supplies in Easy-to-Carry Containers

Ready.gov suggests storing kit items in airtight plastic bags and keeping the whole kit in one or two easy-to-carry containers such as plastic bins or a duffel bag.

The American Red Cross suggests keeping supplies in an easy-to-carry emergency preparedness kit you can use at home or take with you if you must evacuate.

That is the point of keeping it portable: the same kit works whether you are riding out a storm in the living room or heading out the door. Keep it somewhere everyone in the home knows about, and make sure everyone knows where it is - a kit that only one person can find is a kit you might not reach in time. You also do not have to buy it all in a single trip. If money is tight, building it a little at a time works fine, and our guide to prepping for beginners on a budget shows how.

Water and Food on the Official Lists

Ready.gov's basic emergency supply kit list includes one gallon of water per person per day for several days, for drinking and sanitation, and at least a several-day supply of non-perishable food.

This guide does not add to those amounts or say how to store or treat anything. For the full, current list, check Ready.gov directly before you shop.

Supplies for Staying Home Versus Evacuating

The American Red Cross lists water at one gallon per person, per day, and non-perishable, easy-to-prepare food, with a 3-day supply for evacuation and a 2-week supply for home.

The difference matters because your household plans for both staying and leaving. If you stay home, you have more time to use and more room to store. If you leave, you can only take what you can carry. Plan for both, and check the American Red Cross site for its current detail.

Where to Check Water, Sanitation and Medical Questions

If you are unsure whether water you would drink or cook with after an emergency needs boiling or another step, check the EPA's current emergency water guidance, because this guide gives no water steps and the EPA page holds the current ones.

That goes for the whole question of whether water you would drink or cook with after an emergency is fit to use, not only boiling. Go to the EPA's current emergency drinking-water disinfection guidance for it, because this guide gives no water steps and the EPA keeps that page current.

For medical, safety, legal or emergency questions, including the sanitation and medical questions a household supply kit raises, Survival Report points readers to official sources such as Ready.gov, the American Red Cross and local emergency services.

How to Practice the Plan Together

Ready.gov's fourth planning step is to practice your plan with your household, and the American Red Cross advises practicing evacuating your home twice a year.

The American Red Cross advises creating and practicing an emergency plan, practicing as many elements as possible, and practicing evacuating your home twice a year.

Practice does not have to be a big production. A few things you can rehearse together:

• Walk to both meeting places, so everyone has actually been there.
• Have each person reach the out-of-area contact, so you know the number works and everyone has it.
• Ask someone to find the kit without help, and see how long it takes.

Every time you practice, something small turns up - a number that changed, a bag that ended up behind the holiday decorations. That is the whole reason to do it. Check Ready.gov and the American Red Cross for their current guidance on practicing.

Share the Jobs and Set a Routine

Give each person in your home a job they can own, and tie your checks of the plan and kit to dates you already notice, such as the change of seasons.

Here is why that works. When preparedness is one person's project, it stalls the moment that person gets busy. When everyone owns a piece, the plan keeps moving without anyone nagging. And when checks are tied to dates you already notice, you do not have to remember to remember. The season changes, you check the kit. That is what turns preparedness into a habit instead of a single shopping trip.

Roles Each Person Can Own

A job sized to each person's age and ability, such as keeping the contact list current or checking the pet supplies, gives everyone a part in the plan.

A few jobs to hand out:

• Keeping the contact list current, including the out-of-area contact.
• Checking the kit and noting what needs replacing.
• Checking the pet supplies.
• Organizing the next practice run and picking the day.

Match each job to the person. Younger kids can check the pet supplies or remind everyone when practice day comes. Teens can keep the contact list current. Adults can check the kit and organize practice. Honestly, the kids are often better at reminding everyone than the adults are.

Seasonal Checks for the Kit and Plan

A check at each change of season gives you a set time to update contacts and swap supplies, and Ready.gov says water that has not been commercially bottled should be replaced every six months.

At each check, update the contact list, swap out anything that has gone stale and look over the plan for anything that changed since last time.

Plan Around Each Person and Pet at Home

For kids, aging parents and pets, ask what each would need to shelter at home, leave quickly and stay in touch, then add those answers to your plan and kit.

Go through your household one by one and ask those three questions for each person and each pet:

• What would they need if you all had to stay home for a while?
• What would they need if you had to leave quickly?
• How would they stay in touch, or how would you reach them?

The answers are different for a toddler, a teenager, a grandparent and a dog, and that is exactly why a generic list only gets you so far. Write what you learn into the plan and add it to the kit.

Access and Mobility Needs

If someone in your home uses mobility aids, hearing or vision support or other everyday equipment, ask them what they would need during an alert, an evacuation and a long stay at home, then plan around their answers.

They know their needs better than any list does. Ask, listen and write it down, then build those answers into the plan.

Talk It Through With Family and Neighbors

Ask a hesitant partner or relative what worries them most about a storm or outage, then start with a small shared step that answers it, such as agreeing on a meeting place.

You may get an eye-roll when you bring this up. That is normal. Starting with their worry, not yours, makes it a conversation instead of a lecture, and a small step like a meeting place is easy to say yes to.

Bringing In Neighbors and Friends

Ask a neighbor or nearby friend whether you can check on each other during an outage, and keep each other's numbers written down somewhere other than your phone.

Agree on the simple stuff ahead of time: who checks on whom, and how. If a few households want to go further and organize together, our guide to forming a survival group covers it.

Adjust for Your Home and Season

Ask how much storage space your home has, how you would get out of the building and which disruptions your season tends to bring, then size your plan and kit to those answers.

A house with a garage and an apartment with a hall closet need different kits. Winter and summer bring different problems. Check those three things - space, exits and season - before you decide how big your plan and kit need to be.

Apartments and Small Spaces

In an apartment, check where a kit can fit, which stairwells and exits you would use and how you would reach a meeting place outside the building.

Under the bed, the top of a closet and the back of the pantry all work. Walk the stairwell route once while things are calm, so it is not new to you when it matters.

Winter Storms and Power Outages

Before winter, ask how your household would stay warm and informed through a long outage, and check your supplies against the season you are heading into.

Ask these questions out loud with your household, and write down the answers:

• How would we stay warm if the power stayed out?
• How would we keep getting news and alerts?
• Do our supplies match the season we are heading into?

This guide does not cover how to heat your home or run equipment.

Keep Building Your Household Preparedness

If all of this feels like too much, pick a single small step, such as agreeing on a meeting place, then read the beginner's guide next and come back to this routine once your plan and kit exist.

Feeling behind is normal. Nobody builds the whole routine at once, and you do not have to either. If you are just starting out, your next read is our guide to prepping for beginners. When you want to browse everything else, head back to the survival report home page.