Make a Family Emergency Plan
Evacuation Route?
How you will contact one another?
How you will get back together/reunion plans?
Who is your out-of-state contact person (name and number)
Where are emergency supplies located?
Family Emergency Plan
- "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) your cell phone. If you are in an accident, emergency personnel will often check your ICE listings in order to get a hold of someone you know.
- Identify an out-of town contact.
- It may be easier to make a long-distance phone call than to call across town, so an out-of-town contact may be in a better position to communicate among separated family members.
- Be sure every member of your family knows the phone number
- have a cell phone, coins, or a prepaid phone card to call the emergency contact.
- Learn how to use text messaging (also knows as SMS or Short Message Service). Text messages can often get around network disruptions when a phone call might not be able to get through.
- Subscribe to alert services
- Many communities now have systems that will send instant text alerts or e-mails to let you know about bad weather, road closings, local emergencies, etc. Sign up by visiting your local Office of Emergency Management web site
Planning to Stay or Go
- The first important decision is whether you stay where you are or evacuate.
- Understand and plan for both possibilities. Use common sense and available information.
- In any emergency, local authorities may or may not immediately be able to provide information on what is happening and what you should do.
- Watch TV, listen to the radio or check the Internet often for information or official instruction as it becomes available. Further information on staying put or sheltering in place.
Emergency Plans
Use the forms
- quick reference list of contact information for your family
- meeting place for emergency situations.
- inquire about emergency plans at places where your family spends time: work, daycare and school.
- Talk to your neighbors about how you can work together in the event of an emergency